Al-Shaikh Māʾ al-ʿAynayn: Maghrebi-Saharan literary geographies on the eve of colonization

Abstract

Although the 19th-century Sufi figure al-Shaikh Maʾ al-ʿAynayn led a major resistance movement in what is now southern Morocco, northern Mauritania, and the disputed Western Sahara while also becoming one of the most widely printed authors on the Fez lithographic press, very little information on his literary and scholarly output exists in Europhone sources. This is largely due to the marginalization of texts inconsistent with Middle East-centered narratives of reform and revival inspired by the encounter with Europe. As part of a larger effort to read Maghrebi literatures on their own terms rather than imposing European or Middle Eastern timelines and concepts, this article reads Maʾ al-ʿAynayn’s 1858 riḥla (travelogue) to Mecca and shows how he conceptualized his world and traveled within it, including local, regional, and transregional elements.