Sidi Ahmad al-ʿAlawi

Ahmad al-ʿAlawi is one of the best-known Sufi shaykhs of the twentieth century. A cobbler by training, he founded in Mostaganem the ʿAlawiyya, a branch of the Shadhili way whose influence extended from Algeria to Europe. He is the master of Mawlay at-Tahir al-Karkari.

Childhood and education

Ahmad ibn Mustafa al-ʿAlawi was born in Mostaganem in 1869, into a modest family. An only son with two sisters, he did not attend school but received from his father the teaching of the Qur'an, which he knew almost entirely by heart. He worked as a cobbler, then kept a shop. Drawn very early to the religious life, he studied theology and frequented several masters.

The master al-Bouzidi

In 1894 he met Muhammad al-Bouzidi, shaykh of the Shadhili-Darqawi way, who initiated him and taught him the collective recitation as practised by this branch. He stayed fifteen years with him. Encouraged to teach, he saw his shop become a meeting place for many disciples.

Succession and travels

When al-Bouzidi died in 1909, al-ʿAlawi was designated to succeed him. He hesitated at first, set off for a few months of travel (Tunis, Tripoli, Istanbul), then returned to Mostaganem to lead the order.

The ʿAlawiyya

In 1914 his branch took the name ʿAlawiyya and separated from the Darqawiyya. His contemporaries' estimates credit him with several tens of thousands of disciples from the 1920s, and about 200,000 at his death. He was the first shaykh of the Maghreb to count among his disciples a significant number of European converts, among them the Swiss Frithjof Schuon, who stayed in Mostaganem in 1932 and took the name Isa Nur ad-Din. The British scholar Martin Lings devoted to him the biography A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century.

A man of his time

Ahmad al-ʿAlawi used the press to spread his ideas. He founded and directed two weeklies: Lisan ad-Din (1912) and al-Balagh al-Jaza'iri (1926). He was critical both of a closed rigorism and of a secularised modernity, and sought to reconcile faith and modernity. In 1926 he took part in Paris in the inauguration of the Great Mosque.

Works

He left a collection of poetry (Diwan), doctrinal treatises such as Mabadi' at-Ta'yid and Dawhat al-Asrar, invocations (Munajat) and a long commentary, the Minah al-Quddusiyya.

Death and legacy

He died on 14 July 1934 in Mostaganem. The ʿAlawiyya has remained active in Algeria, France and several other countries. For the Karkariya Sufi Order, he is the master of Mawlay at-Tahir al-Karkari.