Abderrahman was born in March 1506 in the Tit village near
Azemmour,
Morocco. He was of
Sanhaja Berber origin. In 1508, he moved with his father to Irgan near the town of
Meknes. He was brought up in a Sufi environment, his father studied under Ibrahim Afham al-Zarhuni, a student of
Ahmad Zarruq. Abderrahman studied first in Meknes, then he went to
Fez to continue his studies. He studied in Meknes under teachers such as Abu Ruwayin, Ahmad al-Shabih, Said ibn Abi Bakr al-Mishnaza'i, Abd al-Haqq al-Zalliji, Ja'ran as-Sfyani and the
qutb Umar al-Khattab al-Zarhuni. It was Umar al-Khattab al-Zarhuni who told him to settle in the
habt region. He studied in
Fez under teachers such as Ali ibn Ahmad al-Sanhaji. He memorised the entire Quran and the 10 different ways of recitation. He lived during the rise of the
Saadi dynasty under the reign of
Mohammed ash-Sheikh and
Abdallah al-Ghalib. This period also saw the rise of the Ottoman Empire in
Algeria and
Tunisia. == His poetry ==