favid domain in 1512. Though the Safavid house intermar-
ried with NiEmatulla ̄h ̄ıs, the order lost favor under Sha ̄h
EAbba ̄s when it was implicated in a rebellion. It was only re-
vived in the eighteenth century by help sent from the Dec-
cani branch of the t:ar ̄ıqah in the person of MaEs:u ̄m
EAl ̄ı-Sha ̄h, who had gained a large following throughout
Central Iran. He was executed in 1797 at the behest of Sh ̄ıE ̄ı
scholars implacably opposed to Sufism.
In the nineteenth century the NiEmatulla ̄h ̄ıyah of Iran
broke into several branches, represented in the early twenty-
first century principally by the S:af ̄ı-EAl ̄ısha ̄h ̄ıs and the
Sult:a ̄n-EAl ̄ısha ̄h ̄ıs, both of which were encouraged under the
Pahlavi dynasty. In 1974 the order was brought to the West,
where it was represented by Javad Nurbakhsh as Khaniqahi-
Nimatullahi.
Tija ̄ni ̄ıah and Sanu ̄s ̄ıyah. The eighteenth-century re-
vival movements of Sha ̄h Wal ̄ı Alla ̄h in India and
Muh:ammad ibn EAbd al-Wahha ̄b in Arabia had a counter-
part in the t:ar ̄ıqahs. Sometimes this revival was expressed in
the reform of existing orders, sometimes in the development
of suborders, sometimes in the appearance of new ones. The
generation of orders in fact never ceased. In North and West
Africa, for example, between 1500 and 1900 at least twenty-
eight t:ar ̄ıqahs emerged, one-third originating in Morocco.
Here it is sufficient to draw attention to two that were to play
an important role in Islamic revival movements in the Sudan,
Egypt, and North and West Africa. The first was the
Tija ̄n ̄ıyah, based in what is now Algeria and Morocco, and
the other the Sanu ̄ siyah in Libya.
The founder of the Tija ̄n ̄ıyah was Abu ̄ al-EAbba ̄s
Ah:mad al-Tija ̄n ̄ı (1737–1815). He spent several years study-
ing in Fez, then he studied in Abyad: for five years, and in
1773 he went to Mecca and Medina and finally to Cairo,
where he studied under various shaykhs, one of whom sug-
gested that he found a t:ar ̄ıqah. He then returned to Fez,
where, although he continued to travel extensively, he main-
tained his center.
The demands of the order are exclusive, and members
may not join any other order. The Tija ̄n ̄ıyah have their own
formulas for dhikr, to be recited as many as a hundred times
at particular points in the day. They are further distinguished
from many of the other orders by their submission to estab-
lished government, even where this has been non-Muslim.
Thus throughout the French occupation of Algeria, they re-
mained for the most part on good terms with the French au-
thorities. When the emir EAbd el-Kader, a Qa ̄dir ̄ı named
after the founder of the order, attempted to enlist them in
a struggle against the French in 1836, the Tija ̄n ̄ı chief re-
fused, saying it was their purpose to live a religious life in
peace. The emir then marched on their town and demanded
that they submit to him, but they again refused and, al-
though outnumbered, resisted a siege for eight months, took
refuge in another town, and in the following year offered
moral and material aid to the French.
This t:ar ̄ıqah won adherents in Egypt, Arabia, and other
parts of Asia and still enjoys a strong following in parts of
Africa formerly under French rule. In the first half of the
nineteenth century it was propagated in French Guinea by
EUmar Tal after his return to Dinguiray (which became one
of the most important religious cities in the region), where
it took over and displaced the Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah tradition.
S ̄ıd ̄ı Muh:ammad ibn EAl ̄ı al-Sanu ̄s ̄ı was born in Algeria
in 1791. From 1821 to 1828 he lived in Fez, where he stud-
ied QurDanic exegesis, h:ad ̄ıth, and jurisprudence. Traveling
for the pilgrimage, he remained in Mecca from 1830 to
1843, founding his first za ̄wiyah there in 1837. On leaving
Mecca he settled in Cyrenaica, where he founded additional
za ̄wiyahs. After his death in 1859 the order was continued
by his two sons, S ̄ıd ̄ı Muh:ammad al-Mahd ̄ı (1844–1901),
his successor, and S ̄ıd ̄ı Muh:ammad al-Shar ̄ıf (1846–1896).
Al-Sanu ̄s ̄ı left detailed instructions relating to initiation into
his order, and his devotional writings became the basis of the
Sanu ̄s ̄ı routines. At the same time all his activities were im-
bued with a rigorous work ethic. He inspired his followers
to work together to build roads, to form trade cooperatives,
to undertake irrigation projects, and to establish agricultural
communities.
In fact such activities were integral to the work of many
t:ar ̄ıqahs, such as the Tija ̄n ̄ıyah and its offshoot in Senegal,
the Mur ̄ıd movement. The discipline of the brethren had a
counterpart in the discipline of a trade guild or corporation.
Likewise the tremendous vitality of the nineteenth-century
t:ar ̄ıqahs was also channeled into political activity, especially
diplomatic negotiations with the European powers.
Throughout this period it is clear that they operated as an
invisible international network attempting to protect the cul-
tural and religious identity of Islam against the European
powers. The same Emir EAbd el-Kader who tried to involve
the Tija ̄n ̄ıyah in an uprising against the French had received
an ija ̄zah (license) to found his own branch of the Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah
when he led the 1832 revolt against the French in Algeria
and proclaimed a jiha ̄d. Captured by the French in 1847, he
wrote to Napoleon III in 1865, petitioning him to mediate
with Czar Alexander II on behalf of the release from prison
of a Naqshband ̄ı-Kha ̄lid ̄ı S:u ̄f ̄ı shaykh in Daghestan, Ima ̄m
Sha ̄mil (1796–1871), who had been imprisoned for taking
part in a jiha ̄d movement against the Russian Empire in the
northern Caucasus.
There are also grounds for seeing a Sanu ̄s ̄ı inspiration
in the late nineteenth-century Achehnese war against the
Dutch, just as there had been a strong international
Naqshband ̄ı movement behind resistance to the Dutch in
West Sumatra and other parts of the Indonesian archipelago.
These influences, inspirations, networks, and personalities
thus ranged between Algeria and the Caucasus, Cyrenaica,
Malaya, Indonesia, and East and West Africa, with the hub
of the network at Mecca, where the shaykhs of the various
regional establishments of the orders met and pooled infor-
mation and ideas.T:AR ̄IQAH 9011