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The '''Aissawa''' (also '''Aïssâwa''' and '''Issawa''') is a [[religious]] and [[mystical]] [[brotherhood]] and order founded in [[Meknès]], [[Morocco]] by Muhammad Ben Aïssâ (1465-1526), best know as the ''Chaykh Al-Kâmil'' (translated as the Perfect [[sufi]] Master). The terms Aïssâwiyya (`Isâwiyya) and Aïssâwa (`Isâwa), came from the name of the founder, designate respectively the [[brotherhood]] ([[tariqa]], litt. “way”) and its disciples (fuqarâ, sing. to [[fakir]], litt. “poor”). In the beginning clearly [[orthodox]], the [[brotherhood]] of Aïssâwa became a very complex social phenomenon, in frontier of [[crowned]] and the [[layman]], the private and [[public]] spaces and the [[erudite]] and [[popular culture]]. <br /> |
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The Aïssâwa are known for their [[Spiritual (music)|spiritual]] music characterized by the use of the [[oboe]] ghaita (syn. [[mizmar]], [[zurna]]), of collective songs of religious [[psalms]] accompanied by an orchestra of percussions using [[polyrhythm]]. Their complex ceremony, which use [[symbolic]] dances bringing the participants to extatic [[trance]], take place in the [[private sphere]] during domestic rituals nights (''lîla''-s), and also in the [[public sphere]] during celebrations of nationnals festivals (the ''moussem''-s, which are also [[pilgrimages]]) and touristic (folk spectacles) or religious festivities ([[Ramadan]], [[mawlid]] or birth of the Prophet) organized by the Moroccan and Algerian States.<br /> |
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In spite of their particularly fortifying music, the Aïssâwa don’t profit from the same passion as the [[gnaoua]] near the Western public. However, like them - or like the Hamadcha with which they are usually confused - the Aïssâwa are always disparaged and placed at the bottom of the confreric hierarchy. Two principal reasons with that :<br /> |
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{{Short description|Moroccan Sufi mystic order in Islam}} |
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* 1st reason : there are in the [[ritual]] of the [[brotherhood]] of Aïssâwa some non-islamic elements, which are appeared progressively along the centuries, like [[exorcism]] and [[trance]] dances. |
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{{more citations needed|date=May 2011}} |
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{{ infobox religious group |
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| group = 'Isawiyya Sufi order |
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| flag = |
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| flag_caption = الطريقة العيساوية الصوفية |
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| image = |
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| image_caption = |
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| population = |
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| founder = [[Mohamed ben Issa]] |
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| regions = [[Maghreb]] |
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| tablehdr = |
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| region1 = |
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* 2nd reason: the Aïssâwî disciples were recruited traditionally among the poors populations of the Maghreb, or disadvantaged and marginalized people of the urban areas. |
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| pop1 = |
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| ref1 = |
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| region2 = |
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| pop2 = |
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| ref2 = |
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| region3 = |
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| pop3 = |
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| ref3 = |
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| religions = |
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In the [[Maghreb]] crossed by a [[conservatism]] form of modernity (political [[islamism]]) and a serious [[economic crisis]], it’s easy to understand that this [[brotherhood]] crystallizes the tensions and contradictions of maghrebian societies because of the stigmatizing image that the majority opinion returns to her. <br /> |
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| scriptures = |
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| languages = |
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| related-c = |
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| notes = |
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}} |
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{{Sufism |Orders}} |
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{{Sunni Islam|Sunni Orders of Mysticism}} |
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[[File:Aissawa Meknes - 9 April 2023.ogg|thumb|Aissawa performance in [[Meknes]] during Ramadan 2023]] |
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[[File:Musiciens aisaoua (2).jpg|thumb|Aissaoua ceremony]] |
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[[File:Fotografi på Aissawa och sabeldans, Alger - Hallwylska museet - 107932.tif|thumb|Issawa sabre dance in Algeria]] |
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The '''Isawiyya''' (also '''Aissawa''', '''Issawa''', '''Aissaoua''', '''Issaoua''', [[Classical Arabic|Arabic]]: الطريقة العيساوية) is a religious Islamic mystical<ref>Martin Lings, ''What is Sufism?'' (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), p.12: "Mystics on the other hand-and Sufism is a kind of mysticism-are by definition concerned above all with 'the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven'".</ref> brotherhood founded in [[Meknes]], [[Morocco]], by ''Sheikh al-Kamil'' [[Mohamed ben Issa|Mohamed al-Hadi ben Issa]] (or Aissa) (1465–1526), best known as the ''Shaykh Al-Kamil'', or "Perfect [[Sufi]] Master". The terms Aissawiyya (`Isawiyya) and Aissawa (`Isawa), derive from the name of the founder, and respectively designate the brotherhood ([[tariqa]], literally: "way") and its disciples (fuqara, sing. to [[fakir]], literally: "poor"). |
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They are known for their [[Spiritual (music)|spiritual]] performances, which generally comprise group [[recitation]] of religious [[psalms]], accompanied by the use of the [[oboe]] ''ghaita'' (similar to the [[Mizmar (instrument)|mizmar]] or [[zurna]]) and [[polyrhythm]]<nowiki/>ic percussion. |
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== The founder of the brotherhood == |
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The founder of the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] remains a somewhat enigmatic character whose [[genealogy]] is always prone to controversy. His [[hagiography]] sends to us the image of a [[sufi]] master and legendary [[ascetic]] of a considerable [[Spirituality|spiritual]] influence. His mausoleum is today in the [[Zaouia]] that he build himself in [[Meknès]], holy house where today several people come to pray and to participe to [[mystical]] and [[religious]] acts of [[piety]], individual or collective. Muhammad Ben Aïssâ was initiated with the [[sufism]] by three masters of the [[tariqa]] [[Shadhiliyya]]/Jazûliyya : `Abbâs Ahmad Al-Hâritî ([[Meknès]]), Muhammad `Abd Al `Azîz At-Tabbâ' ([[Marrakech]]) and Muhammad as-Saghîr as-Sahlî ([[Fès]]). |
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Complex ceremonies, including symbolic dances to bring the participants to ecstatic [[trance]], are held by the Aissawa in private during domestic ritual nights (''lîla''-s), and in public during celebrations of cultural festivals and [[Pilgrimage|pilgrimages]], called ''moussem''-s. Other occasions are religious festivities, such as the [[Eid al-Fitr|Eid holidays]] or [[mawlid]], celebration of the birth of the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]]. |
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== Spiritual doctrine == |
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The [[Spirituality|spiritual]] [[doctrine]] of the Aïssâwa follows the [[mystical]] tradition historically preceding, the [[tariqa]] [[Shadhiliyya]]/Jazûliyya. Without going into details, this religious teaching, appeared in [[15th century]] in [[Marrakech]], is the most [[orthodox]] [[mystical]] method appeared in the [[Maghreb]]. The Aïssâwî disciples are held to respect the recommendations of their founder : to follow [[sunni]] [[islam]] and to practice additional [[psalms]] like the long prayer knowns under the name of “Glory to the Eternal” (Al-hizb Subhân Al-Dâ `im). The original Aïssâwa doctrine doesn’t mention extatics and rituals exercices (like musics and dances). |
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==Founder of the brotherhood: Muhammad Ben Issa== |
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== The mother-Zaouia of Meknes== |
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Some details regarding Ben Issa remain unknown. He has a [[hagiography]] that projects the image of a Sufi master and legendary [[ascetic]] of considerable [[Spirituality|spiritual]] influence. Ben Issa built his own mausoleum in the monastery or [[Zaouia]] in the city of [[Meknes]]. This is now a destination for his modern followers to visit and pray while participating in individual or collective acts of [[piety]]. Ben Issa was initiated into Sufism by three masters of the ''tariqa'' [[Shadhiliyya]]/Jazuliyya: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad Al-Hariti (Meknes), [[Abdelaziz al-Tebaa]] ([[Marrakesh]]) and Muhammad as-Saghir as-Sahli ([[Fès]]). |
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[[Image:Zawiya.jpg]] |
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==Spiritual doctrine== |
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The [[Zaouia]] of [[Meknes]] is the main spiritual center of Aissawa. It was founded by Muhammad Ben Aïssâ at the end of the [[15th century]]. Construction resumed three centuries later by the sultan [[Mohammed ben Abdallah]]. Often renovated by the Ministry for [[Habous]] and the Islamic Affairs and maintained by the municipal services, the sacred place possesses a national and transnational confreric network. The site is open to the public every day of the year. It shelters three principal tombs today: the tomb of the founder ''Chaykh Al-Kâmil'', the tomb of his disciple Abû-ar-Rawâyil and the tomb of the supposed son of the founder, Aïssâ Al-Mehdi. |
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The spiritual doctrine of the Issawa follows the earlier mystical tradition of the ''tariqa'' Shadhiliyya/Jazuliyya. This religious teaching first appeared in 15th century Marrakesh and is the most orthodox mystical method to appear in the western region of North Africa known as the [[Maghreb]]. |
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Issawa disciples are taught to follow the instruction of their founder by adhering to [[Sunni Islam]] and practising additional psalms including the long prayer known as "Glory to the Eternal" (''Al-hizb Subhan Al-Da `im''). |
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== Geographical establishment == |
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The [[brotherhood]] of Aïssâwa is always active today and its transnational swarming began at the [[18th century]]. In addition to [[Morocco]], the brotherhood is present in an institutional form in [[Algeria]], in [[Tunisia]], in [[Libya]], in [[Egypt]], in [[Syria]] and [[Iraq]]. Many disciples live in a way isolated in [[France]], [[Belgium]], [[Italy]], [[Spain]], in the [[Netherlands]], in the [[USA]] and [[Canada]]. |
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The original Issawa doctrine makes no mention of ecstatic or ritual exercises such as music and dance. |
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== Current situation == |
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In theory the confreric [[network]] is lead since the mother-[[Zaouia]] in [[Meknès]] by the direct biological descendants of Muhammad Ben Aïssâ. At their head there is Sîdî Allal Aïssâwî, teacher, member of the League of Oulémas of Morocco and Senegal, poet and historian : |
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== The spiritual centre in Meknes == |
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In [[Morocco]], the [[brotherhood]] – the musicians, their ritual and their music - currently enjoy a vogue without similar. In this country the basic cell of the religious order is the tâ `ifa (“group”, “team”) which is presented in the shape of a traditional musical orchestra composed by fifty to twenty disciples. Appeared at the [[17th century]] by appointment of the persons in charge for the mother-[[Zaouia]], the groups of musicians are placed under the authority of a ''muqaddem'' (“delegate”). There are currently orchestras of the [[brotherhood]] in all [[Morocco]], but those are in a number particularly high in the towns of [[Fès]] and [[Meknès]], placed under the authority of the master [http://myspace.com/aissawa Haj Azedine Bettahi], leader and very famous [[sufi]] musician. |
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The ''[[Zaouia]]'' or centre in Meknes is the main spiritual centre of the Issawa brotherhood. Founded by Muhammad Ben Issa at the end of the 15th century, construction resumed three centuries later under sultan [[Mohammed ben Abdallah]]. Often renovated by the Ministry of [[Habous]] and Islamic Affairs and maintained by the municipal services, this is the center of the brotherhood's international network. The site is open to the public all year round and is the location of the tombs of founder ''Shaykh al-Kamil'', his disciple Abu ar-Rawayil, and the alleged son of the founder, Issa Al-Mehdi. |
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==International growth== |
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Being the leader of the ''muqaddem''-s, [http://myspace.com/aissawa Haj Azedine Bettahi] has under his authority the Aïssâwa ''muqaddem''-s following: |
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*Haj Muhammad 'Azzam |
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Issawa's international growth began in the 18th century. From Morocco it has spawned organizations in [[Algeria]], [[Tunisia]], [[Libya]], [[Egypt]], [[Syria]] and [[Iraq]]. Outside these countries, there is Issawiyya practice without immediate access to Issawa institutions, as in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the USA and Canada. There is a building movement in the United States, focused primarily in Chicago.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} |
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*Haj Saïd El Guissy |
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*Haj Saïd Berrada |
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==Current situation== |
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*'Abdelatif Razini |
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Theoretically, the brotherhood's network is led from the mother-monastery in Meknes by direct biological descendants of Muhammad Ben Issa. The leader is currently Sidi Allal al-Issawi, a teacher and member of the League of Oulemas of Morocco and Senegal, as well as a poet and historian. |
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*'Adnan Chouni |
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In Morocco, the brotherhood – the musicians together with their rituals and music – currently enjoy a particular vogue.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}} The basic cell of the religious order in Morocco is the team (''ta `ifa''), which takes the form of a traditional musical orchestra with twenty to fifty disciples. |
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*'Omar 'Alawi |
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*'Abou Lhaz Muhammad |
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Since a decision taken in the 17th century by the mother-monastery, groups of musicians are placed under the authority of a delegate (''muqaddem''). There are currently orchestras of the brotherhood across Morocco, but they are especially numerous in the towns of Meknes Fes and Sale, under the authority of the master [http://myspace.com/aissawa Haj Azedine Bettahi], who is a well-known Sufi musician. |
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*'Abdallah Yaqoubi |
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*Muhammad Ben Hammou |
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As leader of the ''muqaddem''-s, Haj Azedine Bettahi has under his authority the following individuals: |
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*Haj Hussein Lbaghmi |
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*Haj Mohamed Ben Bouhama |
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*Idriss Boumaza |
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*Haj Muhammad 'Azzam |
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*Haj 'Abdelhak Khaldun |
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*Haj Said El Guissy |
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*Muhammad Ben Chabou |
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*Haj Said Berrada |
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*Mohcine Arafa Bricha |
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*Abdeljelil Al Aouam |
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*Moustafa Barakat |
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*'Abdelatif Razini |
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*Nabil Ben Slimane |
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*'Adnan Chouni |
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*Hassan Amrani |
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*'Omar 'Alawi |
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*Youssef 'Alami |
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*'Abou Lhaz Muhammad |
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*'Abdallah Yaqoubi |
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*Muhammad Ben Hammou |
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*Haj Hussein Lbaghmi |
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*Idriss Boumaza |
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*Haj 'Abdelhak Khaldun |
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*Muhammad Ben Chabou |
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*[http://www.almanar.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175:mohcine-arafa-artiste-soufi-a-bruxelles-&catid=1:latest-news Mohcine Arafa Bricha] |
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*Moustafa Barakat |
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*Nabil Ben Slimane |
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*Hassan Amrani |
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*Youssef 'Alami |
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*Youssef Semlali |
*Youssef Semlali |
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*'Abdellah al-Mrabet |
*'Abdellah al-Mrabet |
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*Benaissa Ghouali |
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All the Aïssâwa groups animate ceremonies mixing [[mystical]] invocations, [[exorcism]] and collectives dances of [[trance]]. |
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*Djamel Sahli |
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*Nadjib Mekdia |
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*Lounis Ghazali |
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*Djamel Blidi |
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*Essaid Haddadou |
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*Mustapha Ben Ouahchia |
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*Hadj Ali Al Badawi |
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*Cheikhuna Hakim Meftah Al Bedri |
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*Abdelillah Berrahma |
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All Issawa groups lead ceremonies that mix mystical invocation with exorcisms and trance-inducing group dances. |
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== The Aïssâwa trance ritual : origin and symbolism == |
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In [[Morocco]], the ceremonies of the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] are domesticals rituals nights (called simply “night”, ''lila'') organized mainly at the request of the women sympathizers. In this country, the women currently make the principal customers of the orchestras of the [[brotherhood]]. The Aïssâwa being supposed to bring to people the [[baraka]], the reasons to organize a ceremony are varied : celebration of a Muslim festivity, wedding, birth, circumcision, [[exorcism]], search for cure or contact with the [[divine]] one by the [[extase]]. The ritual is proposed with identical phases by all the Aïssâwa orchestras and includes [[mystical]] recitations of [[Sufi]] [[litanies]], songs of [[Spirituality|spiritual]] poems, an [[exorcism]] and a collective dance. The [[ludic]] aspects of the ceremony are current and asserted by the participants (laughter, songs, dances) just as the extatic body demonstrations (cries, tears). On the level [[symbolic system]], the ceremony represents the [[initiatory]] advance of the [[Sufi]] : an ascending [[mystical]] voyage towards God and the Prophet with return on ground. The odyssey crosses at the same time the world of the Human beings and that of the demons [[jinn]] to culminate in the higher spheres, point of meeting of the human being and the [[divine]] one. According to Aïssawa, this ceremony was not established nor even practised by ''Chaykh Al-Kâmil''. Some of their think that it appeared at the [[17th century]] under the impulse of an Aïssâwî disciple (Sîdî `Abderrahmân Tarî Chentrî) or at the [[18th century]] under the influence of other Moroccan [[Sufi]] masters famous for their extatic practices (Sîdî `Ali Ben Hamdûch or Sîdî Al-Darqâwî). More largely, the actual [[trance]] [[ritual]] of the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] seems to have been establishes progressively through the centuries under triple influences : [[Sufism]], [[animist]] beliefs from pre-Islamic age and urban arab poetry, like [[Malhun]]. <br />In general Aïssâwa Morrocans stand out of deep intellectual and philosophical speculations about [[Sufism]], they prefer to attach a great importance to the [[technical]] and [[esthetic]] aspect of their music, litanies, poetries and ritual dances. They like to consider their ceremony as a space of safeguard of various artistic elements, [[symbolic system]], religious and historic of the Moroccan culture. |
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==The Issawa trance ritual: origins and symbolism== |
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== The professionalisation of the Aïssâwa musicians == |
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In Morocco, the ceremonies of the Issawa brotherhood take the form of domestic nightly rituals (known as "night", ''lila''), organized mainly by Imam Shaykh Boulila (Master of the night), at the request of female believers.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} |
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Since the beginning of the [[1990s]] appears in [[Morocco]] a professionalisation of the trade of ritual musician and a marketing of [[crowned]], phenomenon maintained by the rather favorable attitude the authorities with the [[moonlighting]] and the parallel economy. In this context the Aïssâwa orchestras allow the Morrocans to stage to the actual difficult socio economic situation. Indeed, these confreric orchestras set up a [[moonlighting]] which makes it possible to define a collective interest and to solve new forms of assumption of economic and social responsibility. Today it’s by the commercial diffusion of the musical [[Sufi]] musics, songs, [[psalms]] (during weddings, festivals, commercials recordings etc) and the trade related to [[crowned]] ([[divination]], [[exorcism]] etc.) that the Aïssâwa members live their [[social integration]]. This phenomenon causes, on the one hand, the appearance of new [[aesthetic]] standards (adaptation of the mysticals [[psalms]] from the point of view of commercial recordings and concerts), and, on the other hand, the loss of the original [[sufi]] [[doctrine]]. As, it is clear as the professionalisation causes a severe competition between the orchestras which deteriorates the social link between the disciples. |
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As the Aissawa are supposed to bring to people blessings ("[[barakah]]"), reasons for organizing a ceremony are varied and include celebration of a Muslim festivity, wedding, birth, circumcision, or exorcism, the search for a cure for illness or to make contact with the divine through the [[Religious ecstasy|''extase'']]. Rituals have standardized phases among all the Aissawa orchestras. These include mystical recitations of Sufi [[litanies]] and the singing of spiritual poems along with exorcisms, and collective dances. |
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== The writings about Aïssâwa == |
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Many past and contemporary researches were interested about Aïssâwa, this [[brotherhood]] seems to be of particular interest from the point of view of a study of contours of the [[religious]] in a [[Muslim]] society. The former writings on the [[brotherhood]] are in [[French language|French]] and [[Arabic]] languages. The first Arab writings concerning Aïssâwa are [[biographical]] and [[hagiographic]] collections written between [[14th]] and [[16th century]] by the Moroccan biographers like Al-Ghazali, Ibn `Askar, [[Leo Africanus|Al-Fassi]], Al-Mahdi and [[Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kittani|Al-Kettani]]. These texts, which can be handwritten or printed, inform us on the one hand of the [[genealogical]] and [[Spirituality|spiritual]] filiation of the founder of the order, and, on the other hand, the innumerable wonders supposed report to be realized by him for the benefit of his sympathizers. The contemporary Arab authors who studied the subject are Daoui, Al-Malhouni and Aïssâwî, which is the current ''mezwâr'' of the [[brotherhood]] in person. Those endeavour to put in perspective the [[Sufi]] order in the cultural and religious tradition of [[Morocco]] by the study of the biography of the founder, his spiritual doctrine and the poetic and [[liturgical]] texts. The first French writings on Aïssâwa appears in the end of the [[19th century]] following the installation of the [[colonial]] administration in the [[Maghreb]]. The majority of the authors (at the same time [[anthropologists]] and [[sociologists]]) of this time are French. There were Pierre-Jacques André, Alfred Bel, René Brunel, Xavier Depont and Octave Coppolani, Emile Dermenghem, Edmond Doutté, George Drague, Roger Tourneau, louis Rinn (chief of the Central Service of the indigenous Affairs to the Government General in Algeria at the end of the 19th century), [[Louis Massignon]] and Edouard Michaux-Bellaire. These last three authors were military officers of the Scientific expedition of the Administration of the Indigenous Affairs and their writings are published in the Moroccan Files and the Review of the Muslim World. Among all these French authors, let us note the presence of a [[Finland|Finnish]] [[anthropologist]], [[Edward Westermarck]], whose various works are devoted to the analysis of the system of belief and [[ritual]] in [[Morocco]]. Except these authors with the scientific approach, in [[Morocco]] and [[Algeria]] (there has not existed, for this time and so far, no study devoted to Aïssâwa in [[Tunisia]]), the ritual practices of Aïssâwa draw the attention and disturb considerably the western observers at the beginning of the [[19th century]]. The [[brotherhood]] is evoked here and there in medical works, [[monographs]], schoolbooks, paintings, tests or accounts of voyages. These various writings transmit texts to the always passion style to us where the contempt for this type of religiosity is recurring. The [[Spirituality|spiritual]] dimension of the brotherhood of Aïssâwa at that time is never approached, except by Emile Dermenghem in the famous ''Le culte des saints dans l'Islam Maghrebin'' (Paris, 1951). Let us recall that these texts of then can only very seldom be neutral. By allotting a non-''muslim'' and ''archaic'' seal to some [[brotherhoods]] (like Aïssâwa but also Hamadcha and G[[naoua]]), these writings legitimate in a way the French prerogatives on the [[Maghreb]]. |
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Ludic aspects of the ceremony are attested to by the participants' laughter, songs, and dances, alongside ecstatic emotional demonstrations, which may feature crying and tears. At the [[symbolic system]] level, the ceremony represents the initiatory advance of the Sufi on an ascending mystical voyage towards God and the Prophet, then the final return to Earth. This odyssey passes through the world of human beings and that of the [[jinn]] to culminate in the higher spheres, where the human meets the divine. |
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== Contemporary scientific researches == |
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Some authors of religious history (Jeanmaire) and [[ethnomusicology]] (Gilbert Mullet, Andre Boncourt) are interested as of [[1950s]] and until today in Aïssâwa. It is only after the independence of [[Morocco]] ([[1956]]) and [[Algeria]] ([[1962]]) that contemporary [[social sciences]] consider the subject. Very many articles (Belhaj, Daoui, Hanai, Nabti, Andezian) and [[thesis]] (Al Malhouni, Boncourt, Lahlou, El Abar, Sagir Janjar, Nabti) or [[ethnographic]] movies have studied the [[ritual]] practices of Aïssawa in [[Morocco]]. |
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According to Aissawa lore, this ceremony was not established nor even practised at the time of ''Chaykh Al-Kamil''. Some members of the brotherhood believe that it emerged in the 17th century at the instigation of Aissawî disciple Sîdî `Abderrahman Tarî Chentrî. Alternatively, it may have appeared in the 18th century under the influence of Moroccan Sufi masters Sîdî `Ali Ben Hamdûch or Sîdî Al-Darqawî, who were both well known for their ecstatic practices. |
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== New approaches and prospects == |
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About the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] and [[Sufism]] in Algeria, the great work of Sossie Andezian is essential and impossible to circumvent. In her book ''The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence'' (2001), Andezian analyzes the processes of réinvention of ritual acts in a context of sociopolitic movements in [[Algeria]]. Her reflexion leads to a dynamic vision of the [[religious]] and [[mystical]] [[rites]] while highlighting the evolution of the links that people, marginalized in the religious sphere, maintains with the official and textual religious institutions. Continuing the reflexion of Andezian, Mehdi Nabti conducted an investigation inside the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] in [[Morocco]]. His [[thesis]] of [[doctorate]] ''The Aïssâwa brotherhood in urban area in Morocco. The socials and rituals aspects of modern sufism'' appears like a significant contribution to the socio-anthropology on the current [[Maghreb]]. Nabti shows the complex modalities of the inscription of the brotherhood in a Moroccan society leaded by an authoritative government (which try timidly to be liberalized), an endemic [[unemployment]], the development of [[tourism]] and the progress of political [[islamism]]. While immersing himself as ritual musician within the Aïssâwa orchestras, Mehdi Nabti renews the knowledges about [[Sufism]] and brings invaluable facts on the structure of the [[brotherhood]], the [[ritual]] and the diverses logics of affiliation to a religious traditional organization in a modern [[muslim]] society. His work, which offers a remarkable [[iconographic]] description, musical scores pointing [[esotericism]] [[symbolism]] and a DVD documentary, is the greatest sum of knowledge which we currently have on the subject. Mehdi Nabti is also the coleader with Haj Azedine Bettahi of a fusion music orchestra - [http://myspace.com/aissawaniyya Aïssâwaniyya] - with brings togather french jazzmen and Aïssâwa musicians. The band plays in concert and gives masterclasses. |
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More broadly, the actual trance ritual of the Aissawa brotherhood seems to have been established progressively through the centuries under the three influences of Sufism, pre-Islamic [[animist]] beliefs and urban Arab melodic poetry such as the [[Malhun]]. |
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== Arabic bibliography == |
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* AL-GHAZALI, ''Al-Mukhtassâr'' (1550) |
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Aissawa Moroccans generally avoid deep intellectual and philosophical speculations about Sufism, preferring to attach greater importance to the technical and aesthetic aspects of their music, litanies, poetry and ritual dances. They like to consider their ceremonial space as a safe haven for various artistic elements, for their symbolic system, as well as for the religious traditions of Moroccan culture. |
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* IBN ‘ASKAR, ''Dawhat al-Nâchir'' (1577) |
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* AL-FASSI, ''Ibtihâj al-qulûb'' (no date) |
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==Professionalization of Aissawa musicians== |
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* AL-MAHDI, ''Mumatî’ al-asmâ'' (1336) |
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{{Infobox musical artist |
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* [[Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kittani|Al-Kettani]], ''Salâwat al-anfâs'' (1316) |
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| name = Issawa ceremony |
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* DAOUI, ''Mawassim Chaykh al-kâmil baïya al-aws wa al-yawn'' (1994) |
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| image = Aissawa Fes Morocco.event traditional folklore DSC03881.jpg |
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* AL MALHOUNI, ''Adwae ‘ala tasawwuf bî al-maghrib : tarîqa al-Aïsssâwiyya mamuzâjan. Min khilâl chi’r al-malhûn, al-hikâya cha‘biya sufiya, al-muradadât chafâhiya, ‘awayd turuqiyyin.'' (2003) |
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| image_size = 300px |
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* AISSAWI AL-CHAYKH AL-KAMIL, ''Sîdî Muhammad ben Aïssa. Tarîqa wa zâwiya wa istimrariyya' (2004) |
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| genre = Issawa Moussem at Moulay Idriss Zerhoun |
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| years_active = <!-- {{start date|YYYY}}–{{end date|YYYY}} (or –present) --> |
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| website = {{URL|http://confrerieaissawa.free.fr/}} |
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}} |
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The early 1990s saw the professionalization of ritual music, which affected both the musicians and their market. This change was possible because the authorities looked on moonlighting and the underground economy favorably. In this context, the Aissawa orchestras exhibit trends that are otherwise difficult to spot in the Moroccan economy. The brotherhood orchestras' moonlighting created a network which makes it possible to define a collective interest, and to test new assumptions regarding economic and social responsibility. |
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Today, through the commercial diffusion of Sufi music, songs, psalms (including during weddings and festivals as well as commercials recordings) and the trade related to crowned [[divination]] and exorcism, the Aissawa members establish [[social integration]]. Although this phenomenon causes the appearance of new aesthetic standards through more commercial adaptations of mystical psalms, it also leads to the loss of original Sufi doctrines through severe competition between musicians which in turn degrades the social link between the disciples. |
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==Commentaries on the Aissawa== |
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Many past and contemporary researchers have shown an interest in the Aissawa, particularly from the point of view of studying the religious contours of a Muslim society. Former commentaries on the brotherhood were written in French and Arabic with the first Arab examples being biographical and hagiographic collections compiled between the 14th and 16th century by Moroccan biographers such as Al-Ghazali, Ibn `Askar, [[Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi|Al-Fassi]], Al-Mahdi and [[Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kittani|Al-Kettani]]. These texts, which may be handwritten or printed, provide information on the genealogical and spiritual affiliations of the founder of the order, while at the same time enumerating the numerous wonders he realized for the benefit of his sympathizers. Contemporary Arab authors who have studied this topic include Daoui, Al-Malhouni and Aissawî, who are the current ''mezwar'' of the brotherhood in person. These endeavour to put in perspective the Sufi order in the cultural and religious tradition of Morocco through the study of the biography of the founder, and his spiritual doctrine alongside poetic and [[liturgical]] texts. |
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The first French writings on the Aissawa appeared at the end of the 19th century following the installation of [[Colonialism|colonial]] administration in the [[Maghreb]]. The majority of the authors, who were also anthropologists and sociologists, were at that time French and included Pierre-Jacques André, Alfred Bel, René Brunel, Octave Depont and [[Xavier Coppolani]], Emile Dermenghem, [[Edmond Doutté]], George Drague, Roger Tourneau, Louis Rinn (chief of the Central Service of the indigenous Affairs to the Government General in Algeria at the end of the 19th century), [[Louis Massignon]] and Edouard Michaux-Bellaire. These last three authors were military officers with the scientific expedition of the Administration of Indigenous Affairs and their writings are published in the Moroccan Files and the Review of the Muslim World. Among all these French authors, there was also the [[Finland|Finnish]] anthropologist [[Edward Westermarck]], whose various works are devoted to an analysis of the system of belief and ritual in Morocco. |
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Excepting those authors with a scientific approach, in Morocco and Algeria (to date there has been no study devoted to the Aissawa in Tunisia), the ritual practices of Aissawa drew the attention of and considerably disturbed western observers at the beginning of the 19th century. The brotherhood is evoked here and there in medical works, monographs, schoolbooks, paintings, tests or accounts of voyages. These various writings show a recurring passionate contempt for this type of religiosity. Spiritual dimensions of the brotherhood of Aissawa at that time were never examined, other than by Emile Dermenghem in his acclaimed ''Le culte des saints dans l'Islam Maghrebin'' (Paris, 1951). Other texts were only very seldom neutral. By attaching a non-''Muslim'' and ''archaic'' label to some brotherhoods (such as the Aissawa but also the Hamadcha and [[Gnaoua]]), these writings served to legitimize French prerogatives in the Maghreb. |
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''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam|The New Encyclopedia of Islam]]'' reports that "the scholar of religions, [[Mircea Eliade]], guided by [[Van Gennep]], wrote the observation that the Aissawa are in fact a ''Maennerbund'', that is, a [[lycanthropy|lycanthropic]] secret society. In other words, [[werewolf|werewolves]]."<ref name="encyc_islam">{{cite book |title=The New Encyclopedita of Islam |last=Cyril |first=Glassé |year=2008 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanhan, MD |isbn=978-0-7425-6296-7 |pages=34–35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D7tu12gt4JYC&q=aissawa&pg=PA34 |access-date=November 4, 2009}}</ref> An 1882 ''New York Times'' article, reprinting an account from ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', reports lycanthropy and [[self-injury]] during an Aissawa ritual in [[Kairouan]]: |
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<blockquote>[O]ne of the Tunisian soldiers ... seized a sword and began to lacerate his stomach. The blood flowed freely, and he imitated all the time the cries and movements of the camel. We soon had a wolf, a bear, a hyena, a jackal, a leopard, and a lion.... A large bottle was broken up and eagerly devoured.... Twenty different tortures were going on in twenty different parts of the hall."<ref name="nyt_1882-02-12">{{cite news | title=The Aissaouia--Their Horrible Rites; Kairwan |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1882/02/12/106241608.pdf |newspaper=New York Times |location=New York |issn=0362-4331 |date=February 12, 1882 |page=4 |access-date=November 4, 2009}}</ref></blockquote> |
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==Contemporary scientific research== |
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Some authors of religious history (Jeanmaire) and [[ethnomusicology]] (Gilbert Mullet and Andre Boncourt) became interested in the Aissawa in the 1950s and remain so to this day. It was only after Moroccan and Algerian independence since the 1960s that contemporary social scientists began to consider the subject. Many articles (Belhaj, Daoui, Hanai, Nabti and Andezian) and theses (Al Malhouni, Boncourt, Lahlou, El Abar, Sagir Janjar and Nabti) as well as ethnographic movies have studied the ritual practices of Aissawa in Morocco. |
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==New approaches and prospects== |
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An analysis of the work by Sossie Andezian regarding the Aissawa brotherhood and Sufism in Algeria, is considered essential and impossible to circumvent.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} In her book ''The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence'' (2001), Andezian analyzes the processes of reinvention of ritual acts in the context of sociopolitical movements in Algeria. Her reflection leads to a dynamic vision of the religious and mystical rites while highlighting the evolution of the links that people, marginalized in the religious sphere, maintain with the official and textual religious institutions. Continuing the reflexions of Andezian, Mehdi Nabti conducted an investigation inside the Aissawa brotherhood in Morocco in his doctoral thesis entitled ''The Aissawa brotherhood in urban areas of Morocco: the social and ritual aspects of modern sufism'', which is considered a significant contribution to the socio-anthropology of the current Maghreb.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}} Nabti shows the complex modalities of the inscription of the brotherhood in a Moroccan society led by an authoritative government (which try timidly to be liberalized), endemic unemployment, the development of tourism and the progress of political Islamism. While immersing himself as a ritual musician within the Aissawa orchestras, Mehdi Nabti casts new light on knowledge of Sufism and brings invaluable facts on the structure of the brotherhood and its rituals as well as the diverse logic behind affiliation to a traditional religious organization in a modern Muslim society. His work, which offers an iconographic description of musical scores pointing to esoteric symbolism and a DVD documentary, is the greatest sum of knowledge currently available on the subject.{{Who|date=February 2010}} Mehdi Nabti is also the leader of the Aissawaniyya Orchestra, which brings together French jazzmen and Aissawa musicians. The band plays concerts all over the world and also conducts master classes. |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==Further reading== |
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===Arabic language bibliography=== |
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* [[Ahmed al-Ghazzal]], ''Al-Nur al-Khamil'' |
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* [[Abu Abdallah ibn Askar]] : ''Dawhat Al-nachir li mhassin man kana bi Al-maghrib min machaykh al-garn al'achir'', ed. : 2. Rabat. 1976. (On the excellent virtues of the sheikhs of the Maghreb in the 10th century, translated in French by A. Graulle, 1913) |
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* [[Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi]] (1631–1685), ''Ibtihaj al-qulub bi khabar al-Shaykh Abi al-Mahasin wa wa shaykhihi al-Majdhub'' |
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* [[Mohammed al-Mahdi al-Fasi]], ''Mumatî’ al-asma'' |
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* [[Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kittani|Al-Kettani]], ''Salawat al-anfas'' (1898) |
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* AISSAWI AL-CHAYKH AL-KAMIL, ''Sîdî Muhammad ben Aissa. Tarîqa wa zawiya wa istimrariyya'' (2004) |
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===French language bibliography=== |
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== French Bibliography == |
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* ANDEZIAN, ''Expériences du divin dans l’Algérie contemporaine'' (2001) |
* ANDEZIAN, ''Expériences du divin dans l’Algérie contemporaine'' (2001) |
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* ANDRE, ''Contribution à l'étude des confréries religieuses musulmanes '' (1956) |
* ANDRE, ''Contribution à l'étude des confréries religieuses musulmanes '' (1956) |
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* BEL, '' La religion musulmane en Berbérie : esquisse d'histoire et de sociologie religieuses'' (1938) |
* BEL, '' La religion musulmane en Berbérie : esquisse d'histoire et de sociologie religieuses'' (1938) |
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* BELHAJ, ''La possession et les aspects |
* BELHAJ, ''La possession et les aspects théatraux chez les Aissaouas d’Afrique du Nord'' (1996) |
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* BONCOURT, ''Rituel et musique chez les 'Isawa citadins du Maroc'' (1980) |
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* BRUNEL, ''Essai sur la confrérie religieuse des Aïssaouas au Maroc'' (1926) |
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* DEPONT & COPPOLANI, ''Les confréries religieuses musulmanes'' (1897) |
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* DERMENGHEM, ''Le Culte des saints dans l’Islam maghrébin'' (1954) |
* DERMENGHEM, ''Le Culte des saints dans l’Islam maghrébin'' (1954) |
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** Essai sur la Hadra des |
** ''Essai sur la Hadra des Aissaoua d’Algérie'' (1951) |
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* DOUTTE, ''Magie et religion en Afrique du Nord'' (1908) |
* DOUTTE, ''Magie et religion en Afrique du Nord'' (1908) |
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* DRAGUE, ''Esquisse d’histoire religieuse au Maroc. Confréries et Zaouias'' (1950) |
* DRAGUE, ''Esquisse d’histoire religieuse au Maroc. Confréries et Zaouias'' (1950) |
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* ELABAR, '' Musique, rituels et confrérie au Maroc : les |
* ELABAR, '' Musique, rituels et confrérie au Maroc : les ‘Issawa, les Hamadcha et les Gnawa'' (2005) |
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* JEANMAIRE, ''Dionysos'' (1951) |
* JEANMAIRE, ''Dionysos'' (1951) |
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* MASSIGNON, ''Enquête sur les corporations musulmanes d’artisans et de commerçants au Maroc'' (1925) |
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* LAHLOU, ''Croyances et manifestations religieuses au Maroc : le cas de Meknès'' (1986) |
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* LE TOURNEAU, ''Fès avant le protectorat : Étude économique et sociale d'une ville de l’Occident musulman, 1949. La vie quotidienne à Fès en 1900'' (1965) |
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* MASSIGNON, ''Enquête sur les corporations musulmanes d’artisans et de commerçants au Maroc'' (1925) |
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* MICHAUX-BELAIRE, ''Les confréries religieuses au Maroc'' (1927) |
* MICHAUX-BELAIRE, ''Les confréries religieuses au Maroc'' (1927) |
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* NABTI, ''La confrérie des |
* NABTI, ''La confrérie des Aissawa en milieu urbain. Les pratiques rituelles et sociales du mysticisme contemporain.'' (2007) |
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** ''Soufisme, métissage culturel et commerce du sacré. Les |
** ''Soufisme, métissage culturel et commerce du sacré. Les Aissawa marocains dans la modernité'' (2007) |
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** ''La lîla des |
** ''La lîla des Aissawa du Maroc, interprétation symbolique et contribution sociale'' (2006) |
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* RINN, ''Marabouts et Khouan, étude sur l’Islam en Algérie'' (1884.) |
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* ROUGET, ''La musique et la transe, '' (1951) |
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* SAGHIR JANJAR, ''Expérience du sacré chez la confrérie religieuse marocaine des Isawa : contribution à l'étude de quelques aspects socio-culturels de la mystique musulmane'', 1984. |
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* WESTERMARCK, ''Les cérémonies du Mariage au Maroc'' (1921) |
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**''Survivances païennes dans la civilisation mahométane'' (1935) |
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== |
===English language bibliography=== |
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* ANDEZIAN, ''The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence'' (2001) |
* ANDEZIAN, ''The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence'' (2001) |
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* ROUGET, ''music and trance'' (1951) |
* ROUGET, ''music and trance'' (1951) |
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* TRIMINGHAM, ''The Sufi orders in Islam'' (1998) |
* TRIMINGHAM, ''The Sufi orders in Islam'' (1998) |
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* WESTERMARCK, ''Ritual and belief in Morocco'' (1926) |
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== |
==External links== |
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* Some of the |
* Some of the research of Mehdi Nabti about the Aissawa in Morocco : [http://confrerieaissawa.free.fr/ Aissawa Brotherhood] |
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* [http://www.elaissaouiarzew.org Official website of the Aissawa brotherhood in Algeria] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805164726/http://elaissaouiarzew.org/ |date=2020-08-05 }} |
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* Muhammad "Bel Haj" Ben Guaddane (Aissawa of Meknes) on [[MySpace|Myspace]] [http://myspace.com/aissawa myspace.com/aissawa] |
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* [http://www.marocaudio.com/index.php?page=1&p=Aissawa Aissawa Music Streaming Collection in Morocco] |
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* Aissawaniyya on [[MySpace|Myspace]] [http://myspace.com/aissawaniyya myspace.com/aissawaniyya] |
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* [http://drumface.wordpress.com/chicago-aissawa/ Chicago Aissawa website with links to music, videos and articles] |
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* The official website of the Aïssâwa [[brotherhood]] in [[Algeria]] : [http://www.elaissaouiarzew.org www.elaissaouiarzew.org] |
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* Aissawa Music Streaming Collection in [[Morocco]] : [http://www.marocaudio.com/index.php?page=1&p=Aissawa at marocaudio.com] |
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{{Sufi}} |
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{{Zawiyas in Algeria}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:Sufi orders]] |
[[Category:Sufi orders]] |
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[[Category:Sufism in Morocco]] |
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[[Category:Moroccan culture]] |
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[[Category:Sufi music]] |
[[Category:Sufi music]] |
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[[Category:Meknes]] |
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[[Category:Islam in Morocco]] |
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[[Category:Moroccan Sufi orders]] |
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[[ar:الطريقة العيساوية]] |
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Revision as of 13:57, 29 February 2024
Founder | |
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Mohamed ben Issa | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Maghreb |
Part of a series on Islam Sufism |
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Islam portal |
Part of a series on Sunni Islam |
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Islam portal |
The Isawiyya (also Aissawa, Issawa, Aissaoua, Issaoua, Arabic: الطريقة العيساوية) is a religious Islamic mystical[1] brotherhood founded in Meknes, Morocco, by Sheikh al-Kamil Mohamed al-Hadi ben Issa (or Aissa) (1465–1526), best known as the Shaykh Al-Kamil, or "Perfect Sufi Master". The terms Aissawiyya (`Isawiyya) and Aissawa (`Isawa), derive from the name of the founder, and respectively designate the brotherhood (tariqa, literally: "way") and its disciples (fuqara, sing. to fakir, literally: "poor").
They are known for their spiritual performances, which generally comprise group recitation of religious psalms, accompanied by the use of the oboe ghaita (similar to the mizmar or zurna) and polyrhythmic percussion.
Complex ceremonies, including symbolic dances to bring the participants to ecstatic trance, are held by the Aissawa in private during domestic ritual nights (lîla-s), and in public during celebrations of cultural festivals and pilgrimages, called moussem-s. Other occasions are religious festivities, such as the Eid holidays or mawlid, celebration of the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Founder of the brotherhood: Muhammad Ben Issa
Some details regarding Ben Issa remain unknown. He has a hagiography that projects the image of a Sufi master and legendary ascetic of considerable spiritual influence. Ben Issa built his own mausoleum in the monastery or Zaouia in the city of Meknes. This is now a destination for his modern followers to visit and pray while participating in individual or collective acts of piety. Ben Issa was initiated into Sufism by three masters of the tariqa Shadhiliyya/Jazuliyya: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad Al-Hariti (Meknes), Abdelaziz al-Tebaa (Marrakesh) and Muhammad as-Saghir as-Sahli (Fès).
Spiritual doctrine
The spiritual doctrine of the Issawa follows the earlier mystical tradition of the tariqa Shadhiliyya/Jazuliyya. This religious teaching first appeared in 15th century Marrakesh and is the most orthodox mystical method to appear in the western region of North Africa known as the Maghreb.
Issawa disciples are taught to follow the instruction of their founder by adhering to Sunni Islam and practising additional psalms including the long prayer known as "Glory to the Eternal" (Al-hizb Subhan Al-Da `im).
The original Issawa doctrine makes no mention of ecstatic or ritual exercises such as music and dance.
The spiritual centre in Meknes
The Zaouia or centre in Meknes is the main spiritual centre of the Issawa brotherhood. Founded by Muhammad Ben Issa at the end of the 15th century, construction resumed three centuries later under sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah. Often renovated by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs and maintained by the municipal services, this is the center of the brotherhood's international network. The site is open to the public all year round and is the location of the tombs of founder Shaykh al-Kamil, his disciple Abu ar-Rawayil, and the alleged son of the founder, Issa Al-Mehdi.
International growth
Issawa's international growth began in the 18th century. From Morocco it has spawned organizations in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Outside these countries, there is Issawiyya practice without immediate access to Issawa institutions, as in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the USA and Canada. There is a building movement in the United States, focused primarily in Chicago.[citation needed]
Current situation
Theoretically, the brotherhood's network is led from the mother-monastery in Meknes by direct biological descendants of Muhammad Ben Issa. The leader is currently Sidi Allal al-Issawi, a teacher and member of the League of Oulemas of Morocco and Senegal, as well as a poet and historian. In Morocco, the brotherhood – the musicians together with their rituals and music – currently enjoy a particular vogue.[citation needed] The basic cell of the religious order in Morocco is the team (ta `ifa), which takes the form of a traditional musical orchestra with twenty to fifty disciples.
Since a decision taken in the 17th century by the mother-monastery, groups of musicians are placed under the authority of a delegate (muqaddem). There are currently orchestras of the brotherhood across Morocco, but they are especially numerous in the towns of Meknes Fes and Sale, under the authority of the master Haj Azedine Bettahi, who is a well-known Sufi musician.
As leader of the muqaddem-s, Haj Azedine Bettahi has under his authority the following individuals:
- Haj Mohamed Ben Bouhama
- Haj Muhammad 'Azzam
- Haj Said El Guissy
- Haj Said Berrada
- Abdeljelil Al Aouam
- 'Abdelatif Razini
- 'Adnan Chouni
- 'Omar 'Alawi
- 'Abou Lhaz Muhammad
- 'Abdallah Yaqoubi
- Muhammad Ben Hammou
- Haj Hussein Lbaghmi
- Idriss Boumaza
- Haj 'Abdelhak Khaldun
- Muhammad Ben Chabou
- Mohcine Arafa Bricha
- Moustafa Barakat
- Nabil Ben Slimane
- Hassan Amrani
- Youssef 'Alami
- Youssef Semlali
- 'Abdellah al-Mrabet
- Benaissa Ghouali
- Djamel Sahli
- Nadjib Mekdia
- Lounis Ghazali
- Djamel Blidi
- Essaid Haddadou
- Mustapha Ben Ouahchia
- Hadj Ali Al Badawi
- Cheikhuna Hakim Meftah Al Bedri
- Abdelillah Berrahma
All Issawa groups lead ceremonies that mix mystical invocation with exorcisms and trance-inducing group dances.
The Issawa trance ritual: origins and symbolism
In Morocco, the ceremonies of the Issawa brotherhood take the form of domestic nightly rituals (known as "night", lila), organized mainly by Imam Shaykh Boulila (Master of the night), at the request of female believers.[citation needed]
As the Aissawa are supposed to bring to people blessings ("barakah"), reasons for organizing a ceremony are varied and include celebration of a Muslim festivity, wedding, birth, circumcision, or exorcism, the search for a cure for illness or to make contact with the divine through the extase. Rituals have standardized phases among all the Aissawa orchestras. These include mystical recitations of Sufi litanies and the singing of spiritual poems along with exorcisms, and collective dances.
Ludic aspects of the ceremony are attested to by the participants' laughter, songs, and dances, alongside ecstatic emotional demonstrations, which may feature crying and tears. At the symbolic system level, the ceremony represents the initiatory advance of the Sufi on an ascending mystical voyage towards God and the Prophet, then the final return to Earth. This odyssey passes through the world of human beings and that of the jinn to culminate in the higher spheres, where the human meets the divine.
According to Aissawa lore, this ceremony was not established nor even practised at the time of Chaykh Al-Kamil. Some members of the brotherhood believe that it emerged in the 17th century at the instigation of Aissawî disciple Sîdî `Abderrahman Tarî Chentrî. Alternatively, it may have appeared in the 18th century under the influence of Moroccan Sufi masters Sîdî `Ali Ben Hamdûch or Sîdî Al-Darqawî, who were both well known for their ecstatic practices.
More broadly, the actual trance ritual of the Aissawa brotherhood seems to have been established progressively through the centuries under the three influences of Sufism, pre-Islamic animist beliefs and urban Arab melodic poetry such as the Malhun.
Aissawa Moroccans generally avoid deep intellectual and philosophical speculations about Sufism, preferring to attach greater importance to the technical and aesthetic aspects of their music, litanies, poetry and ritual dances. They like to consider their ceremonial space as a safe haven for various artistic elements, for their symbolic system, as well as for the religious traditions of Moroccan culture.
Professionalization of Aissawa musicians
Issawa ceremony | |
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Background information | |
Genres | Issawa Moussem at Moulay Idriss Zerhoun |
Website | confrerieaissawa |
The early 1990s saw the professionalization of ritual music, which affected both the musicians and their market. This change was possible because the authorities looked on moonlighting and the underground economy favorably. In this context, the Aissawa orchestras exhibit trends that are otherwise difficult to spot in the Moroccan economy. The brotherhood orchestras' moonlighting created a network which makes it possible to define a collective interest, and to test new assumptions regarding economic and social responsibility.
Today, through the commercial diffusion of Sufi music, songs, psalms (including during weddings and festivals as well as commercials recordings) and the trade related to crowned divination and exorcism, the Aissawa members establish social integration. Although this phenomenon causes the appearance of new aesthetic standards through more commercial adaptations of mystical psalms, it also leads to the loss of original Sufi doctrines through severe competition between musicians which in turn degrades the social link between the disciples.
Commentaries on the Aissawa
Many past and contemporary researchers have shown an interest in the Aissawa, particularly from the point of view of studying the religious contours of a Muslim society. Former commentaries on the brotherhood were written in French and Arabic with the first Arab examples being biographical and hagiographic collections compiled between the 14th and 16th century by Moroccan biographers such as Al-Ghazali, Ibn `Askar, Al-Fassi, Al-Mahdi and Al-Kettani. These texts, which may be handwritten or printed, provide information on the genealogical and spiritual affiliations of the founder of the order, while at the same time enumerating the numerous wonders he realized for the benefit of his sympathizers. Contemporary Arab authors who have studied this topic include Daoui, Al-Malhouni and Aissawî, who are the current mezwar of the brotherhood in person. These endeavour to put in perspective the Sufi order in the cultural and religious tradition of Morocco through the study of the biography of the founder, and his spiritual doctrine alongside poetic and liturgical texts.
The first French writings on the Aissawa appeared at the end of the 19th century following the installation of colonial administration in the Maghreb. The majority of the authors, who were also anthropologists and sociologists, were at that time French and included Pierre-Jacques André, Alfred Bel, René Brunel, Octave Depont and Xavier Coppolani, Emile Dermenghem, Edmond Doutté, George Drague, Roger Tourneau, Louis Rinn (chief of the Central Service of the indigenous Affairs to the Government General in Algeria at the end of the 19th century), Louis Massignon and Edouard Michaux-Bellaire. These last three authors were military officers with the scientific expedition of the Administration of Indigenous Affairs and their writings are published in the Moroccan Files and the Review of the Muslim World. Among all these French authors, there was also the Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck, whose various works are devoted to an analysis of the system of belief and ritual in Morocco.
Excepting those authors with a scientific approach, in Morocco and Algeria (to date there has been no study devoted to the Aissawa in Tunisia), the ritual practices of Aissawa drew the attention of and considerably disturbed western observers at the beginning of the 19th century. The brotherhood is evoked here and there in medical works, monographs, schoolbooks, paintings, tests or accounts of voyages. These various writings show a recurring passionate contempt for this type of religiosity. Spiritual dimensions of the brotherhood of Aissawa at that time were never examined, other than by Emile Dermenghem in his acclaimed Le culte des saints dans l'Islam Maghrebin (Paris, 1951). Other texts were only very seldom neutral. By attaching a non-Muslim and archaic label to some brotherhoods (such as the Aissawa but also the Hamadcha and Gnaoua), these writings served to legitimize French prerogatives in the Maghreb.
The New Encyclopedia of Islam reports that "the scholar of religions, Mircea Eliade, guided by Van Gennep, wrote the observation that the Aissawa are in fact a Maennerbund, that is, a lycanthropic secret society. In other words, werewolves."[2] An 1882 New York Times article, reprinting an account from Blackwood's Magazine, reports lycanthropy and self-injury during an Aissawa ritual in Kairouan:
[O]ne of the Tunisian soldiers ... seized a sword and began to lacerate his stomach. The blood flowed freely, and he imitated all the time the cries and movements of the camel. We soon had a wolf, a bear, a hyena, a jackal, a leopard, and a lion.... A large bottle was broken up and eagerly devoured.... Twenty different tortures were going on in twenty different parts of the hall."[3]
Contemporary scientific research
Some authors of religious history (Jeanmaire) and ethnomusicology (Gilbert Mullet and Andre Boncourt) became interested in the Aissawa in the 1950s and remain so to this day. It was only after Moroccan and Algerian independence since the 1960s that contemporary social scientists began to consider the subject. Many articles (Belhaj, Daoui, Hanai, Nabti and Andezian) and theses (Al Malhouni, Boncourt, Lahlou, El Abar, Sagir Janjar and Nabti) as well as ethnographic movies have studied the ritual practices of Aissawa in Morocco.
New approaches and prospects
An analysis of the work by Sossie Andezian regarding the Aissawa brotherhood and Sufism in Algeria, is considered essential and impossible to circumvent.[citation needed] In her book The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence (2001), Andezian analyzes the processes of reinvention of ritual acts in the context of sociopolitical movements in Algeria. Her reflection leads to a dynamic vision of the religious and mystical rites while highlighting the evolution of the links that people, marginalized in the religious sphere, maintain with the official and textual religious institutions. Continuing the reflexions of Andezian, Mehdi Nabti conducted an investigation inside the Aissawa brotherhood in Morocco in his doctoral thesis entitled The Aissawa brotherhood in urban areas of Morocco: the social and ritual aspects of modern sufism, which is considered a significant contribution to the socio-anthropology of the current Maghreb.[citation needed] Nabti shows the complex modalities of the inscription of the brotherhood in a Moroccan society led by an authoritative government (which try timidly to be liberalized), endemic unemployment, the development of tourism and the progress of political Islamism. While immersing himself as a ritual musician within the Aissawa orchestras, Mehdi Nabti casts new light on knowledge of Sufism and brings invaluable facts on the structure of the brotherhood and its rituals as well as the diverse logic behind affiliation to a traditional religious organization in a modern Muslim society. His work, which offers an iconographic description of musical scores pointing to esoteric symbolism and a DVD documentary, is the greatest sum of knowledge currently available on the subject.[who?] Mehdi Nabti is also the leader of the Aissawaniyya Orchestra, which brings together French jazzmen and Aissawa musicians. The band plays concerts all over the world and also conducts master classes.
References
- ^ Martin Lings, What is Sufism? (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), p.12: "Mystics on the other hand-and Sufism is a kind of mysticism-are by definition concerned above all with 'the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven'".
- ^ Cyril, Glassé (2008). The New Encyclopedita of Islam. Lanhan, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-7425-6296-7. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
- ^ "The Aissaouia--Their Horrible Rites; Kairwan" (PDF). New York Times. New York. February 12, 1882. p. 4. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
Further reading
Arabic language bibliography
- Ahmed al-Ghazzal, Al-Nur al-Khamil
- Abu Abdallah ibn Askar : Dawhat Al-nachir li mhassin man kana bi Al-maghrib min machaykh al-garn al'achir, ed. : 2. Rabat. 1976. (On the excellent virtues of the sheikhs of the Maghreb in the 10th century, translated in French by A. Graulle, 1913)
- Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi (1631–1685), Ibtihaj al-qulub bi khabar al-Shaykh Abi al-Mahasin wa wa shaykhihi al-Majdhub
- Mohammed al-Mahdi al-Fasi, Mumatî’ al-asma
- Al-Kettani, Salawat al-anfas (1898)
- AISSAWI AL-CHAYKH AL-KAMIL, Sîdî Muhammad ben Aissa. Tarîqa wa zawiya wa istimrariyya (2004)
French language bibliography
- ANDEZIAN, Expériences du divin dans l’Algérie contemporaine (2001)
- ANDRE, Contribution à l'étude des confréries religieuses musulmanes (1956)
- BEL, La religion musulmane en Berbérie : esquisse d'histoire et de sociologie religieuses (1938)
- BELHAJ, La possession et les aspects théatraux chez les Aissaouas d’Afrique du Nord (1996)
- DERMENGHEM, Le Culte des saints dans l’Islam maghrébin (1954)
- Essai sur la Hadra des Aissaoua d’Algérie (1951)
- DOUTTE, Magie et religion en Afrique du Nord (1908)
- DRAGUE, Esquisse d’histoire religieuse au Maroc. Confréries et Zaouias (1950)
- ELABAR, Musique, rituels et confrérie au Maroc : les ‘Issawa, les Hamadcha et les Gnawa (2005)
- JEANMAIRE, Dionysos (1951)
- MASSIGNON, Enquête sur les corporations musulmanes d’artisans et de commerçants au Maroc (1925)
- MICHAUX-BELAIRE, Les confréries religieuses au Maroc (1927)
- NABTI, La confrérie des Aissawa en milieu urbain. Les pratiques rituelles et sociales du mysticisme contemporain. (2007)
- Soufisme, métissage culturel et commerce du sacré. Les Aissawa marocains dans la modernité (2007)
- La lîla des Aissawa du Maroc, interprétation symbolique et contribution sociale (2006)
English language bibliography
- ANDEZIAN, The Significance of Sufism in Algeria in the aftermath of Independence (2001)
- ROUGET, music and trance (1951)
- TRIMINGHAM, The Sufi orders in Islam (1998)
External links
- Some of the research of Mehdi Nabti about the Aissawa in Morocco : Aissawa Brotherhood
- Official website of the Aissawa brotherhood in Algeria Archived 2020-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Aissawa Music Streaming Collection in Morocco
- Chicago Aissawa website with links to music, videos and articles