Algerian Sufi Orders: Their Teachings, Spread and Branches in the World – The Alawiyya Order as a Case Study

This project aims to study Algerian Sufi orders, examine their teachings, trace their spread across various parts of the world, and investigate the branches that have emerged from them globally. It also seeks to highlight the significant role they have played in strengthening devotion to God and fostering spiritual closeness to Him, both in the East and the West, through spiritual initiation, teaching, writing, migration, displacement, and influence. The project further explores their contemporary presence in several Muslim countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Indonesia, as well as in other Muslim and Western countries.

Given the difficulty of covering all Algerian Sufi orders, the study focuses on the ‘Alawiyya order as a case study and model. It aims to introduce the order, trace the different stages of its historical development, examine its teachings, follow its spread throughout the world, and analyse the branches that have emerged from it both within Algeria and abroad, in order to reveal aspects of the influence of Algerian Sufis on the global Sufi movement.

Project Objectives

To identify the teachings of Algerian Sufi orders.

To explore the underlying relationships between Algerian Sufism and global Sufism.

To study the spread of Algerian Sufi orders and determine the mechanisms of their expansion.

To reveal the Algerian origins of numerous Sufi orders that have spread across the world.

To raise awareness among Algerians of their pioneering role in establishing and developing global Sufism over the past two centuries.

To demonstrate the role of Algerian Sufism in developing a distinctive discourse capable of fostering religious and intellectual coexistence in the context of contemporary globalisation.

To highlight the striking contrast between the reality of Algerian Sufism and the image of it in popular imagination.

Planned Activities

Analysis of the written corpus, which is extremely abundant.

Contact with the parent order and its major figures in order to learn about the teachings, history, and overlooked personalities of the ‘Alawiyya order.

Contact with Sufi orders derived from the ‘Alawiyya order, both inside Algeria and abroad, and collection of documents and photographs in their possession.

Field visits to Sufi orders stemming from the ‘Alawiyya order in order to study their teachings and leading figures.

Analysis and documentation of the collected material.

Expected Results

Identification of the teachings of Algerian Sufi orders.

Analysis of the global spread of Algerian Sufi orders.

Clarification of Algeria’s role in the establishment of Sufi orders worldwide.

Introduction of Algerian Sufi figures who have had international influence, along with the preparation of a specialised biographical dictionary dedicated to them.

Demonstration of the pioneering role of Algerian Sufism and its leading figures in shaping and organising global Sufism.

Identification of international Sufi orders that derive from and are connected to Algerian Sufi orders.