Salih ibn Tarif (Arabic:صالح بن طريف,romanized: Ṣāliḥ ibn Ṭarīf) was the second king of theBerghouata kingdom, the prophet of a newAbrahamic religion, and the eponymous ancestor of the Oulad Salah tribe of Morocco.[1][2] He appeared during thecaliphate ofHisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 744 AD.
The eleventh century Andalusian scholars Al-Bakri reports that Salih was aJudean (Yahūd) and claimed descent fromSimeon son ofJacob, son ofIsaac.[3]
He is also said to have claimed to be the finalMahdi, and thatIsa (Jesus) would be his companion and pray behind him. He proclaimed that his name inArabic was Ṣāliḥ, inSyriac Mālik, in "Persian"ālim, inHebrewRūbyā, and inBerberWerba, and that after him would be no other prophet.
After reaching the age of 47 years, he headed east out of the kingdom, and promised to return in the reign of their seventh king. He told his son Ilyās to support theUmayyads ofAndalus and publicly professIslam, but to reveal his religion when he became powerful enough; the latter was done by his grandson Yūnus.
According to some sources,[citation needed] Ṣāliḥ ibn Ṭarīf regarded himself as a successor toMuhammad, had 10Ṣahāba (disciples) and many wives, and claimed to be able to speak with the dead and heal the sick.
Other tenets that contrast withIslam include capital punishment for theft, unlimited number of wives a man allowed to have, fasting of the month of Rajab (7th month in lunar calendar) instead ofRamadan (9th month), ten obligatory daily prayers instead of five, differences in how to perform ablution, prayers, and the banning of marriage between cousins. The details of the tenets of Ṣāliḥ's religion are mentioned in many Arabic sources, such asIbn Hazm,Ibn Khaldun and others.
In Islamic literature, his belief is considered heretical; politically, its motivation was presumably to establish their independence from theUmayyads (in a manner analogous toKharijism, and earlierDonatism), establishing an independent ideology lending legitimacy to the state. Some modern Berber activists consider him to be Berber and regard him as a hero for his resistance toUmayyad-Arab conquest and his foundation of theBerghouata state.
The religion promoted by Ṣāliḥ was destroyed in the 11th century by theAlmoravids.