Abu Ishaq al-Sahili

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Sahili, also called al-Gharnati, was an Andalusian poet and architect who went to Mali with Mansa Musa. ² The Encyclopaedia of Islam gives no date of birth. Its article on the Sudan says he began his career as a notary in Granada. ³

He met Mansa Musa while the king was on pilgrimage in 1324, and the two returned together to Mali. ² The article on the Sudan describes him as the king's confidential adviser and architect. ³ Four sharifs of Quraysh also came back with the king. ⁴

According to a report the article ties to a friend of Ibn Khaldun, he built the king an elaborately domed structure that may have been the first of its type. ⁴ The article on the Sudan says he built a palace in the capital, reckoned to be Niani, and possibly the great mosque of Timbuktu, and that he is credited with introducing the Sudanese style of architecture. ³ The museum records the attribution of the mosque as uncertain, since the article says only "possibly".

He settled in Timbuktu and died there in 747/1346. ³ The article on Mali reasons that Timbuktu must already have been an intellectual centre of some importance for him to settle there. ⁵ When Ibn Battuta visited in 753-4/1352-3 he noted the tomb of al-Sahili, together with that of an Alexandrian merchant who had followed the king after the pilgrimage. ³

The Encyclopaedia says nothing of his poetry, of the dates of his birth or of his journey, or of what survives of his buildings. The museum does not fill these gaps.