Ahmad Akansus (Moroccan historian, 1797–1877)

Ahmad Akansus was a Moroccan historian and man of letters of the Ida u Kansus, a Berber tribe of Sus. He served the Sharifian court, and his general history of Islam gives much space to the history of Morocco and the 'Alawi dynasty.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), article signed E. Lévi-Provençal, gives Ahmad as a Moroccan historian and man of letters from the Berber tribe of Ida u Kansus, which lived in Sus in southern Morocco, where he was born in 1211/1797. He studied at Fez, obtained a post as secretary at the Sharifian court, and was promoted vizier in 1236/1820. Mawlay Sulayman entrusted him with official missions, but he lost his post on the sultan's death in 1238/1822. He retired to Marrakesh, wrote poetical and historical works, and became a prominent representative of the Tijaniyya. He died blind, at an advanced age, on 29 Muharram 1294/14 February 1877 at Marrakesh. ¹

His major work, al-Jaysh al-'aramram al-khumasi fi dawlat Awlad Mawlana 'Ali al-Sijilmasi, is a general history of Islam with pride of place given to Morocco and, in particular, to the 'Alawi dynasty up to 1282/1865. Its chief merit is that it is the first chronicle of the reigns of 'Abd al-Rahman b. Hisham and Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman, and it was used by al-Nasiri. For the earlier period it copies most of all the chronicles of al-Ifrani and al-Zayyani. A limited number of copies were lithographed at Fez in 1336/1918. ¹