The tradition of the pilgrimage, or ziyara, to the tombs of the Seven Saints of Marrakesh was created on the initiative of the Alaouite sultan Moulay Isma'il in the late 17th century. The motivation for this act was a political desire to exploit the popular influence of the zawiyas and to counter the popularity of the "Seven Saints" of the RegragaBerber tribe, which were the basis of another pilgrimage at Djebel al-Hadid near Essaouira at the time. There were also other examples of "Seven Saints" elsewhere in Morocco, including in Fes, which in turn may have had a precedent in the legend of the Seven Sleepers mentioned in the Qur'an. It may also have been significant that the "saints" selected for the new pilgrimage were mostly of Arab background, in opposition to the Berber saints of the Regraga-sponsored pilgrimage. Moulay Isma'il charged an influential religious figure called Abu 'Ali al-Hasan al-Yusi, a man of Berber origin who was familiar with the country's zawiyas, with instituting the pilgrimage in Marrakesh. The pilgrimage was ultimately beneficial to Marrakesh by enhancing the city's spiritual reputation and attracting travelers to boost its economy. It became so well known that the "Seven Men" became another name for Marrakesh itself. Even later sultans like Muhammad ibn Abdallah who were known for being inclined to Wahhabism, a more puritan school of thought opposed to heterodox practices such as the veneration of saints, nonetheless patronized the zawiyas and tombs of the Seven Saints and expanded or restored their shrines. Today the practice is not as widely followed as it once was, but the tombs and zawiyas are nonetheless important shrines in the city. In 2005 the mayor of Marrakesh inaugurated a monument outside Bab Doukkala, known as Place des Septs Saints, which commemorates the Seven Saints.
Description of the pilgrimage
The pilgrimage takes place over most of a week, starting on Tuesday and ending on Monday. It also proceeds in a circular fashion around the city, starting in the southeast and finishing in the southwest, mimicking the counterclockwise direction of the circumambulation of the Kaaba in Mecca. Each day the pilgrims would stop and pray at a different tomb. The first stop was the tomb of Sidi Yusuf ibn 'Ali Sanhaji near Bab Aghmat on Tuesday. On Wednesday they entered the city and stopped at the tomb of Qadi 'Iyyad. On Thursday they exited the city via Bab Aylan and passed by Bab el-Khemis to visit the mausoleum of Sidi Bel Abbes as-Sabti. On Friday they moved to the mausoleum of Sidi Ben Sliman al-Jazuli, then to the tomb of Sidi Abd al-'Aziz at-Taba'a on Saturday, and then to the mausoleum of Sidi Abdallah al-Ghazwani on Sunday. Lastly, on Monday, they ended at the tomb of Sidi al-Suhayli near Bab er-Robb.
The Seven Saints of Marrakesh are listed below in chronological order of their deaths — as opposed to the order in which their tombs are visited during the pilgrimage. Note that there are many alternate spellings of the saints' names. The name "Sidi" is an honorific common in the Maghreb.
Qadi 'Iyyad ibn Musa, died 1149. He is buried in a mausoleum near Bab Aylan, one of the western gates of the old city.
Sidi al-Suhayli, died 1185. His tomb is located in the cemetery named after him, just outside Bab er-Robb, on the site of a former city gate known as Bab ash-Sharia.
Sidi Yusuf ibn 'Ali as-Sanhaji, died 1196. Hie is buried in a zawiya dedicated to him outside Bab Aghmat.
Sidi Abu al-Abbas as-Sabti, died 1204. He is buried at the Zawiya of Sidi Bel Abbes in the northernmost neighbourhood of the medina. His tomb was one of the earliest major zawiyas to be popular in Marrakesh, generations before Sufi zawiyas became more generally influential. He was even venerated by the Jewish inhabitants of the city.
Sidi Ben Sliman al-Jazuli, died 1465. He was the only one of the seven saints who died outside Marrakesh and was initially buried elsewhere. His body was transferred from the village of Afoughal to Marrakesh by the Saadians in 1523–24. His tomb is found at his zawiya, located south of the zawiya of Sidi Bel Abbes.
Sidi Abd al-'Aziz at-Taba'a, died 1508. He is buried in his zawiya north of the Mouassine Mosque and south of the zawiya of al-Jazuli.
