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A marabout (Arabic: مَربوط [marbūṭ] or Arabic: مُرابِط [murābiṭ], one who is attached/garrisoned) is an Islamic religious leader and teacher [1] in West Africa, and (historically) in the Maghreb. The marabout is often a scholar of the Qur'an, or religious teacher. Others may be wandering holy men who survive on alms, Sufi Murshids ("Guides"), or leaders of religious communities. Still others keep alive syncretic pre-Islamic traditions, making amulets for good luck, presiding at various ceremonies, telling the future, and in some cases actively guiding the lives of followers. The common practice of receiving gifts or money for this service is disapproved of by orthodox Muslims. [1]
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The term Marabout appears during the Muslim conquest of North Africa. It is derived from the Arabic word "Mourabit" or "mrabet" (one who is garrisoned)[2]: religious students and military volunteers who manned the Ribats at the time of the conquest.[3] Today marabout means "Saint" in the Berber language, and refers to Sufi Muslim teachers who lead lodge or school called a zaouïa, associated with a specific school or tradition, called a Tariqah (طريقه Ṭarīqah: "way", "path").
The pronunciation of that word may vary according the spoken Berber dialect, for example it is pronounced as "Amrabadh" in the Rif dialect: Tarifit. The "marabout" is known as "Sayyed" (سيد) to the Arabic speaking Maghribians. Many cities in Morocco got their names from local "marabouts", and the name of those cities does usually begin with "Sidi" (سيدي) followed with the name of the local "marabout." The standard Arabic for "saint" would be "Waliy" (ولي).
A marabout may also refer to a tomb (Arabic: قُبّة [qubba]) of a venerated saint, and such places have become holy centers and places of pious reflection.
The roots of this tradition can be traced back to ancient times when the Berbers believed in the polytheistic religions. Herodotus mentioned the tradition too, when he has spoke of the Nasamones bringing animal sacrifices to the tombs of holy men.
Note that these are not places of formal pilgrimage (limited in Islam to religious pilgrimages of the Hadj and Jerusalem), but are rather places of reflection and inspiration for the pious.
Or
Muslim religious brotherhoods (Tariqah in the Sufi tradition) are one of the main organizing forms of West African Islam, and with the spread of Sufi ideas into the area, the marabout's role combined with local practices throughout Senegambia, the Niger river valley, and the Futa Jallon. Here, Sufi believers follow a marabout, elsewhere known as a Murshid ("Guide"). Marabout was also adopted by French colonial officials, and applied to most any imam, Muslim teacher, or secular leader who appealed to Islamic tradition.
Today marabouts can be traveling holy men who survive on alms, religious teachers who take in young talibes at koranic schools, or distinguished religious leaders and scholars, both in and out of the sufi brotherhoods which dominate spiritual life in Senegambia.[4]
In the Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal, marabouts are organized in elaborate hierarchies; the highest marabout of the Mourides, for example, has been elevated to the status of a Caliph or ruler of the faithful (Amir al-Mu'minin). Older, North African based traditions such as the Tijaniyyah and the Qadiriyyah base their structures on respect for teachers and religious leaders who, south of the Sahara, often are called marabouts. Those who devote themselves to prayer or study, either based in communities, religious centers, or wandering in the larger society, are named marabouts. In Senegal and Mali, these Marabouts rely on donations to live. Often there is an traditional bond to support a specific marabout that has accumulated over generations within a family. Marabouts normally dress in traditional West African robes and live a simple, ascetic life.
Some Senegalese marabouts have been accused of exploiting young students, recruiting young boys from all over Senegal and neighboring countries to enroll in their schools. These children are then forced to beg on the streets for money under threat of physical harm, while their teachers take the profits, leaving the children without proper clothing, food or shelter. [5] This exploitation is in stark contrast to the tradition of Marbout-led koranic schools which have operated across West Africa for centuries.
The spread in sub-saharan Africa of the marabout's role from the eighth through 13th centuries CE created in some places a mixture of roles with pre-Islamic priests and devines. Thus many fortune tellers and self styled spiritual guides take the name marabout (something rejected by more othodox Muslims and Sufi brotherhoods alike). The recent diaspora of West Africans (to Paris in particular) has brought this tradition to Europe and North America, where some marabouts advertise their services as fortune tellers. [6] [7][8]
MARABOUT (the French form of the Arab. murabit, " one who pickets his horse on a hostile frontier"; cf. Portug. marabute; Span. inorabito), in Mahommedan religion a hermit or devotee. The word is derived from ribat, a fortified frontier station. To such stations pious men betook them to win religious merit in war against the infidel; their leisure was spent in devotion, and the habits of the convent superseded those of the camp (see M ` G. De Slane in Jour. As., 1842, i. 168; Dozy, Suppl. i. 502). Thus ribat came to mean a religious house or hospice (zawiya). The great sphere of the marabouts is North Africa. There it was that the community formed by Yahya b. Ibrahim and the doctor Abdullah developed into the conquering empire of the Murabits, or, as Christian writers call them, the Almoravides, and there still, among the Berbers, the marabouts enjoy extraordinary influence, being esteemed as living saints and mediators. They are liberally supported by alms, direct all .popular assemblies, and have a decisive voice in intertribal quarrels and all matters of consequence. On their death their sanctity is transferred to their tombs (also called marabouts), where chapels are erected and gifts and prayers offered. The marabouts took a prominent part in the resistance offered to the French by the Algerian Moslems; and they have been similarly active in politico-religious movements in Tunisia and Tripoli.
See L. Rinn, Marabouts et Khouan (Algiers, 1884); and the article Dervish.
Categories: MAR-MAR | North Africa
   | marabout -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia - marabout (Muslim holy man) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia |
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