Kanz Al-Asrar: Mulay Al-Arabi Al-Darqawi and Some of His Goodly Companions as Seen Through the Eyes of a Loving Disciple

Mulay al-Arabi al-Darqawi (ca. 1743- 1823) was the gifted spiritual master whose teachings inspired a Sufi order and movement that attracted tens of thousands of followers in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and beyond. Among those who were able to visit the Shaykh in his remote zawiya in the mountains of northeast Morocco was a young man named Muhammad Buziyan al-Gharisi, who arrived with a caravan in 1803 from his native Algerian town of Ma' asker. For Buziyan, this meeting marked the beginning of a twenty-year period during which he lived near and served his teacher, eventually becoming one of the scribes who transcribed and copied the Shaykh's letters of spiritual instruction to be sent to the many muqaddams of the order near and far. Upon the Shaykh's death in 1823, Buziyan decided to assemble into a book all that he had personally seen and knew about the life and teachings of Shaykh al-Darqawi, as well as some of the more memorable of his disciples. The resulting work, which he entitled Kanz al-asrar fi munaqib Mawlana al-Arabi al-Darqawi wa badi ashabihi l-akhyar (" A Treasure of Mysteries in Recounting the Saintly Lives of Mulay al-Arabi Darqawi and some of his Goodly Companions" ) became a much-quoted reference for many later writings about the order. Besides being the most complete reference ever written about the spiritual master himself, it provides a rare glimpse into life in a Moroccan tariqah in the late 18th century, interwoven with the spiritual teachings Buziyan had received directly from the Shaykh and others. Written through the eyes of a lifelong disciple who came to the order when he was still young, it is also an intimate chronicle of the shaykh-murid (master-disciple) dynamic in late-18th-century Morocco.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Fons Vitae
Published: 06/15/2026
ISBN: 9798896400097
Pages: 264
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.91h x 5.91w x 0.71d