Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine

Sidi M'hamed ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Azhari al-Gashtuli was born in the Ait Smail tribe of the Djurdjura mountains in Kabylie. After studying at local zawiyas, he journeyed to Cairo, spending over thirty years at Al-Azhar University where he became a distinguished teacher and initiated into the Khalwatiyya Sufi order.

Returning to Algeria in the late 18th century, he adapted the spiritual path to North African social reality, founding his own branch known as the Rahmaniyya. His egalitarian message spread with astonishing speed from the mountains of Kabylie to the Casbah of Algiers.