Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/417

 TUE MOIlAMifEDAN BIKyTIIERUOODS. 889 especially, thot of the Ulud-Sidi Sheikhs, was formerly nearly always hostile to France ; and this tribe, rcHiding in South Oraniu, fur from the seaboard, naturally looked with the greatest displeuMurc on the advance of oonqueroni to whom they would have to surrender the |x)liticul jx)wcr and the right of levying taxes. But on the whole, the niurubutM represent primarily the conservative clement in reli- gion ; hence they tend to lean on the civil authorities in order to prevent the development of the religious orders, which eclipse their sanctity and diminish their income. They UH)k on the independent associutioDs in the same light that the Koman Catholic secular clergy formerly did the reguhir clergy. Cases occur of marabuts who close the doors of their schools to all students affiliated to a religious order. Thk Mohammedan Brotiierikwds. These orders, which have nearly all their origin in Marocco, communicating with that region through Tlcmcen and Lallu Mughnia, are very numerous in the French pos.sessions, and their influence has increased precisely in proportion to the favour shown by the Government to the imams and marabuts. The oldest is that of Sidi Abd-el-Kader el-Jelani of Bagdad, whose zawyas are scattered from the shores of Malaysia to those of Marocco. The Tijaniyas, whose chief centres are Ain-Mahdi and Temassin, were till recently the most powerful, and their khwans extend to the banks of the Senegal. But their influence has been impaired by the rise of the Scnusiya and some other foundations. There can be no doubt that since the French occupation the number of khwans, a term corresponding to those of fakir and derwish in Turkey and the far East, has considerably increased throughout North ^Vfrica. It could scarcely be other- wise, for wherever men are deprived either of political freedom or of national autonomy, they endeavour to create for themselves some sphere of action impene> trable to the outer world. Here they become absorbed in religious thought, fostering their hatred against the infidel, and in the ecstasy of fanatical zeal at times breaking into o]>en insurrection. The Ilahmaniya of Kabyliu and the Shadelya-Derkawa of different provinces, although most frequently persecuted by Government because of their lawless spirit, ore nevertheless the two orders which have been most rapidly developed since the complete conquest of Algeria. Nor is it possible even now to ascertain their actual strength, severe military supervision having converted them into so many partly secret societies. According to Kinn, they comprised in 1881 altogether 170,000 members, of whom 96,000 belonged to the Rahmaniya confraternity. All these khwans, grouped round 3oo zawyas, have nearly 2,000 mkaddems, under the orders of some twenty ciiiefs. About one-fifth of the native population would appear to belong to one or other of the sixteen great Algerian brotherhoods. A number of Kabyle women are also said to have joined the religious societies in the quality of "sisters." There are, moreover, some other associations which affect a religious air, but which are merely strolling corporations of singers, dancers, snake-charmers, acrobats, and fortune-tellers.