(His tomb is located in al-Jamaliyya district a few steps from al-Husayn mosque)
He is the great devout, pious scholar Marzouq al-Yamani of Husayni descent, a follower of al-Shafi’i methodology and of the Ahmadi order.
He was born in 602 AH. His parents died when Marzouq was not yet eleven years old; they were buried in Yemen in 613 AH.
Marzouq al-Yamani once dreamt that an authoritative Arab sheikh commanded him to move from al-Yemen to Egypt where he will rise to prominence. Consequently, he left al-Yemen with his wife for Mecca al-Mukarrama in 622 AH. In Mecca, he devoted himself to studying and attending study sessions on Qur`an commentary, hadiths (prophetic reports), and language studies.
During his stay in al-Hijaz, he frequently traveled to and from Mecca and al-Medina.
In 632 AH, al-Sheikh Marzouq arrived in Egypt where he lodged in al-Kamilayya school and specialized in hadiths.
In the month of Ramadan 636 AH, al-Sheikh Marzouqi met with the great religious authority Sidi Ahmed al-Badawi in the garden of Imam al-Husayn mosque in Cairo. He gave al-Sheikh al-Badawi a solemn pact of allegiance and became one of his most prominent disciples. Together, the two sheikhs undertook heroic acts during the Crusade that arrived in Dumyat in 648 AH under the leadership of Louis IX, the king of France, during the reign of the king Najm al-Deen al-Ayyubi. Both sheikhs encouraged the youth to volunteer for jihad (armed struggle) and even participated in the battlefield. Their mission was to enter enemy camps at night to capture hostages. This gave rise to the saying, “Allah! Allah! O Badawi. He captured hostages.”
The invocations and praise of al-Sheikh al-Marzouq upon the master of masters include,
“O Allah! May Your best blessings and perfect salutation be upon your first appointed minister from the Heavens and the last Messenger to mankind. O Allah! Send Your peace and blessings upon our master Mohammed, the most perfect of creatures and the master of Your Earth and Heavens, the greatest light, the unique gem, and the perpetual secret of who there is no like.”
It was reported that Sheikh al-Yamani Marzouqi performed miracles of Divine favor. It was the custom at the time to display the cover of the Ka’ba in al-Husayn Mosque before the greatest number of people. When Shajarat al-Durr, the wife of king Najm al-Deen al-Ayyubi, the last sultan of the Ayyubi era, took the throne and became the Sultana of Egypt, she introduced a new system. In addition to displaying the cover of the Ka’ba in the al-Husayn Mosque, she ordered that it be put in boxes in a howdah on the back of a camel. The camel procession would proceed from Cairo to Suez where the cover of the Ka’ba would be transported by sea to al-Hijaz. In 684 AH, during the procession, the camel knelt down in front of al-Husayn Mosque and refused to walk any further. The emirs and people took turns in trying to prod it to stand but to no avail. Sheikh Marzouq, who was among the spectators on the scene, went forward without asking for permission and took the leash from the emir of hajj. As soon as the camel saw him, it immediately stood up and started moving quickly with Sheikh Marzouq walking before it and leading it. Since that time, Sheikh Marzouq became the leader of the camel of al-Mahmal (camel procession carrying the cover of the Ka’ba) until his death in 677 AH. This tradition continued in his family, from one generation to the next until the Mahmal procession ceased to be sent to al-Hijaz during the early period of the Egyptian revolution.
Sheikh Marzouq had only one son, Umar Marzouq, in Egypt from the wife he took in Yemen. The descendants of this son inherited the task of administering the sheikhdom of al-Ahmadiyya al-Marzaqia from one generation to the next.