Sufism as the domain of the religious rise and emergence of women
Faced with exclusion from traditional religious functions monopolised by men, women chose another pathway, through direct communication with God gained by the purely individual experience represented by Sufism. In the world of Sufism, the two sexes are equal, women are equal to men in piety and worship, and, according to Muhya-e-dine Ibn' Arabi[1] , the difference between them is dissipated.
Before explaining the major characteristics of women's experience of Sufism in medieval Morocco, we think it useful to pause a moment make some clarifications relating to the presence of Sufi women in the hagiographic texts. This genre of sources relating to Morocco in particular will then enable us to look into the lives of female mystics who worshipped God (Walayi) and their supernatural gifts (Karamate). In this piece of work we shall not attempt to analyse all of the data set out in the table or the content of all the biographies of women in this body of work, but we will try to indicate and put forward a series of observations which seem to us to be useful.
We have here a mysticism dominated by male mystics. The authors of this genre of sources did not exclude women from their works, but one can say that they were cited as exceptions: the four most important hagiographical books from medieval Morocco cite only11 Sufi women among 399 biographies. It should be noted that these sources do not mention all the Sufi women of the period. There are references in the same sources made to women who had a strong presence in their communities but who are not included. Numberous female saints are thus mentioned but do not get a biography. So the author of At-Tachawwuf reports 1000 saints present in Ribat Chakir during a pilgrimage. The same author says that among the Masmuda[2] , out of 27 saints which would have reached the stage of flight, 14 were women. It is also interesting to note that the folk memory of Moroccans yields, in the main, the names of women mystics absent from the hagiographies. Thus it would seem that the memory of female saints based on oral history and practical experience is more reliable than that based on hagiographies written by men.
With regards to geography, many of the biographical notes about female saints palce them in rural and mountainous regions far removed from the big towns. The majority of Sufi women come from the Berber region of the Masmuda [See, if it does not already exist, a map of medieval Morocco in previous HEMED publications]. There was a fortress there, Ribat Chakir[3] , which was the major centre for the development of mysticism in this era. While the towns belonged to the largely conservative jurists, the rural zones were more propitious for woman because they retained certain Berber customs which favoured them.
The majority of Sufi women were not concerned with leaving a written record. There are no works written by Sufi women among the surviving accounts.; perhaps this is a sign of female mysticism. The only text found so far, in spite of doubts about its author, concerns Marian Al-Semlaliyia[4].
If we have not been able to gather information on the female mystics' level of scientific knowledge, it is because we are in a domain where this aspect was not considered as of great importance. Sanctity draws its legitimacy from outside the domain of revealed knowledge; mysticism is founded on hidden knowledge. In popular mysticism, the miracle (karama) and the blessing (baraka) are the most important elements. On the contrary, mastery of science and learning do not constitute conditions for elevation to virtue. In the history of Sufism, illiteracy is a source of sanctity rather than an obstacle to it. Thus, Lalla Muymunah[5] was a prayerful woman who when asked which verses she recited, answered that she did not know any. She just repeated “Maymunah knows God, and God knows Maymunah”. With such simplicity and profound spontaneous faith, Lalla Maymunah represents a model of the illiterate Sufi woman.
The biographies of Sufi women scattered in the hagiographies are of considerable interest: they allow us to follow, on the one hand, the global evolution of the phenomenon of female mysticism and, on the other, the specific aspects of each period in the history of Morocco.
The oldest indication of the phenomenon of female mysticism in Morocco is from the end of the 11th century. However, this phenomenon experienced a burgeoning in the time of the Almohads (12th and 13th centuries), a period of mysticism and warriors amongst the Berbers of the High Atlas and of the propagation of the Sufi movement in Morocco in general. During the course of the Merinid period (from the end of the 13th century to the 15th century) many women exercised great spiritual and social influence. The most notable figure in that time was Aziza Sakssiwa, whose fame, according to Ahmed Ibn Qunfud, went beyond her natal village. She lived among her disciples, women and men together. Several tribes consulted her to resolve various conflicts. In exercising the role of arbiter, Aziza was exceptional in the history of female Sufism in Morocco.
The sources from the end of the middle ages to the beginning of the modern era suggest a fairly important role for women in the Zaouias[6] where they were able to take advantage of somewhere specific to progress in their road to mysticism. Furthermore, women Sufis built their own Zouaias. In the middle of the 16th century, Aisha bint Ahmad al-Idrisiya[7] ran a Zaouia at Chefchaouen, a town in the north west of Morocco. At the beginning of the 17th century Zahra bint Abdullah al-Kush[8] led a Zaouia in Marrakech with a reputation that extended well beyond the town.
The biographies of female Sufis also shed light on certain characteristics of the mysticism of these women at different times. The first appearances of female mysticism are characterised by asceticism, isolation and solitude. This is common to the women saints cited by Al-Tadili and those described by Ibn Qunfoud. Both in the north and in the south of Morocco we find ascetics and illiterates and the same miracles.
The biographies of mystics of the 16th and 17th centuries, on the other hand, are dominated by one of the most frequently occurring figures in mysticism: the 'mad mystic' (majnounates or bahloulates), in ecstasy or even turmoil (majdhubates). These figures are never seen with indifference, making them popular and endowing them with a reputation of sanctity and goodness. The saint Safiyah Labada stank, insulted people and undressed without being chastised, because she seemed mad, but inside, this behaviour made her a mystic; her unintelligible utterances, full of wisdom and understanding, became a mystery for which the community sought an explanation.
The female Sufis in the town of Fez are also described in the biographical work Salwat al-Anfas as absent, errant or mad. This goes against the image of the town in most of the historical texts which present it as a place of science, law and cultural institutions and reflects another model of popular and mystical religiosity. It shows that the town was inhabited by social groups whose religious references were not limited to the Islam of the ulemas (jurists), but who practised other forms of religiosity based on Sufism.
Alongside the mad and the ecstatic, the hagiographic texts show us ordinary Sufi women who claimed a place in the religious arena without, however, abandoning family life. They are often described in very different words from the former: virtuous, pure, perfect, toothsome, submissive, obedient to God, ideal wife dedicated to the service of her husband and children. However, this third model of the female mystic is less well represented than the madwomen and the ascetics who make a bigger impact in the history of Moroccan Sufism. Their extraordinary behaviours and actions give them a more elevated position in the domain of sainthood.
