Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism.

• Author: Albertini, Tamara
• Position: Review

Vincent J. Cornell. Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998. 424 pages, 4 maps, 9 figures. Hardcover $50.00, paper $19.95.

Vincent Cornell's newest book is the result of twelve years of intensive research in which he reviewed numerous unpublished biographic and hagiographic sources and also dialogued with scholars, with contemporary Sufis and descendants of renowned Sufis in Morocco. His thorough account begins most appropriately with critical remarks as to the correct semantic use of "sainthood" in his investigation, a term which in older literature he finds tinted by a Christian-European understanding of sanctity and/or filtered through the lenses of colonial-era scholars. Cornell argues that there are two key notions to be considered in order to do justice to the phenomenon of holiness in an Islamic context, one is wilaya (closeness), the other walaya (authority). Whereas the latter term (often invoked in Sufi literature), refers to the relationship between shaykh and people, the former term is used to describe the shaykh in respect to God. It is the two aspects taken together that give the shaykh his special status in the co mmunity as a divine agent, who guides his community in religious as well as political matters. His high status is further confirmed by his ability to perform miracles (karamat). A strong testimony to the consequently extraordinary self-confidence of some saintly figures can be found in the words of Abul-Abbas as-Sabti (d. 601/1204), the patron saint of Marrakesh: "I am a guide toward ihsan [goodness] and an intermediary between humankind and their creator" (p. 87).

Cornell's investigation opens up with a chapter devoted to urban sainthood that, as he shows, is rooted in an in-depth knowledge of Islamic law. The following chapter examines the rural holy figure and expounds that the countryside shaykh is also viewed as member of the scholarly class. His sphere of influence, however, is tied to the institution of the ribat, a center in which he instructs his disciples. Chapters three and four make a strong case for the use of biographies and hagiographies to help reconstruct the "making" of a saint. These chapters culminate in a sociological analysis that comprises criteria of ethnicity, urban region, education, social status, spiritual practices, signs of holiness, and types of miracles. The latter ones, for instance, do not only include acts of healing...