By Dr Mohamed Chtatou
An important factor which grew in Morocco during the 16th and 17th centuries was the continued antagonism between political centralization and separatism in the name of autonomous rule. Zawiyas throughout Morocco were largely affected by the expansion and the increased societal importance of Sufism. Various religious orders of the mountain areas gained regional power through local support and the growth of social services, which the Sa’dian government could not provide. Several zawiyas gained autonomous control of regions across the Maghreb. The zawiya Dila’iya was founded in the sixteenth century by Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad. He had a reputation for learning and generous hospitality. These attributes consequently became permanent associations with the Zawiya Dila’iya. During the ongoing political crisis in Morocco during the seventeenth century, the Zawiya of Abu Bakr “became the refuge of the people of learning and the consoler of the weak and the afflicted”(Peyron 125). The successors of Abu Bakr continued these traditions of scholarship, hospitality, and charity.
An important factor of the zawiya’s sudden growth in power and influence was its source of human resources and economic power (Peyron 125-126). Located at a strategic point in the center of Morocco, the political mobilization of human resources allowed the zawiya to expand into the fertile Atlantic plains providing the zawiya with a huge agricultural foundation to grow upon. Its central location also allowed a large commercial economy to thrive, connecting to local as well as regional and trans-Saharan trade networks. Important trade networks from Fes and Marrakesh passed through zawiya Dila’iya lands (Brett 175). The steady growth of the zawiya was harnessed to purely political ends during the famed leadership of Muhammad al-Haj. Unlike his predecessors, Muhammad al-Haj exploited the collapse of authority in Morocco in order to politically expand the power of the zawiya (Peyron 126).
Following this political move, the Sa’dian sultan, Muhammad al-Shaikh al-Asghar, was angered by the political expansion of the zawiya Dila’iya and accused Muhammad al-Haj of treason for aspiring to dominate Morocco. The increased hostility between two forces soon caused a collision of power at the battle of Abu ‘Aqaba in which the Sultan was defeated (Peyron 128). The defeat of the Sa’dian Sultan marked the first real example of the increasing political influence of the zawiya Dila’iya in Atlantic and Mediterranean coastal regions.
Without opposition from Muhammad al-Shaikh al-Asghar, the zawiya was able to occupy further territories and control major cities like Fes. Just like in the beginning of the zawiya Dila’iya’s growth, the decline of the zawiya can be attributed to a military defeat at the hands of a new arrival on the Moroccan political scene. This happens to reflect Ibn Khaldun’s theory regarding the growth and subsequent decline of Empires in the Maghreb.
Bibliography
Brett, Michael, and Elizabeth Fentress. The Berbers. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1996.
Peyron, Michael. “”The Dila Zawiya” and “The Berber Revolt”” The Amazigh Studies Reader. [Ifrane]: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, 2006. 124-126.
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