Zawiya - The definition of term

The Zawiyya

Without a doubt, the appearance of the zawiyya was a result of the a number of factors:

1. The evolution of the internal organisation of the ribat when its precepts developed from jihad, worship and teaching to governmental posts.

2. With the development of political structures, the ribat was changed and transformed in its aim and began to resemble a city as other cities were founded as capitals for adminstration and scholarship, like Fes, Marrakech and Meknes.

3. The stability of political structures, the appearance of cities of scholarship, and the flowering of the scholarly movement there produced other positions in the form of those who graduated from the Qarwayyin University and the al-Andalus Mosque when their top students went to specific regions to complete the message of instruction and reform in the areas where the Shaykh thought there was a need for reinforcement, either to change certain social phenomena into which society had fallen or to combat illiteracy and spread knowledge and tasawwuf. Some of those who graduated simply returned to their birthplaces rather than being sent their shaykh, for example, Abu Bakr ad-Dala'i, Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah al-'Ayyashi, Shaykh 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Majdhub, etc.

4. Some Sufis retired to places far from people and the city either to save themselves out of fear of suppression of their ideas, or a desire for solitude, and so they established centres for themselves. They had followers from among travellers who passed through that place or from those who lived in the area, or when there was unrest in the cities and people fled to the zawiyya for security from temptation and sedition, or to seek knowledge.

5. Eastern tasawwuf reached the Maghrib as a result of reciprocal visits which led to the change of the ribat similar to what had happened in the east. It changed to a zawiyya or khanqah.

What is the zawiyya? How was it founded and what are its arrangements? What is are positive and negative roles which it plays in society?

Definition of the term zawiyya

The term zawiyya appeared in the Maghrib around the thirteenth century and was synonymous with ribat, i.e. the minaret where the wali retreated and around which his students and murids lived. Ibn Mazruq says, "This zawiyya is the term for what is called ribats, khanqahs and khanaqat in the east."

The Maghribi zawiyya was first known as the Dar al-Karâma, like that which Ya'qub al-Mansur al-Muwahhidi built in Marrakech, and then the name Dar ad-Duyûf was applied to the great zawiyyas which the Marinids built which were founded by Abu 'Inan al-Marini outside of Fez.

The oldest of the zawiyyas as such in the Maghrib were the zawiyyas of Abu Muhammad Salih al-Marjiri in Safi.

Ibn Mazruq defined it, "It is clear that in Morocco we consider the zawiyya to be where wanderers seek shelter and travellers are fed." Daumas defined it, "It, in general, is a religious madrasa and a free house for guests. It has these two qualities like many monasteries in the Middle Ages."

The difference between the ribat and the zawiyya is that the function of the zawiyya in Morocco is to prepare food for the needy and those who come to it while the task of the ribat is military, cultural and scholarly activity.

Zawiyyas were built by Sufis when they took a residence for worship, retreat and spreading tasawwuf among the individuals of society who desired to learn religious knowledges. They used to try to provide food and drink and provide them with a place to spend the night. They encouraged them to build zawiyyas on roads and places where people could stay either temporarily or permanently so that the message of teaching tasawwuf would continue and knowledges would be continue to be taught. In this respect, the author of the book on the Dala'iyya Zawiyya says, "One of the oldest zawiyyas is the zawiyya of Shaykh Abu Muhammad Salih al-Majiri in Safi. His zawiyyas increased until there were forty-six of them, and they spread between the Maghrib and Egypt because this shaykh used to encourage his companions to go on hajj to the Sacred House of Allah and to establish many zawiyyas in the road by which the hajjis travelled so they could take stop there in the stages of their long journey."

The building of the zawiyya by the followers was a voluntary action which falls in the sphere of the activity of some who embraces and loves the founder of the zawiyya, i.e the Shaykh, or out of a desire for reward and gratitude from travellers, or participation in the creation of a madrasa teaching tasawwuf and knowledges. In this manner zawiyyas increased, especially in the eighth century AH (fourteenth AD) and were full of visitors with different inclinations. At certain times authority forced the construction of centres beside them until there were zawiyyas who were rivals in the duties of teaching, as happened under the Marinids.

As for the ecological aspect, the zawiyya had an important effect in creating another type of city. The Islamic Encyclopaedia describes the zawiyya from the architectural aspect as "a room for prayer with a mihrab, a tomb of one of the murabitun or a wali from the sharifs surmounted by a dome, a room set aside for the recitation of Qur'an, a kuttab or a madrasa for the memorisation of the Qur'an, and then private rooms for guests of the zawiyya, travellers and students. Usually adjoined to the zawiyya was a cemetery which included the graves of those who had commanded in their lifetime that they be buried there." There are other descriptions with more details, clarification and more refinement. Professor Hajji described the Dala'iyya zawiyya and the Nasiriyya zawiyya and Professor Dale Eickelman described the Sharqawiyya zawiyya.

The zawiyya helped in the ecology until they developed into large cities as happened sometimes with the creation of suburbs and cities beside them. This is what was happened after the foundation of the Dala'iyya Zawiyya. Professor Hajji says, "After Abu Bakr founded his zawiyya in ad-Dala', he worked to increase buildings around it and built houses, shops and the rest of necessary amenities, and set up homes for students and neighbours so that it became one of the finest cities and had many inhabitants. It was the most famous of them and people came to it from different regions. Scholars and visiting students studied there and received esteem and respect which made them desire to stay there as long as they could. The scholarly assemblies relied on the hospitality of Dala' Mosque and the market of knowledge was held in was extremely effective."

The zawiyya expanded in the eleventh century (seventeenth AD) until it became a quasi-state with a political, economical and cultural system. Its relations were organised internally and there were connections with other countries. One of the examples was the zawiyya of al-Dala'.

As for the economic aspect, the zawiyya relied on its land and agricultural resources. They used those resources to build bridges and necessary amenities and provide food for those who came to it. It developed a system to calculate its property, materials and expenses. Duties had to be imposed on it in order to reduce its takings so that it will not be start a revolution against any political order. It was also a place where property could be deposited because of the respect which the zawiyya enjoyed.

On the social side, the zawiyya participated at various times in awakening Maghribi society by means of teaching different knowledges, including the recitations, tafsir, hadith, tawhid, fiqh of usul, tasawwuf, rhetoric, times, Arabic language, eloquence and adab, which had an effect on the spirit of national pride on the land. This is what the Dala'iyya, 'Ayyashiyya and other zawiyyas did. Some zawiyyas were concerned with spreading knowledge and tasawwuf and encouraging jihad, like the Nasiriyya zawiyya at Tamakrut. It served as a refuge for everyone wronged or seeking protection.

On the political side, the zawiyya played an important role, especially in critical periods of the history of the Maghrib. At certain times, especially in the collapse of a political structure, it acted to preserve stability in the regions bordering it or far from it by means of its religious and educational forms. Sometimes, due to necessity, it would play a direct role in order to save the land and society from exploitation, slavery and injustice. This was what led some of the king to persecute the heads of zawiyyas out of fear of them, to preserve the government, whether in a state of unrest, sedition or stability.

Unfortunately, subsequently some of the zawiyyas co-operated with colonialism before and during the Protectorate and directed Moroccan Muslim tasawwuf in a negative direction. One of the results of its backwardness was a great of legerdemain and superstition which provided colonialism with an opportunity to violate the Maghrib.