Abu al Hasan al Shushtari

Abu-al-Hasan Ali ben Abdallah al-Nuymari as-Shushtari (Arabic: ابو الحسن الششتري) or Al-Sustari (1212 in Guadix – 1269 in Damietta) was an Andalusian Sufi poet. His poetry was designed to be sung, in songs employing simple monorhymes to praise God with everyday musical idiom, which won wide recognition beyond the hundreds of disciples in his own Shushtariyya brotherhood.

Many verses of al-Shushtari's poetry (62 short poems called "Tawshih") were identified in the classical Andalusian music that is today sung in Morocco and Algeria. In the Mashriq (the orient), he is mostly remembered today for his poem A little sheikh from the land of Meknes (Arabic شويخ من أرض مكناس, "Shewiyekh men-ard Meknes") a song which retains huge popularity.