ABSTRACT
The zawiyas, typical Sufi buildings, have always played an important social role in Algeria. From being just corners of mosques where religious teachings were given, or even bare buildings standing on saints’ shrines, they quickly evolved to become places of reference from the religious and soteriological point of view as well as from educational, social, economic and cultural points of view. Especially during periods of crisis, as rooted in the territory, they become one of the main places of political legitimacy. This role has been recognized in a peculiar way after the conflicts of the 1990s, especially since Bouteflika’s presidency has tried to capitalize on the zawiyas’ symbolic and profane meaning in the national public discourse, rehabilitating Sufism, long marginalized, if not demonized, for the discursive generalization around an alleged connivance with colonial power.
The promotion of a nationalized version of Sufism responded to the search for an international, regional and local legitimacy, passing through both a direct support to brotherhoods and the construction of new zawiyas, including the Zawiya Belkaïdiya in Algiers. In this sense, the peculiar sacred value of zawiyas, hybridizing their practices and meaning, are particularly significant for the validation and evolution of Islamism and of the relationship between Islam and the state in the country in the contemporary difficult Algerian transition.
