| An inventory of a hundred “marabouts” venerated by Muslims
and Jews has been made by M. Voinot [1] among which
62 in Berber country . More than half are acknowledged Jewish saints and invoked
by Muslims. A small minority is made up of Muslim marabouts
invoked by Jews as well , and about a third is claimed by Muslims and Jews alike.
In the two first instances each one of the two communities prayed in devotion
to the saint separately.
When Muslims prayed in devotion to Jewish saints they did it under cover so
as not to acknowledge their veneration for a Jew . When the saints were Muslims,
Jews were sometimes forced by Muslims to moderate their fervour. The third category
of marabouts claimed by both Muslims and Jews was
now and then the occasion of clashes between the two communities.
The origin of Jewish saints is even more mysterious than that of some Muslim
ones. According to the Berber Jewish tradition, seven (sometimes ten) missionary
Rabbis would have come from Jerusalem “a long time ago” to Morocco
. They would have parted after a quarrel. It is the tombs of these missionaries
and of their descendants that might constitute the Jewish sanctuaries still
venerated nowadays.
Not to mention the missionary Rabbis, the existence of the tombs is in itself
problematic, for in most cases they consist merely of heaps of stones or of
a large boulder that it said to have rolled down from the mountain to the location
of the tomb to protect it from violation (which may hint to the hostile social
environment within which Jews lived)
The Jewish saints have the same talents as their Muslim equivalents. Most of
them are, at the same time obstetricians, psychiatrists, encounter middlemen
(marriage facilitators)… helping barren women to give birth, bringing a
husband to nubile girls and curing psychic illnesses. The acts of devotion are
always the same: Burning of candles , sacrificing of animals, offerings either
in cash or produce…
The custodian of the sanctuary in charge of receiving offerings from the devout
folks and to hand them out to the needy, is usually a Muslim. When the sanctuary
was located on a land that belonged to a Muslim or if the pilgrims had to cross
Muslim property to reach the sanctuary only Jews had to pay for the right to
get through [2] .
We could be surprised by this phenomenon of crossing cults ( Muslim venerating
Jewish saints and vice versa) and the fact that Muslims often observe this cult
secretly goes along the same line. But not if we remember that genuine religious
faith and cult of the saints (condemned by Muslim orthodoxy) haven't got much
in common.
|
