Tamegroute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tamegroute is a village in the south of Morocco, in the valley of the Draa River. It has a history as a important centre of learning and religion through its famous Sufi zawiya, the Nasiriyya. Its green pottery is also very well known.
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[edit] Zawiya Nasiriyya/Naciria
Tamegroute has been a religious center since the 11th century. Its zawiya was founded in the 17th century as the seat of the religious (Sufi) brotherhood of the Naciriyyin.[1] It was founded by Abu Hafs Umar b. Ahmed al Ansari from the zawiya of al-Nas in 1575-76. The Naciria got it name (and its reputation) from Sidi Mohammed Bennacer Edderai (1603-1674). He settled in the zawiya of Tamegroute in 1631 and since that time the leaders of the zawiya have been descendants of Bennacer without interruption from father to son until the present day. Sidi Mohammed Bennacer was a theologian, scholar and physician, especially interested in mental disorders. He wrote several works of fikh, some poetry, letters and treatises on islamic law. He followed the teaching of the Shadhili and under his leadership the Naciria became the 'mother'zawiya' of sufi islam in the Maghreb with several branches in different parts of the country, like for instance the zawiyya of Irazan in the Sous valley where 500 students were financed by the brotherhood.
He was succeeded by his son Ahmad (1647-1717) who made six pilgrimages to Mecca and made each of these pilgimages into a journey of several years. Sidi Ahmad Bennacer travelled to Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Persia. During his travels he took the opportunity of establishing new branches of the Sufi brotherhood. He wrote a voluminous series of memoirs of his journeys called the Rihla (partly translated by A. Berbrugger in 1846) and he brought back numerous works from all parts of the islamic world. The brotherhood decided, already in the 17th century to found a university of the coran. That university received, right from the beginning, more than 1500 students from countries in the Middle-East and West Africa.
When Ahmad Bennacer died, the library (in Arab the 'khizana habsia') of Tamegroute, with its thousands of manuscripts was one of the richest of North-Africa. Fine examples of the collection of manuscripts (now 4200) are stil on display in the zawiya today and attract many tourists from Morocco and abroad. Among them are a 14th century coran with beautiful calligraphy in Kufic script, writings of Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), El Khwarizmi, a translation of Pythagoras, treatises on theology, astronomy, geography and pharmacology. Later sheikhs of the Sufi brotherhood of the Naciria also played an important role as religious and cultural leaders and teachers of the Sufi doctrine (Tazawwuf). The 19th sheikh Abu Bekr is well known, in the Draa valley (zawiya in Mhamid Ghuslan) and in the west through his encounters with the travellers Gerhard Rohlfs [2] and Charles de Foucauld. (. The graves of eight marabouts attract the visit of patients from all parts of the country, some of which remain in Tamegroute for months and sometimes even for years, hoping for healment and redemption by the baraka of the Naciria.
The building of the Zawiya, as it stands now with its green tiles, dates from 1869, when it was rebuilt after a fire.
[edit] Moussem
A month after the greatest islam holy day of Aid el-Kebir, Tamegroute hosts the yearly Moussem (festival) honouring Sidi Mohammed Bennacer.
[edit] Pottery
The founders of the religious brotherhood Naciria wanted to raise the status of the village of Tamegroute to that of a "Medina", that is to say to make it a city. They assembled the merchants and craftsmen that they had brought from Fes, a city that enjoyed good relations with Tamegroute at the time. However, today Tamegroute is a little village again, but the pottery has become its main characteristic. Except for a few ochre shades, green enamel is the dominant colour in pottery from Tamegroute. As with Fes Zelliges, and even more so, the ancient techniques give the enamel coating infinite variations.
[edit] Awzal
In the 17th century the famous Tashelhiyt (Berber) poet, Muhammad Awzal (1670-1748), found sanctuary in Tamegroute. His first work in Berber al-Hawd was written here. His last work An-Nasiha ("The Advice"), is an ode in praise of Sidi Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Nasir (1647-1717), Awzal's spiritual guide and grand master of the Nasiriyya Sufi order, probably inspired as a funeral eulegy by his death, around 1717.
[edit] El Tamegrouti
Tamegroute was the place of birth of one of the most important officials of the Saadian court: El Hassan El Tamegrouti and of the author and ambassador 'Ali Al-Tamagruti [3]
[edit] Bibliography and external links
- The Nasiriyya - Abstract from David Gutelius' dissertation, "Market Growth and Social Change in the Western Maghrib, 1640-1830."[1]
- Article: The path is easy and the benefits large: The Nasiriyya, social networks and economic change in Morocco, 1640-1830.
from: The Journal of African History, Gutelius, David P.V. , 01-Jan-02 [2]
- Agriculture, Sufism and the State in Tenth/Sixteenth-Century Morocco, by Francisco Rodriguez-Manas, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 59, No. 3 (1996), pp. 450-471 [3]
- Example of a manuscript (from Timbouctou) in the library of the Nasiryya [4]
- Dalil Makhtutat Dar al Kutub al Nasiriya, 1985 (Catalog of the Nasiri zawiya in Tamagrut), (ed. Keta books)
See also: Darqawa (sufism) "the 19th century was the Darqawi century, just as the 18th century had been the Nasiri century"
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Online excellent article: The path is easy and the benefits large: The Nasiriyya, social networks and economic change in Morocco, 1640-1830., by Gutelius, David P.V. , The Journal of African History, Publication Date: 01-JAN-02, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-65485_ITM
- ^ Gerhard Rohlfs, Mein erster Aufenthalt in Marokko und Reise südlich vom Atlas durch die Oasen Draa und Tafilet, Bremen, 1873, Chapter 15: Die Draa-Oase. Mordversuch auf den Reisenden. Ankunft in Algerien. http://www.ihaystack.com/authors/r/gerhard_rohlfs/00015890_mein_erster_aufenthalt_in_marokko_und_reise_sdlich_v/00015890_german_iso88591_p014.htm)
- ^ Ali Tamegruti is the author of Al-Nafha al Miskiya fi al Sifara al Turkiya (Arabic title), (A 16th century travel account of Istanbul by a Moroccan ambassador), Keta-books, 2002
