1/ This morning's Islamic History lecture @UniofOxford was on the Islamic West. We talked a lot about the #Berber "false prophets," incl. Salih ibn Tarif (ca. 8th c.), a mysterious figure from #Morocco who founded his own religion and possessed a Berber scripture (a "#Quran")
2/ Salih seems to have understood prophecy in vaguely Islamic terms, even though he was not a Muslim (or at least a conventional one). He claimed that #Quran 66:4 referred to him when it speaks of "the righteous of the faithful" (salih al-mu'minin) quran.com/66/4
3/ Salih seems to have inverted or altered several Islamic practices: his followers fasted in the month of Rajab but ate in #Ramadan; they prayed five times a day and five at night; and they were given to crying out, "Maggar yakush" in Berber ("God is great," الله أكبر)
4/ His followers had strange dietary laws. it was forbidden to eat eggs or the head of an animal. It was also forbidden to eat fish unless they were ritually slaughtered (!), perhaps a riff on Islamic or Jewish practice (in which fish require no special slaughtering)
5/ Finally, sources describe him as a "mahdi," a savior or redeemer. If any of this is true (and the sources are few and very opaque) it seems that Salih wished to found a new Berber religion based on Islamic models, or a reformed version of Islam especially for the Berbers
6/ There are other fascinating Berber prophets from medieval North Africa. Overall, they remind me a great deal of the "nativist prophets" of early Islamic #Iran (which Patricia Crone discussed in her last book: amazon.co.uk/Nativist-Proph…)
8/ My description of Salih ibn Tarif comes from al-Bakri (ed. de Slane). You can read more about Salih in Chantal de la Veronne's entry in the "Encyclopaedia of Islam"
