Status of Sufis in the Almoravid and Almohad era

Abstract

The Sufi movement in the Islamic Maghreb is considered a movement with a wide
spiritual authority, where it was able to form a broad social front, and won great public
respect, made its leaders to assume a great place in the hearts of their murids and followers,
who were ready to do everything that their elders may refer to them, But the large number of
followers and their understanding of their leader, usually feared by the holders of political
power, because they see this as a serious competition threatening their existence, as it was at
the same time threatening representatives of the religious authority (jurists) and harm their
interests.
This article aims to highlight the nature of the relationship between the authority and
Sufis in the Almoravid and Almohad era, and the role played by the jurists as a mediator in
drawing the parameters of that relationship, and to monitor the attitudes and methods of
dealing with the leaders of the Sufis, and try to give a picture of what was the situation of men
of Sufism and jurists in those Period.