Mobilité et production du savoir dans le soufisme marocain (xixe-xxie siècles)

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, and from the Holy Places of Islam, the Mauritanian Aḥmad b. Bābā al-‘Alawī sent his didactic poem about the Sufi brotherhood Tijāniyya, Munyat al-murīd (The Desire of the Aspirant), to his Moroccan friend Muḥammad al-‘Arabī b. al-Sā’iḥ. The latter proposed a commentary entitled Bughyat al-mustafīd li-sharḥ munyat al-murīd (The wish of the recipient for the commentary of the Aspirant’s desire). The text constitutes a major contribution to the literature of Tijāniyya. It continues to be studied to this day, especially by Sub-Saharan students in Morocco, a situation which promotes its circulation between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to the commentary of Munyat al-murīd Bughyat al-mustafīd has become one of the privileged references in Tijāniyya. His main contribution lies in the manner in which he helped to establish the orthodoxy of the brotherhood by inking it more deeply into what is now known as “reformed Sufism”. His analysis of the Sealing of Holiness (khatm al-wilāya) makes his an original work from the early days of Tijāniyya.

Keywords

• Sufism
• Mobility
• Tijāniyya
• Khatm al-awliyā'
• sharḥ
• Aḥmad Tijānī