Zawiya
A Sufi brotherhood's place of life and assembly: prayer, dhikr, the master's teaching and hospitality to travellers.
The Arabic word zawiya literally means ‘corner’, ‘nook’: originally the retreat where a man of God withdrew to pray. The term then came to denote the building and the institution that formed around the master: mosque, school, hospice and place of welcome all at once.
In the life of a tariqa, the zawiya is the path’s concrete centre: it is where the dhikr sessions are held, where the guide teaches, where the disciples gather, where travellers are fed and lodged. In the days of the countryside it also served as a Qur’anic school, a refuge in times of famine and sometimes an informal tribunal for the surrounding tribes.
The mother zawiya of the Tariqa Qadiriya Boutchichiya stands at Madagh, near Berkane, in north-eastern Morocco. It is where Sidi Hamza, then Sidi Jamal, lived and taught, and where disciples from all over the world come on visits, notably for the path’s great gatherings. In France, where the path has no zawiya proper, the weekly sessions play that role of meeting-point: see the dhikr session page and the calendar.