The Maghreb Review, Vol. 40, 1, 2015 © The Maghreb Review 2015 This publication is printed on longlife paper SECTARIANISM IN THE LANDSCAPE: THE TRANSFER OF THE KHUṬBA OF FES FROM THE MOSQUE OF THE SHURAFĀʾ TO THE QARAWIYYĪN MOSQUE IN 933 (321 AH) AMIRA K. BENNISON∗ The delivery of the khuṭba (sermon) at the Friday prayer in the great mosque was an important moment for the weekly rehearsal of a community’s political and religious allegiances. The dedication of the khuṭba to a particular ruler underlined his legitimacy and its acceptance signalled obedience and loyalty among the assembled adult male population of a town. In the same way, political rivals could be delegitimized through the cursing (sabb) of their line.1 Conversely, the refusal of whoever was presiding over the Friday prayer to make such a dedication or his offering of the khuṭba to a rival leader was an important signal of rebellion or autonomy. The fact that the khuṭba, as part of the Friday prayer, was only given in congregational or great mosques (al-masjid al-jāmiʿ) gave it an added association with power, since it was the prerogative of an Islamic ruler or his appointed representative to found great mosques in the early Islamic period. Consequently, most early urban settlements had only one great mosque where the khuṭba was delivered and that mosque was closely associated with a particular dynasty and, by inference, its interpretation of Islam.2 The transfer of the khuṭba from one mosque to another was therefore an act redolent of power and its contestation. ∗ University of Cambridge I am personally delighted to have been asked to contribute to this volume to celebrate the achievements of Michael Brett. From my days as his PhD student onwards, he has been a source of guidance, support and constructive criticism. I have also found that it is almost impossible to research or teach on the Maghrib without reference to his publications which provide insight into processes across the length and breadth of the Maghrib over more than a millenia, as well as Mediterranean, Islamic and African studies more generally. 1 For instance, in the period under consideration, the Umayyads of Cordoba had their rivals, the Fāṭimids, cursed from the pulpit. E. Levi-Provençal, Histoire de L’Espagne Musulmane (Paris: Maisonneuve; Leiden: Brill, 1950), vol. 2, p. 108. 2 It should be noted that over time urban settlements often expanded through the addition of new surburbs (rabaḍ, arbāḍ) or towns (madīna, mudun) which could have their own great mosques, especially if the new urban area was a walled palatine city. As these new areas became absorbed into larger urban conglomerations, the number of great mosques steadily increased and their association with particular rulers or dynasties diminished somewhat. By the late 12th century, for instance, the anonymous author of the Kitāb al-Istibṣār mentions that nine khuṭbas were given in the Meknes area. ‘The city (madīna) of Miknasat al-Zaytūn is actually four cities (mudun) and numerous villages (qurā) connected to the cities and fortresses (ḥuṣūn)… nine khuṭbas are given in [the city] today’: Saad Zaghloul Abdel-Hamid (ed.), Kitāb al-Istibṣār fī Ajāʾib al-Amṣār (Alexandria: Imprimerie Université d’Alexandrie, 1958), pp. 187–8. SECTARIANISM IN THE LANDSCAPE 13 One of the best known stories from the Umayyad period is the legendary appearance of the Umayyad governor of Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf, in the great mosque of Kufa immediately after his appointment, when he mounted the minbar (pulpit) wearing a turban of red silk and berated and threatened the congregation, known for their recalcitrance towards authority, with the arresting image that their heads reminded him of fruit ready for plucking.3 While the political context of the khuṭba dedication was not always so stark, there are numerous references to the use of that time and place in the weekly routine for public announcements of a political or religio-political tenor. This was as true in al-Andalus and the Maghrib as in Islamic lands further east. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I...