Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri

Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri al-Salawi (1835–1897) was a Moroccan historian considered to be the greatest of the 19th century.¹ He wrote the multi-volume Kitab al-Istiqsa li-akhbar duwal al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, a general history of Morocco and the Islamic west from the Islamic conquest to the end of the 19th century.¹

He was born in Salé in 1835 — the articles give 20 April, with 22 March also named — and descended from the Arab tribe of Maqil.^{1 2} He was a member of the family that founded the Nasiriyya Sufi order in the 17th century.¹ The French article adds that he made his career in the judicial administration of the Makhzen.³ The Arabic article records that Sultan Hassan I pressed him into state service despite his reluctance, and that he travelled through Fez, Meknes, Tetouan, Tangier's region and Marrakech gathering the materials of his history.²

The Arabic article records that he attached himself in his youth to the Nasiriyya zawiya at Tamkrout, but soon left it to seek knowledge, and that he turned against Sufism, declaring war on it in Morocco with his book Ta'zim al-minna bi-nusrat al-sunna, against religious innovations.² Among his other works are Tamam al-minna fi al-dhabb 'an al-sunna, Kashf al-'arin 'an luyuth Bani Marin (1295/1878) and Tal'at al-mushtari fi al-nasab al-Ja'fari.²

From the age of forty he spent some twenty years gathering the materials of the Istiqsa, finishing it in 1894.² He died in Salé in 1897, shortly after putting the finishing touches to his chronicle — on 13 October by the English article and the Arabic infobox, 12 October by the Arabic lead.^{1 2}