V. J. Hoffman, Sufism, mystics, and saints in Modern
Egypt, Columbia, S.C. 1995.
C. Mayeur-Jaouen, Al-Sayyid al-Badawi. Un grand saint
de l’islam égyptien, Cairo 1994.
E. B. Reeves, The hidden government. Ritual, clientelism
and legitimation in northern Egypt, Salt Lake City
1990.
M. Winter, Society and religion in early Ottoman Egypt.
Studies in the writings of ≠Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha≠rani,
New Brunswick, N.J. 1982.Valerie J. HoffmanNorth AfricaWomen have been active in Sufi orders in North
Africa throughout history. They participated in
separate women’s dhikrs (Sufi remembrance ritu-
als), and served as muqaddamàt(circle leaders).
Muqaddamàtacted as liaisons between the men’s
and women’s groups, led the women’s dhikr, initi-
ated new women members, and taught Sufi doc-
trine and practices to women members. Some
women took charge of the internal administration
of the zàwiyas (Sufi lodges) in which they lived and
worshipped. The primary sources for these roles
and practices include Arabic historical works and
treatises, anthropological studies, travel literature,
and reports written by the French colonial admin-
istrators. Although their objectives and male
authorship limited the details on women, consider-
able insight can nonetheless be gained from them
into Sufi women’s practices.
Today, women are active in Sufi orders of two
types based on ritual content. The first ritual type,
the dhikr, involves multiple repetitions of Arabic
poems, phrases, or words in praise of Allah or the
Prophet Mu™ammad to induce an ecstatic state or
divine union. The second, the ™a∂raor lìla, is a
therapeutic spirit possession ceremony, in which
rhythmic music accompanied by chants is per-
formed to summon supernatural beings which
inhabit participants causing them to move rhyth-
mically and fall into trance. Despite some decline in
Sufi activities due to oppositional efforts by Islamic
reformists over the past century, scholarly interest
in exploring women’s participation in the surviving
orders is growing.
Whether they were local creations or pan- or
trans-regional institutions, many orders had paral-
lel forms of women’s participation. An investiga-
tion in 1917 revealed that 18 women members of
the Tijàniyya in the Tunis region held muqaddama
certificates (Clancy-Smith 1992). The details of
Libyan women’s roles in the Sanùsiyya remain lim-
ited, but its founder, who was raised by his aunt,
an active teacher and preacher, was criticized for764 sufi orders and movements
allowing gender-mixed gatherings. His wife was
known for the extreme demands she placed on the
male members’ piety (Vikør 1995).
Algerian women’s participation in Sufi orders has
been documented for two time periods: the early
nineteenth to the early twentieth century and 1983
to 1999. At the end of the nineteenth century, there
were 27,000 women members of Sufi orders in
Algeria, mainly in the Qàdiriyya, Ra™màniyya, and
Tijàniyya (Jansen 1984). There were 4,000 women
Ra™mànìmembers in the commune of Akbou. In
1913, there were three times as many female as
male Ra™mànìmembers in a zàwiyain the Tkout
region. Muqaddamàtpresided over women’s dhikrs
and initiated women adepts using men’s proce-
dures. Furthermore, special procedures were devel-
oped when men initiated women, in order to avoid
direct physical and eye contact (Clancy-Smith
1992).
While no specifics are available on women’s
groups’ educational and ritual practices, some de-
tails exist on women’s headship of zàwiyas. One
example is Làlla Khadìja who directed a Ra™mànì
zàwiyain Kabylia after her husband’s death, from
1837 to 1842. Her daughter, who married her
mother’s successor, also had a leadership role.
Moreover, she is reported to have been the first
woman to initiate women members and authorize
muqaddamàt. In the 1890s, the co-wives of the
deceased zàwiya leader at Laghouat and the
Kanadsa zàwiyaleader’s mother, who was both
feared and venerated, were in charge of the admin-
istration of their respective zàwiyas. The ages and
backgrounds of these women leaders are unknown
(Clancy-Smith 1992).
Another example is Làlla Zaynab, who directed
the Ra™mànìzàwiyain al-£àmil from her father’s
death in 1897 until she died in 1904 at about age- She fought an intense legal battle against her
male cousin to acquire this position. Educated by
her father, intimately involved with the function-
ing of the zàwiyaall her life, and saintly in status,
she was better suited to take on responsibility for
the education and social welfare of its members.
During her tenure, she initiated both men and
women into the order. A large number of women of
varying ages and backgrounds lived in the lodge
during her and her father’s tenure (Clancy-Smith
1992, 1994).
Today, women are active members of the ≠îsà-
wiyya, both in Algeria and France. Men dominate
the order structurally, but ≠îsàwìwomen’s groups
hold separate, self-styled weekly jama≠ rituals.
These rituals consist of a dhikrof litanies express-
ing intense love for the Prophet with percussion