RIBĀṬ TĪṬ-N-FIṬR AND THE ORIGINS OF MOROCCAN MARABOUTISM

Author(s): VINCENT J. CORNELL

Source: Islamic Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring 1988), pp. 23-36
Published by: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, Islamabad
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20839871
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RIB?TTTHWTRAND
THE ORIGINSOF
MOROCCANMARABOUTISM
VINCENTJ. CORNELL

Perhaps no other word in the lexicon of North African

studies has been more used, not to mention misapplied and abused,
than "marabout." The term seems to appear ubiquitously in the
literature and has come to symbolize all that is unique in the
popular religion of the Maghrib. Yet in spite of the fact that one
is likely to see marabouts in print nearly as often as one sees
their domed, whitewashed tombs dotting the countryside from
Casablanca to Cairo, there remains a surprising lack of agreement
among scholars as to what these individuals really represent.

Theoretical nuances aside, most Western scholars still build

their definitions of "maraboutism" upon foundations laid by the
French orientalist Alfred Bel in his famous work, La Re&g?m aaa?
mane en Betbe^tce.1 Working from a "stratigraphie" model of reli
gious development,2 Bel postulated that the rise of maraboutism
was rooted in a thirteenth-century attempt by urban religious
scholars to spread their brand of theology in the countryside. This
attempt at religious "consciousness raiding" supposedly foundered
on the rocks of primitive Berber religion, which stressed belief in
the presence of good and bad forces and magical protection
against vague, malevolent spirits.* The outcome of this conflict
between two spiritual worlds was a religious figure that Bel called
the homrnd ^?tiche, (human fetish), often a descendant of the
Prophet Muhammad, who personified a vulgar synthesis of formal
religion and popular superstition. For Bel this "taboo" individual
symbolized a rural Islamic populism that heralded the decline of
high Muslim civilization in North Africa.*

The problematic nature of a model of popular religion such

as this should be self-evident in the light of recent anthro
pological and historical research. The idea of a primitive Berber
religious substructure easily played into the hands of colonial

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 24 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

administrators, who found it useful to stress a supposed unbridge

able gulf between "Eastern" authoritarian Islamic traditions and
"Western" democratic Berber society. The possible effects of
Islamic reform movements and the relevance of sophisticated
religious philosophy were trivialized by the corollary assumption
that "dry" urban religious practices had no place in the "moist"
affective climate of tribal peoples still living in a "state of
nature."5 Perhaps the most glaring error on Bel's part was that he
overlooked the often turbulent history of popular religion in his
own country, and consequently missed noticing the strong
similarities in the expression of faith (mentioned by the Spanish
scholar As?n Palacios in Bel's own generation) in both the medieval
Christian and Muslim worlds.6

More recently European and American scholars (usually

anthropologists) have tended to characterize the marabout in
functional terms, hoping to derive a conceptual mosaic from an
analysis of the marabout's social behaviour or from the attitudes
expressed by his clients. A typical example of such a combination
of perceptions can be found in the work of Ernest Gellner, who
defines the marabout (he uses instead the Tamazight word agutiiam)
as one who:

i. Possesses the appropriate descent from other

marabouts and ultimately traces his supposed descent
from the Prophet.

ii. Possesses banakah, divine grace and approval, which

manifests itself in further ways, such as:

iii. material prosperity, and

iv. magical powers. Moreover he is:

v. generous and hospitable, conspicuously so, and above

all, in a spontaneous, uncalculating manner. He is in
theory:

vi. pious and well-versed in Quranic matters, which... he

is supposed...to exemplify automatically.

vii. He is pacific. He does not fight, feud, or, by

extension, litigate.

viii. He secludes his womenfolk, tends not to divorce, nor

gives away daughters in marriage to lay tribesmen.7

Gellner's understanding of sanctity is teleologica!: "A person

is an agu/i/iam by virtue of being held to be one."8 For any
anthropologist this statement is a social truism and serves to lead

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Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988) 25

us no further in the understanding of exactly why the m?t?i?i,

agut?CLm, or more commonly waZi comes to occupy his crucial
interstitial social position in the first place. Ascription of charac
teristics by one's client is indeed important to the continued social
functions of a person perceived to be a living saint; they are,
however, pcAt hoc assumptions and provide no help in under
standing why the founder of a z?u?yah like Gellner's Ahansal
continues to be venerated.

Amore carefully considered analysis is given by Dale

Eickelman, who recognizes that the term muA?t?t or voaJUL overlaps
with the European idea of a saint, but differentiates the two by
reference to the Moroccan conception of "closeness" (qa/t?bah).9
Such an approach is useful in bridging the gap between super
natural and human relations in that it postulates a correspondence
or analogy between man in relation to God and man in relation to
other men. Thus for Eickelman the -mut?b?t can be "tied" (a word
derived from the meaning of the Arabic root labata) to man as
well as to God.10

While a definition based on a key concept is analytically

more useful than a simple list of perceived traits, Eickelman's
attempt to define the muA?tUt remains based on the point of view
of those not privy to sanctity. Since the time of Alfred Bel no
scholar has seriously attempted to look back far enough into the
history of rural Islam in North Africa to determine the origins of
the social role played by the muA?bit or even to determine the
original meaning of the word itself. This reticence has largely been
due to the assumption, erroneously fostered by early French
orientalists like L?vi-Proven?al, that early sources dealing with
what we would today call the social history of the Maghrib ar? so
rare as to make such an inquiry impossible.11 In the case of
Morocco, at least, this assumption could not be more mistaken.
Since its independence from France in 1956, thousands of
manuscripts in both governmental and private collections have come
to light and are now catalogued, many of which are devoted to
describing the lives and political roles of urban and rural.religious
figures. Because of this new material it is now possible for a
researcher to undertake a more thorough and systematic study of
Moroccan religion than was previously possible.

Moroccan primary and secondary sources dealing with the

history of rural Sufism reveal that the use of the term mu&?bit in
the sense popularized by Western social scientists, began quite late
(no earlier than the late fourteenth century) and commonly
occurred only by the mid-seventeenth century-coincident with the
socio-political crisis that preceded the rise of the 'Alawite
dynasty. The earliest synonyms for "saint" found in the literature
are instead attributional in nature, being one-word descriptions of
aspects of holiness: S?XJk (pious), w?t? (piously scrupulous and

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 26 Islanic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

inclined toward ritual purity in all aspects of life), and

mutaqc^JiM? (ascetic)12. Suf? the most general term used to
identify the characters in these early biographies, whether or not
they belonged to an established order, or t?'i?ah, had the
broadest of definitions: MThe most excellent of the scholars, the
legists, the pious, the ascetics, the scrupulous, and others from
among the elect."13

Even though the term mut?bty was not widely used in

Morocco until relatively late in its history, the Kibdt as an insti
tution was widespread. Anyone acquainted with the history of North
Africa is aware of the famous rib?t founded in either Senegal or
Mauritania by 'Abd Allah b. Y?s?n al-Jaz?l?, which bacarne the
nucleus for the Almoravid movement. Less widely known, perhaps, is
the fact that Ibn Y?sih was himself the product of Rib?t M?ssa,
established on the Atlantic coast of southern Morocco not far from
the present city of Agadir. The founder of Rib?t M?ssa (the
original "D?r al-Mur?bitih"), Wagg?g b. Zall? al-Lamt? (d.
mid-eleventh century), appears to have been the first in Morocco
to use a rib?t f?r the spread of an exclusive and militant religious
doctrine.

Rib?t M?ssa, however, was not unique. By the time it was

founded Rib?t T?t-n-Fitr was already well established on the
Atlantic coast near the town of El Jedida. Other rib?t s
contemporary to M?ssa were Rib?t Tlisq?wan, founded by Ab? Inn?r
Abd All?h b. Wakr?s al-Mashanz?*! (known today as the town of
Sidi Bennour); Rib?t Sh?kir, founded north of the present town of
4
Chichaoua by Ab? Abd All?h Muhammad al-Ragr?gi ( fi. ca.
450/1060); and Rib?t Tasamm?tat in the Ayl?n (Haylana) region near
Marrakech, which was created as a satellite of ll?sq?wan.

While not unique, Rib?t M?ssa was, however, anomalous,

in that the rib?ts contemporary to it were neither associated with
exclusivistic doctrines nor with the holy war or jihad. Indeed a
fundamental characteristic of the rib?t in Morocco, unlike its
military counterpart in Muslim Spain or IMq?yyah, was the complete
lack of concern with jihdd stated as. such either versus Christian
invaders or local heretics.1* Other than M?ssa the only /cnad-orien
ted rib?t in Morocco appears to be Rib?t al-Qadam/ Rib?t al-Fath
(the present capital of the country), founded as a staging area
for a projected Almohad invasion of Christian Spain. The typical
early Moroccan rib?t was a privately created and locally
maintained institution specializing in the dissemination of religious
doctrine (on this point Bel seems to have been correct, for the
doctrine taught tended to be a thaVt form of Sufism emphasizing
Malik? theology with an orientation toward a a a -den ), literacy
(via studies of Qur'?n and rjad?th), and the modification of socially
disruptive behaviour in rural areas. In a certain sense they were
indeed "forward positions," in that they often served functions

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Islamic Studies, 21 (1988) 27

similar to those of cities and towns, but on a smaller scale. In the

vocabulary of modern social anthropology these early rib?ts could
accurately to characterized as "nodes" in networks of tribal and
sub-tribal relations, strategically placed (often at former
pilgrimage sites or at places considered holy in pre-Islamic times)
to facilitate effective communications as well as the mobilization
of economic and political resources.

for the researcher interested in the

Fortunately origins of
this institution, the earliest example of a rib?t mentioned in
Moroccan sources, Rib?t T?t-n-Fi^r, located eight kilometers south
of the city of El Jedida on the DukkaLa coast, is well-documented,
largely due to the existence of a late fourteenth-century
biography of its saints called Bahjat al-Nazitin wa Um a - $ a
WaMat Rabb al-'&tanwi Uan?qib Rijal Amgh?K al-S?JUIwi by
Muhammad b. *Abd al-'Azim al-Zamm?r? (d. early ninth/fifteenth
century).15 Detailing the history of Tit from the time of its
founding in the late fourth/tenth century until the reign of the
Marinid sult?n Ab? 'In?n. F?ris in the eighth/fourteenth century,
a - a not mentions miraculous and pious acts, but
Bahjat a only
also gives fascinating insights into the social, political and
economic life of early Morocco as well as textual transcriptions of
important documents.

According to this account, the family of Ban? Amgh?r

"marabouts" who founded Tit were descendants of the Prophet
Muhammad by way of "Fatimi Husayni" lineage-the sons of Amgh?r
(Shaykh) Ab? 'Uthm?n Sa'id b. Abi Zakariyya' Yahy? b. Abi Sh?kir
b. Abi Zakariyy?' ?
Hamm?d b. Abi Sulaym?n D?w?d al-IJunayf.1
Whether or not their origin was North African, as their name implies,
or yij?z?, as the text states, there are certain indications in the
narrative that they were somehow associated with Sharifian
politics. The name Arngh?* itself has political overtones, being the
Berber equivalent of the Arabic word ?haykh, used in the sense of
tribal rather than religious leadership.

Most of the accounts collected in Bahjat a -N?zVun place the

origins of the founder of Rib?t Tit, Shih?b al-Din Ab? Ibrahim
Ism?'?l b. Sa* id Amgh?r, in Madinah, where he was known as an
ascetic and as a firm adherent of the ways of the SaJta^ aZ~S?t?h.
After settling in the coastal village of Jeddah, he began to hear a
voice telling him to go to the so that his wind (invocation)
Maghrib
and his family would be of benefit there. Finally the voice spoke
to him directly: "Oh Ism?'?l, go to the Maghrib and follow the light
that you see before you. Wherever that light settles in the
Maghrib, there should you stay, for it shall be a plaice of
taWOn."17

Accompanied by his two brothers, Ism?*?l Amgh?r travelled

through the Maghrib until he reached the Atlantic coast of
Morocco, following the light (significantly called a?-N?A aZ-Hoibhiml)

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 28 Islande Studies, 27:1 (1988)

that appeared before them until they saw it settle on an island

just off the coast. Crossing over to the island at low tide, they
found a clear, cold spring of water and honeycombs from which to
take their sustenance. The brothers thus called the spring "The
or 'Ayn
Spring of Sustenance," ot-Fipi \T&rn-r~ipi in the ?anh?jah
Berber dialect of the region).

Continuing its legendary account, the text goes on to state

that the Dukk?la region of Morocco was at that time covered with
low scrub and full of wild beasts including lions, who would rub
themselves on Ism?'?l Amgh?r's clothes as he made his invocations.
This soon came to the attention of local Gud?la ?anh?jah
pastoralists who told their leader, ftbd al-Az?z b. Batt?n. Going
where they indicated, he found the u)dBL in a field surrounded by a
pride of lions. The chief asked him to live among the tribe but was
refused, being told that the shaykh would never leave the spot
where he was commanded to settle. When Ibn Battan pushed his
requests to the point of threats, the ground opened up beneath his
feet and held him until he apologized. An amicable, though
informal, relationship with the "?anh?ja Azamm?r" was eventually
established after the shaykh stepped in to settle a dispute over
the use of a well and aided the tribe by providing rain during a
drought.18

A number of the themes common to later stories of mut?l>i?in

can be found in this early legend. There is the Eastern, Sharifian
origin of the founder of the ribat, common today but rare in the
early sources, that bestows both holiness and legitimacy upon his
descendants and their activities. There is also the association with
a specific rural locality, and by extension with the tribal peoples
who inhabit it, except that the shaykh, by stressing his nature as
an outsider in refusing to settle among the ?anh?jah, affirms his
independence and impartiality. This enables him to exercise the
conflict-mediation function central to his social role, which is
illustrated by the water-rights dispute.

The second shaykh of Rib?t T?t-n-Fitr, Zayn al-$bid?h Ab?

Ja* far Ish?q b. Ism?*?l Amgh?r, is the first for which the text of
Bahjat al-H?z?t?n contains dated, factual material. The earliest of
these is a decree promulgated by Tam?m b. ZM b. 'Atiyyah (the
Ifr?nid ruler of Northern Morocco allied to the Umayyads of Spain)
in the year 409/1018, authorizing Ab? Ja*far and his descendants
to take an annual tribute from the ?anh?jah Azamm?r as upkeep
for their family, servants, and associates so long as they maintain
their spiritual state (hot) and do not leave for another locality.19
This clear contractual relationship between the Ban? Amgh?r saints
and the tribe among whom they lived is reaffirmed in a report
dated 696/1297, in which Q??l? Ab? M?s? 'Isa b. AbPl-tfasan 'Ali
Amgh?r is paid ten gold dinars monthly from the tribal zak?t in
return for his legal services, so long as he (again) undertakes not

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 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988) 29

to leave *Ayn al-Fitr for another locale, not to change his state
for another, and so long as he and his descendants maintain a high
level of knowledge in the religious sciences.20

Also attributed to Shaykh Ab? Ja* far Isft?q Amghar is the

earliest dated theological creed ('aqfdah) from a Moroccan
religious figure. Supposedly written in 412/1021 in answer to
comments on the nature of God addressed by a scholar from Sfax
in Ifriqiyyah, it reads in part:

Then you believe that [God] is One in four aspects;

One without limit, One without number, One without differen
tiation [it is not permissible to conceptually divide him into
different aspects], and One in His Dominion. No partner has
-
He; He is One in the attributes of Perfection nothing has
attributes like His Attributes. He is Existent in the act of
creation; none other creates anything with Him. His
Attributes are pr?existent. His Speech is with voices, not
dependent upon a (physical) tongue or sounds. He sees
without the physical eye or...(gap in text). He te the Knower
of All without physical mind or heart; Exalted above the
existence of opposites or progeny; free from likeness to
physical bodies. He makes miracles appear at the hands of
His Messengers and makes them indicators [pointing] to His
various ways. Prosperous is the one who believes in all of
them in order to affirm the Truth and who follows their laws
in order to firmly establish himself.

1 counsel you to believe in God the Almighty and to

beware not to be excessive in external devotion while ignor
ing the inner life; for the work of the inner spirit is more
excellent than that of the outward. The example [to follow]
and the group [with which to identify] is that of the
Companions [of the Prophet], may God be pleased with all of
them.21

In the context of Moroccan religious culture, an 'aqXdah

characteristically takes the form of a quasi-legal document. It
serves as a sort of position paper or formal statement of
theological and ethical principles, clearly defining what its writer
claims to represent. Its use by religious reformers and ?uf?s was
especially common, in that for the former it served as a succinct
religio-political manifesto and for the latter a justification of
orthodoxy. Literally scores of these creeds can be found today in
Moroccan manuscript collections and can be very valuable to one
interested in the political implications of theology. The above
fragment of Ab? Ja* far Isfo?q's *aqtdah is Ash*arite in tone and
appears at variance with the anthropomorphic M?lik? theology
espoused by the Almoravids, who took power around the time of his
death.

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 30 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

Ab? Ja'far Amgh?r was further noted, according to the text

of Bahjat at-Ndzit?n, as the builder of the physical complex of
Rib?t T?t-n-Fitr. We are told that until the year 419/1027-28 he
lived with his family and entourage in dwellings clustered around
his father's tomb. During that year, however, famine and unrest
caused by wars between the ?anh?jah Berbers and Barghw?ta
Masm?dah heretics living in the T?masn? and Za'ir regions near the
modern city of Rabat caused the shaykh and his family to flee
south to a spot on the Dukk?la coast called lyyir. There he
formally began to teach students and to invite the locals to
"believe in God and follow the Mnnak of the Prophet."22

While a great number apparently followed his teachings, an

equally significant number opposed him, and the shaykh was forced
to return to 'Ayn al-Fitr sooner than expected. It was after this
return from lyyir that Ab? Ja'far decided to develop and fortify
the site of Tit so as to preclude the need for further flight. After
clearing away the low scrub plants that covered the area he built
a mosque next to his house, where his tomb stands today.
Eventually a larger number of the ?anh?jah Azamm?r settled near him,
so to provide the immigrants with water he dug the famous well
called "Timkid?t" fed by the .holy spring and providing water up to
the present. At an unspecified later date Ab? Ja'far built a Friday
mcsque (ma?jid al-jaml'} next to the well. The main structure, built
of stone and driftwood, has long since collapsed, but its cut-stone
minaret, the oldest privately-built religious structure now extant in
Morocco, still stands where it was built.23

Sometime around the year 475/1083, Ab?'l Budal?' Rukn

al-Din Ab? 'Abd All?h Muhammad b. Ish?q Amgh?r succeeded his
father as paramount shaykh of Rib?t Tit-n-Fitr. Acknowledged
throughout Morocco as one of the greatest religious figures of his
age, he was famed for his knowledge of the Qur'?n and ability in its
' AM
commentary. Along with his son, Ab? 'Abd al-Kh?liq al-'Az,?m,
he is credited in indigenous sources with founding the earliest
specifically named Moroccan ??f? order, the Sanh?jiyyah, mentioned
by the late eighth / fourteenth-century traveller and religious
scholar Ibn Qunfudh as one of the five major Moroccan orders
[t?'^ah?? extant during the apogee of Marinid political power.lh As
the name "?anh?jiyyah" implies, membership in tl\e Ta^ah based at
Tit had a strong ethnic basis, and seems to have been virtually
obligatory for all religious Berbers of ?anh?jah stock for nearly
four hundred years, until the temporary destruction and abandonment
of the rib?t at the hands of the Portuguese in the sixteenth
century. As late as the mid-fifteenth century, one of the greatest
of Moroccan ??f?s, Muhammad b. Sul?ym?n al-Jaz?lx (the Gaz?la are
a collection of ?anh?ja Berbers living in the Atlas foothills north
of the River S?s), traced his spiritual lineage through the then
reigning shaykh of Rib?t Tit.

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 Islamic Studies,.27:1 (1988) 31

There is no question but that the ?anh?ja Almoravid rulers

of Morocco regarded Ab? 4Abd Allah Amgh?r as the religious
spokesman for their cousins north of the Sahara desert. The author
of Bahjat a -U?z?Kox reports that just prior to the year 522/1128
4Ali b. Y?suf b. T?shfin had his vizier Ab?'l-Walid b. Rushd (the
grandfather of the famous philosopher) wrote to the shaykh
soliciting his blessings for the proposed construction of the walls
of Marrakash.25 Another letter, date 527/1133, in the name of
"Am?r al-Muslim?n N??ir al-D?n 4All b. Y?suf b. T?shfin," mentions
with approval the shaykh's Prophetic lineage and asks again for his
blessing and support, probably against the nascent Almohad
movement. Significantly perhaps, when all the Shaykhs and AuJ?ik?9
of Morocco were called to a meeting before the Sulf?n in
Marrakash, "Ab? 4Abd All?h al-Shar?f" refused, citing an "extreme
lack of care for the world."26 We later find that the shaykh's son
enjoyed a close relationship with the Almohad ruler Ya4q?b
al-Man??r, who gave him financial support and allowed him to
intercede on behalf of those who sought his help.27 Coupled with
the theological nature of the *aq<dak of Ab? Ja4 far Amgh?r quoted
above, information such as this leads, at least circumstantially, to
the conclusion that Rib?t Trf may have been prominent in the
general support given by Moroccan and Andalusian ??f?s for the
Almohad cause.

Although we can no longer get a complete picture of the

method of the T?'i&ah aZ-Scinliajiyyah, a skeletal outline is
spiritual
by a number of contemporary sources. We know, for
provided
example, that Ab? 4Abd All?h Amgh?r was a firm adherent of the
M?lik? school of Jurisprudence. It is said that he read part of
like his father
Saljnun's Mudawwana al~>KubnA every day, and that,
and grandfather before him, he stressed firm adherence to the
of the a - . This attitude is consistent with the
example Salai
then popular Moroccan ??f? trend away from speculative theology
and toward a "pristine" u^??-oriented M?likl orthodoxy.2*

The ??f? method of the ?anh?jiyyah appears to have been

ascetic and mor/feattuned to the pietism of figures like
strongly
al-rjasan al-Ba?r? than to the practices of Philosophical ??f?s in
the contemporary twelfth-century Muslim East. We know that the
own activities included a concentration on spiritual
shaykh's
retreat (khatuoak), mortification of the lower soul [mujahadahi, fre
quent fasting, and extreme care in the amount, type, and origin of
food taken into the body (like many Moroccan ??f?s of the day Ab?
4Abd All?h Amgh?r restricted his diet to leaves of trees, "allowable
plants of the earth," and fish from the sea).29

From his son and successor Ab? 4Abd al-Kh?liq 4Abd al-4Az?m
(fi. ca. 550/1152) we learn that along with his elder friend Ab?
Shu4ayb Ayy?b al-?anh?l? (the famous "S?d? B?sh4ayb" of Dukk?la
and putative founder of Rib?t Azamm?r) the shaykh required from

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 32 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

his followers adherence to ten commandments known as the "Rules

of Companionship" [ShuA?t a -Suhbah):

1. Avoidance of controversy among the mu/udin and

others.
2. Justice.
3. The obligation of noble character [Jhiz?m oJi-Wj&l).
4. Constancy and satisfaction with what God provides.
5. Forgiveness of the harmful acts of others.
6. Preservation of transcendent realities from the un
initiated.
7. Concealment of the sins of others.
8. Forgetfulness of the need to have the last answer in
a dispute.
9. Satisfaction with what comes to one most easily.
10. The eating of what is found close at hand.30

The significance of the greatest shaykh of Rib?{ T?t-n-Fitr

to the development of Moroccan ??fism can hardly be
underestimated. Apart from his friendship with Ab? Shu'ayb of
Azamm?r, Ab? 'Abd Allah Amgh?r was also known to have been in
contact with the greatest ??f?s and formal religious scholars of his
own and his son's generation. These included Ab? Ya'z? Yalann?r b.
Maym?n (S?d? B? *Azz?) the great "marabout" of the Middle Atlas;
Ab? 'Isa Wazg?g al-Dukk?li; Ab? Muhammad ??lih b. Yantaran
al-M?giri (founder of Rib?t ?safi and initiator of the "Hujj?j"
movement that opened a permanent exchange between Morocco and
the Muslim East); the great M?liki legist Ab? Bakr b. al-'Arabi (who
wrote a book for the shaykh called St&?j at-Muktadw $c Addb
aZ'S?W?tn); and Q??l? 'ly??l b. M?s? al-Yahi?ubi, author of the
famous' K?t?b al-Shi^d9 U Huqaq al-MuMaid}1 The text of Bahjat
aZ-Ndz?un also indicates that the shaykh inaugurated an exchange
of ideas between ??fis in 'Iraq and Morocco, and that after 'his
death a delegation from Yemen came to visit his tomb.32

Although the point is not made directly, Moroccan

manuscripts mentioning Rib?t T?t-n-Fitt leave the distinct
impression that it was regarded as a model for other rib?ts and
that its shaykhs were seen as the quintessential mti??bt?cn. The
kunyah of Ab? 'Abd Allah Amgh?r, "Ab?'l-Budal?," indicates this
perceived centrality in that seven of his descendants were
regarded by other ??f?s as badil (substitute)- those shaykhs from
whom the Axis of the Age, or Qutb is selected. To this day in
Dukk?la qa?tdahb are sung recounting the glories of the Amgh?n?yy?n
and lamenting the lost grace that resulted from the downfall of
this most ancient and noble of Moroccan rib?^s.

What can the example of Rib?t T?t-n-Fitr tell Western

scholars about the nature of Moroccan "maraboutism" in general?
First of all, one can find many of the popular themes of later

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 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988) 33

maraboutism prefigured in the historical accounts and legendary

tales about the rib?t and its founder. The shaykh of Tit clearly
served as a figure of authority in a segmentary society. Because
he was a "disinterested" outsider linked to the surrounding tribal
peoples only through marriage ( a rather weak link in a situation
of strong patrilineality), he could perform functions of conflict
mediation and even dispense formal justice with state backing. The
existence of the formal post of q?dZ at Tit indicates that rather
than representing an ad hoc form of rural religion as Gellner and
others seem to believe, the mu??t?t could just as well serve as a
point man in the projection of formal, "orthodox" Islam in tribal
areas. The indigenous sources make indisputably clear that the
shaykhs of Rib?t T?t-n-Fitr in its heyday were anything but the
marginally educated rural opportunists that are found in recent
anthropological literature. This latter impression, though perhaps
accurate in describing the shaykhs of a rural zauuyah in decline,
all too easily obscures the vital and progressive educational role
played by major rib?ts in Moroccan cultural history. Abu *Abd Allah
Amgh?r, his father, and descendants were clearly intellectuals, and
as such could hold their own among the greatest scholars of their
day.

Another popular theme represented at Tit is that of inherent

nobility, represented by Sharifian ancestry. A scholar acquainted
with Moroccan history since the eighteenth century may find it
surprising that very few early ??f?s ever bothered to make such
claims. The idea that a Prophetic lineage is central to religious
legitimacy was an innovative idea in Morocco before the arrival of
the Ban? Hil?l Arabs and thus provides a certain teleological proof
of the Bani Amgh?r's claim. In the eighth/fourteenth century the
n?bah of the Amgh?riyy?n given in this text suddenly changes and
becomes Hasanid and Idrisid- replacing probable fact by legend and
eliminating a possibly embarrassing schismatic F?timid association by
the substitution of a more proper genealogical orthodoxy.'3
Noble lineage, however, is not the only, or even the most
important factor in the perception of sanctity by the uninitiated.
Noble character must be present as a necessary complement as
well. A European or American social scientist, faced with assessing
"character" as a variable, and unacquainted with the subtleties of
a mystical tradition long embedded in a foreign culture, is often
unable to pinpoint the exact reasons why a person is regarded as
noble by others in his society and thus is prone to indulging in
speculative analyses that to Moroccans sound as ridiculous as those
given by early travellers or Barbary Company traders. While not
consciously expressed, the parameters of sanctity are usually
understood from stories and orally transmitted experiences passed
on over many generations. As Ernest Gellner implicitly acknowledges
by presenting his own definitional list, saintly character is often
evaluated locally by means of a checklist of attributes, the

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 34 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

totality of which, combined with accounts of miraculous or

paranormal events (the common Moroccan term for a saintly miracle
is khafiq aJ?-'?dah?"rendering custom asunder"), allows one to be
called a voaJ?Lor saint. Such a checklist can be found in the
combination of Ab? *Abd Allah Amgh?r's specific personal qualities
(knowledge of the Qur'?n, knowledge of law, spiritual retreat, mor
tification, and extreme concern with purity) and his ten Shuti?t
aZ-Suhbah. While no list of traits or attributes is by itself
sufficient to define a phenomenon like sanctity, one generate by
the muMbt?w themselves at least provides a greater correspondence
with and understanding of the perceptions of those within Moroccan
culture and creates a partial bridge between the ideas of the
initiated and the uninitiated.

The most important aspect of maraboutism illustrated by the

example of Tit-n-FiJr, indeed perhaps the fundamental idea
implicit in the term mu/i?bit itself, can be found both expressed
and implied in the decree of Tamim b. Ziri formally affirming the
local authority of Ab? Ja* far Ish?q Amgh?r. The fact is often
overlooked that a fundamental difference between the mut?biZ and
the Su?c is that while every mut?bit is associated in some way with
??fism, either as a practitioner or as a descendant, not every
??f? can be a muM?K?. On the most simple level the reason for this
is that the muJt?b?t is always a rural figure - the "semiofficial"
representative of rural ??fism. The fact that he performs his role
in the countryside means by extension that his social role
must correspond to the social structure of the people among whom
he lives. In a very real way his status, function, and sanctity
depend on the continued acceptance of him by tribal peoples often
much less sophisticated than he is. The muA?bit thus finds himself
"bound" hand and foot in a symbiotic relationship with both a
locality and a tribe. This relationship is expressed, either formally
or informally, as a "social contract" in which a saint (in our case
Ab? Ja* far Amgh?r) undertakes to provide certain services for a
tribe (here the ?anh?ja Azamm?r), for which he can take a share
of their zak?t, so long as he maintains, or is seen to maintain, his
sanctity and does not leave for another locality. Leaving was indeed
out of the question for the Ban? Amgh?r mut?bt?cn, for the
founding fathers of the ?anh?jiyyah ??f? order could have no
Ha??O? a' without th? ?anh?ja Berbers. By the logic of a mutual
identification between a tribe and "its" saints such as this, it is
easy to see how over time actual sanctity can become less
important than attributional sanctity, and how, under the weight of
years of habit reinforced by tradition, a family could be regarded
as "saintly" even if its actions were less than pure.

Thus, far from being "tied" to God or the jihad as French

colonial scholars and those influenced by them have assumed, the
muA?t?t is "tied" instead, even according to his own frame of
reference, to a particular rural social structure defined in spatial

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 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988) 35

terms. When,, in the case of the Amgh?rlyy?n, this tie was broken
by the displacement of the Gud?la ?anh?ja by Arab tribes in the
fourteenth century, the shaykhs of Rib?t T?t-n-Pip: had to look
farther afield, to the Sanh?ja of Gaz?la, for their followers. In
discussions of the period nearly contemporary to the composition of
Bahjdt al-Nazit?n references to the "?anh?ja Azamm?r" largely
disappear, and names of individuals associated with the rib?{ more
moften than not bear the tribal/regional designation "al-Jaz?lL"
When the link to even Gaz?la was broken by the Portuguese
occupation of Dukk?la and the dispersion of the Amgh?rlyy?n in
the sixteenth century, the surviving saints- of %, rather than
being able to reassert their local dominance, found themselves
swept up instead by their former followers and identified
themselves with the quasi-nationalisti? ??f? order-which
jaz?liyyah
had by then become so all embracing as to
exclusively represent
the ??f? tradition in Morocco. As ?anh?jah identity became
irrelevant, so did the "?anh?jiyy?n," and the greatest and
longest-lasting rib?t in Moroccan history fell to the status of a
pilgrimage centre of purely local import.

NOTESANDREFERENCES
1. Alfred Bel, La musulmane, en Bo.rbo.ric (Paris: Librairie Orien
rc?gion
taliste Paul Geuthner, 1938).
2. This term is used by Dale F. Eickelman, Moroccan l?&tm: Tradition
and Society in a Vilgrimago Zontor (Austin, Texas and London:
University of Texas Press, 1976), p. 23.
3.. ibid., p. 24.
4. Ibid., p. 26.
5. A particularly of this of view can be found in
glaring example point
Ernest Gellner, SaintA o? the. Atlas (Chicago: University of Chicage
Press, 1969), 5-12. The "state of nature" quotation is taken
pp.
from p. 8.
6. As?n Palacios, "Sadil?es y' Alumbrados," serialized posthumously
Miguel
in Al-Andaluz starting with Vol. X, No. 1, 1945.
7. Ernest Gellner, "Political and Religious Organization of the Berbers of
the Central in Ernest Gellner and Charles Micaud, Arab*
High Atlas,"
and Borbor?: From Tribe to Nation in North Affrica (London: Gerald
Duckworth and Co. Ltd., 1973), p. 60.
8. Ibid.
9. Moroccan Ittam, p. 160.
10. Ibid.
11. It is on this basis that his famous Historien* de Chorda must now be
regarded as out of date.
12. These terms are used the text of Ab? Ya'q?b Y?suf b.
throughout
Yahy? al-T?dil? (Ibn al-Zayy?t), a - aA a a il? Rlj?l al-Ta?am.ufo
A. Faure, Ed. (Rabat: ?ditions Techniques Nord-Africains, 1958).
UL Ibid., p.4.

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 36 Islamic Studies, 27:1 (1988)

14. The same point is made in an excellent new Moroccan of the

history
Dukk?la region: Ahmad B? Sharb, VukkMa wa'l-Jsti.' maA al-Butitugk??i
i?? Sanai VakJUV ??a|?c voa Azamm?t (Casablanca: Dar al-Thaq?fah,
1404/1984), p. 125.
15. Three copies of this
manuscript exist in Moroccan libraries, each
somewhat different from the other. Scholars who have used Bakj?t
aJL-H?z??un in _the past have relied on the two copies found in the
Kkiz?nat aJL-'kmmak(Biblioth?que G?n?rale) at MohammadV University
in Rabat. 1 prefer instead MS. 1358 at the Kkiz?nat al-Ha?aniyyak
(Royal Palace Library) in Rabat. The page references given below
are from this copy.
16. *
al-N?zit?n, p. 14. Other texts report their origin as Hasani..
Bakj?t
17. Ibid., p. 59.
18. Ibid., pp. 59-62.
19. Ibid., pp. 55-56.
20. Ibid., p. 20.
21. Ibid., p. 63.
22. Ibid., pp. 64-67.
23. Ibid., pp. 68-75.
24. Ab?'l 'Abbas Ahmad al-Khatib al-Qusanflm (Ibn Qunfudh) Unh al-faqtl
a 4Izz ai-HaqiK: Muhammad al-F?s? and Faure, Eds. (Rabat:
Adolphe
al-Markaz a?-J?mi4! li'l-Bahth al-'Ilm?, 1965), p. 64.
25. Eakjat al-N?zMn,
* pp. 30-31.
26. Ibid., p. 33.
27. Ibid., p. 34.
28. Ibid., p. 108.
29. Ibid., p. 79.
30. Ibid., p. 131.
31. Ibid., pp. 83 and 24.
32. Ibid., p. 92.
33. Ibid., p. 57.

???

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