Iko

 

Published in

Islamic Area Studies Working Paper Series, n. 26, March 2002: 1- 24

Islamic Area Studies Project, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

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ZIYARA TO A PILGRIMAGE CENTER IN MOROCCO :

The case of Sidi Hmad U-Musa (SHM)

 

Abderrahmane LAKHSASSI

Mohammed V University-Agdal, Rabat - Morocco

 

 

 

Although the pilgrimage to Mecca (mawsim al-hajj) each year is one of  the biggest human gathering on earth, for the individual Muslim, it is the most important and the greatest sacred event of his life. During the Ziyara to the Ka'ba, basic religious, political ... ideas,  as well as goods and commodities of all sorts are exchanged by pilgrims coming from different parts of the world. But the annual Hajj to Mecca is not the only place where communication and these kinds of mutual exchange are taking place either annually or periodically  throughout the Muslim world. Saint worshipping is as frequent and as important for the believer as the fifth pillar of Islam. One of the basic characteristic of these phenomena is the fact that such religious gathering, be them "orthodox" and "official" or "heterodox" and "heretical" for others, ignore all kinds of national borders and geographical boundaries. At the same time, it is precisely this feature that makes the taking-place-communication in these religious centers interesting enough and worth studying from a comparative and holistic point of view.

 

         Different sacred places in various parts of the globe have been attracting Human beings from time immemorial. The spiritual requirement for the sacred and the social exigency for being together at the same place appears to be a basic human need for communication and mutual exchange. Like other systems of believes and practices, Islam is no exception. Even the establishment of  nation-states in modern times did not prevent Muslim believers to venerate tombs of holy men and women across established political borders (Abdel-Qader Jilani (d.1166) in Baghdad, Ahmad Tijani (d. 1815) in Fez, Ahmed Ibn Idris (d. 1837) in Arabia …). In spite of the intense efforts of the Wahhabi movement (18th century) to prevent ordinary Muslim to pay a "sacred visit"  to the local, regional, national or supra-national (or, for that matter, even to the tomb of the Prophet of Islam at the beginning of the rising of this movement), believers, from eastern to western parts of the Muslim world, persist in accomplishing, with the same religious fervor, if not with more zeal in some historical periods, the  traditional annual celebration of their venerated saints (Ziyara).

 

I. The Moroccan Case : Sidi Hmad  u-Musa in Tazerwalt

 

In Morocco, this phenomenon is well widespread and profoundly rooted. One indication of its deep-seatedness can be seen in the fact  that even the Jewish Moroccan communities follow the same traditional custom of venerating their own saints (tsadikim). (1) Another sign of this firmly established custom is the use of the solar calendar in the celebration of their hillûla-s (Jewish ziyara). Indeed, being the two ancient communities in North Africa, Berbers and Jews developed the same cultural habits long before the arrival of Islam in North Africa. The relative peaceful coexisting between the two confessional groups made the different indigenous Jewish communities part of the Moroccan cultural and social fabric.  So much so that  Jews and Muslims in Morocco, whether in rural or urban milieus,  shared in common, not only the same way of cooking,   dressing, playing music ... but also the practice of saint veneration. More than that, some Jewish holy men have acquired so much spiritual capital that even Muslim believers pay visits to their sanctuaries. Today, there still exist some local tombs of Jewish saints that are sometimes worshipped by both religious communities. (2)

 

         The case  which interests us here preceded by far  the modern anti-Ziyara political movements such as Wahhabism and its born-dead progeny, Salafism (Islamic Reformism). If Sidi Hmad u-Musa and his sanctuary in south west Morocco belong to what is called popular Sufism (known also as Maraboutism in North Africa), it also preceded what Fazlu-Rahman termed ''neo-Sufism". (3) To illustrate the importance of the  Zawiya of this  Qutb (mystical Axis), suffice here to say that the descendants of the saint were once, one of the fierce political competitors of the present ruling dynasty in Moroccan history. A few kilometers from the sanctuary of the Saint, Ali Bou-Dmi'a (one of the Grand son of SHM) founded his political headquarters and capital, Iligh. Known as Abu-Hassun (d. 1070 / 1659), he defeated and imprisoned the second Alawite sultan, Mulay Sharif ben Ali, at Agadir n' Bou-Dmi'a, in the Tazerwalt valley. Once Mulay Rashid, (the third Alawite sultan) sized power and after the death of Abu Hassun, he took revenge during the reign of the latter's son, Muhammad u-Ali, besieging  and destroying ancient Iligh in 1081 / 1670, two years before his death (al-Soussi 1966 : 227). It was Lhusayn u-Hashem (1810-1886), the 10th ruler of the small kingdom of Tazerwalt who revitalized the House of Iligh as well as the fair-festival of Sidi Hmad U-Musa., anmuggar (plural inmuggarn) in Berber-Tashelhit, and mawsim (pl. mawâsim, French moussem) in Arabic.

 

 

II. Ziyara and Religious Fairs and Festivals  in the Moroccan  Souss

 

The Souss area is enclosed in a semi-circle around the Atlantic ocean, between Agadir in the north  and Wad Noun in the south, with  Taroudant in the North-East, and Tata and Aqqa in the South-East. At the center of this geographical area stands the sanctuary of SHM, the most important place of Ziyara of the Moroccan South, if not one among the biggest venerated one in the whole country. (4)

 

In southwestern Morocco, the main popular religious festivals take place from March through October, i.e. between the end of agricultural harvests and the beginning of the plowing season. We can say without exaggeration that, in the Souss region, there is, during spring and summer seasons, at least one religious festival (anmuggar) every week. Here are some of the most important ones. Important in the sense of being somehow historically related to that of SHM, if not spiritually, at least in terms of trans-Saharan commerce. This caravan trade was, for two centuries, from the time of Ali Bou-Dmi'a (17th c.) to Lhusayn u-Hashem (19th c.), controlled by the House of Iligh five kilometers from the shrine where the now venerated Qutb radiates his protection and blessing for the pauper as well as for the well to do traders and merchants. If the business side of any religious festival provides concrete food for the body, the Ziyara supplies the pilgrim with the desperate spiritual need. In these regular festivals, everything points to the fact that one cannot go without the other as if trade and Ziyara are nothing less than two sides of the same coin.

 

Before focusing on the shrine of SHM, it is worth mentioning some pilgrimage centers in the Souss. During the month of April two anmuggar-s take place in the Ayt Baamran, one at Issig and the other at Asrir. In June and July, we have in Wad Noun two other mawsim-s, that of Laqsabi and Sidi Lghazi. These four celebrations are located on one of the major routes related historically to the western trans Saharan caravan trade. But among these and other religious fairs and festivals (5), anmuggar of Sidi Hmad u-Musa in Tawerwalt that interests us here remains by far a giant among dwarfs. During August of each year it is celebrated with an impressive presence and interference of political authorities at the regional level as well as nationwide. In terms of visitors, apart from local and national pilgrims, Souss immigrants working in Europe constitute a significant portion of those who never miss the event, if not for business, at least for entertainment and certainly for a quick ziyara to the Saint. His blessing (baraka) is desperately needed for sustaining another eleven month round of exile outside the bled.

 

 

III. The Main Characteristics of SHM Festival during August Ziyara

 

How far orthodox Islam succeeds in incorporating local customs and habits in  its fabric and  how local tradition have been made to take Islamic dress are kinds of questions worth raising at this point. The first thing to notice here is that local Islamic celebrations, within which SHM Ziyara falls, and which necessarily go with popular religious festivals, follow the solar system, not the Muslim lunar calendar. The fact the Julian months system is still in use for agrarian purposes suggests not only the pre-Islamic origin of these practices but also their antiquity in Moroccan cultural system. As the Julian calendar is more suitable for agricultural purposes than the lunar one, we find, particularly in rural Morocco, many a celebrations that are related to it. Such is the case that of the beginning of the solar year and of the summer solstice for instance. These ceremonies and others connected with death, birth, rebirth of the land and other special rites such as that of the call for rain  (taghunja) have nothing to do with the canonical prescriptions of orthodox Islam. Saint veneration festivals follow the same calendar and we should not be surprised to see these festivals being regular by following the Julian calendar in spite of being attached to Islamic paradigm. (6)

 

          It is also important to point out the fact that although the Ziyara to the Saint in a strict sense concerns only Muslims, other religious groups, and particularly Jews (until their mass departure from the countryside first and then from Morocco) used to be very important in the commercial dynamic of the festival that goes hand in hand with the ziyara in the vicissitude of the sanctuary. Muslim traders as well as Jewish merchants structured their commercial activities around these various festival imperatives (cf. 2 above). The example given by D. Schroeter, concerning  of Mordekhai Rbîbô of the mellah of Ifrane in the Anti-Atlas is directly related to the Ziyara we are dealing with. (7) Combing religious visit with business activities is another characteristic of these celebrations. In southwestern Morocco, apart from individual Ziyara, there is practically no collective sacred visit without commercial exchange. As these two phenomena are intrinsically  interwoven, they constitute one thing in the individual believer's mind. Indeed, the merchant's schedule was arranged from one festival to the next. So much so that  all these festivals combine pilgrimage with trade, 'transforming the site of the shrine into a fair'. (Schroeter 1988 : 97)

 

More surprising perhaps for the external observer is the ambivalence between the sacred and its. The sacred / anti-sacred antagonism coexist opposite as if they were two faces of the same coin, as if one cannot be meaningful without the existence of the other. The presence of entertainment in the vicissitude of the shrine of a holy man during the festival to his honor is something that does not raise questions for the external observer. But does it for the ordinary Muslim ? It seems not. Even the practice of prostitution apparently does not shock him.  This is what we are inclined to see as the other side of the same coin : the anti-sacred activity. If Ziyara is a spiritual and religious collective behavior which peacefully co-exists with trade during the festival daytime, it also tolerate, especially at night, entertainment, fun and even certain illicit conduct. At some distance from the sanctuary, even prostitution is possible. (8)  In SHM, this phenomenon, whether masculine or feminine,  might be permitted  without being recognized. Enjoying life and having fun at night is part of the intention of a majority of young visitors to these Ziyara places. Whereas religious and commercial activities take place during daytime, the summer anmuggar in Tawerwalt for three consecutive days and nights becomes what might be called a "place that never sleeps". (see the film-video or the outline of its content in appendix 1).

 

It is a common place that any human gathering are a fertile soil for pickpockets and thieves. In spite of being religious manifestations, the inmuggarn are no exception to the rule. More surprising is the fact that security agents can do business and good transactions with their services. Professional robbers, on the other hand, can bribe security officials, either as individuals (Mokhaznis) or as a group of guards (gendarmes) to ignore their presence during the time of the mawsim. In August 1998 anmuggar, a thief was stoned to death in Tazerwalt after trying to steal a woman's purse. The Mokhazni-guard who caught him after the woman's complaint let him go his way around the corner. The crowd, having noticed the guard' s laxity and seen that the thief went unpunished, decided to followed the guilty person and did the dirty job. As the crowed has no head, the man was dead stoned. (9)  The curious thing here is not the fact that "pickpockets love crowd" as it make stealing easier, but rather the fact that persons in charge of security are inclined to do business with their professional job. The current expression in Tashelhit Berber "inza unmuggar" (litterally : "the festival is sold") shows that this social phenomenon is neither new nor unusual, but rather ancient and frequent. During  collective religious and sacred visits (Ziyara) attracting such huge number of persons from all horizons in the same place at the same time, one can expect almost every possible thing to happen. Even political assassination are not being excluded during the moussem. The most notorious one is the assassination of Sidi Hashem, the chief of the House of Iligh himself during the 1825 spring  mawsim by another lineage of Sidi Hmad u-Musa. (Pascon 1982 : 91-111 )

 

 

IV. The Saint and his Political Heirs

 

Sidi Hmad u-Musa would be dead in the year 1563. A Tashelhit Berber poem (Justinard 1925 b : 237-8) constructed his legend around a simple act of charity that owned him the divine grace. He was a simple acrobat spending his time in playing and wandering until he responded one day to an old woman's distress. He suddenly was illuminated and became the highest mystical Axis in the Moroccan South Transmitted on a hagiographic model, and strongly rooted in this kind of oral tradition, his biography is still  alive today. It mixes historical evidences with sequences of sanctity that have been well integrated in the general course of the Moroccan history. Written in a calligraphic form, the most prominent of these acts of divine grace are exposed on a relic near his supposed wooden tablet (talluht ) inside the sanctuary : his acts of divine grace (karamat) start from excess of devotion to military abilities ; they stretch from spiritual and medical healing capacity to magical and alchemical knowledge. He is said for instance to possess the capacity of transforming base to precious metals. Above all, his power of fertilizing that which is sterile, be it natural or biological, is endless.  All these different sanctity attributes converge in an extraordinary and colorful  image of the saint, highly appreciated by the pauper. (Tozy 1993 : 34)

 

      The saint is also said to be the protector of men of learning and particularly clerics (tolba-s). As a matter of fact these religious students organize each year in the month of … a special mawsim called anmuggar n'tolba-s to honor the Saint. Likewise, the minstrels  (Rways ,  sing. Rays),  beg him for blessing and poetical inspiration. These Berber poet-singers consider him also as their patron. Many a minstrel pretend to have paid him a sacred visit (Ziyara) with a sacrificed animal (tighersi) or even to have spent a night near his tomb before becoming a professional musician and performer. Thus some individual  troubadour and musical groups seldom dare to miss the August anmuggar. The famous group of acrobats, known all over Morocco and outside the country, also claim his protection. (10) So is the case of ex-slaves (isemgan) or that neighboring tribe of Imjjad. Each of these groups organize a special festival at a particular time to honor the Saint. Indeed, apart from these,  there are a dozen other minor collective pilgrimages to SHM. Among them, one takes place in mid-October while Anmuggar n' Timgharin follows, one week after, the giant festival and is reserved for females only. No adult male is allowed in it. (For more details on each of these and other minor pilgrimages to SHM, see Pascon 1984 : 147-151).

 

The last time I visited the sanctuary with Mohamed Tozy in January. 1999, we were both surprised by the fact that the tombs of the political line of SHM's descendants disappeared from the interior. Previously  and certainly before this date, they were buried in one of its corner. Today, with the disappearance of the tombs of the political lineage of SHM's descendants, we can consider the revenge of the Filala (Sharifs Alawites) on the Semlala (Sharifs of Tazerwalt) final and complete. (11) The actual heirs of the House of Iligh did not of course miss the symbolic message of  this act. One of them who took us inside his ancestors sanctuary said to me in a desperate voice : "Everywhere else in the world, despots give trouble to living people, here, even the dead ones cannot have peace". Actually, the struggle between the different regional centers of popular Ziyara-s on the one hand, and  the Makhzen (Central government) on the other started a long time ago and continues to this day. The long-term war between the two forces affects all levels, including the symbolic. Two Central Government guards outside the sanctuary did not, even for a second, lose sight of us as inquisitive visitors. With the same vigilance, they are still watching over the dead saint in case he happens to resurrect  himself by means of his endless karamat with the intention of coming to rescue the now submissive House of Iligh and its progeny.

 

         Although hagiographers painted Sidi Hmad u-Musa as being able to transform himself into a "political opponent", capable of  taking revenge and repairing social and political injustice, he has actually never directly converted his spiritual potentialities into political power. Unlike other Moroccan great saints of the same historical period, SHM did not found a Zawiya or a particular Brotherhood or  Order (Tariqa ). The sharif-s of Tazerwalt belonged to the Naciriyya Tariqa  that dominated the whole South in the 18th c. before the newly born Derqawa Brotherhood disputed their spiritual hegemony in the region. Being the epicenter of one of the two political leagues (Taguzult and Tahuggat) in the Moroccan South-West, the heirs of SHM changed their obedience  from the Naciriyya Order to the new tariqa of Shaykh Ali Derqawi - the latter being himself from Taguzult leff of the divide between the two political tribal alliances. (12) It was one branch of his progeny that founded a political center under his spiritual shadow. Ali Bu-Dmi'a as the first chief of The House of Iligh, converted his ancestor s' power of cursing and blessing into political protection and hegemonic power.

 

The subjugation of the House of Iligh to the Central Government is a long and difficult process that needed a high level of knowledge of local political patchwork and particularly a sophistical manipulation of the Taguzult versus Tahuggwat leff-s  game in the region as well as military power through expeditions and demonstration of force (harka and mehalla).  From the time Hassan 1^st appointed the son of Lhusayn u Hashem as the qayd (governor) of the region in 1884 until today, we can say that this process reached its end with our last visit in January 1999.

In doing so,he could control in a direct way the whole southwestern region, including part of the Western Sahara. All that remains is to keep this subjugating of the Semlala by a continuous symbolic domination. It was indeed a courageous diplomatic action on the part of the sultan to send his favorite son to make a Ziyara (pilgrimage) to the SHM's sanctuary. In doing so, Hassan 1^st honored not only Sidi Hmadu-Musa, but particularly the saint's descendants. "People still remember the passage of Mulay Abdel-Aziz (1894-1908), the young boy at the age of six. In his name, several sacrifices were ordered and made. Hasan 1st appointed Mohammed u-Lhusayn u-Hashem as the first qayd (governor), restored the sanctuary, constructed the green dome ..." (Tozy 1993 : 34)  This is this first step of the central government in submitting the House of Iligh as well as a definite revenge of Hassan I on the descendant of Sidi Hmad u-Musa. Indeed, two decades before, during his first expedition in the Souss in 1864, the future king was challenged by the appointed governor's father. As a matter of fact, Lhusayn u-Hashem, was able then to forbid the khalifa (Viceroy) to cross the Ulghas (Massa) river. (13) Consequently, the restoration of the sanctuary in the Makhzanean style and the designation of the chief of Tazerwalt as the first governor go hand in hand in subjugating the old political competitor in the region.

        

         Thus, tnowadays this sacred place is given the same standardized look as any other Moroccan saint such as Mulay Idris of Zerhoun, Abdessalam Ben Meshish in Jbala mountains and the like. Since then, the saint of Tazerwalt but not necessarily his descendants, dead or still alive, is sleeping peacefully under the Makhzen's (Central Government) architectural style. It is this space thus arranged and decorated with the new design introduced in the area that constitutes the theater of the great August anmuggar.  All day long, the saint have been waiting for the continuous flow of pilgrims under the particularly vigilant eyes and ears of the successively appointed and carefully chosen local qayd-s and their Mokhaznis.

 

 

V. The Ritual of the Biggest Ziyara

 

Our goal here is to verify the following hypothesis :  the belief that the Ziyara to SHM is the hajj of the poor. It is our intention to see in what way this deeply rooted conviction is fulfilled by the ordinary believer. We will try to show how it is taken seriously by certain pilgrims. Encountered now and then in many a verse in Berber poetry like the following ones, this deeply rooted belief  became almost a popular saying :       

 

                       Sidi Hmad U-Musa ! yan-k izurn,

                       Zund igh hujjan ur merritn

        

                     O Sidi Hmad U-Musa, a Ziyara to your tomb is equivalent

                     to that to Mecca ( hajj) without any fatigue. (14)

 

Anmuggar n' Sidi Hmad u-Musa is firstly a great trade show. His sanctuary receives each year more than 100.000 persons, especially in the month of August, during which the most important anmuggar  (mawsim ) and Ziyara take place. Historically,  its occurring, as if it were by coincidence, have been taking place each year with the arrival of caravans transporting Black African goods (feathers of ostriches, slaves, gum...) returning from Timbuktu and the so called then 'Bilad al-Sudan'. Other items produced and manufactured in the region and in the North of Morocco, particularly from the Moroccan sea ports (salt, colonnades, tea, sugar) ended here, in order to be blessed by the saint and its descendants. Today, these commercial transactions turn around completely different foreign goods, but nearly the same local agricultural fruit and produces. But the commercial festival cannot take place without the ideological background of being simultaneously a saintly Ziyara that constitutes somehow its raison d'être.

        

                The ordinary Muslim continues to strongly believe that the Ziyara to SHM has something like that to Mecca, a kind of pilgrimage of the pauper. To somehow decrease the exaggeration of this profoundly rooted tradition, some pilgrims maintain that seven Ziyarat, not one,  would equal to a pilgrimage to Ka'ba. This is a popular ingenuity by which the poor pilgrim finds in his visit to SHM a convenient means and a cheap and economic way of accomplishing one of the canonical religious obligation, a clever manner, "to put God at his reach!". Consequently, we should not necessarily be surprised by the complexity of the pilgrimage ritual, whose several sequences try to reconstitute the sacred space of Arabia. Some say that the Prophet in person would raise, by his presence, the symbolic intensity of the Thursday  waqfa  ("standing") (Tozy 1993 : 35).

 

       As in Mecca, the pilgrimage point of focus is at the center of a sacred space called the horm. The most characteristic of this area is its being an inviolable asylum. Here the sanctuary of SHM occupies the equivalent point of the Ka'ba in Mecca. All this holy space around it cannot be approached arbitrary. Publicly known and culturally assimilated by both Muslim and non Muslim communities the geography of the horm  is carefully and meticulously respected. Let us remember here that Jews who were until recently the dynamic element in the SHM anmuggar  were neither allowed to spent the night in the mawsim , nor are they permitted during the day to cross a certain frontier that might place them inside this horm "carved in a concentric manner". The most interesting aspect of this well arranged space is its changing physiognomy through time.

 

         From my first visit as a teenager in early 1960's until today (see the video-film in 1997), via my second visit in 1970's and Tozy's description of the Ziyara in 1982, there is a continuous invisible struggle between what is believed to be orthodox and heterodox beliefs and practices. In the early 1960's, during my first sacred visit to SHM, it was a young cousin who took me with him there and led me through the different rites a thorough pilgrim is supposed to do inside the horm. We went to see people trying to walk on the heightened aqueduct that symbolizes for them the sirat (the Way of expiation) of the Afterlife (Ghazali 1989 : 205). Of course, the fact that the video-film of 1997 for instance does not show pilgrims walking on the sirat  does not necessary mean that there was no one who did it or tried to do it. As a teenager, that was for me the most important part of the ziyara. My cousin took me then to discover how a pilgrim can test his own amount of good deeds through the exercise of lifting a big and heavy rock that is supposed to be light - thanks to the Saint's blessing - only for sinless people. He himself waited courageously for his turn and succeeded under the crowd's eyes to lift the magical rock. What a relief for him, but for me then it was a miracle. This is not to say that all competitors in this test, let alone simple visitors composing the watching crowd around them, took seriously this exercise and with the same degree of conviction. My next stop in this first visit was  Targant n'Timgharin, the Argan tree under which young girls and women of poor conditions sit waiting for a male to marry with no requirement other than the promise of no repudiation at least until the next annual Ziyara. For boys and girls who are not rich enough to compete in the regular matrimonial market, the saint's protection is enough for them to guarantee these rapid and "ecological" weddings. (15)  Likewise the fact that the 1997 film does not have images of this fantastic and curious show is more symptomatic of the struggle between the orthodox and heterodox beliefs and practices than its absence. There are reasons to believe that there is more censorship here than the absence of such practices.

 

             During my second visit as a student living in Paris in 1970's, I was more interested in Heddawa Brothers, the local hashish (kif) smokers and their music than in the blessing of the saint himself. We went next, some friends and I, to see this time again the matrimonial market under the argan tree to find there only three or four women who were constantly chased by the Mokhazni-guards under the eyes of some male voyeurs like us. I do not remember women under targant n' timgharin being bothered by anyone during my 1960's visit. This time, probably under more pressure of the Independence Movement (itself influenced by the Wahhabi ideology and its various offspring), local authorities considered the practice to be an heterodox custom (bid'a) against which, for the new masters of the country, the French Protectorate, for decades, did nothing to eradicate. As a  matter of fact, from the time of la deuxième  Colonne du Souss (in 1934) on, the heirs of the House of Iligh that run the anmuggar in the vicissitude of their ancestor's sanctuary  and its horm have no other choice than to let local authorities  "purify" the sacred space of the saint. However, like nature in this semi desert region, local believers are stubborn and do persevere. Moreover, unlike neo-Salafists, they have nothing to feel guilty about.

 

    After his 1982 fieldwork and visit to SHM, M. Tozy wrote that from the sanctuary as the epicenter of the symbolic sacredness, both the degree of sanctity and the level of orthodoxy  are declining in such a way that "expels controversial or doubtful spaces to margins." It is this special geography that shapes the pilgrim's ritualistic behavior in the horm. "Ritual sequences oppose, in a permanent tension, the  pilgrim's demands for  a sacredness materialized in relics (some rocks  or  some trees), and his attempts at ritual codification that would make him feel that he is accomplishing an orthodox Ziyara. Before being invited to a collective piety exercise that culminates in the two important moments (the sacrifice that takes place the third Thursday of August  and the programmed prayer  of the following day), the pilgrim composes his program according to his convictions and needs;  he freely gives himself to a certain eclecticism that sometimes leads him towards orthodoxy, and sometimes towards heretical  syncretism" (Tozy 1993: 35).

 

I still remember my cousin, when I accompanied him in 1960's, accomplishing some acts of this complicated ritual at random. He selected what appeared to him most important then. I imagine him the following anmuggar performing other parts of this ritual. Thus, a certain pilgrim (x) might start his visit by offering a sadaqa (almsgiving) to the saint before choosing a certain number of rituals that suit his needs according to his age, sex, and personal beliefs. As a youngster, my cousin, for example, performed the rite of lifting the heavy rock, but paid no attention to the sacred tree of Sidi Shamharush, which interestsmany more female than male pilgrims. Taking the main entrance of the horm for instance, another pilgrim (y) might go straight inside the sanctuary to whisper some invocation praying for his parents, children, friends even some neighbor, while depositing his almsgiving in the cash box. From there he might go to visit the tombs of the holy tolba-s, and then after performing some genuflections (rak'at) on the "visited place" (maraqi') of Sidi Abdel-Qader Jilani. he might decide to end his pilgrimage there and leave the horm by another gate.

 

Yet another pilgrim (z) might arrive to the sacred space by the North entrance (Imi n'ukshud gate). After passing under the sacred woods, he might or might not stop for a while under the tree of Sidi Shamharush. If he does stop, he might hang a piece of cloth coming from an intimate garment in order to  get rid of some bad omen. Unlike the pilgrim (x) or (y), he might spend more time inside the sanctuary of the saint for all kinds of ritual gestures : "beginning with a very physical relationship with the catafalque,  knocking his head against the structure, while shouting and crying. Wetting with hot tears the covering cloths of the saint's tomb. Sleeping for a moment in the desperate hope of having a dream, that would relief his anguish. Finally, leaving, in a serene state, the Saint's Qubba" (Translation mine). (Tozy 1993 : 34)  Once outside the sanctuary, he might go and walk on the heightened aqueduct that symbolizes the Way of the expiation (sirat ) before going towards Argan n' Timgharin to watch or even participate in the ceremony of sacred marriages that takes place under this magical tree.

 

                                                *        *        *

 

               There is no question that the saint still rules, in an invisible way, the pilgrim's life, as well as the tribal world around him (See Appendix 2). And if he incorporates the parish "in a timeless and universal community of believers, heals its pains, and  levels its disputes",   his descendants, through his blessing (baraka ), have been using the space around the sanctuary and its horm for long distance trade and local business transactions. Here in Tazerwalt, at the end of every month of August,  commodities and goods from North and South are being exchanged under the saint's shadow ; items and produces,  far beyond the whole Souss al-aqsa, are blessed before being sold or purchased ; ideas, artistic performances, and services of all sorts are licitly permitted and religiously allowed, day and night, under the saint's protection and blessing. Likewise, if SHM "distributes some serenity and hope in an environment that was and remains dominated by the tragic violence of man and nature", his heirs, from Bou-Dmi'a to Lhusayn u-Hashem until now, knew that the symbolic capital of the dead can also bring material capital and political power at certain periods but also misery and humiliation at others. Today probably only the cash, deposited by hundred thousands of pilgrims, is still counted under the vigilant eyes of the numerous heirs of SHM, themselves under the would-be indifferent but no less watchful and suspicious super-eyes of local authorities. But no matter the share size of the cash that the direct heirs of the House of Iligh get, it will never be enough to repair their broken self symbolized by the half ruined Castle few kilometers from the center of sanctity left by Bou-Dmi'a  that is daily becoming a rather poisonous legacy for the family. If it is true that one can do whatever pleases him with the dead, it is also true that the dead can sometimes play a dirty trick to those still living. How long the Castle of Bou-Dmi'a will still stand against the clear sky of Tazerwalt in the heart of the Moroccan Anti-Atlas mountains is  a matter of pure speculation. The Sisyphus efforts of the progeny desperately struggling to postpone the time when this legacy will join the only piece of wall left from the ancient Iligh (destroyed by the third Alawite Sultan in 1670) facing nowadays in a terrible loneliness the relatively recent ruined Mellah (Jewish quarter), bear witness to the tragic destiny of the House of Iligh.  

 

 

 

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Endnotes

 

 (1) Issachar Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration Among the Jews in Morocco, Detroit, Wayne State University Press,  1998. For other shared beliefs and practices like the evil eye, see André ELBAZ, « Influences arabo-berbères dans le conte populaire des Sephardim canadiens d'origines marocaine » in Juifs du Maroc : Identité et Dialogue. Actes du colloque international sur la communauté juive marocaine : vie culturelle, histoire sociale et évolution (Paris 18-21 Décembre1978), Paris, éditions La Pensée Sauvage, 1980, pp. 63.

 

(2) Until today,  Muslims in the High-Atlas continue to pay regular Ziyara to  Rabbi  Shlomo ben Khansh in the Ourika Valley. This observation and many similar ones are the result of fieldwork undertaken, during summer 1997 and 1999, in collaboration with Daniel Schroeter (University of Urvin, California, USA) and Joseph Chitrit, (University of Haifa, Israel). It falls in a three year study-project of Jewish sacred places in Morocco. (Jews Among Berbers). See also Doutté 1914 : 206-214.

 

 (3) Fazlu-Rahman defined what he calls neo-Sûfism as "Sûfism reformed on orthodox lines and interpreted in an activist sense, strikingly illustrated by the case of the Sanûsî Brotherhood of  North Africa, which arose as a branch of the Idrîsî order but then developed on independent lines and followed entirely a career of its own. The Idrîsî order was founded in Arabia by Ahmad ibn Idrîs (d. 1253  / 1837)". This reform forced  Sufism to get rid of "its ecstatic and metaphysical character and content which were replaced by a content which was nothing else than the postulates of the orthodox religion" (Rahman 1979 : 206; see also O'Fahey 1990 : 2)

 

 (4) According to Tozy's statistics, the number of pilgrims to Sidi Hmad u-Musa in 1982 was 82 000; this number has been increasing since. In recent years, the annual pilgrimage of Sidi Abdallah Amghar at Tit, near El-Jadida on the Atlantic coast, counted 200 000 people. As the horse play (fantasia)  constitutes the main part of  entraitenment there, some 15 000 horses were brought to its regular August mawsim 1999..  (Air France Magazine (Paris), n° 22, February, p. 150).

 

(5) Various other anmuggar- s : in the Shtuka, like that of Sidi Bibi ..., in the Tiznit plain, like that of Sidi Musa in Aglu ... ,   in Anti-Atlas, like that of Sidi Messaoud in Ida Gnidif tribe. (On the latter, see Hariuchi 1997 : 98)

 

(6) On this point, see WESTERMARCK 1913, BERQUE 1978 : 130-134 and 276-279.

 

 (7) "the case of Mordekhai Rbibo of the mellah of Ifrane , who received from Husayn U Hashim (d. 1810-1886), the sharif  of  Iligh, the sum of 1,257 riyal as credit on 5 February 1875 so that he could buy ostrich feathers. The sharif's account certifies that 'repayment of what he owes has been deferred until the coming mawsim of March [mars], God willing'. The cycle continues the wing year. On 6 November 1876, Rbibo receives credit to purchase feathers which was to be repaid at the March mawsim." (Schroeter 1988 : 97)

 

(8) In some Sanctuary sites in Morocco, this social practice is probably the main activity at night (Mulay Brahim  in the High-Atlas for instance), in others, such as Sidi Rhale (east of Marrakech), what is called "sacred prostitution" constitutes its main characteristic. Sidi Rhale girls are proud of exercising such activities under the protection of their Saint. (see, Doutté 1914 : 161-205 ).

 

 (9) In mawsin al-hajj  at Mecca, the believer is usually asked to be careful about these false pilgrims, known there as "habb rrih ". Likewise, Moroccan mawsims  such as that of SHM attracts amateurs as well as expert robbers.

 

 (10) Actually, in the Souss region they are much more known as "Rrma n' Sidi 'Ali Bennacer" (shooting-men of the Naciriyya Brotherhood), but outside Souss and in the rest of Morocco, they are referred to by the title of "Ulad Sidii Hamd U-Musa". Indeed, a legend wanted Sidi Hmad u-Musa himself to be a simple wandering acrobat before receiving God's grace after helping an old woman (Justinard 1925 b : 238)

 

 (11) An old saying : «  ma iqdi 'la lfilali ghir semlali ». (Only the Semlala can defeat the Filala) ( Monteil ? / Justinard ?)

 

(12) On the leadership of House of Iligh in political tribal leagues  system in the Souss, see Lakhsassi and Tozy, "Segmentarité et théorie des leff-s : Tahuggwat – Taguzult dans le sud-ouest marocain " , in Hespéris-Tamuda, Vol., XXXVIII (2000), pp. 183-214.

 

 (13)  Oral tradition in the Souss still conserve this challenge in what is believed to be Lhusayn u-Hasem's terms to Hassan as khalifa : "igh tezgert asif n'Ulghas, ur ak id iwrri usgwas" (If you dare crossing the Ulghas river, never will you live next year). People in the Souss still believe that any Alaouite king crossing this river will not live more than one year. When the grand son of the Khalifa,  Hassan II, the father of the present king of Morocco, visited the South in the 1970's, people firmly think that he did not actually dare crossing by car the river because of his awareness of this superstitious belief. They think that when the royal car approach the bridge over the Massa river, the king preferred instead to use a helicopter to get to the south bank by taking the direction of the ocean. Thus was avoided the crossing of the famous river.

 

(14) It is interesting to note that this is not a new belief. In  Fawâ'id al-jummah bi isnâd 'ulûm al-ummah (Justinard 1953 : ix), we find the following verses concerning a common ziyara paid by the author, al-Tamanarti, and his friends from Taroudant to the tomb of Sidi Hmad u-Musa in 1594. That is only 30 years after the death of the saint in 1563 : "We went loaded with a weigh of love / In the same way, towards Najd, the caravan goes " (translation mine). See also Justinard 1925 a : 270.

 

 (15) About this sacred marriages, the current belief any man cannot divorce his partner until the next anmuggar of the Saint and whoever repudiate his partner might be subject to the saint's cure. In the 1950's lives in Tiznit a lunatic man called Friks. It was said that lost his reason after having repudiated a woman he married under Sidi Hmad u-Musa protection at Targant n'Timgharin. I personally remember of Friks as a an unshaved and filthy wanderer who use to play a parallelepiped flute in ahwash (communal dance and music).

 

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RERERENCES

 

Ben-Ami 1998 : BEN-AMI, Issachar, Saint Veneration Among the Jews in Morocco, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1998

 

Berque 1978 : BERQUE, Jacques, Structures sociales du Haut-Atlas, PUF, Paris 1978 (First ed. 1955)

 

Doutté 1914 : DOUTTE, Edmond, En Tribu  (Missions au Maroc), Paris Geuthner 1914

 

Elbaz 1980 : ELBAZ, André, « Influences arabo-berbères dans le conte populaire des Sephardim canadiens d"origines marocaine » in Juifs du Maroc : Identité et Dialogue. Actes du colloque international sur la communauté juive marocaine : vie culturelle, histoire sociale et évolution (Paris 18-21 Décembre1978), Paris, éditions La Pensée Sauvage, 1980

 

O'Fahey 1990 : O'FAHEY R. S. Enigmatic Saint, Ahmad Ibn Idris and the Idrisi Tradition, Northwestern University Press, 1990

 

Ghazali 1989 : al-GHAZALI, Abû Hâmid, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife . Kitâb dhikr al-mawtwa-mâ ba'dahu. Book XL of The Revival of the Religious Sciences Ihyâ ' 'ulûm al-dîn. Translated with an Introduction and notes by T. J. Winter, Cambridge, The Islamic Texts Society, 1989

 

Horiuchi 1997 : HORIUCHI, Masaki, "Between segmentation and de-segmentation : Sound expressions among the Berbers in the Sous region (Southwestern Morocco)" in Cultures sonores d'Afrique, Institut de Recherches sur les Langues et Cultures d'Asie et d'Afrique, publié sous la direction de KAWADA Junzo, Tokyo 1997, pp. 93-119.

 

Justinard 1925 a : JUSTINARD, L. « Notes sur l histoire du Sous au XIXè siècle » in Hespéris V, 1925, pp. 265-276.

 

Justinard 1925 b : JUSTINARD, L. « Notes d histoire et de littérature berbères » in Hespéris V, 1925, pp. 227-238

 

Pascon 1984 : PASCON, Paul, "Le meutre de Hachem, chef de la Maison d'Iligh (Tazerwalt, sud-ouest Marocain - 1825)" in La Maison d'Iligh et l'histoire sociale de Tazerwalt, SMER, Rabat 1984, pp. 91-111

 

Rahman 1979 : RAHMAN, Fazlur, Islam, The University of Chicago Press, (First published 1966), Second ed. 1979

 

Schroeter 1988 : SCHROETER, Daniel, Merchants of Essaouira, Urban Society and Imperialism in southwestern Morocco, 1844- 1886, Cambridge University Press 1988

 

Soussi 1966 : al-SOUSSI, Muhammad al-Mukhtar, Iligh qadîman wa-hadîthan, Rabat Imprimerie Royale 1966

 

Tamanarti 1953 : AL-TAMARTI, Abdur-Rahmane, Fawâ'id al-jummah bi isnâd 'ulûm al-ummah, 1002 / 1594, texte arabe du XVIIè siècle, traduit par le Colonel Justinard, Publications de la Section Historique du Maroc, Durand, Chartres, 1953.

 

Tozy 1993 : TOZY, Mohamed, "Sidi Hmad u-Moussa : Le protecteur des tolbas", in Rivages 9Le magazine des marocains dans le monde), numero 2, Mai 1993 : 32 – 35.

 

Westermarck 1913 : WESTERMARCK, E, Ceremonies and Beliefs Connected with Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco, Helsinki 1913

 

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Justinard [1954] : JUSTINARD, le Colonel, Un petit royaume berbère : le Tazerwalt. Un Saint Berbère Sidi Hmad ou Moussa Paris, Librairie Orientale et Américaine, G.-P. Maisonneuve – Max Besson [1954]

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APPENDIXES

 

 

Appendix 1 : Film-Video on SHM' s Fair and Festival (August, 27-29, 1997)

 

This  anmuggar (mawsim) / ziyara of Sidi Hmad U-Musa (SHM) lasted, as usual, three days : Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The most important shots of these three  days are here filmed in 120 minutes.  From this video, we can extract about 20 MN representing the main features of this Ziyara for the sake of illustration. The content of the film shots is as follows :

 

Wednesday, August, 27

 

Sanctuary of Sidi Hmad U-Musa (SHM)

Ziyara (different animal sacrifices : camel, bull, ram, goat...)

Installation of the market tents

 

BUSINESS (The market)

 

Pottery

King's and Royal family portraits

Mules in lorries

Butchers

Spices (henna, ...)

Iron utensils (for Butagaz ...)

Dates (price: 7 dh / kilo), dry figs ...

 

Remark : pilgrims will take with them some of these food, particularly dry fruits such as almonds, dates, dry figs ... constituting Sidi Hmad U-Musa's buruk ( blessing food)

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

Music

Houarra (a Souss tribe) women musical group

Two men show group (one dancing, the other playing nnaqus)

Modern musical group (outside Souss region) : sha'bi

 

Show

Snake charmer selling magical drugs (2 : 00 - 3 : 00)

Remark : Entertainment lasts from afternoon until very late at night, if not until al-fajr (the early prayer). Here the snake charmer's performance is still on at  3 : 00 in the morning of August 28.

 

Thursday, August 28

 

Morning

- Arrival of pilgrims

- Geography of SHM Sanctuary and cemetery full with pilgrims

- The sacred space and the different parts of the Ziyara ritual, (individual and collective)

- The new repaired entrance of the cemetery leading to SHM

- Pottery market again

 

Around 11 : 00

- Pilgrims men and women in the marqa'  of Abdel-Qader Jilani  (on top of the hill)

- Voices of Beggars and tolba-s chanting the Qur'an

- Rways (Berber singers) music in the air

- Presence of RTM camera men

- Impressing automobile parking

- Sanctuary of SHM  with the voice of  Tolba-s chanting the Qur'an (time : 11:26)

 

ENTERTAINMENT (late afternoon)

- Rays Hmad Amentag and his group (18 : 40) members of the Berber musical group singing and dancing

A lot of sitting women as spectators

- Another other musical group (19†: 30)

            A woman dancing alone

            Another single woman dancing alone

            A man dancing alone or / and with a one of the women

- Dance of Houara group (?) (with a women as spectator)

- Heddawa (a popular Sufi Brotherhood) beggars wandering in the market

- National Security service ñ Gendarmerie Royale (a helicopter )

- A Mixed musical group (Houarra tribe ?)

- A jumping woman and a jumping man

- A water seller (gerrab) joining the dancers

 

 

Thursday, August 29th

 

Noon (12:10)

 

- Welcoming the Regional Authorities and Royal representatives  with ahwah (communal tribal dance) and music (all of them wearing the red conic cap (fes ) as symbol of  the Makhzen)

- Their arrival surrounded with local and regional dignities

- Sacrifice of a bull (Makhzen's hadiya for the official Ziyara)

- Before entering the Sanctuary of SHM

 

Inside de SHM sanctuary

 

- RTM cameras around the tomb of SHM (still surrounded with iron fence, since the 1980 's,

(but not today - Dec. 1999 - anymore)

- Tolba-s chanting the Qur'an around the tomb of SHM, the officials are joining the tolba-s in chanting

- The Authorities coming out  from the sanctuary (12 :40)

-   Another blood sacrifice

- Official lunch offered to the Authorities under a classical tente caidale  Entertainment (ahwash, with flute music) for the guests

 

 

Friday, August 29th

 

Morning  8 :00

-  General view of  SHM sanctuary

- The farewell prayer : Pilgrims sitting, like in Mount Arafat in Mecca,  and listening peacefully and responding in chorus with amen-s to the common  preacher :

- Discourse on SHM anmuggar (/ mawsim),  Ziyara to his tomb and its relation to Islam

- Advice concerning family relationship, mutual help between pilgrims and Muslims in general

- Encouraging saints veneration, and Ziyara-s

- Praising the Royal family members and particularly the young heir of the Alawite throne, Sidi Mohammed

- Another view of Tazerwalt during the collective farewell prayer

- the pilgrims read collectively and loudly part of the Qur'an

(Leilat al-qadr, Quraysh et rihlat al-shitaí wa-sayf, Fatiha)

 

8 :10

- Pilgrims' departure (men and women)

- Police organizing car, coaches, lorries ... circulation

 

Inside de Sanctuary

- Cash box and accounting

- Counting and classification of Ziyara-cash

- Classifying notes / bills by category

- Classifying different kinds of coins

 

Official guards outside (Mukhazni-s) the Sanctuary

 

A bottle of beer (Special or Heineken ?) at the edge of the sanctuary.

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Appendix 2 : Tozy's text

 

"Occupying the strategic point of  Jem'at Tighirt (Province of Tiznit at 170 Km south of Agadir) on a cliff that dominates the plain of Tazerwalt, the indigenous Protectorate officer found aberrant a certain tradition of the powerful tribe of Mejjat, proud of its hundreds of horsemen well trained in ambush techniques. Whether good or bad harvests, the tribe of Imjjad, individually or by small groups, comes to deliver each last Thursday of the month of September (Julian calendar),  thousands of barley quintals in offering to the Saint. He decided to forbid this custom which, in his eyes, is as senseless as expensive. The barley accumulated then in silos that stood near the "Bureau Indigène" (Office), while the anguish and the disarray of  Imejjad increased. For more than two years, they did not have delivered to Sidi Hmad U-Musa his due. The pact that linked them to the Holy protector could be broken.

 

   The moral contract dated from the turbulent time, during the installation of the Saint on the edge of the Tazerwalt river - at beginning of the XVIth century. Taken by their bellicose (/ aggressive) nature, Imejjad had stoned the saint. Wounded, he. had condemned them to commemorate each year this bad event (/offends) by confronting each other in a ritual combat (/ fight) that is supposed to liberate them from their excess of aggressiveness. Since then, the  Saint protected the Imejjad tribe, and the latter has been honoring him. Their granaries will never be empty and the tolba-s enrolled in the Saint's medersa (religious school) will never be hungry. 

 

     At the beginning of the Independence, a delegation of Imejjad tribe appeared in front of the newly appointed Istiqlalian chief that occupied henceforth the place of the Indigenous French Officer. The tribal representatives exerted to explain to him the importance of the pact that linked their tribe to the Saint. They were sure that this Moroccan official would be more sensitive to their cause. After a categorical refusal, they envisaged to throw the barley over the cliffs that dominates the small plain of Tazerwalt. It was necessary, at all costs, to get rid the 'ar  (the given word / honor/ promise) in order to be correct towards the Saint. Imejjad could not understand how come a Moroccan qayd ( local authority representing the Central government), as a Muslim, persisted in forbidding them to respect a pious obligation, more important to their eyes than the canonical ones.

 

        Their anger was terrible :  they attacked  the "Office" of the Qayd  and destroyed all the new nation-State emblems (/ symbols). Several of them were taken to prison at Essaouira. The mediation of Mokhtar Soussi could not avoid them the incarceration, but it serves nevertheless to codify the Imejjad's obligations with regard to the State and the saint.  Anmuggar n' Imjjad  has survived. Today again, each last Thursday of the month of  September (Julian calendar), the seven inflas. (sing. anflous : man of good omen) of the seven fractions composing Imjjad tribe meet in the medersa  of Sidi Hmad U-Musa to do the accounts of the current year and decide for the coming expenses that will not only insure the pension of about twenty permanent students, but also cover part of the shart (contract) of the fqih  (Qur'anic school teacher) as well as the expenses necessary for the maintenance and restoration of the medersa  buildings." (Tozy 1993 : 33)

 

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