Shams al-Din al-Faryani

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Faryani al-Maghribi, named after Faryana, a village near Qayrawan. He came to Cairo, visited al-Maqrizi often, and regularly toured the villages of the lower countryside, making promises and reminding people. He had a great memory for histories and past reports, and claimed knowledge of the Prophetic hadith and its transmitters. He turned away from the Maliki school and claimed to follow al-Shafiʿi, and he was appointed judge of Nablus until what appeared from him appeared. In 848 AH he went to the Hamida mountains in the Holy Land and claimed to be the Mahdi. It was also said that he claimed to be al-Qahtani, and his claim gained currency there ¹.