Female religiosity through the study of different Moroccan medieval sources
Some brief clarification on the subject of the female religious experience. The religious status of women in Islam remains inferior to that of men. The religious domain with respect to religious functions and power remains a masculine monopoly.
The various sources, notably the fatwa[1] , consider women to be inferior in the religious domain. This exegesis establishes a relationship between the presumed inferiority of women and certain verses of the Qu'ran or statements of the Prophet (Hadith[2]) .
The adage that “a woman's reason is as weak as her faith” (Naaqisat'aql wa-din) was commonly used by many medieval Moroccan jurists to affirm the 'ignorance' and 'stupidity', and the 'weakness of spirit' of women, and thus to question their religiosity. In the 14th century, Ibn al-Hajj[3] devoted many pages in his book to vilifying women guilty of spreading blameworthy innovations in his time. Many jurists were convinced that most women's faith was incomplete. They criticised a good many practices which took them away from the Shari'a (Muslim law). According to them, women were ignorant of the fundamental principles of Islam.
This misogynistic view is also reflected in the frequent reminders that women were not eligible for a certain number of functions which God had reserved to men. By virtue of the word preached by the Prophet: “a people who entrusts a woman with authority will never prosper”, women could never be granted official functions; they were excluded from the religious roles played by men such as being imams[4] . The The interdict also applied to any responsibilities in relation to the religious system, such as the functions of the mufti[5] . Similarly, it was forbidden for women to exercise any spiritual function at all, or to carry out rituals such as hallal[6] sacrifice .
The humiliating representation and image was exacerbated when a woman was able to go beyond the norm and occupy a prominent role in the religious domain. To illustrate this issue, we present the case of one of the ancient Berber prophetesses, who is traditionally remebered under the name of Tanfite, Talilte, or Tabnaite, depending on the source. She was a member of the Ghomara[7] tribe in the north-west of Morocco, not far from the town of Tétouan today.
Tanfite offers an example of female leadership in religion in complete contradiction to the female model desired by the jurists; not only did she participate in public affairs but she wielded spiritual power in the tribal environment. Between 925 and 928, her nephew Ha-Mime, whose real name was Abou Mohamed Abdallah ibn Man-Allah Abou Khalaf ben Zeroual[8] ,declared himself a prophet. He planned to create a new religion which was an admixture of ancient Berber beliefs and Muslim influences. Ha-Mime set out a juridico-religious code for this new religion in a book published in Berber which the Ghomara considered sacred and which they compared to the Qu'ran of Muhammed. The geographer Al-Bakri[9] confirmed that Ha-Mime's holy book proclaimed a religion based on three pillars: belief in him, belief in his father Man-Allah, and belief in his aunt Tanfite.
According to the Arab sources, Tanfite attracted her vast number of followers by magic. The tribes in the northern region of Morocco consulted her often as a mediator and asked for her support during wars and periods of crisis. Tanfite was also accused of practising divinatory arts. Some chroniclers depict her in the most contemptuous way; she is described as a satanic priestess (kahina) and a sorceress whose powers of divination conferred on her spiritual authority within the tribe. She is perceived as an agitator who contributed to religious disorder in the whole of north Morocco.Ibn Khaldun[10] affirms that Tanfite and her nephew Ha-Mime enjoyed great renown among the Berbers and that in his time (the second half of the 14th century) the memory of these divines remained alive. Moreover, the name of that family remains in the collective memory of the regions of the Rif today. The tomb of the prophet Ha-Mime's sister Djou is today still a place of pilgrimage for Moroccans who want to devote themselves to magic.
