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Libya
Saints and Brotherhoods
Islam as practiced in North Africa is interlaced with indigenous
Berber beliefs. Although the orthodox faith preached the unique
and inimitable majesty and sanctity of God and the equality of
God's believers, an important element of North African Islam for
centuries has been a belief in the coalescence of special spiritual
power in particular living human beings. The power is known as
baraka, a transferable quality of personal blessedness
and spiritual force said to lodge in certain individuals. Those
whose claim to possess baraka can be substantiated--through
performance of apparent miracles, exemplary human insight, or
genealogical connection with a recognized possessor--are viewed
as saints. These persons are known in the West as marabouts, a
French transliteration of al murabitun (those who have
made a religious retreat), and the benefits of their baraka
are believed to accrue to those ordinary people who come in contact
with them.
The cult of saints became widespread in rural areas; in urban
localities, Islam in its orthodox form continued to prevail. Saints
were present in Tripolitania, but they were particularly numerous
in Cyrenaica. Their baraka continued to reside in their
tombs after their deaths. The number of venerated tombs varied
from tribe to tribe, although there tended to be fewer among the
camel herders of the desert than among the sedentary and nomadic
tribes of the plateau area. In one village, a visitor in the late
1960s counted sixteen still-venerated tombs.
Coteries of disciples frequently clustered around particular
saints, especially those who preached an original tariqa
(devotional "way"). Brotherhoods of the followers of such mystical
teachers appeared in North Africa at least as early as the eleventh
century and in some cases became mass movements. The founder ruled
an order of followers, who were organized under the frequently
absolute authority of a leader, or shaykh. The brotherhood was
centered on a zawiya (pl., zawaya--see Glossary).
Because of Islam's austere rational and intellectual qualities,
many people have felt drawn toward the more emotional and personal
ways of knowing God practiced by mystical Islam, or Sufism. Found
in many parts of the Muslim world, Sufism endeavored to produce
a personal experience of the divine through mystic and ascetic
discipline.
Sufi adherents gathered into brotherhoods, and Sufi cults became
extremely popular, particularly in rural areas. Sufi brotherhoods
exercised great influence and ultimately played an important part
in the religious revival that swept through North Africa during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Libya, when the Ottoman
Empire proved unable to mount effective resistance to the encroachment
of Christian missionaries, the work was taken over by Sufi-inspired
revivalist movements. Among these, the most forceful and effective
was that of the Sanusis, which extended into numerous parts of
North Africa.
Data as of 1987
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