Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr b. Sumayṭ (1861-1925) was born in Moroni, Grande Comore, in the north Mozambique Channel, to a father who had immigrated from Ḥaḍramawt, in southern Yemen. The Sumayṭ family was of the Bā ʿAlawī, descendants of the Prophet and adherents of the ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya. This order emphasises the teacher-student transmission of knowledge that is combined with spiritual insight through descent from the Prophet. Aḥmad b. Sumayṭ visited Yemen three times in order to reconnect to his ancestral origin. He also travelled to Egypt and Istanbul,