Dar-Sirr Sufi Tours in Morocco

Upon the death of Sidna al-Imam Moulay Idriss II, he left twelve sons, who were sent throughout Morocco by their grandmother Kanza to proliferate the Idrissi-Hassanid sharifism. One Idrissite imam, however, became through his descendents an important figure in the development of the sharifian paradigm of sainthood. Moulay Ali 'Haydara, a grandson of Moulay Idriss II, received the bay'a as Imam and ruler of Fez in 221/836. When he failed to designate his infant son Moulay Ahmed Mizwar as his successor before his own death in 234/849, the Idrissite imamate passed into the hands of his cousins, the descendents of Moulay Omar ibn Moulay Idriss II, who lived in the regions of Habt and Ghumara in northern Morocco. After being passed over for the imamate, Moulay Ahmed Mizwar became disenchanted with politics and devoted himself to a life of worship and asceticism. Sometime before the turn of the tenth century, or just before the Idrissite state became a bone of connection between the Fatimids of Ifriqiya and the Umayyads of Spain, he moved from Fez to northern Morocco and established himself at Hajar an-Nasr (Escarpment of the Eagle), a fortes situated in the Habt region among the Sanhaja Berber tribes of Ahl Sarif, Banu Yusuf, and Sumata.

As his nickname, Mizwar (Berber. lion or leader) implies, this great grandson of Moulay Idriss II was adopted as a spiritual leader by the tribes who lived near his mountaintop stronghold. According to local tradition, when the chiefs of these tribes asked Moulay Ahmed Mizwar to delegate a member of his family to join them and favour them with the baraka of the Prophet Sidna Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him) he chose his son Abdessalam (known locally as "Sidi Sellam"). As a means of honouring the young sharif, who had recently married, the tribesman renamed themselves "Banu Arus" (Sons of the Bridegroom), the appellation by which they are known today. For the next seven generations, the descendents of Sidi Sellam established themselves among the Berbers of Banu Arus while maintaining a reputation for holiness that was based almost exclusively on their Hassanid descent. Around the year 530/1135-6, a child named Sulayman, but later named "Mashish" (Ber. Little Cat"), was born to a sharif of the Bani Arus known as Abu Bakr ibn Ali. Upon reaching maturity, Sulayman Mashish withdrew from the world as an ascetic and built a hermitage that still stands among the ruins of his natal village of Aghyul. In either 559/1146 or 563/1148, he sired a son named Moulay Abdessalam, who would become the patron saint of Moroccan Sufism. According to sources, Moulay Abdessalam became a Fool of God (Majdoub) at the age of 7, when a man, with righteousness on his face, entered on him to a cave and said: "I am your master who initiate you (amudduka)".

Mawlana Abu Mohammed Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish lived for sixty-three years, the same lifespan as of the prophet Sidna Mohammed, peace and blessing be upon him. During this period, his career passed through three distinct faces. First, he was a scholar and studied the Quran and Maliki jurisprudence under the Idrissite sharifs of Banu Arus in addition to prominent Sufi-scholars such as Sidi Salem of Qabilat Bani Yusuf and sharif Sidi al-Hajj Ahmed Aqatran Asalani of Qabilat Bani Abraj, near modern Taza. Later, he was a mujahid, a defender of the faith, and lived in Sabta, where he supported himself by teaching Quranic recitation to children and fought with the Almohad army in al-Andalus. Finally, after embracing Sufism, he devoted the last twenty years of his life to worship and contemplation on the heights of Jabal al-Alam (Flag Mountain), a period which culminated in his encounter with his only disciple, the fellow Idrissite and founder of the Shadhiliya Sufi order, Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 656/1241). Moulay Abdessalam was martyred in 622/1207 after the Spanish, led by their missionary Ibn Abi Tawajin Laktami, headed to Jabal al-Alam and killed the Shaykh in the very place where he initiated Abul Hassan Shadhili. His tomb on Jabal al-Alam is the first visited shrine in Northern Morocco.

Shaykh Moulay Abdessalam's master of Sufism was the Idrissite sharif Sidi Abderrahman ibn al-Hussein al-Attar, a spice merchant from the city of Sabta, who was called "az-Zayyat" or "al-Madani" because he resided in the oil sellers' quarter of Medina (where his tomb is still found) while devoting himself to worship at the Prophet's mosque. Sidi al-Madani's spiritual master was Sidi Tuqiyudin al-Fuqayyir, who hailed from the Iranian city of Nahrawan but lived near Wasit in Iraq, the home city of Sidi Abul Fath al-Wasiti (d. 642/1227). Sidi Tuqiyudin apparently had two spiritual lineages: one involving an Iraqi line that is commonly cited as the main silsila in Morocco, whose chain of transmission comes from Sidna al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, and another, now forgotten leading to Sidi Ahmed ar-Rifa'i al-Hussayni (d. 678/1236). Another of Sidi al-Madani's spiritual masters is the Andalusian mystic Sidi Abi Mohammed Jaafar ibn Abdellah ibn Sayyid Buna al-Khuza'i who took from Sidi Abu Madyan Shuayb al-Ghawt (d. 594/1179), himself the student of Sidi Abul Hassan Ali ibn Harzihim (d. 559/1144) and Sidi Abu Yaaza Yalnour (d. 572/1157).

The "Mohammedian" focus of al-Madani's spirituality was passed on by Moulay Abdessalam to Abul Hassan, who once stated: "Were the Prophet to be veiled from me for but the blink of an eye, I would not count myself among the Muslim." The Mohammedianism of Moulay Abdessalam's teaching also appears in his tasliyaprayer on the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) known as the Salat al-Mashishiya; a spiritual paraphrase in which Moulay Abdessalam calls on Allah to bless the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). Also, Moulay Abdessalam in the prayer seeks Allah’s assistance to understand the rank of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him).

The Hidden Pole, the Seal of Mohammedian Sainthood, Mawlana Abul Abbas Tijani (d. 1230/1815) explained as quoted in Kitab Jawahir al-Ma'ani (Gems of Indications) the interpretation of Moulay Abdessalam’s adage, “Oh Allah, attach me to his descent; Allahuma al’hiqni bi-nasabihi), saying,

“(Moulay Abdessalam) refered to the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) as the vicegerent of Allah on the Divine Kingdom without restriction representing the whole Attributes and Names of Allah in the fashion that he is His offspring (‘hatta ka-annahu ‘aynuhu). This is the real descent (nasab) from the Divine Presence (al’-Hadra al-Ilahiya). (…) (Thus) (Moulay Abdessalam) has asked Allah the realization of the Divine Presence’ descent of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). The realization of such descent is (measured through) the “Mohammedian Sciences” (al-'ulum al-Mohammediya). Saints vary in their degree (of realization). The extent of their reaching is seventy-two sciences. (Moulay Abdellasam reached them all. Abul Hassan Shadhili reached seventy-one). (…) “(The saint that) reaches (the number of) sixty-six Mohammedian sciences or more may sit with and talk to people with no mischief because he hears but from Allah. His retreat becomes alike. (…) A Mohammedian science is divided into seventy-one portions. Whoever perceives the initial science of these Mohammedian sciences may interpret each Quranic verse in 72 approaches and enclose all the interior and exterior sciences. This is reached by the one who contains only one portion of the initial science of the Mohammedian sciences let alone who perceives the whole initial science, let alone who perceives two or three or the whole seventy-two Mohammedian sciences.”

Moulay Abdessalam sees in the Holy Prophet an expression of the one Spirit from which all revelation comes and which is the eternal isthmus (barzakh) between Allah and the world. This is the Logos, the first manifestation of God and, as such, His universal symbol as well as His highest veil. By the very fact that in this way the Absolute reveals itself in a relative and multiple fashion, at also conceals itself. This eternal mediator is called the 'Mohammedian Spirit' (ar-Ruh al-Mohammedi), not because it is embodied only in Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him)—for all God's messengers and prophets manifest it—but because he is its most immediate expression.

Moulay Abdessalam ibn Mashish

Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili

Sidi Abul Abbas Mursi (d. 686/1271)

Sidi Mohammed ibn Sultan al-Masquri (d. 700/1285)

Sidi Abu Abdellah al-Maghribi

Sidi Ibn Ata' Allah al-Iskandari (709/1309)

Sidi Madi ibn Sultan (d. 718/1303)

Sidi Ahmed al-Qarafi

Sidi Dawud ibn Bakhila (733/1332)

Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmad al-Jami at-Tunusi

Sidi Ahmed Annus

Sidi Mohammed Wafa' (d. 765/1363)

Sidi Abd an-Nur al-Amrani (b. 685/1286)

Sidi Abul Fadl al-Hindi

Sidi Ali ibn Wafa (d. 807/1405)

Sidi Ahmed Ibn Abbad ar-Rundi (d. 792/1377)

Sidi Abderahman ibn Ilyas ar-Ragragi

Sidi Yahya al-Qadiri ibn Wafa

Sidi Abu Uthman Said al-Hintati al-Hartanani

Sidi Mohammed al-‘Hadrami (d. 787/1372)

Sidi Abdellah Amghar Saghir (d. 850/1435)

Sidi Ahmed Zarruq (d. 899/1484)

Sidi Mohammed ibn Sulayman al-Jazouli (d. 869/1454)

A vital stride in broadcasting the teaching of Moulay Abdellasam ibn Mashish in the globe was taken whenSidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 656/1241) became a student of the Shaykh in Jabal al-Alam. Although SidiAbul Hassan was born in the tribe of Akhmas in Ghumara, that is close to the Jabal al-Alam where his future Shaykh lived, he did not find him until he had travelled for some time at the age of twenty-five to the East. Hence about twenty years after Sidi Muhyi'd-Diin ibn Arabi (d. 636/1221) had left Fez for the Mashriq, Abul Hassan had migrated as well to study in Baghdad with Sidi Abu Fath al-Wasiti (d. ca. 642/1227), the master of Sidi Ahmed ar-Rifa'i (d. 678/1236). This latter informed him to come back to his village to find the master that he is looking for. He therefore returned home, and found in the place described the famous spiritual master Moulay Abdessalam, subsequently known as "the Pole of the West," just as Moulay Abdellqadir Jilani (d. 563/1148) would be called "the Pole of the East." Today, Moulay Abdessalam was to earn lasting fame as Shadhili's master of spiritual awakening (Shaykh al-fath).

While he was living with Moulay Abdessalam, on the mountain, many wonderful signs from Allah came to Abul Hassan, through this holy Guide. One such sign was that on the night of his arrival on the mountain he was sleeping at the entrance of the cave where his master lived. He dreamt that he was asking the Shaykh to grant him certain wishes, one of them being that Allah would incline the hearts of His creatures in favour towards him. Then he wished to ask his master if it was necessary for him to live in solitude, or in the desert, in order for him to be in the right station (maqam) to perform his religious tasks, or whether he should return to the towns and inhabited places to seek out the company of scholars and virtuous people. While he was turning these things in his heart he heard the Shaykh praying fervently and calling out, “O God, there are people who ask You to give them power over your creatures, and You give them that. But I, O God, beg You to turn Your creatures from me so that I may have no refuge except in You.”

The next morning, when he greeted his teacher to be, he asked him of his state (kayf al-hal), to which Ibn Mashish responded, “I complain unto God about the coolness of contentment and submission (bard al-rida wa al-taslim) just as you complain unto Him about the heat of self-direction and choice (harr al-tadbir wa al-ikhtiyar).” When he saw the astonishment on his student’s face at hearing his words, he added, “Because I fear that the sweetness of such an existence would make me neglectful of my duty towards Allah.” Then Abul Hassan said, “This is the Pole of Islam. This is the Sea which overflows.” He knew then that his master had taken hold of his whole heart, and he was thereby completely illumined.

Then one day, as he sat in the presence of Moulay Abdessalam who had his young son on his knees playing and enjoying himself, the thought came to him to ask him about the Greatest Name of Allah. He said that at that moment the child who sat on his father’s knees put his hands on his shoulders and shook him, saying, “O Abul Hassan, you want to ask about the Greatest Name of Allah. It is of no importance to ask about the Greatest Name of Allah. It is important that you should be the Greatest Name of Allah.” When his son had finished speaking, the master smiled and said, “Such a one has answered you for me.” Four fundamental themes ran through the teaching of Moulay Abdessalam to Abul Hassan, as perceived from his famous Hizb, called as-Salat al-Mashishiya: The Oneness of Existence (wahdat al-wujud) which he said could be realised only through asceticism, fear of God and His judgements (khawfu billah), the belief that God is everywhere and that it is necessary to see His Face in everything that He has created, and fourthly, that only through the drowning in the Ocean of the Unity (awnu fi bahri al-wahadati) can the seeker cast off and leave behind his own existence and attributes to be merged and absorbed into Allah and His Attributes.

Before his departure from Jabal al-Alam, Moulay Abdessalam foretells his student’s eventual move to Ifriqiya where he will become known by the name of Shadhili and the eminent spiritual station he will eventually inherit from Moulay Abdessalam himself. Abul Hassan relates that in a dream, he saw his master standing near the Divine Throne, when he tells him this in the morning Ibn Mashish replies, “O Ali, it was not me you saw, it was the station you will inherit from me.” The parting words of advice and admonition that Moulay Abdessalam gives his disciple before he departs for Tunis emphasised on the transformation of consciousness to inward and outward God-centeredness, contentment with God in all states, and the inner withdrawal from creation in prosperity and adversity. These seminal teachings of Moulay Abdessalam would, through Abul Hassan, become the foundational precepts of Tariqa Shadhiliya,

“O Ali, God is God, and men are men. When you are amongst the people, keep your tongue from mentioning the Sirr (secret) and your heart from imitating their ways. Be assiduous in the fulfilment of the mandatory practices of the religion and protect your bodily members from forbidden things. In you the role of sainthood will have reached fruition. Only admonish others to the degree that is obligatory upon you. And say, “O God, give me repose from their mention [of me] and from any obstacles arising from them. Deliver me from their evil. Let Your bounty suffice me from [having to seek] their bounty, and protect me among them by Your special grace. Verily, You have power over all things… O Ali, flee from men’s benevolence more than you flee from their malevolence. Because their benevolence will afflict your heart, while their evil will only afflict your body, and it is better that the body be afflicted than the heart.”

It was more than half a century after the death of Abul Hassan Shadhili before the influence of Egyptian Shadhilism was felt in Morocco. In the year 745/1344, one Sidi Abu Uthman al-Hassani, a Shadhili Sufi and sharif who had studied in Egypt, was reported to be in attendance at the court of Sultan Abul Hassan al-Marini. This person was a disciple of Sidi Abdellah ibn Dawud Shadhili, whose father, Sidi Dawud ibn Omar al-Bakhili (d. 733/1318), have been a prominent disciple of Sidi Ahmed Ibn Ata'Allah Sakandari (d. 709/1294). Another disciple of Dawud al-Bakhili, Sidi Mohammed Wafa (d. 765/1350), was the grandfather of the author of Shajarat al-irshad.

The doctrines of Egyptian Shadhilism appear to have first entered Morocco through the influence of the Andalusian Sufi Sidi Ibn Abbad ar-Rundi (1331-1390). This noted ascetic served as the imam of the Al Qarawiyyine mosque in Fez and wrote the first commentary in Morocco of Ibn Ata'Allah's Kitab al-Hikam. Three of Ibn Ata'Allah's works could be found in Morocco by the middle of the fourteenth century. These works were introduced to Ibn Abbad by his teacher in Ronda, Sidi Ibrahim Shandarukh. This Andalusian Sufi and jurist served as imam of the congregational mosque of Ronda between the years 750-1/1335-6 and ended his days in the Moroccan city of Salé.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Shadhiliya brotherhood was closely associated with political and intellectual elites of the Maghreb. This was to be expected, since Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili, Sidi Abul Abbas al-Mursi (d. 686/1271), Sidi Abd an-Nur al-Amrani (b. 685/1286), Sidi Madi ibn Sultan (d. 718/1318) and Sidi Ibn Abbad ar-Rundi (d. 792/1377), all made a point of attracting followers from the upper classes of urban society. Almost without exception, the Shadhili Sufis who appear in the biographies of the later Marinid period are ulama, courtiers, or sharifs. In the rare cases where one finds an exception to this rule, the person in question is mostly likely to be a skilled craftsperson or a vendor of luxury goods. This absence of a lower-class following indicates that the leaders of Shadhiliya in Tunis, Tlemcen, and Fez were primarily concerned with presenting their order as an alternative to the other elite Sufi orders of North Africa, such as the Sahrawardiya.

To become fully integrated into the social life of the region, the Shadhiliya needed a doctrinal orientation that would appeal to people from all levels of society and enable it to transcend its patrician origins. This would be provided by Sidi Mohammed ibn Sulayman al-Jazouli (d. 869/1454 in Ribat Afughal but buried later in Marrakech) and Sidi Ahmed Zarruq al-Fasi (d. 899/1484 in Tripoli, Libya). The ramification of these two shaykhs mushroomed in the major centres and subcentres of Morocco and the Maghreb.

Local traditions in the Jabal al-Alam region claim that the al-Jazouli’s indirect Shaykh, the Qutb Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani (d. 935/1520) was instrumental in popularizing the cult of Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish and institutionalising the pilgrimage that now terminates in the yearly mawsim (festival of the saint) on the fifteenth day of the Islamic month of Sha'ban. As part of these efforts, Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani established zawaya along the route from Marrakech to Jabal al-Alam and encouraged his disciples to use themawsim of Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish as a substitute for the pilgrimage to Mecca. This emphasis on visits to Moulay Abdessalam was in part due to the fact that the pilgrimage centres of the Mashriq were often inaccessible to sixteenth-century Moroccans. The Falls of Sabta, Asila, al-Qasr as-Saghir, and Tangierto the Portuguese, the dissolution of governmental authority in the central and western Morocco, and increased corsair activity in the western Mediterranean all conspired to cut off most of the sea and land routes used by North African pilgrims on their journeys to the East.

According to the present muqaddam of tomb complex of Moulay Abdessalam, Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani made repeated visits to Jabal al-Alam, determined the exact location of the saint's grave, and constructed the open-air rawda that now crows the hill where the patron of Moroccan Sufism is buried. Although tradition also asserts that Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani was the first to institutes the annual pilgrimage (called al-Hajj al-Asghar) to this site, it is know from written sources that the mawsim of Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish actually dates from the fourteenth. soon after the Shadhiliya was introduced into Morocco by the Sufi and'alim Moulay Abd an-Nur Amrani (b. 685/1286) who brought it from Tunisia. By making the tomb of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili's teacher an object of pilgrimage for Jazulite Sufis, Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani helped to ensure the primacy of the Shadhili perspective in Jazulite Sufism and linked the political agenda of the Jazouliya to that of the Idrissite sharifs.

Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani's promotion of the pilgrimage of Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish was a part of a wider plan to integrate the ideology of sharifism with the doctrines of Jazouliya. The time was ripe for such a move because the most important sharifian families of Jabal al-Alam, the Banu Rachid and Banu Arus, had lost face by siding the un-sharif Wattasid dynasty. The Shaykh had exchanged letters with his disciplesSidi Abdellah al-Habti (d. 963/1548), Sidi Abderrahman ibn Raysoun (d. 950/1536), and Sidi Mohammed ibn Khajju (d. 956/1541), who asked the Shaykh to support the amir of Chefchaouen, Ibrahim ibn Ali b. Rachid (d. 947/1532). In his reply, Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani is openly skeptical about the motives of the Banu Rachid sharifs. It is the duty of the sharifs, he says, to support the Jazouliya, not the duty of the Jazouliya to support the sharifs.

"Tell our lords the sharifs, as well as their legal scholars and fuqara: We love you with all of our heart and soul, and desire to look upon your faces. But we have smelled the scent of unbelief overcoming and impairing faith. The ambition of salihin is to dispel its oppression so that you may magnify the exalted word of God and attain the baraka of the Messenger of God (peace and blessing be upon him). Verily the word of God is exalted, while that of the unbelievers is lowly! We have not seen any counsel given ]by the sharifs] to the people of Tamesna or [about] conditions in Marrakech that is not of benefit to the Wattasid rulers of this Maghreb of ours (may God maintain it and guide it to uphold the authority of the Sunna!). Yet we have not, God willing, altered our regard to you despite what we have mentioned. We and all of brothers the fuqara are happy about your dedication to invocation, friendship, self-sacrifice, and generosity. May God maintain ourselves and you in the manifest way of His saints—through the axial sainthood (Qutbaniya) that is the legacy of your ancestor Moulay Abdessalam Ibn Mashish, the path of honour (tariqat al-ikram) of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili, who chose it for our lord (sayyidina) and source of grace (barakatina) Sidi Mohammed Jazouli, out of all the Sufi paths. He inspired us with the truth and passed it on to us as a legacy from the lord of the God-fearing and the people of his age, the force of truth in all of God's manifestations, Sidi Abdellaziz al-Tabba’a. These Shaykhs are our true means to God and our exemplars in loving the Messenger of God, our Prophet Sidna Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him), both outwardly and inwardly."

One major Jazoulite branch is the Wazzaniya Sufi order leaded by the grandson of Moulay Abdessalam called Abu Mohammed Mawlana Abdellah ibn Ibrahim ibn Moussa al-Alamial-Yalmahi al-Idrissi al-Hassani("Moulay Abdellah Sharif", 1005-89/1592-1674), a disciple of Shaykh Sidi Ali ibn Ahmed Karfiti as-Sarsari(d. 1027/1612), himself tied to Imam al-Jazouli through Sidi Isa ibn al-Hassan al-Misbahi (d. 964/1549), Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali al-Harwi Zamrani, Sidi Abdellah Ghazwani , and Sidi Abdellaziz al-Tabba’a.

“Moulay Abdellah… enjoyed throughout the Islamic world, the general respect which followers of the Prophet have for his descendents, while, in Morocco, he enjoyed the special veneration given to direct descendents of Moulay 'Idriss I, and, further, in the Jebala, he enjoyed the special local reverence which the Jebalians had for the descendants of the family of Moulay Abdessalam ibn Mashish.”

As Moulay Abdellah was a product of the marriage of Moulay Abdessalam’s daughter and nephew, the Shurafa’ of Wazzan made an even higher claim: inhabitants of Wazzan could too be assured of salvation. Wazzan then came to have another name: Dar Damana, "The House of Guarantee". Anyone buried in Wazzan was to be granted salvation. Wazzan's very ground had become sacred. In an epistle on Moroccan Shurafa’, the author Ahmed Shibani gives an account of how Wazzan came to be known as Dar Damana,

"Moulay Abdessalam had a daughter, whom he wished to marry to his nephew, Moulay Mohammed, son of Moulay Yemleh. The girl, who was very proud, refused to marry her cousin till she had received a guarantee that the children to be born of the marriage should furnish the Sharif-baraka for the future — the Sharif, that is, to whom the ancestral benediction would descend, and who would, therefore, reap the temporal benefits which accrued. She further demanded that their preeminence over all the other Shurafa’ of Morocco should be acknowledge in advance. Her father had to promise and guaranteed her the spiritual heritage she sought to secure for her offspring. Thereafter the marriage was concluded. The relationship of Moulay Abdellah Sharif connects him with this far-sighted ancestress, and in this way the house of Wazzan obtained the title, by which it is always known... "

Much of Moulay Abdellah Sharif’s success may have stemmed from the choice of his locale. Located at the juncture of the Gharb and the Rif he could attract followers from both areas. His ties affiliated him with the Rif but the region already had its saints, especially the dominant Zawiya of Moulay Abdessalam. The North had also been declining economically since the beginning of the fifteenth century as a result of Iberian predations. It was therefore better to locate the Zawiya on the southern edge of his influence. Here he could still draw upon his spiritual ancestry and simultaneously attract pilgrims who were on their way to visit Moulay Abdessalam. He could also tap the richer Gharb tribesmen. Those in the vicinity of Wazzan were at a distance from Moulay Bouselham (d. 343/923) to the west and Sidi Qacem (d. 1666) to the south, and thus more open to another influence.

Despite the fame of Moulay Abdellah, his two grandsons, Moulay Thami (d. 1127/1721) and Moulay Tayyeb (d. 1181/1766), may have surpassed him. Successive Shaykhs of the Zawiya, the brothers were also considered amongst the greatest saints of their day. About Moulay Abdellah's son and successor Moulay Muhammad (d. 1120/1705) we know little except that he constructed the shrine of his father. After him the Shaykhs of the Wazzani order were repeatedly considered to be amongst the holiest men in Morocco. Theypursued their father's mission with such enthusiasm that sources credit them with having enrolled much of Morocco. Moulay Abdellah had firmly established the Zawiya in the Gharb and the Rif. His grandsons expanded it throughout Morocco, Algeria, southward into West Africa, and still further eastward, as far as Mecca itself. Each took a separate direction. Moulay Thami travelled northward into the Rif, through Morocco to the southern oases, and yet further south into the Sahara, reaching the Touab of northern Senegal. Moulay Tayyeb went in a northeastern direction, to Oran in Algeria, further east into Tunisia and Libya.

Moulay Tuhami revived the spiritual glory of his grandfather. The Shaykh founded many zawiyas that can describe everything from a mosque to expansive complexes with residential quarters and storage facilities. Like his father Moulay Tuhami was influenced by the career of the Sidi Mohammed al-Jazouli and hissharifian doctrine of sainthood. The way of Moulay Tuhami in many ways inherited aspects of Jazulite Sufi developments, including organizational structure, emphasizing a social activism mixed with an emphasis on spiritual renown and scholarly accomplishment. At the end of his life, the headquarter zawiya of Wazzan had become imperative to people's everyday lives as sources of spiritual power, protection and sustenance.The order came to be known by their names. In Morocco it was Touhama, in Algeria, the Tayyebiyya. The order continued to expand as lodges grew throughout the Islamic world. This may not be farfetched. One contemporary chronicler states that the order received visitors and pilgrims from throughout the eastern portion of the Islamic world, as well as letters written by religious authorities (faqihs) in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. They recognized the validity of its saints and asked for their blessing. Followers made donations to the local lodges, some of which flowed back to the mother Zawiya, and the ideal was to visit the saints of Wazzan and give offerings directly.

Moulay Tayyeb had a special responsibility toward the reform of contemporary society. Contemporary of al-Qutb al-Kamil Moulay Ahmed Sqalli (d. 1177/1762), the Shaykh broadcasted his spiritual teaching through muqaddams and advanced scholars such as Sidi Mohammed at-Tawdi ibn Souda (d. 1209/1794).Moulay Tayyeb sought to initiate Mawlana al-Qutb al-Maktum, Abul Abbas Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani(d. 1230/1815) upon his visit to Wazzan. He further authorized him to initiate others, although Sidna Shaykh Tijani never did exercise this privilege, for tow reasons: firstly, he was engrossed in his own spiritual self-development, and secondly, he was not sure of his exact position in the spiritual hierarchy at the time. The Wazzanite Shadhiliya order is the last product of the legacy of Mawlana Abdessalam ibn Mashish through the chain of Imam al-Jazouli. The last-born Zarruqite Shadhili trunk was founded byLikewise with the Zarruqi Shadhili lineages of Sidi Ahmed ibn Mohammed Ibn Nasir (d. 1129/1717) andMoulay al-Arbi Darqawi al-Idrissi al-Hassani (1239/1823).

Dar-Sirr Sufi Tours in Morocco

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Patron Saint of Morocco: Moulay Abdessalam ibn Mashish al-Hassani (d. 622/1207)

Sufi Tours in Morocco

Sidi Abul Abbas Mursi (d. 686/1271)	Sidi Mohammed ibn Sultan al-Masquri (d. 700/1285)	Sidi Abu Abdellah al-Maghribi
Sidi Ibn Ata' Allah al-Iskandari (709/1309)	Sidi Madi ibn Sultan (d. 718/1303)	Sidi Ahmed al-Qarafi
Sidi Dawud ibn Bakhila (733/1332)	Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmad al-Jami at-Tunusi	Sidi Ahmed Annus
Sidi Mohammed Wafa' (d. 765/1363)	Sidi Abd an-Nur al-Amrani (b. 685/1286)	Sidi Abul Fadl al-Hindi
Sidi Ali ibn Wafa (d. 807/1405)	Sidi Ahmed Ibn Abbad ar-Rundi (d. 792/1377)	Sidi Abderahman ibn Ilyas ar-Ragragi
Sidi Yahya al-Qadiri ibn Wafa		`Sidi Abu Uthman Said al-`Hintati al-Hartanani
`Sidi Mohammed al-‘Hadrami` (d. 787/1372)		Sidi Abdellah Amghar Saghir (d. 850/1435)
Sidi Ahmed Zarruq (d. 899/1484)		Sidi Mohammed ibn Sulayman al-Jazouli (d. 869/1454)