Marabout

Taken from the Arabic word murabit, the term marabout describes a variety of Muslim spiritual and political leaders active in spreading Islam through North and West Africa beginning in the 12th century.

Murabi-t originally identified only residents of the ribat, Muslim monastic communities in North Africa that flourished in the 12th century. As Islam gained followers across the Maghreb (North Africa), the term marabout expanded to include disciples of Islamic teachers, members of Sufi fraternities, and mystical spiritual teachers of Islam. By the 19th century marabout evolved to incorporate anyone associated with the orthodox Muslim faction in the religious wars in the Senegambia. Its development as a term illustrates the increasing and changing role of Islam in spiritual, cultural, and political life in North and West Africa.

The marabout, along with merchants and traders, played an essential role in the dispersion of Islam in the Maghreb. Seen as an alternative to the intellectual, elite Islam of urban Arab migrants, the marabout were known for their miracles and magic, gaining popularity especially among rural populations. Described as populist in their politics, the marabout became highly influential, gaining followers and integrating into regional political and social structures. Although they gained much popular support, some Islamic kingdoms, including the Almoravid dynasty in Morocco, persecuted them as heretics as early as the 12th century. Under the Almohad dynasty, successors to the Almoravids, the marabout gained power, increasing their influence until the century, when they again faced persecution by Moroccan political and religious leaders.

While some marabout established themselves as resident teachers and spiritual leaders, becoming powerful leaders in Islamic dynasties, others remained wandering teachers, bringing Islam to rural areas. Part of their success came through their willingness and ability to incorporate pre-Islamic beliefs with the teachings of the Qur’an. This led to local variations among the marabout, following regional differences in indigenous spiritual practices. Despite these regional differences, the marabout remained priests and scholars of the Qur’an, making Islam the dominant political and spiritual force throughout North and West Africa by the end of the early modern period.

Further reading: Marian Aguian, “Marabout,” in Afri-cana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 1,249-1,250; Jean Boulegue and Jean Suret-Canale, “The Western Atlantic Coast,” in History of West Africa, vol. 1, 3rd, eds. J. F. Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder (London: Longman, 1985), 503-530; “Marabout,” in Dictionary of African Historical Biography, 2nd ed., Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 136.