Biographical notice
(Sidi Mohamed Radi Kettani al-Idrissi al-Hassani)
Professor Sidi Mohamed Radi Genoune al-Idrissi al-Hassani is one of the most important contemporary figures in the preservation and revival of Tijani intellectual heritage, especially through his outstanding work on the manuscripts and writings of the great scholar and gnostic Sidi Ahmad Skiredj.
According to the testimony of Ahmad ben Abdallah Skiredj, the Skiredj family had long awaited the fulfillment of a statement attributed to Sidi Ahmad Skiredj before his death: that fifty years after his passing, someone would come to revive his books, bring them out, and spread them among people. In 1995, exactly fifty years after his death, Sidi Mohamed Radi Kettani arrived to receive and work on these manuscripts. This event was seen by many as a remarkable sign.
He then began the difficult task of dealing directly with old manuscripts: taking them out, exposing them to sunlight, preserving them, reading them, and handling their fragile condition, often despite insects, dust, and physical damage. It was a demanding labor of patience, knowledge, and devotion.
Lineage
Sidi Mohamed Radi Kettani belongs to a noble Idrisi Hassani sharifian family. His lineage goes back through a chain of righteous ancestors to Moulay Idris al-Azhar, founder of Fez, then to Moulay Idris al-Akbar, then to Abdallah al-Kamil, then to al-Hasan al-Muthanna, then to al-Hasan al-Sibt, son of Imam Ali and Sayyidatuna Fatima al-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
He thus belongs to the Genoune / Kénouni الشريف family rooted in the region of Ouezzane, a family long associated with nobility, scholarship, and piety.
Birth and upbringing
He was born on 23 Shaʿban 1378 AH / 3 March 1959 CE in Ben Slimane, near Casablanca. Part of his childhood was spent in Tetouan, where he learned reading and writing and memorized the Qur’an according to the Warsh transmission from Nafiʿ. His family later moved to Rabat, where he pursued his primary, secondary, and higher education in a regular and structured way, eventually earning advanced university degrees in Islamic studies.
He also studied in Mauritania for around eight years, where he obtained additional advanced qualifications and deepened his scholarly background. This gave him a broad formation in Islamic sciences, spirituality, manuscript culture, and traditional scholarship.
His teachers and his attachment to the Tijani path
He entered the Tijani path in 1974, at the age of 15, through the الشريف faqih Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, muqaddam of the Tijani zawiya in Rabat. A symbolic detail is often mentioned: his name was the last one written in the notebook where that shaykh used to record the names of those who received the wird from him.
He later formed close ties with several major Tijani scholars and muqaddams, among them:
Sidi Haj Mohammed Zerhouni, imam of the Tijani zawiya in Rabat near the shrine of Sidi Mohammed al-ʿArabi ben al-Sa’ih
Sidi Ahmad al-Shiyadmi
Sidi Haj Lhsen al-Fatwaqi, whom he served and accompanied for many years
Moulay Hassan al-Kattiri, one of the great spiritually realized men of his age
Sidi Mohammed ben al-Mamoun al-Sibaʿi in Safi
Sidi Abdelqader ben Sidi al-Mahjoub al-Shuʿaybi al-ʿAbdi
Sidi Haj Mohammed Aqsbi
Sidi Mohammed al-ʿOmrati
His connection to the Tijaniyya was therefore not merely formal. It was built through companionship, spiritual training, direct transmission, and long association with senior figures of the path.
His personality and scholarly profile
Those who knew him saw in him a man of broad knowledge, perseverance, spiritual seriousness, intellectual openness, and energetic productivity. Ahmad ben Abdallah Skiredj described him as someone full of vitality in thought and action, always open to new ideas and even appreciative of modern technological tools when they served scholarship and preservation.
He also endured criticism, misunderstanding, and jealousy from some quarters, yet continued his work without abandoning his larger scholarly mission. In this sense, he stands out as a man of service, resilience, and fidelity to heritage.
His role in reviving the legacy of Sidi Ahmad Skiredj
One of the most important aspects of his life’s work is his decisive role in the modern revival of the legacy of Sidi Ahmad Skiredj. He did not merely preserve manuscripts; he located them, organized them, studied them, edited them, published them, and introduced them to scholars and readers.
In many cases, this work involved dealing with manuscripts damaged by age, neglect, humidity, or insects. His contribution must therefore be understood as a true act of intellectual and spiritual preservation.
His works
Professor Sidi Mohamed Radi Genoune has authored more than 160 works, including:
critical editions
commentaries
original authored studies
historical and spiritual research
works on the Tijani path
manuscript cataloguing and heritage preservation
This large output reflects the breadth of his scholarship, the extent of his reading, and the depth of his commitment to sustained academic and spiritual service.
Conclusion
Professor Sidi Mohamed Radi Genoune al-Idrissi al-Hassani stands as one of the major contemporary figures in the preservation and transmission of Moroccan and Tijani heritage. A descendant of a noble lineage, trained in Islamic scholarship, spiritually rooted in the Tijani path, and extraordinarily productive as an author and editor, he has played a central role in rescuing and reviving a major portion of the legacy of Sidi Ahmad Skiredj and making it available to later generations.
