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access to International Journal of Middle East Studies
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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 15 (1983), 67-93 Printed in the United States of America
Vincent J. Cornell
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68 Vincent J. Cornell
Gellner summarizes his model of the social aspect of religion by saying, "
town constitutes a society which needs and produces a doctor, whilst the t
needs and produces the saint."9
While on a superficial level there is no reason to dispute Gellner's descrip
of forms of rural religious practice in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Moro
even a cursory skimming of Moroccan tarjama literature on the lives of "sa
would quickly reveal the inaccuracies in the above model of rural and urb
modes of religious belief.
Besides pointing out the necessity of consulting written sources in any study
literate societies, the conceptual dissonance between the models proposed
such Western social scientists and what the Moroccans have written about
themselves also points out the necessity of reevaluating the assumptions up
which they are based. At what point, for example, does an anthropologist
restructuring of native conceptions of reality in Western terms lose touch
objective accuracy? Can we automatically assume that popular description
the "miracles" of saints or the presentation of a spiritual master as the "axi
his age" are objectively false or conceptually unsophisticated? Can we make
generalization, as Geertz did, that such miracles are hallucinatory contrivan
manipulated by clever individuals in their search for personal power??1
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 69
When one attempts to clarify the exact role of awliya (sing. wall--the
ambiguous but significant Arabic term for which nearly everyone since Wester-
marck has substituted "saint") in Moroccan society, he must first understand
that many contemporary popular practices and beliefs are the products of a long
historical process leading back many hundreds of years, and that their prolifera-
tion centers on a period (fifteenth century A.D./ninth century A.H.) characterized
by what a number of scholars, Geertz and Eickelman included, have called the
"Maraboutic Crisis." This was a time, allegedly, in which "local holy men, or
marabouts, descendants of the Prophet, leaders of sufi brotherhoods, or simply
vivid individuals who had contrived to make something happen-appeared all
over the landscape to launch private bids for power."" These hommes fetiches
are seen to have created a "proliferation of jealous, insular, intensely competitive
hagiogracies, called maraboutic states."12
A study of Moroccan histories of this period reveals the inaccuracy of Geertz's
description and indicates, quite to the contrary, that such "saintly states" were
more the exception than the rule, except for one or two significant cases.3
In spite of the fact that, as will be shown below, overt political activity on the
part of "marabouts" (another partial misnomer for wall) appears to have been
rare, it is nonetheless undeniable that they did have a substantial impact on the
course of events and established a position of prominence in the social life of
Morocco which was to last until the modern era.
The position of this article, as an attempt to find some of the reasons for this
prominence and some of the "hows" and "whys" of the phenomenon of sanct
in Morocco, will be that holiness is symbolic (a point recognized by Geertz
himself), but instead of merely applying previously formed Western ideas
specific non-Western situations, the thousand-year-old tradition of sufism in the
Muslim West will be used to describe its own manifestation-illustrated, not
replaced, by concepts and models of logic that have provided a foundation for
the field of symbolic anthropology.
To illustrate the applicability of a model based on tradition, an eighteenth-
century account of the life of the qutb Muhammad Ibn Sulayman al-JazulT will
be used as both a historic and didactic document that reveals the central role of
the wall in Morocco as the symbolic embodiment of the sum of religious ethics.
The activity of such an individual in the political arena will be seen not as
directed toward the gain of personal power as an end in itself but rather as an
attempt to reestablish ethical norms in a society slipping into chaos.
This attempt at "ethnohistory," then, will comprise three distinct but concur-
rent levels of analysis:
1. Historically, the prevailing political and social conflicts in the western
Maghrib of the ninth and tenth Islamic centuries will be discussed in order to
portray the environment in which the subject of this study operated.
2. Philosophically, the concept of analogous relationships in Islamic thought
will be discussed and illustrated by recourse to Peirce's semiotics, which will
serve to provide a bridge leading to an understanding of concepts not often
found in Western philosophical logic.
3. Finally, aspects of al-Jazull's sufism will be examined in light of their
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70 Vincent J. Cornell
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 71
Such was the corrupted body of Marinid Morocco as the "sharks" began to
close in. Forces of the Crusade and the Reconquista struck in the fifteenth
century of the Christian era. Tetuan was the first to fall in 1401, sacked by the
Castilians, and its inhabitants sold into slavery. It remained a ruined ghost town
for more than fifty years. Spanish and Portuguese corsairs disrupted commerce.
Sebta (Ceuta) fell to the Portuguese in 1415, while the Marinid Sultan remained
in Fez, lost in his pleasurable pursuits.20
Al-Qasr as-SaghTr fell next in 1458, followed by Aslla in 1471, with five
thousand people, including the sultan's son, taken captive. Tangier fell a few
months later, followed by the last Muslim state in Spain, Granada, in January of
1492.21 Within a few years after the building of the Portuguese settlement of
Mazagan (now al-JadTda) in 1502, all the towns along the Moroccan coast
except for Sale lay in Christian hands.
Because of the weakness of central authority, the cities were left to themselves
to repel the Christian invasion. Tetuan (repopulated by Andalusian refugees
under the Granadan commander al-Mandarl) and the new town of Shafshawan
(ruled by the shurafa' of Jabal 'Alam under the family of Ban! Rashld) limited
penetration in the Jebala region and the Rif mountains. Habt (the region of the
northern coastal plains) was defended under the family of the Ban! al-'Aris in
al-Qasr al-Kitama (now al-Qsar al-Kabir). The valley of the river Sous in the
south, with the Anti-Atlas and the southern coastal regions, heretofore made up
of loosely federated tribes of settled Berbers, became unified under the authority
of the SharTf of Tagmadert in the valley of the river Draa.
One can assume that only the overextension of the Portuguese in their
worldwide empire and the involvement of their kings in religious affairs to the
detriment of those of state prevented the collapse of the Marinid state at this
time and allowed an effective resistance to be formed. But whatever fortuitous
circumstances may have occurred, time was provided so that a Moroccan revival
could be born in the precarious border regions.
CHANGING IDEOLOGIES
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72 Vincent J. Cornell
ordered the massacre of the entire family. Only a few, led by Muhamm
Shaykh, were able to escape and made their way to AsTla.23
Fortunately for the survivors, this act of the sultan infuriated the pe
Fez, who had revered the last great WattasT vizier, Abui Zakariyya, as a
muj&hid in the war against Christian penetration. Biding his time, Muh
ash-Shaykh simply waited for the right moment, which came when the
sultan, leaving taxation in the hands of two unscrupulous Jewish brot
imposed the kharij tax upon the descendants of the Prophet living in
allowed the proceeds to go to the support of Jews rather than Muslim
revolted, the sultan was publicly butchered by the mob, and the naqTb a
was installed as the new ruler.24
Muhammad ash-Shaykh, proclaiming himself the rightful heir (via m
virtue and blood) to the Marinid throne, rallied the Arab tribes of Habt
himself, conquered Fez, and established his state in the central and no
parts of the country.
It is inaccurate to claim that the BanT Wattas was a true dynasty, in that t
chose to ignore their separate identity and considered themselves a na
continuation of the line of Marinid sultans, a fact attested to by the n
their first sultan himself-Muhammad ash-Shaykh al-WattasT al-Marin
It is also clear that their politics were tribally based. Auguste Cour, in a co
analysis of the period, saw significance in their use of the term "shay
referring to the sultan (he claims that it is the first known instance of its u
court in the Far Maghrib) as alluding to the fact that each Wattasid sult
primus inter pares, a patron and protector of the tribes that supporte
rather than an absolute ruler.25
Not able to enjoy the support of the great confederations of Berber tribes that
supported previous Marinid rulers, the Wattasids secured allegiance to themselves
through the use of marriage alliances and the granting of land-use rights (iqta')
as insurance for payment of services rendered. Capped by a corps of appointed
officials (the 'ayan) drawn from the elite of major cities, this system became
popularly known as the makhzan, and was to last in similar form through the
nineteenth century of our era.26
Yet while the Wattasids ruled a state organized along the lines of tribal
politics, they sowed the seeds of an important innovation that was to mature
under their successors. Again according to Cour, the fact that the word shaykh
rather than its Berber counterpart amghar was used signaled the rise of the
dominance of Arab culture in Morocco, a point further illustrated by the fact
that Arab and not Berber tribes often provided the main support for this Berber
regime.27 Even the Rifians in the north, among whom the Wattasids kept their
home castle of Tazita, were only marginally reliable, and were more inclined to
support the shurafa' of Jabal 'Alam, busy with the jihad in the region of
Shafshawan.
One might, however, take Cour's conclusion farther and claim that rather than
asserting the reality of Arab cultural supremacy, the Wattasids, as Berbers
supported by Arabs, were attempting to rise above ethnic identification as a
source of legitimacy-even more dramatically illustrated in the case of their
successors, the Saadians, who were Arabs initially supported by Berbers.
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 73
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74 Vincent J. Cornell
Portugal) gave the two brothers carte blanche to carry on the jihad in
This was the opening they needed that enabled them to transform moral
authority into military authority, opened the gates of Marrakech to them
without a fight, and after they had helped to force the Portuguese out of their
coastal possessions, to create a tidal wave of mass sentiment (in itself a
revolutionary occurrence) that made Mawlay Mahammad ash-Shaykh ash-
Sharif al-Hasani al-Dara?' at-TagmadertT the ruler of a revitalized Morocco
The Sharifian ideology of rule, maintained to this day by the present dynasty
of 'Alawl kings, was the most important innovation legitimized by the Saadians,
who were not its originators but the fortunate beneficiaries of an already well-
established popular tradition. The popularization of this concept can apparently
be traced to the increased activity of Sufis in rural areas, who had adopted it, in
turn, from the tightly organized communities of shurafa' throughout the country.
After the fall of the Idrisid Dynasty by the eleventh century A.D., the shurafa'
remained influential in Morocco, especially in the city of Fez, occupying a social
position just below that of the rulers, and were included, in the period covered
here, with the fuqaha' (religious scholars), the ashyakh (leaders of different
regional groups found within the city), and the Cayan (appointed officials)
among the significant citizens of the capital.33
By the advent of the rule of the Ban! Wattas, the shurafa' had proliferated
throughout Morocco, either by birth or migration, to the point where they held
considerable influence in the Jebala region and the Rif mountains (the
cAlamiyyfun), the oasis of Tafilalt (the Filaliyyuin or 'AlawTyyufn, who make up
the present ruling dynasty), and the Draa valley (the Ban! Zaydan). As we have
seen, two of these families eventually ruled Morocco, and two were prominent in
the revival of nationalism through their involvement with the jihad.
It was the IdrTsid shurafa' of Fez, however, who commanded the greatest
respect, due to their primacy of place and well-established lineage. These
families, ranked according to strength of lineage and their time of arrival in the
Far Maghrib, eventually comprised a privileged quasi-caste in local society,
supported by substantial funds from the religious waqf, and were grouped under
a leader, or naqTb, usually from the family of al-CAmran?, who arbitrated
between different factions, maintained genealogical records, acted as a judge,
and served as a sort of ombudsman to the ruling family. It was this naqib who
briefly took power prior to the sultanate of Muhammad ash-Shaykh al-WattasT.34
Their most influential position, however, was in the field of education, where
evidence suggests that they had considerable control over the curriculum of al-
Qarawlyyin University and the various madaris, or state-supported schools of
religious instruction. Many of the students of these schools came from the
country, and as we shall see in the case of al-JazfilT, proved instrumental in
disseminating the belief that the shurafa' had a moral right to oversee the affairs
of the country.
The position of the shurafa. was further enhanced in the ninth/fifteenth
century by the "miraculous" rediscovery35 of the tomb of Mawlay IdrTs II,
founder of Fez. This seemingly nationalistic and self-serving act, which resulted
in the creation of a cult built not around a "saint" in the pure sense but around a
religio-political figure (of pure Arab father and Berber mother), so effectively
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 75
served to increase the prestige of the shurafa' that prominent descendants of the
Prophet began to appear on numerous family trees, taken as eponyms by
families that wished to climb the social ladder.
Such was the social environment in Morocco at the end of the Marinid period
Tribal loyalty was beginning to give way somewhat to a national consciousnes
in the face of an outside threat, a popular idea of the legitimacy of rule wa
beginning to form, and the country as a whole, sensing the corruption and
inertia of established authority, began to feel the need for a popular rallyin
point of spiritual identity. In the field of politics this identity was provided by th
shurafa', who, when they were able to take power, formalized the makhzan
system created by their predecessors, but extended the concept by making use of
an ideology reminiscent of "divine right"-thus attempting to make themselve
the symbols, not only of a regime or type of government, but also of a
protonational ethos.
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76 Vincent J. Cornell
From the results of the above survey, it can be assumed that the "ave
Sufi (shaykh, "marabout," murTd, or whatever he may have called himsel
Morocco during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was:
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 77
There is no intention here to claim that the tribally based zawiya described by
anthropologists did not exist, or that no Sufi was involved in political activity,
especially later in the modern period, or that a Sharifian lineage was not
considered important in certain cases, or that it was not ascribed to awliya' by
the uninitiated and illiterate masses. It is claimed, however, that Gellner's theory
of urban and rural religious types is unsupported by the data, and that descent
from the family of the Prophet, while indeed becoming in later times a certain
popular yardstick for holiness, was not the product of a specifically Moroccan
Sufi ideology or of Moroccan conceptions of the nature of religion. It may have
been adopted by many Sufis as an expedient, but was in no way fundamental to the
concept of sanctity per se.39
Having established, then, the parameters of Sufi participation in Moroccan
society during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, our discussion can now move
to the nature of the phenomenon of sanctity itself.
May God glorify him who showed us the straight way ... our
[sic] near God, Muhammad ben 'Abd Allah! May He glorify h
of His throne of which only He knows their number!
May God be favorable toward the saints, their successors, wh
have transmitted the principles of the religion, and who, by
transmission, have preserved them from all alteration; those who give Wisdom
[la science] which transmitted from generation to generation is a sure guide, without
which no one is ever able to say that they have added or retracted anything, and who have
put in their books the Wisdom that they have carried in themselves.40
This invocation, similar to others of the period, opens the book Dawhat an-
Nashir by Abu 'Abd Allah SayyidT Muhammad ibn Misbah ash-Sharif al-
HasanT, more commonly known as Ibn 'Askar. Written around A.D. 1576, it is
one of the most important sources of information about Moroccan Sufism and
perhaps the only extant primary source dealing exhaustively with the awliya' of
the ninth and tenth Islamic centuries.4'
The book is particularly valuable because its author was both Sufi and 'ilim
(or "doctor" and "saint" in Gellner's words), whose mother was a famous Sufi
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78 Vincent J. Cornell
herself, and whose ancestors, the 'Alami shurafi' of northern Morocco, included
'Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish, the shaykh al-fath and inspiration of Abi' 1-Hasan
ash-ShadhilT.
During his spiritual apprenticeship on the Sufi path, Ibn 'Askar met, studied
with, and received diplomas from the most famous religious authorities of his
day, both in their capacities as official instructors of religion and science (as at
the QarawTyyin) and in their unofficial capacities as spiritual guides (shaykhs).
The margin notes included in the French translation of his work, presumably
lessons taken from his various teachers, provide revealing incidental glimpses of
the Sufi doctrine of his day.
While the question of the definition of Sufism is certainly one of the most
overworked in the western study of Islam, one's answer to it remains important,
in that it provides the rationale for all subsequent interpretations, whether of
doctrine, holiness, or any other manifestation of the Sufi phenomenon. In light of
the continuing confusion it is surprising that Western scholars have not often
relied on a consensus found in many Islamic works, of which some have been
translated into Western languages. Taking the assumption here that the Sufis
themselves are best qualified to authoritatively state their own doctrine, a
common definition of the foundations of tasawwuf will be used here, based on
principles shared by a number of writers in the ShadhilT Sufi tradition.42
This formulation sees Islam as having a three-faceted nature, whose basic form
is presented in the Declaration of Faith (shahada). The first part of the shahada,
"There is no deity but God," defines the first facet-the term Tman-which is
seen as the realization of the fundamental reality of existence-God in His
omnipotence and omnipresence.
The second part of the shahada, "Muhammad is the Messenger of God,"
defines the facet of islam itself-the submission of an individual being to Reality
in word, deed, and even personal existence, in that man is seen both as a creation
of the Divine and as a manifestation of some of His attributes. One could
therefore say that, on a societal level, the first facet, Tman, represents accept
of the norms of the religion, while the second facet, islam, represents the pr
of these norms and attitudes as defined by the sunna (practice) of the Pr
and the structure of accepted Islamic law, or shari'a.
It is in the third facet of religion, ihsdn or perfection of behavior, that Suf
enters. If Tman, in traditional terms, is to believe in the miraculous, uncreated
message of the Qur'an and a corresponding orientation toward Reality, and if
islam comprises external behavior in conjunction with this belief, then the
perfection of ihsan can be seen to derive from their synthesis, the complete
embodiment of faith and practice in human life. This is exactly what Ibn 'Askar
refers to when he speaks in the above passage of "the saints . . . who by their
words and acts have transmitted the principles of the religion, and who ... have
preserved them from all alteration . . . and have put in their books the wisdom
that they have carried in themselves [italics mine]."
The significance of this traditionally based definition is that it defines the role
of the Sufi (the adept, not the person casually associated with a tarTqa)
symbolically-transhistorically and transsocially-and does not limit the use of
the term to those people belonging to established zawiyas. Such an interpretation
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 79
can be borne out by the study of any number of the vast body of biographies
from all parts of the Muslim world, which reveal that Sufis often were individuals
following very idiosyncratic paths.
Significant to the present study, however, is that the above interpretation
implies that the perfected Sufi (the shaykh or wall), through his embodiment of
"theory" and practice, may become the imam or murshid (guide) for those of his
generation. He becomes, in other words, a spiritual successor or khaltfa of the
Prophet, and may partake of a certain amount of prophetic inspiration and
grace.
These concepts can be expressed in terms amenable to Western logic by
recourse to the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, a late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century American philosopher and logician whose work has become
seminal to the modern study of symbolism. In a series of articles written between
1877 and 1910, he set forth a theory of logic as semiotic-a system based on a
formal doctrine of signs.43 In such a doctrine all thought and communication is
seen to be built upon an intricate web of shared perceptions, an idea later made
famous in social psychology by the work of George Herbert Mead.44 This matrix
of learned and shared perceptions was seen by Peirce to be most clearly
represented in the field of mathematics and was often presented in terms of
algebraic equations and the symbols of Boolean logic (known today as set
theory).
Peirce saw the sign as the smallest, or most primary logical concept, and called
it a representamen-"something which stands to somebody for something in
some respect or capacity."45 The referent of the sign is called its object, and the
particular relationship between a sign and its object is seen to be dependent upon
a previously accepted concept or set of concepts called the interpretant of the
sign.
The above relationship can be illustrated in Islamic symbology, taking as an
example the commonly used phrase referring to the Prophet Muhammad as the
Badr ad-Din or "full moon of the faith," meaning that he reflects the light of the
Divine Essence onto a darkened world much as the moon reflects the light of the
sun. In Peirce's language of signs the word "moon" would be a linguistic symbol,
or a certain type of sign, with the Prophet as its "object." The commonly
understood concept of "reflection" or transmission, which ties the two words
together in meaning, is what Peirce refers to when he speaks of the "interpretant"
of the sign. Further concepts associated with reflection, such as intercession or
purity, would be called by Peirce the "ground" or "idea" of the sign.
While the above example refers to a symbolic relationship, a sign does not
necessarily have to be a symbol. Peirce saw every sign operating as well on one
of three possible levels of abstraction, which he called firstness, secondness, and
thirdness.46
The level of firstness, or "positive qualitative possibility," refers to a situation
of identity between a sign and its object, the kind of relationship existing
between a portrait and its subject or the mathematical expression x = y. Such a
sign is termed, understandably, an icon.47
The level of secondness, or the "being of actual fact," refers to a situation in
which the sign, qualitatively different from its object, "shares" something in
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80 Vincent J. Cornell
common with it, or leads one automatically to think of the object when
perceiving the sign. Street signs, such as "Stop," "Dead End," or "One Way," are
examples of this relationship. It is called secondness because the perception of
the relation involves a two-step process-"first x, then y." Such a sign with the
quality of secondness, a pointer to something else, is called an index.48
The level of thirdness, consequently, is seen to involve a three-stage process of
cognition, such as in the use of the phrase, "moon of the faith," above. Such a
sign acts through a replica of itself or an alternate sign, called its interpretant, to
refer to one of many possible objects. The fact that an intermediary is involved
in the relation "First x, then y, so z," gives rise to the term "thirdness." Its sign is
called a symbol, and it is expressed mathematically as x - z.49
The point of this discussion of Peirce's logic is not to maintain that it is a
perfect, or even the best model for cognition, but instead to demonstrate that
Western concepts or terms do exist that can satisfactorily describe non-Western
logic without resorting to dogmatic positivism or a denial of objective reality
when dealing with alien symbols.
The great difference between Islamic mysticism and modern science lies in the
fact that science, especially those branches that call themselves behavioral, bases
its conclusions on a concept of observability or measurability to determine the
nature of reality. To use a famous Sufi phrase, it is "in the world and of the
world."
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 81
mean that the way of religion would stand in an indexical relationship to its
object of worship.
Finally the individual within a religion takes on the property of "thirdness" in
relation to his goal, in that it is only the "path" (religious observance) he takes
which leads him to it. This spiritual path is trodden by manipulating (in the case
of the sufi shaykh) or being manipulated by (in the case of the seeker) rituals and
symbolic devotional attitudes in order to retrace the primal unfolding back to its
origin. This activity is negatively expressed by Sufis as the state of fana', or
annihilation of personal attributes (the relations of secondness or thirdness
described above) seen to precede "arrival." The position of the individual as a
"third" is reflected in the Arabic terms salik (traveler, seeker), 'abd (slave), faqTr
(poor one), all of which imply the need for aid and intercession by means of
another. The required other is of course the murshid (guide)-a further con-
firmation that to Sufis the believer is in a symbolically construed orientation to
his goal.5'
Because in Islam this return cannot take place objectively, in that God and
man can never share an iconic, or physical, resemblance, but only one that is
symbolic (a reflection of attributes), it must be taken by way of analogy. This
can be done by referring to a relative "second" which points the way, in terms of
symbolic behavior, to the Absolute "first."
The primary index or "second" followed by all Muslims is the Qur'an, which
is regarded as the eternal, uncreated message of God-a direct didactic revelation.
To any Muslim then, the Qur'an, in spite of the fact that it came out of the
mouth of the Prophet Muhammad, is not of him, but stands instead in a direct
one-to-one relationship with the God to whom it points. Peirce would call it a
"pure index," or a "dicent indexical sinsign," an object of direct experience for
others providing information about its own object.52
If a Muslim cannot say that the Qur'an is of the Prophet, he may, however,
say that the Prophet is of the Qur'an, in that he is by analogy the living
embodiment and perfect follower of its message, the spotless mirror by which its
"light" or inspiration is reflected. In relation to the Qur'an, then, the Prophet is
a "third," and therefore a symbol or embodiment of Divine Grace. This is what
Sufis refer to when they call him al-Insan al-Kamil, or "The Perfect Man."
Peirce would say that in his lifetime a prophet becomes a "dicent symbol,"53 in
that others associate him with general concepts and ideas (existential and
experiential concepts) that among Muslims are elaborated in books of hadlth
and sira-sayings and biographical accounts that are intended to lead others
toward the center of prophetic awareness.
On another level, however, a prophet can also be regarded as a "second."
Inasmuch as he is seen to be relatively free of uniquely sullying attributes (the
"empty glass" or "spotless mirror," to use common terms) a prophet is in a direct
one-to-one relationship with the revelation that emanates from him. Such a
concept is found behind the Greek word logos, and in Christian ideas of the
"Son of God" and Buddhist notions about the divinity of Gautama. For
Muslims this prophetic receptability is expressed in two of Muhammad's "names
of honor"-Abu '1 Qasim (the Distributor of Grace) and Shams ad-DTn (the Sun,
or Illuminator of the Faith).
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82 Vincent J. Cornell
Know that Allah has taught you that the Perfected Man [al-Insan al-Kamil] is the axis
[al-qutb] around whom revolve the spheres of existence from his birth until his death. He
has been one [in essence] as long as there has been existence [and will be so] until the End
of Ends. He varies in appearance, appears in human bodies, and is not named by
reference to another image [i.e., he appears in only one particular form in each
generation].
His original name is Muhammad, his name of honor is Abu'l-Qasim, his description is
'Abd Allah, and his nickname is Shams ad-DTn. Other names belong to him with respect
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 83
to other appearances, and in every age he has a name associated with his appearance in
that age [here "names" refer to attributes] ...
The secret of this is that the Divine Command enables him to appear in any form; and
the disciple, when he sees him in the image of Muhammad [the Surat al-Muhammadiyya]
which is upon him during his life, names him with this name [Muhammad]. If he sees him
in another image and knows that he is Muhammad, he will not call him by the name of
the other image ...
Did you not see him when he appeared in the image of [the Sufi] Shiblt? Shibli said,
"I bear witness that I am the Prophet of God."
His disciple was a man of insight, and knew him, so he said, "I bear witness that you
are the Prophet of God." ...
If it is revealed to you that the Reality of Muhammad is a manifestation in one image
among all the images of men, then you are compelled to consider naming that image after
the Reality of Muhammad, and you are obliged to pattern your behavior after the
possessor of that image [the shaykh] in the same way that you are obliged to pattern your
behavior after Muhammad's [because the shaykh's own behavior so closely corresponds
to the sunna and to the content of the Qur'an itself] ...
It is assumed that his nature is manifested in every age in the image of these forms [the
shaykhs] in their perfection to exalt their mission and to strengthen their attractiveness [to
others]. They are his successors [khulafaJ] in appearance and he, in essence, is their
reality [my italics].56
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84 Vincent J. Cornell
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 85
Saadian rulers and the weakening of their dynasty after the reign of Ahmad
al-Mansir adh-DhahabT, this ideology, which postulated the shurafa' as pro-
tectors of the Moroccan nation, survived to live again in the subsequent dynasty
of 'Alawite sharifs, who reign to this day.
Few figures in any age have been able to achieve the prominence attained by
Shaykh Abfi CAbd Allah Muhammad Ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman Ibn AbT Bakr Ibn
Sulayman al-Jazuill as-Simlal in the Far Maghrib during the period before his
death in 1465. By all measures this compelling and sometimes puzzling personality
was the man of his age in true Hegelian sense, an Axis (qutb) in both the
sociopolitical and religious dimensions, around whose presence orbited nearly all
of the major Moroccan religious figures of his day. To him more than anyone
else in his century does Maghribi mysticism owe its present character and from
the popular extension of his teachings was drawn the Sharifian dynasties'
ideology of rule.
The elaborate introduction of MumattTc al-Asma', Muhammad al-FasT's
biography of the principal shaykhs of al-JazulT's tariqa, sums up the local
perception of the effect his life had on his country:
He was (God be pleased with him) one of the effective scholars, one of the guided
imams, and of those who were noble in the sight of others and in religion ...
He was an Axis [qutb] in all respects, a succor of useful aid, a falling rain, a mercifu
inheritance, and a divine imam. God established him in his time [on earth] as a grace fo
His servants and as a blessing and inspiration for his country ... He was overflowing i
his aid, of great help to the people, and possessed that special, pure alchemy [al-kimiya
which changes natures and transforms the copper of lower souls into gold in the quickest
time ...
He helped great numbers of people with it, many important shaykhs came f
hands, and he revivified the land and the people with it. He renewed the tar
studying its remnants and the veiling of its inspiration, spreading by its means s
poverty, devotion to the remembrance of God, and prayers on the Prophet to the
reaches of the Maghrib.
And there began to follow him from the farthest regions (to some of whom bel
most sublime mention) an assembly of seekers from his hands numbering 12,6
them gaining abundant blessings depending on their station and on their nearness
He gave his authorization to those of his companions who had learned from h
they separated and went throughout the country taking people to them [into the
and their followers multiplied and divided into branches which stretched into the
regions.61
One can immediately discern in the above passage the abbreviated description
of a mass movement comprising thousands of people, led by a charismatic figure
whose activities, simply by their symbolic nature and scope, must have had
profound political implications, all in spite of the fact that al-JazfilT seems to
have overtly done no more than any other great shaykh in the Sufi tradition.
Few dates are provided in the MumattT' except for that of al-Jazuil's death. It
is known from his name, however, that he was born in the village of Simlal in
the region of Jazfila (often known as Gazfila), located in the Sous valley of
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86 Vincent J. Cornell
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 87
Nothing of me is with you except my body. As for me, I have gone to him [the
Prophet] and have become one with him. I have been perfected and I have arrived.
I saw the Prophet ... and he said to me, "I am the Beauty of the Messengers and you
are the Beauty of the awliya'."
As for what I taught you about the Guided One (Peace be upon him), he is near to me
and his authority is in my hands. He who follows me is his follower, and he who does not
follow me will never be his follower. I heard him (Peace be upon him) say, "You are the
MahdT. Whoever desires to be happy must turn to you."
It was said, "Oh My slave! I have exalted you in eternity with My grace, and no one
will attain your favor [with Me]. Oh My slave! I have made you lord over the inhabitants
of the East and the West, [those] who have lived before, and [those] who remain."
"Oh My slave! If the angels had written a book, and the trees had been their pens, and
the seas their ink, they would have written of your habitual states with the crudeness [and
lack of comprehension] of a small child writing upon a slate."67
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88 Vincent J. Cornell
postulating a Hasanid lineage for the shaykh that was of somewhat dubi
accuracy.
As a political doctrine in the hands of some of al-Jazull's followers, the
exaltation of lineage had the effect of eventually rendering all other bases of
temporal authority irrelevant, and had the further effect of dooming the sub-
sequent reign of the family of BanT Wattas almost before it began. Such a
possible consequence may have been recognized by the Marinid rulers themselves,
since the shaykh's death in 1465 has been popularly attributed to poisoning-very
likely by order of the sultan, the Portuguese, or one of their allies.
Such fears, if they did exist, would have been well founded, for, as we have
seen, the tarTqa al-JazulTyya proved to be the spiritual support and source of
propaganda for the first Sharifian dynasty. SidT Mubarak, the man who directed
the SusT Berbers to CAbd Allah al-Qa'im, was a disciple of al-JazulT, and
accounts can be found70 reporting that Mahammad ash-Shaykh, the first Saadian
ruler of a reunited Morocco, often recited the invocations of the Jazuiliyya.
It must be remembered, however, that such support of a tarTqa for a regime
was limited, and lasted only as long as the Shaykh's successors felt that the
Saadians upheld the principles with which they had allied themselves. As far as
the perceived immorality and duplicity of the Saadian rulers was seen to
increase, the passive support of the Sufi shaykhs became vocal resistance, and by
the time of the interregnums of the early seventeenth century, we see a few of
them in open revolt against the state. It was during this period only, not the full
two hundred years that Geertz assumes, that certain "maraboutic states," such as
Dila', were formed.
What little hard evidence al-FasT gives concerning al-JazulT's spiritual method
indicates that it stressed religious fundamentals and was highly ethical in
character. An attitude of repentance was regarded as essential for the murld,
since it alone was seen as the key to restoring faith and discipline to a weak and
dissipated humanity. The acquisition of true repentance (tawba) was seen as
manifest in certain readily observable attitudes, including remorse, regret, self-
reproach, self-abasement, humility, supplication to God, perseverence in dhikr,
contentment with one's fate and a healthy (noncondemnatory) attitude toward
others.71 Inimical to the Way were attitudes equated with social decline-
vindictiveness, envy, surprise at events decreed by God, hypocrisy, conceit, love
of praise, and the love of power. One of the minor though symbolically
important rules of the ta'ifa was that new adepts were required to shave their
heads completely to show their repentance, following the tradition that the
Prophet required shaving and circumcision to remove external signs of unbelief.72
Because, in al-JazulT's mind, the formally appointed men of religion were so
unsuited to the task of teaching the Islamic message, it became incumbent upon
the true Sufi shaykh (significantly the mushahid rather than the mujahid) to take
upon himself the responsibility for educating the general public. The message of
the tarTqa, therefore, was tailored for mass consumption and delivered in the
form of rules or commandments, easily understood and memorized by a largely
illiterate population. Once these rules and attitudes had been established in an
individual, he (or she) could now truly become one of the master's murTdTn, and
later would be empowered to spread these rules to as many of his personal
acquaintances as possible.
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 89
1. Follow the sunna of the Prophet in all aspects of daily life (which implies the need
for literacy as a means of access to the corpus of hadTth literature).
2. Oppose the enemies of God (both the Christians attacking from the sea and the
zindTq and hypocrite who undermine the community from within).
3. Maintain dhikr and prayers for the Prophet (to reinforce the proper attitude toward
ultimate Reality and to maintain the highest of aspirations by constantly keeping in mind
the Perfect Man).
4. Hate no one with faith, no matter how ignorant he may be.
5. Do not neglect prayer.
6. Do not be overbearing or arrogant.
7. Do not exaggerate.
8. Do not love material wealth.
9. Love the poor and be one of them (here the word faqTr is used in its literal sens
10. Learn only those sciences that lead one toward God (an admonition against alchem
and counterfeiting-a common Moroccan reaction in the face of political decline).
Like most Sufi ethical doctrines, the commandments of al-JazulT can clearly be
seen to be based on the Prophetic sunna taken from the accepted books
hadlth, and as such are acceptable to "exoteric" and "esoteric" scholars alike, t
difference in interpretation between the two lying mainly in their choice
situations in which to apply them.
The doctrinal equation of Islam with jihad, and the true Muslim with the
mujahid, as when al-JazuilT tells his followers to "oppose the enemies of God
was a critical element of the shaykh's doctrine during his lifetime, and remained
important for his followers until the Christian threat was removed after th
battle of WadT al-Makhazin in 1578.
The Sufis of Morocco, who had always been in close contact with th
counterparts in al-Andalus, were intimately aware of the effects of the gro
Christian hatred for the Muslims of Spain, and many writers of the per
strongly attacked the Marinids for not defending them against persecution.74 A
Christian conquest led to the colonization of the coastal regions of Morocco
concern for the survival of the faith became an alarm which served to all
Sufis, as defenders and upholders of the Islamic way of life, with the local rule
(al-Mandar?, Ban! Rashid, BanT 'Aris, etc.), who were forced to defend th
domains independently, without the assistance of the central power. Ther
many descriptions of Sufis in the literature cited above in which they are seen
recruiters for the jihad, mujahidin themselves, or go-betweens who secure
safety of local political and religious figures through ransom. As seen above
widespread zeal for the jihad that they helped to foster served as the motive fo
that propelled the Saadians into power. The added contribution of the cult o
shurafa' symbolized by Moulay Idris combined with this zeal to unite all t
and urban groups for a time in resistance to the invader under the SharTfs
first symbol of truly "Moroccan" protonational authority and legitimacy
Implicit in the above commandments as well lies an unspoken concern ab
the disintegration of society and the loss of Islamic principles, which were seen
provide the limits within which orderly social life could operate. Such a con
seems to have been the reasons for Ibn 'Askar's75 great pains taken to stres
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90 Vincent J. Cornell
"orthodoxy" of the Sufis mentioned in his book and his readiness to con
behavioral excesses. It also appears to be the reason why al-FasT, in his a
of al-JazulT's adoption of prayers for the Prophet Muhammad, mentions
learned of their importance from a woman "of great authority and [spi
power in Fez, out of fear of [the evils of] custom [min khawf al-'cda])
From clues such as these one can make the educated guess that re
morality in the post-Marinid period had degenerated to a degree commen
with the prevailing disintegration of political structures, and that the corrup
of the last Marinid sultans in the face of gradual Christian conquest cau
religious elites of both city and country to cast about for some other u
symbol.
Al-JazilT, in continuing the time-honored tradition of great Moroccan religious
leaders, who attempt to lead an errant populace back to the clarity and discipline
found in the original Islamic message, provided via his behavior and apparent
sanctity the necessary focus to which all levels of society could be oriented,
making him visible in the surat al-Muhammadiyya to an unprecedented degree.
His exaltation of the family of the Prophet, besides providing the ideology for
the subsequent political activity of the shurafa', also contained the seeds of an
Islamic revival based on the Prophetic sunha. This call to the sunna, as well as
al-Jazuilis attempt to create a mirror image of the Medinan community of
Companions centered about himself, can be recognized in the following exhor-
tation transmitted by al-FasT:
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 91
allow the shaykh's burial, but instead carried his coffin about for years as an
object of veneration during his attempt at insurrection in the Shyadma and
Dukkala regions.78 The formal consolidation of the image of al-Jazfill occurred
even later, after the rise of the Saadians, in the redesignation of his tariqa under
the name "at-Tariqa al Jazuliyya ash-Sharifiyya," when the descendants of the
Prophet living at that time equated their own essence with his message, firmly
establishing his qutbanTyya as something transcending the limits of personal
existence.
NOTES
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92 Vincent J. Cornell
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The Logic of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh 93
72Ibid., p. 16.
731bid., p. 22.
74For example, see Anonymous, Ta'rTkh ad-Dawla as-Sa'adyya, p. 2.
75Introduction to Ibn 'Askar, Dawhat an-Nashir.
76Muhammad al-FasT, MumattTC al-Asmai, p. 7.
77Ibid., p. 5.
781bid., p. 12. An-Nasiri, Kitab al-Istiqsa', "Les Merinides," pp. 507-511.
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