Women and sainthood in Marrakesh

Abstract EN

Throughout its history, Marrakesh has been known as the land of Sufism, the land of prominent Sufi figures including more particularly the famous seven saints of Marrakesh who gave the city one of its names.

This huge number of saints who lived in the city also contributed to its reputation as the city in which there is a saint in every step, and the reference has always been to the male saints, of course, as if sainthood was related to men only.

But the question which poses itself in this respect is the following: if in every step of Marrakesh there is a saint, what about the women saints? Were there any women saints in Marrakesh? If yes, what can we say about them, about their place among the male saints and about the characteristics of their Sufi practice? Was it the same or different from men’s Sufism? What impact did it have on these women’s lives? In order to answer these questions and many others, I conducted a field-work in the Medina of Marrakesh which lasted intermittently from 2004 to 201 and which provided me with most of the information presented in this article

Abstract FRE

A travers son histoire, Marrakech était connue comme la ville des soufis et des saints ce qui lui a value le nom de la ville des sept saints.

Marrakech et aussi connue comme la ville dans laquelle il y a un saint à chaque pas.

Cette référence aux saints a bien sur toujours était aux hommes auxquelles la littérature soufie a consacré des centaines de livres et de références.

Mais la question qui se pose est la suivante : si Marrakech est connue pour son grand nombre de saints et si à chaque pas il y a un saint, quand est-il des saintes ? Y’avait-il des saintes à Marrakech? Quelles sont les caractéristiques de leurs soufisme et de leurs sainteté et quelles étaient leurs effets sur leurs vies et sur la société? Pour répondre à toutes ces questions, j’ai mené un travail de terrain dans la médina de Marrakech de 2004 à 2015.

Ce travail m’a permis de découvrir toutes les informations contenues dans cet article