The Tijaniyah movement was reared out of controversy. From its very inception (c.1782), its members brought challenge to the accepted notions of monastic order. Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mukhtar al-Tijani (born AH I150/1737 CE) at Ayn Madi, southern Algeria), the founder of the brotherhood, proclaimed himself the “pole of poles” (qutb alaqtab) and the “seal of sanctity” (khatm al-wildyah), as the Prophet, Muhammad, had averred himself the “seal of prophecy.” The leaders of the Tijaniyah were accused of prohibiting associates from visiting the tombs of the deceased virtuous (walis) from other orders and of disturbing the conviction that spiritual benefit (barakah) could be obtained from walis outside the brotherhood. Moreover, Tijanis were condemned for alleged attempts, against the grain of accepted practice, to prevent their members from affiliating with other Sufi organizations. Finally, at least in their North African context, Tijanis stood accused of favoring wealth over asceticism (zuhd) and became noted for their abjuration of mysticism in place of which they encouraged a simplicity of belief and practice in their daily devotions.
Ahmad al-Tijani, as he came to be called, began life in the normal Sufi pattern. Traveling throughout the Maghrib in the familiar peripatetic manner, he sought out learned men for knowledge, embraced walis famed for their barakah, and affiliated himself with several religious orders, notably the Wazzaniyah, Darqawiyah, Nasiriyah, and Khalwatiyah, and also espoused many of the tenets of the Shadhiliyah. It was a pattern he was to renounce dramatically around 1782, when he broke the old silsilah (chain) of authority and linked piety and belief to his own powers of intercession.
The rapid proliferation of the orders posed an intractable problem to established authority in the Maghrib. Scores of religious brotherhoods had appeared, based on ethnic and occupational affinities. In Morocco, where the prophet Muhammad and his descendants (sharifs) were held in the highest favor, the organization of the orders came to be drawn tightly round their spiritual influence. By the middle of the nineteenth century, we find many of the educated affiliating with the Darqa-wiyah (the chief competitors of the Tijaniyah for this constituency), artisans inclining toward the Kattaniyah, for example, the shoemakers of Fez and the flaxweavers of Tangier, while many butchers and practitioners of unclean professions embraced the Hamadshah (Hamdushiyah) and the `Isawiyah. Finally, the residue of merchants and proprietors not attracted to the Tijaniyah joined the Tayyiblyah tariqah.
Coming as it did in the wake of the anti-Sufi Wahhabi movement in the Hejaz, the proclamation of Ahmad alTijani arrived at an auspicious moment. The sovereign of Morocco, Mawlay Sulayman, became his patron and saw merit in his revolutionary message. The abundance of tariqahs in Morocco and the high prestige of sharifian zdwiyahs (lodges) had compromised the authority of the Moroccan ruler, and he perceived in alliance with the Tijaniyah a means of tightening his rein on political and economic affairs. The order received encouragement and was allowed to develop its retreat structure under Mawlay Sulayman’s procective hand. Despite claims to the contrary, Ahmad al-Tijani was not ranked among the illustrious sharifs, and the appeal of the Tijaniyah drew the attention of wealthy non-sharifians of the urban governmental class (including many converted Jews whom Mawlay Sulayman retained as advisers and financiers). These individuals, together with makhzan (government) officials, merchants, and influential families, held a considerable share of economic power, especially in Fez.
From the outset, the Tijaniyah espoused a much simplified corpus of ritual and system of organization, in contrast to the requirements of prayer which tied their rivals to the rigors of convention. Tijanis set much store by their epithet, “the way of Muhammad” (al-tariqat alMuhammadiyah or (al-tariqat al-Ahmadiyah), and prided themselves in their devotion to Sunni practice. Both the wirds (collected prayers) and the wazifah (daily office) of the order were characterized by a streamlined simplicity, sharply reducing the number of prayers required and the pattern of recitation. The old rigor of progression through the Sufi stages of perfection retained only a faint echo of past tradition. The most efficacious prayers and rituals commended by the founder were entrusted to those who comprised the inner circle.
The claim advanced by Ahmad al-Tijani that he was the “seal of sanctity”-that he inhabited the eminence of light that lay between Muhammad and the saints of
Islam-was to rankle relations with rival orders and excite them to ridicule the Tijaniyah. This merit had its ancestry in the teachings of Ibn al -`Arabi (d. 1240), who, it was suggested, had declined the dignity and left open the door for Ahmad al-Tijani to seize hold of it. Such distinctions had allowed the founder to trumpet his merit and abolish the line of virtuous teachers whose blessings sustained the spiritual nourishment of other orders. Moreover, such distinctions had enabled alTijani to cut the power of the Qadiriyah, the oldest Sufi organization, and one fueled on the barakah of its ancient affiliations. Another charge uniting its rivals in disdain was that the Tijaniyah discouraged its members from associating with other orders and from frequenting the tombs of their walis. Tijani spokesman often defended this practice by declaring that a disciple could not hope to receive spiritual sustenance from two shaykhs simultaneously, any more than a woman could serve faithfully two husbands.
Before the rise of Ahmad al-Tijani, the most notable feature of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition could be seen in the way in which charismatic power was harnessed and accessed ft sabil Allah, in the path of Allah. Even the simplest adept could link with the spiritual past and feel the flow of barakah that charged his spiritual energy and gave shape and significance to his interior life. The recitation of the wird and other assigned prayers served to recharge his spiritual apparatus and redirect his energy in the path of Allah. Thus, the hizb al-bah r and the daWil al-khayrdt (“proofs of blessings”) of al-Jazuli must be understood as strong currents of charismatic power linked to overt action ft sabil Allah: prayer for the success of Islam, pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places, hijrah from Islam’s enemies, and jihad.
Ahmad al-Tijani streamlined the charismatic “switchboard”-condensed the currents of barakah into one powerful “microchip,” discarding, as it were, all the bulky “hardware” of past generations. The Wahhabi movement fueled this revolution as it sought to concentrate veneration in the person of Muhammad. It was a tendancy that Ahmad al-Tijani was to recast in his own mold. Yet several other features of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition were absorbed into the teachings of the Tijaniyah. There is danger in placing too much stress on the differences among the tariqahs at the expense of realizing the essential eclecticism and sharing of basic tenets that characterized the religious brotherhoods. Ahmad al-Tijani drank unabashedly from the font of the Shadhillyah. Indeed, even in the Tijaniyah, there is a strong compulsion to link with individuals of the Sufi past and imbibe their barakah. Al-Shadhill’s hizb al-bahr (a powerful incantation of the ninety-nine names of Allah) became a touchstone of the Tijani canon, and his relentless pursuit of the person of the Qutb found a strong echo in al-Tijani’s fixation on this theme. In the Tijani view, the old silsilah, with its long chain of intermediaries, generated a feeble if permanent current. Ahmad alTijani closed the circuit of charisma as he concentrated power between Muhammad and himself. It was his claim that the Prophet was near him always, even in waking, allowing for a close and continuous discharge of spiritual grace and an increase in its velocity.
As it began to take root in the Maghrib, the Tijanlyah emerged as a force for stability and preservation of the status quo, at least during the lifetime of the founder. The Shadhili-Jazuli tradition, in retrospect, bequeathed a legacy of radical activity, forged on an anvil of opposition to the government of the day. Ahmad al-Tijani broke the mold of this radicalism and encouraged his followers to side with established authority. It was this shrewd an pragmatic policy that allowed the Tijanlyah, in the face of sharifian hostility, to spread and prosper under the protection of the makhzan. The sharifian tradition set much store by nobility of descent: al-Jazuli had staked his claim on the strength of a pure and noble lineage. Ahmad al-Tijan! could not hope to stand level with his rivals and post a claim in this direction, he was constrained to stake his claim elsewhere-on a higher level-as he sought to outreach his rivals. Thus, during the founder’s time, adherence to authority became the watchword of Tijan! political philosophy. With the passing of al-Tijani in 1815, and the overthrow of Mawlay Sulayman, this policy took on greater flexibility.
There has been a tendancy in past accounts of the Tijanlyah to read into their policies in the Maghrib a pro-French sentiment, but one must demote this view as these activities actually reflected a careful pragmatism not always favorable to French intentions. While it is true that the Tijanlyah managed to ride with success the vicissitudes of the post-Sulayman era and welcomed the French in the Maghrib with a greater liberality of temper than did many other religious organizations, its policies did not always maintain the coherence sustained under the founder. As the Tijanlyah shunned the extremes of militant jihad and renounced “monkery” in favor of a more active inolvement in daily life, a strong element of revenge crept into their pragmatism. Indeed, claimants to the succession did not hesitate to cultivate support wherever it could be found. Dissident Berber groups (a rich quarry for the order), forever at odds with established authority generally, were summoned frequently in support of these claims. After the death of al-Tijani in 1815, and as the French succeeded in seizing power from the Turks, no one pattern can be said to typify Tijani policy toward the various players in the Maghribian struggle for power. Even the attitude toward the Turks, steadfast in its contempt, displayed some flexibility. While the Turks on more than one occasion had laid siege to Ayn Mad! (the mother zdwiyah), Turkish support for the order in other areas (notably Tunisia) could not be ignored. Indeed, on several occasions prominent Turkish officials affiliated with the Tijaniyah and supplied funds amply to its coffers. Still, Tijanis came to endow with great significance Turkish attempts to impose authority by force and extract tribute from religious establishments (Turkish indignation was brought to a flame when Ayn Mad! repeatedly withheld payment). Yet the Turks were not alone in their attempts to diminish the influence of the tariqahs when the occasion demanded, and all political powers rallied to their support when events seemed favorable.
The period of French overmastery offers an object lesson in Tijan! pragmatism as it illustrates the unevenness of the order’s policies. When the French wrested hegemony from the Turks in the Maghrib during the nineteenth century and the brotherhoods declared their resentment, the Tijanlyah responded with cautious optimism. According to the founder, succession to power was to alternate between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat (on the Tunisian border). The rotation, however, did not always proceed smoothly., and the occasional roughness of the transition (or the retention of power by Ayn Mad!) accounts for much of the intrigue and variation in policy among the principals of the succession and those who supported their claim. From 1877 until 1911, the zdwiyah at Ayn Madi maintained a fairly firm grip over Tijani affairs owing to the role played by a Frenchwoman, Aurelie Picard, who had married Sid! Ahmad, the head of the order, and feigned a commitment to Islam. The French lavished subsidies on their Tijani subordinates and thus compromised any claims to independence. Nevertheless, it was a period when all religious orders were being drawn into the pockets of the French and placed under surveillance, and when real or imagined movements by Tijan! and other dissidents intensified the paranoia of French imperial policy.
The Tijaniyah’s strong association with the government of Morocco persisted until 1912 with the declaration of the Protectorate. By the end of the nineteenth century every large town in Morocco could boast at least one Tijani zdwtyah (there were twelve in Marrakesh alone). The order in Morocco was much more “national” in outlook than its counterparts in Tunisia and Algeria, and much more consonant with the culture in which it was reared. Following the split between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat in the 1870s over the succession, intense rivalry ensued into the 1930s when Ayn Mad! attempted to revive its claims and initiated active campaigns for support in Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and Gambia. The order had already achieved significant inroads in these lands and in Mali owing to the prosyletization of the celebrated Moroccan `alim, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Kansusi (d. 1877), and the great Senegalese mujdhid, al-Hajj `Umar ibn Said (`Umar Tal, d. 1864). By the beginning of the twentieth century, Tijanis could claim more than half a million devotees in the Sudan.
The independence movement in the Maghrib produced the ultimate brotherhoods, absorbing to its purpose all the tone and rhetoric of the old organizations that had met their demise as we have described them. One result of the Istiqlal (independence) movement was to drive the tariqahs underground, where their activities, severely circumscribed in the public arena retain only a semblance of their previous importance.
[See also Istiqlal Morocco; and the biographies of Tijani and `Umar Tal.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Two works (difficult of access) form the principal sources for the study of the Tijaniyah: Abu al-Hasan `Ali Harazimi’s Jawahir alma’ani wa bulugh al-amant fi faid Abi al-`Abbas Ahmad al-Tijani (Cairo, 1927) concentrates on the persona of the founder and the principal teachings of the order (written by the leading disciple of the founder, the Jawahir, though authorized by al-Tijani himself, draws unabashedly from other biographies without acknowledgement). Published on its margin is, `Umar ibn Sa’Id’s Rimah hizb al-Rahim `ala nuhur hizb al-rajim (composed 1261/1845 by the leading disciple of the order outside the Maghrib, the Rimah defends the Tijaniyah against its detractors and serves as a guide to conduct for its members). Of the early printed works in European languages, and a basis for much of the analysis done in successive years, are Louis Rinn’s Marabouts et Khouan. Etude sur l’Islam en Algerie (Algiers, 1884), again difficult of access as is O. Depont and X. Coppolani’s Les Confreries religieuses musulmanes (Algiers, 1897). Neither of these, with their emphasis on major figures and salient doctrinal features, has been entirely superseded by J. Spencer Trimingham’s The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971), concerned with the development of the brotherhoods through the centuries and the specific phases through which they passed during this evolution, and J. Abun Nast’s The Tijaniyya, A Sufi Order in the Modern World (London, 1965). This work is to be used with caution as the author’s translations from French and Arabic are not always trustworthy, and some of his interpretations extremely misleading. See my review article, Research Bulletin, Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan, Institute of African Studies 2.1 (January 1966): 39-47. Very useful for the modern period and for its general overview is Dale Eickelman’s Moroccan Islam (Austin, 1976), and Mohammed El Mansour’s Morocco in the Reign of Mawlay Sulayman (Cambridgeshire, 1990), the most insightful analysis of the historical period in which the brotherhood flourished.
JOHN RALPH WILLIS
