ABSTRACT
The main purpose o f this investigation has been to analyze observations made on the Sufi luruq in North and Northwest Africa by French writers of the second half o f the nineteenth century. Having begun such a study, it soon became clear that although early French observers were som ewhat in agreement as to what constituted "Le péril de l’Islam ”, they had no recognised criteria upon which a study o f the luruq could be based. “Confrérie" became a vague term for the assorted religious groupings which appeared to exist, or to have existed, in North and Northwest Africa. These included such widely differing groupings as the Murâbitîn (Almoravids). the Shâdhiliyya, the so-called "Bakkà’iyya”. and the Sanusiyya. One sensed, however, an uneasiness in the use of "confrérie" when qualifications such as "isolated zàwiyas", “école philosophique", or "corporation maraboutique” were used. Not only was there a marked inconsistency in the use o f terminology,2 there was also little agreement as to what constituted a "confrérie" or “brotherhood".’ In w hat sense, it must be asked, was the Shâdhiliyya both “école philosophique” and "confrérie"? In what sense were the “ Bakkâ’iyya” and the Shaykhiyya (or Awlâd Sidi al-Shaykh) “ isolated zàwiyas" and “corporations m araboutiques” ? Were they branches or independent branches of the Qâdiriyya and Shâdhiliyya respectively, or new brotherhoods?
