The «sovereignty of the imamate» (Siyādat Al-Imāma) of the Jazūliyya-Ghazwāniyya: a sufi alternative to sharifism?

Abstract

This article details the doctrine of the aṭ-Ṭā’ifa al-Jazūliyya, a populist and politically active Sufi order that dominated Moroccan mysticism throughout the sixteenth century. This doctrine focused on the concept of paradigmatic sainthood (quṭbiyya) and was influenced by two different models of religious authority. The first model saw authority as an acquired property, which was vested in the Sufi shaykh who best mirrored the qualities of the Prophet Muḥammad. The second model conceived of authority as an ascribed property, and saw it as an inborn grace (baraka) that was transmitted via descent through the Prophetic bloodline. In the writings of the Jazūliyya shaykh ‛Abdallah al-Ghazwānī (d. 935/1528-9), both models of authority were seen as part of the «prophetic inheritance» (al-wirātha an-abawiyyd), and were reconciled through the doctrine of the «sovereignty of the imamate» (siyādat al-imāma). In this doctrine, the axial saint of Moroccan Sufism, whom al-Ghazwānī called the jaras or «Bell-saint», stood as the successor (khalīfa) to the Prophet Muhammad and prime interpreter of Islam. He thus took on many of the qualities of the Shi‛ite Imam, an posed a serious challenge to the political leaders of the time.