Pilgrimage: Ziyara

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ZIYARA

In and Shi˓ite Islam, the concept of ziyara is found in many diverse parts of the Muslim world, especially those parts for which Sufism was the main agency for the spread of Islam. The chief exception to the tolerance of ziyara historically is found in those regions where the Hanbali school of law has predominated. Since the eighteenth century this has been primarily in the Arabian Peninsula under the influence of Wahhabi and Salafi forms of Islamic Puritanism, which shuns all innovations in worship that were not clearly sanctioned by the Prophet.

Nonetheless, throughout most of Africa, Anatolia, as well as West, Central, South and Southeast Asia, pilgrims have visited shrines for centuries, with many local variations in architecture and ritual performance. The mazars are visited by pilgrims throughout the year, to seek blessing (baraka) from the saint buried at the shrine tomb. Often, one or two "deputies" or respected followers of the saint will be buried in the same complex. The anniversary of the death of the saint (˓urs, which also means "wedding"), is the occasion of a major visitation and celebration by his devotees. For major saints ˓urs was an occasion for a ziyara marked by joyous celebration, dancing, and ritual orations.

Although many reform-minded local religious elites (ulema) have argued that visitation to Sufi shrines was an un-Islamic innovation (bid˓a) and thus forbidden, many others have accepted such practices as local expressions of Muslim piety. Ziyara rituals and performances often attract Christians, Hindus, and members of other religious communities who live among or near the Muslims who visit the shrines, thus making the ziyara a ritual negotiation of communal inclusiveness in areas where Muslims and non-Muslims live with soft boundaries between their communities. This differentiates the practice of ziyara from the religious duty of hajj. Yet for many Muslims over the centuries, both forms of pilgrimage have been practiced. For example, in premodern times of overland travel, pilgrims from Spain and North Africa on their way to Mecca to perform the hajj would often plan a stop in Tanta, in the Egyptian Delta, to visit the shrine of Ahmad al-Badawi (1199–1276). Although such rituals are traditional and premodern in their origins, modern urban Muslims in regions where ziyara pilgrimage is customary and deeply rooted in local practice are often seen among the pilgrims celebrating the anniversaries of these saints.