Tourism, heritage and Islam: Fes, a tourism centre and a Tijani centre

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the revival of networks of the Tijaniyya, a Muslim brotherhood flourishing right across Saharo-Sahelian Africa, religious tourism associated with pilgrim travel to Fes, the brotherhood’s “pole” (centre), sets down particular markers in the Fassi space and simultaneously reinforces other sacred topographies. The rise in religious tourism is particularly noteworthy in major Tijaniyya centres from sub-Saharan Africa to the Maghreb. This tourism is part of the living practice of Islam. It intersects with secular tourist practices directly boosted by the award of UNESCO World Heritage Site status to Fes. Religious tourists and secular tourists seek sacred or institutional heritage on designated routes, but their paths rarely cross. In Fes, tourism management of holy sites is based on segregation as secular tourists, the only group actually referred to as “tourists”, are banned from entering mosques.