Magic and Religion in North Africa

Since canonical laws extend to all actions and man is incapable of conducting himself well by his reason alone, the State is led to intervene even in private life to give the law its sanction. This is the reason for the function of the moh’tasib market inspector/overseer of public morals, whose curious history we will have the occasion to recount, and whose role is to "order the good and forbid the evil" (‘amara bi lma’roûfi oua nahâ ‘ani lmounkari)(1). Even in regions far from cities and where pure public Muslim law was never applied, social order has taken on a entirely religious character. Thus, among our North African populations, the tribes have all attached themselves to some Muslim saint, for whose name they have abandoned their own; they have become the sons of Sidi So-and-So. Furthermore, maraboutism the veneration of saints/holy men has invaded almost all agricultural life: markets are in close relation with religious gatherings (moûsem religious festival or pilgrimage), the school is held by holy personages, and the entire life of the village is suspended from the gestures and words of a marabout saint or religious teacher;

The author quotes a contemporary observer regarding the state of Muslim morality: "The horrible lowering of morality and intelligence in Muslim countries, especially from the second half of the Middle Ages, has always disgusted me, and I admire the conscience of the philologists who dedicate the same care to this degraded world as they do to the noble remains of the genius of Greece, of ancient India, and of Judea. But the saddest pages of history also require interpreters, and in scientific work, we must be grateful to those who take the worst part for themselves" (Quest. contemp. Contemporary Questions, 1888, pp. 177-8). And further on: "The 19th century will not see, as has often been said, the end of the religion of Jesus; it will see the end of the religion of Muhammad, the end of the temporal religion inseparable from politics, and the full flourishing of the religion of Jesus, of the religion of the spirit" (id., p. 287).

(1) See Goldziher, introduction to the Book of Mohammed Ibn Tou-mari, p. 83 ad f. at the end.