Abu Sahl al-Farisi al-Nafusi

Abu Sahl al-Farisi al-Nafusi (Arabic: أبو سهل الفارسي النفوسي; c. 9th century CE – c. 912–960 CE) was a Muslim Ibadi Berber poet and translator, known for his poetry mourning the fall of the Ibadite Rustumid Imamate in North Africa. Born into the Nafusi Berber tribe, It is believed that he may have had connections to the Rustumid family, with some sources suggesting he was a descendant of the Rustumid family. Despite his Arabic epithet al-Farisi meaning the Persian, Abu Sahl was of Berber origin.

Abu Sahl served as an translator for the Rustumid rulers, notably translating between Berber and Arabic. After the fall of the Rustumid capital, Tihert, to the Fatimid invasions, he sought refuge on the Algerian coast, possibly in Marsa al-Dajaj. There, he spent his later years composing his most notable work, a diwan (poetic collection) of 12 books in Berber, chronicling the history of the Ibadis and lamenting their decline.

Much of his work was lost after the burning of Qal'at Darjin in 1040, where Ibadi manuscripts were preserved. Efforts by Ibadi scholar Abdullah bin Muhammed al-Lawati (1040–1134) to recover fragments of his poetry were partially successful, and subsequent attempts by modern scholar Ali Yahya Muammar (1919–1980) to locate these fragments were not fruitful.

Abu Sahl's poetry is regarded as one of the earliest poetic compositions in the Berber language, and if discovered, it could be of significant historical importance for understanding the Ibadite community and the Rustumid period.