Renunciants in Africa Under the Aghlabids

Abstract

Maghribi Sufism is conventionally held to have grown from an earlier movement of austere-living ulema known especially as ṣulaḥā’. The present study reviews the biographical literature for the province of Africa (Ifrīqiyah), roughly present-day Tunisia, in the eighth and ninth centuries c.e. It confirms that leading jurisprudents were commonly (although not invariably) described as zuhhād (renunciants) and mutaʿabbidīn (worshippers). Other men were recognized predominantly for their renunciant lifestyles. There are few signs of mysticism, such as would characterize later Sufism. However, a notable stress on miracles already distinguishes the African tradition from contemporary renunciation elsewhere.