Merebbi Rebbu

Muhammad Mustafa Murabbih Rabbuh ibn Ma al-'Aynayn (1881–1942) was a Moroccan-Saharan scholar and mujahid, born on Sunday 14 Rabi' al-Awwal 1298 AH, 13 February 1881, in the Tirs of Wadi al-Dhahab (Rio de Oro), the twelfth son of Shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn by his wife Maymuna bint Ahmad Ali.¹² He grew up in his father's zawiya at Smara, memorised the Quran and studied the religious and literary sciences, travelled to the Hijaz for the Hajj and through the Levant, and committed many diwans to memory.¹

He was in the resistance from his youth: he fought beside his father and his brother Ahmed al-Hiba, founded the zawiya of Hasbawa at Sbouya in 1913 — which taught and provisioned the army of the mujahidin — and took part in many battles, among them the defence of Agadir in 1916.¹³ When his brother al-Hiba died, he was given allegiance at the Kerdous conference of 25 Ramadan 1337 as leader and imam of the mujahidin, and he led the resistance to France in the Souss and the Anti-Atlas for twenty-three years, until Kerdous fell in 1934.¹³

He then withdrew to the Spanish Sahara, settled at Tarfaya and built its zawiya (1937) with a mosque, a school and a hostel for the poor and for travellers from across the desert, made the Hajj in 1938 disguised as a poor pilgrim, and died at his encampment of Tafoudart on 19 Rabi' al-Thani 1361 AH, 4 May 1942, where he is buried.¹² He left many works on Sufism, fiqh, medicine, poetry and history, among them Dhakhirat al-Muhtaj and Jami' Jawami' al-Tasawwuf.¹