Shaykh Ahmad al-Dādsi al-Maghribi (d. 1401 AH; 1981 CE) was one of the first muqaddams to spread the Tijani Tariqa in Palestine. This is his blessed grave in the Muslim cemetery beside the Bāb al-Rahma (Gate of Mercy) entrance to al-Aqsa Mosque, near the graves of two companions of the Prophet ﷺ.
The Shaykh hailed from the Dadès river valley in Morocco and was from a Shilha Berber background. He was a contemporary of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hāfiz al-Misri and was initiated into the Tijaniyyah by Sidi Muhammad al-Kabīr (who also initiated Shaykh al-Hafiz). Sidi al-Kabīr received initiation from his father Sidi Muhammad al-Bashīr, who received it from his father Sidi Muhammad al-Habīb, the son of the Hidden Pole Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani himself (ra). This chain of initiation is sometimes called the "golden chain," consisting of three consecutive generations of Shaykh al-Tijani's descendents.
Shaykh al-Dadsi made the traditional visit to Palestine while returning from the Hajj pilgrimage, and was prevented from returning home to Morocco by the outbreak of the Second World War. He and his family settled in Jerusalem in the neighborhood of Hārat al-Maghāriba (The Moroccan Quarter) near the Western Wall, which was a historically Arab district before being destroyed and occupied by the Zionist state. He taught the Islamic sciences in the al-Aqsa Mosque and even established a Tijani zawiya in the courtyard between al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. Numerous miracles are attributed to Shaykh al-Dadsi, and and he inherited many spiritual secrets from Shaykh Muhammad al-Kabir and other prominent Tijani masters of the 20th century.
There are two significant Tijani zawiyas in Palestine today, one within the '48 borders in a village near Haifa and one in Jericho in the West Bank. Both are tied to the initiatory chain of Shaykh al-Dadsi through his chief disciple Sidi Shaykh Abu'l-Hassan Abdullah al-Maghribi, whose son Abu Abdullah is now the chief Muqaddam of Palestine in Jericho.
