Let’s venture a few kilometers from Cap Cantin (Cap Beddouza 35 km from Safi), in the tomb of Sidi Ahmed Chachkal. A marabout who will be the subject of this #Nomad article which is full of legends. Details.
Three kilometers from Cap Beddouza (Doukkala-Abda region) is the marabout of Sidi Ahmed Chachkal. The place is known for its “Pilgrimage of the Poor” dating back centuries in the past, where several people come every year to recharge in spirituality. Traditions of yesteryear that continue to endure until the 21th century.
The marabout of Sidi Ahmed Chachkal overlooks an endless expanse of sand in the middle of nowhere. The wind from the Atlantic Ocean hits the faces of the few people walking around. The air is pure and invigorating. The place of worship is built around a large rock, a few meters away is a shelter that serves as a mosque.
During high tide, a sublime spectacle is offered to visitors, since the water surrounds the marabout, “like Mont Saint-Michel”, described to Yabiladi Fouad Rehouma anthropologist. “Unfortunately it’s in ruins and abandoned,” laments the 62-year-old man who lives a few steps from the place. “It’s a fishing spot par excellence, a real treat,” he confides. You have to dig a little deeper into history to realize that around this centuries-old marabout a tradition of pilgrimage continues.
Ph. Marocopedia
“The Pilgrimage of the Poor”
“Sidi Ahmed Chachkal is a character who existed at the beginning of the 13th century (around 1210/1220). He was a disciple of the patron saint of the city of Safi: Sidi Mohamed Bensalah”, explains the anthropologist. The saint of the city had a state responsibility to take care of the pilgrimage by accompanying the caravans from the Moroccan coast to Mecca. At the time few people made this pilgrimage and did not understand what the rituals of Hajj were. Fouad Rehouma explains:
“This saint took care of the initiations to teach them how to proceed to make the pilgrimage. He chose this rock which is at Cap Cantin, in the middle of the beach.”
Sidi Mohamed Bensalah asked Sidi Ahmed Chachkal to teach visitors to “circumambulate around the Kaaba”. He did it on the beach around the rock where the current marabout is built.
Sidi Ahmed Chachkal dies, yet the inhabitants of the region kept this tradition until the 14th century. Little by little, it became only a memory. “Around the 17th/18th century, the practice is starting again, but they have added one thing, for people who cannot go to Mecca, they can make their pilgrimage to Sidi Ahmad Chachkal”, says the 62-year-old man. This is where the name “pilgrimage of the poor” comes from. According to the anthropologist, the “pilgrims” had “done their duty”, but they were not entitled to the title of “Hajj”. “They only loved God that way,” adds Fouad Rehouma. The pilgrimage takes place the day before Aid El Kebir at the same time as that of Mecca.
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The Sidi Ahmad Chachkal mausoleum. / Ph. Marocopedia
“Kaaba and Jbel Arafa”
About fifty meters from the marabout is another rock “more imposing than that of the saint”. It was a cemetery. “People in the region call him Jbel Arafa. After the ritual of the Kaâba, they will come down from the mound and go towards the jbel arafa to make their prayer there”, adds the anthropologist.
The tradition begins to create disputes on the part of certain Islamist movements which “consider that this practice is a heresy”, entrusts the anthropologist. And to add:
“For them, if you want to go to meet God, you have to go to Mecca and not elsewhere. This misunderstanding has made the practice a kind of illicit.
From time to time people come and throw stones at the “pilgrim” visitors who come to the marabout. In fact, people who come to the marabout “are in the misfortune of health and soul come to repent and calm down”, says Fouad Rehouma.
“I have requested some contacts for the backup of the site. But it’s a bit complicated with the city authorities given this competition around the religious reading of the place.
In the middle of the beach, about sixty meters from the marabout, there is a well. “Archaeologists have analyzed the rock and believe that this well has existed since Roman times,” adds the 62-year-old man. “They found plenty of water there to supply the ship. The water was either fresh or brackish. A hollow stone basin is placed next to the well, “it is really old too”, reveals Fouad Rehouma.
This article was written in partnership with Marocopedia, site that highlights Moroccan culture and heritage. The latter made a special page for the city of Safi.