Abd al-Rahman al-Fazazi

Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman ibn Yakhlaftan ibn Ahmad al-Fazazi (died in Fez in 627/1230) was a poet and mystic.^[1] He is especially well known for his Al-Wasail al-Mutaqabbala, a long poem in praise of the Prophet. It is commonly known as Qasid al-Ishriniyyat fi Madh Saiyidna Muhammad or simply the Ishriniyyat (the twenties) because it consists of sets of twenty rhyming verses for each letter of the alphabet. It was composed in Cordoba in the year 604/1207-8.^[2] Al-Fazazi is also the author of Epistle to the Sepulchre of the Prophet (Risalah ila draih an-nabi). The name Al-Fazazi refers to Fazaz the former name of the Middle Atlas region in north-central Morocco. It was said that he saw Rasul-Allah in his dream who appreciated his Poem of Ishriniyya and praise him very well for writing it. He has a very deep love in SAW and hence make him to travel to his grave in Madina-Almunauwara. But die on his way before reaching the grave of SAW. His poem is believed to be the best among the poems that praise SAW.

References

1. References in: Werner Diem, Marco Schöller, The Living and the Dead in Islam: Epitaphs in context, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004, p.64
2. see GAL S I, 482