Biography of Sayyidi `Abd al-Rahman al-`Attar al-Madani

`Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Husayn al-`Attar was a spice merchant from the city of Sabta, who was called "az-Zayyat" or "al-Madani" because he resided in the oil sellers' quarter of Medina (where his tomb is still found), while devoting himself to worship at the Prophet's mosque. Sidi al-Madani's spiritual master was Sidi Tuqiyudin al-Fuqayyir, who hailed from the Iranian city of Nahrawan but lived near Wasit in Iraq, the home city of Sidi Abul Fath al-Wasiti (d. 642/1227). Sidi Tuqiyudin apparently had two spiritual lineages: one involving an Iraqi line that is commonly cited as the main silsila in Morocco, whose chain of transmission comes from Sidna al-Hassan ibn Ali, and another, now forgotten leading to Sidi Ahmed ar-Rifa'i (d. 678/1236). Another of Sidi al-Madani's spiritual masters is the Andalusian mystic Sidi Abi Mohammed Jaafar ibn Abdellah ibn Sayyid Buna al-Khuza'i who took from the Patron Saint of the Maghreb Shaykh Sidi Abu Madyan Shuayb al-Ghawt (d. 594).