Sufi Movement in Tunisia and Its Relationship With Power From the 15th To the 16th Centuries

Abstract

This research deals with the issue of the Tunisian Sufi movement and its political stance towards Power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Sufi movement in Tunisia was not traditionally isolated from the social and political arena, but rather an active and dynamic current. It had a broad horizon and visions completely different from the Sufi styles that appeared in the Arab East. However, it is widely known that this Sufi movement in Tunisia has known a split into two main groups since the second half of the sixteenth century: The first is the Sufi social current, which relied on a policy of appeasement with the political authority, and had the ability to read the political situation, and to understand the map of balances realistically and comprehensively. The second section is represented by the radical political mystical current, which did not have the mechanisms of analysis and the ability to correctly read the course of events, whether in Tunisia or in the North African region, and thus it conflicted with the political authority in various front lines, and intended to establish a political entity, independent of the center of the state. Representing the first movement of Sufism, the Giryani sect succeeded in gaining and maintaining its continuity through alliance with the Ottomans. The Shâbbiyye sect, which represents the second Sufi movement, had a policy of conflict with the central authority and the active powers in the region, especially with the Ottomans.