Mashish ibn `Abd al-Salam al-Hasani

   He was one of the most popular Moroccan saints (ca. 1228). He was born in the mountain region of the Jbala al-`Alam southeast of Tetouan, obviously of Berber origin but later attributed a genealogy going back to the Prophet's family and thus was elevated to Sharifian, or holy rank. He died, being assassinated a "false prophet," a supporter of the Marinids in their struggle against the declining Almohad rule, who apparently viewed the saint's influence on the people a danger for their own politicoreligious purposes. Around Ibn Mashish's name, whose tomb on the top of a mountain remained a lodge of local reverence, a circle of legends and tales about the miracles he had performed was woven over time. Some 200 years after his death, his veneration began to spread all over northern Morocco, and from the 16th century on, he was revered in North Africa as a qutb (a pillar or focus of mystical worship).