Seven saints of Marrakech
The Seven Saints or Seven Men of Marrakech are a group of Islamic saints brought together in the 17th century in Morocco on behalf of Sultan Mulai Ismail . By installing this cult of saints , the religious power of the Alawid dynasty was significantly strengthened. The tombs are scattered around Marrakech and are still visited by pilgrims individually or venerated together on a circular pilgrimage.
Cultural environment
The cult of saints is a central phenomenon in Islamic popular belief, which, together with Orthodox Islam, is a variant of the same religion. For the assessment it is crucial that the rituals of the veneration of saints are seen, according to the collective conviction of the visitors to the grave, to be pleasing to God and, even if it is only a question of petitions, as in accordance with the will of Allah . An essential reason for the veneration of saints is their blessing power baraka , which is present in various things at their places of worship and can be received there directly or in the form of lucky charms ( barūk ).
In addition to the great pilgrimage ( Hajj ) there are pilgrimages called Mausim ( Pl. Mawāsim ) in Islam , which are organized annually in honor of a saint (generally Wali ) at his memorial site. The individual, spontaneous visit to a saint's tomb, at which supplications are usually said and offerings left behind, is called Ziyāra (Pl. Ziyārāt ). Saints in Morocco are either of Sherif descent or they are marabouts , descendants of a non-Sherif saint. The term marabout for all saints is fuzzy.
The cult of the seven saints ( sabʿatu riǧāl ) is traced back to the number seven, which is holy in the three Abrahamic world religions . As a legend of saints, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Christianity and Islam stand at the beginning of a tradition of superstitious and magical ideas. In Morocco, seven saints are mentioned for the first time in a work by the sufi mystic and hagiographer Yusuf at-Talili († around 1230). It is said that Mohammed appeared to a devout Muslim in a dream . When the believer asked the Prophet if there were holy men in his land, the Prophet replied that there were seven.
Today, seven cults are known in several places in Morocco, where the saints are venerated on their tombs or on rock grottos. About 35 kilometers south of Marrakech in Lalla Takerkoust on the route to Amizmiz , seven holy men are venerated near a healing spring with wish-fulfilling turtles , which is a place of pilgrimage for followers of the female saint after whom the village was named.
history
From the 15th century onwards, the religious brotherhoods ( tariqas ) and marabouts of the Berber tribes had to gradually surrender their religious and political power to the Sherif dynasties , first to the Saadians , who were followed in 1664 by the Alawid dynasty, which is still ruling today . The Sufi scholar Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Yusi (1631–1691), known as Sidi el-Yusi, played an important role in the political conflict between the marabouts and the rule of the sultans. He was born in the Berber region of the Middle Atlas as the son of a nomad family. At the age of 20 he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and visited numerous religious centers ( Zāwiya , Pl. Zawāyāt ) of Sufi brotherhoods on the way back . He received his baraka from Muhammad ibn Nasir (1603–1674) of the order of the Nasiriyya in Tamegroute (middle Draa valley ). In each congregation a different scholar brought his teaching of Islam to the people and was venerated as a saint. Religiously and politically, the conditions were quite anarchic. At the age of 40, el-Yusi taught for a short time in Fez before moving again as a wandering marabout, only to return to Fez later.
In a debate that has become famous with the Alawid sultan Mulai Ismail , he achieved a spiritual victory. In gratitude for showing him the limits of human rule over divine rule, the Sultan allowed el-Yusi to call himself “ Sherif ”, ie descendant of the Prophet, and to use the address “ Sidi ”. In 1691, shortly before his death, el-Yusi initiated the pilgrimage of the Seven Saints of Marrakech on behalf of the Sultan. Sultan Mulay Ismail had recently lost a battle against the Berber tribe of the Schiadma. The Berbers attributed their victory to the seven holy men of their tribe, against whose apparently higher power the sultan wanted a religious counterweight to be created on his side.
Another reason, which led to the same wish of the Sultan, is: The Sultan feared the religious power of the Berber tribe of the Regrāgra, (belongs to the tribal association of the Chiadma, on the Atlantic coast north of Essaouira ), who are old and loyal followers of Islam Enjoyed the rank of "apostle of Islam" and even described themselves as "comrades of the Prophet" ( ṣaḥābat an-nabīy ). Their early conversion to Islam is explained by the fact that seven men from their tribe traveled to Mecca, where no one could understand their language when they asked about the Prophet. Only Mohammed himself answered them in their own language and gave them the Koran, whereupon they immediately converted to Islam. Back in their homeland, their tribe, then the other tribes, and finally the entire Maghreb converted to Islam. The Regrāgra see themselves to this day as the descendants of their seven tribal elders and organize an annual 38-day circular pilgrimage ( daur ) linked to magical fertility symbols .
The sultan wanted to contrast the great veneration that these seven Berber saints enjoyed. A founder of recognized high authority such as the scholar el-Yusi was decisive for anchoring his pilgrimage in popular belief. Mulai Ismail managed to weaken the power of the marabouts in a time of anarchy. In the course of time, the term “seven men” became a synonym for the place name Marrakech, but the names of the seven saints are less common.
The seven saints
El-Yusi recorded the names of the seven saints and the order in which their tombs should be visited in a Qaṣīda : the first is in the southeast in front of the city, the second in the east directly on the city wall, the third is in the old town in the north, the last four graves begin in the western center of the city and end outside the southern city walls. The selected saints were all historical figures of Arab descent who were already venerated at their respective tombs in the city. There was hardly any relationship between them before. They came from a time - the 12th to the 16th century - when Sufi beliefs, inspired by al-Ghazali (1058–1111), spread from their spiritual centers, the Zawāyāt . These were of great importance in everyday life as sources of religious inspiration and social models.
- Yusuf bin ʿAlī as-Sanhagi (Sidi Yusuf ben ʿAlī for short, † 1197) lived and died in Marrakech as a leper outside the city in a grotto. The local saint was venerated for his fear of God and devotion to his suffering.
- al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ b. Mūsā b. ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī (born 1083 in Ceuta , died 1149 in Marrakech) studied during the Almoravid period in Córdoba, especially al-Ghazalis The Revival of Religious Sciences , before he was called to Qādī in his hometown in1121. He worked as Qādī in Granada until 1138, at the same time that the Almohads were about to forcibly usurp power. In Ceuta he organized an uprising against the Almohads around 1146, after which he was sent into exile for three years. He was then allowed to work as a Qādī in Marrakech, until his unexplained, but probably violent, death.
- Abu 'l-ʿAbbās as-Sabtī (Sidi Bel-Abbès, * 1130 in Ceuta, † 1204/05 in Marrakech) came to Marrakech at the age of 16 as an Islamic student, where he found himself because of the attacks by the Almohads under their first sultan, ʿAbd al- Muʾmin retired to a hermitage ( ḫalwa ) outside in the hills of Guéliz. Without ever entering Marrakech, he lived there for 40 years with trust in God ( tawakkul ) and according to the rules of active charity ( iḥsān ), preaching and working miracles. Sultan Yaʿqūb al-Mansūr (r. 1184–1199) asked him into the city, where in his sermons he criticized the rich for their avarice and cared for the poor and blind. Some saw him as a heretic , others saw him as a true and magnanimous mystic. During his lifetime he became known beyond the borders of the country. For posterity, his fame, which continues to this day, has increased as a supporter of the poor and a fighter for justice. In 1578 he is said to have supported his people in a battle against the Portuguese in the holy war ( jihad ). In 1605, the Saadian Sultan Abou Fares Abdallah built a mausoleum for Sidi Bel-Abbès in the hope that it would cure his epilepsy . The burial site was initially outside the old enclosure wall, a later city expansion to the north created a separate district around the grave of the patron saint of the city. King Hassan II had the building renovated in 1998.
- Sidi Mohammed bin Sulaiman al-Jazuli (Sidi ben Slimane al-Jazouli / al-Gazouli, * 1390s in the southern Moroccan region of Sous, † 1465 in Afughal) was born in the area of the Berber dynasty of the Merinids , but received early recognition as Sherif. His initiation as a Sufi took place in the Tariqa of the Schadhiliyya , as whose innovator and bearer of the spiritual chain ( Silsila ) he is (see also Jazuliyya ). He lived in Mecca and Cairo for about 20 years , later in Safi, Moroccan on the Atlantic coast, until he was expelled from this city by the Merinid rulers because of its enormous popularity. Al-Jazuli withdrew to the place Afughal, where a mausoleum was built for him after his possibly violent death. In 1524 the remains were transferred to a newly built tomb in Marrakech. Al-Ghazuli's main work is the Dalail al-Khayrat ( dalā'il al-ḫairāt ), a hymn of praise to the Prophet. The Gnawa , an ethnic minority in Morocco, claim to have received their ability to heal through al-Jazuli , which they practice in the Derdeba healing ceremony .
- Sidi ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz at-Tabbaʿ (Sidi ʿAbdelʿazîz Tebbaâ or Abū Fāris ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥarrār, * in Marrakech, † 1508 in Fez) was the student of al-Jazuli, whose teachings he continued in around 1475 and from taught own tariqa. His mausoleum is in the northern old town. His nickname al-Harrar refers to the family origin and means "silk weaver".
- Sidi Abdallah al-Ġazwānī (Sidi ben Abdallah El-Ghazouani, Mūl al-Qṣūr, * in the Jebel Alam west of the Rif Mountains , † 1528 near Marrakech) from the Berber tribe of the Ghomara studied in Fez and Granada and was then trained by Sidi at- Tabbaʿ inaugurated in the Tariqa des al-Jazuli. He later founded his own tariqa based on the Ghazuliya. Their center of the order was in the district of el-Qsur, from which he got his nickname.
- Abu-l-Qāsim ʿAbd ar-Raḥman as-Sohaili (Abderrahmane Souheili, * 1114/15 near Málaga , † 1185 in Marrakech) went blind early, but studied the Arabic language and was valued as a connoisseur of the hadith . He died a revered teacher and ascetic.
Pilgrimage
The Siebenerwallfahrt soon became so popular that subsequent sultans tried (in vain) to curb the excesses of the veneration of saints. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henri De Castries described the cult in detail. Basically, his description is still accurate today, only the tombs that used to be on the outskirts and outside the city walls are now mostly within residential areas. They were spared from infrastructure measures such as road construction in the immediate vicinity. Sidi Bel-Abbès is the largest tomb in the center of the northern old town. Men and women alike pilgrimage here as the only place of saints. All mausoleums (domed buildings, Arabic qubba , Pl. Qibāb ) are in a good state of preservation, which is an indication of an abundance of donations.
The list of saints is arranged in the order in which the pilgrimage should be carried out according to al-Yusi. It is best to start the pilgrimage on a Tuesday, then on Friday, the holiday of the week, the tomb of al-Jazuli, the holiest of the seven, is reached. There is no annual organized pilgrimage (mausim) to the places, the visits are privately organized in the family group as Ziyāra . More often, only individual grave sites are specifically sought, mostly by women from the respective city district. The graves of saints, like all mosques in the country, are generally not allowed to be entered by non-Muslims.
Inner courtyard and tomb of Sidi Bel-Abbès (3). Visited by blind, sick and old men and women. Old town center in the north
Grave of Abderrahmane Souheili (7), surrounded by the cemetery of the same name. Outside the city walls at Bab Er Rob
Tomb of Moulay al-Qsur (6). Western old town
literature
- Henri De Castries: Les sept patrons de Marrakech. In: Hespéris. 4, 1924, ISSN 0399-0052 , pp. 245-303.
- Hubert Lang : The cult of saints in Morocco. Forms and functions of pilgrimages. Passavia Universitätsverlag, Passau 1992, ISBN 3-86036-006-X , pp. 72–80, 140–142 ( Passauer Mediterranean Studies . Special Series 3).
- Uwe Topper : Sufis and saints in the Maghreb. Eugen Diederichs, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-424-01023-5 , pp. 188-191.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lang, p. 49f
- ↑ Lang, p. 73
- ↑ Topper, p. 190
- ↑ Lang, pp. 76, 143-145
- ↑ Tomb of Sidi Yusuf. United States Naval Academy (two photos of the tomb)
- ↑ The Quarter of Sidi Bel Abbes. Riad Dreamer
- ^ Sidi Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Jazouli: Dala'il al-Khayraat. ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dar-sirr.com (PDF; 11.1 MB)
- ^ Mausoleum of Sidi Abd El Aziz, Marrakesh. sacred-destinations.com
- ↑ Lang, pp. 78-80
