Rahmaniya

   This is a religious brotherhood established at the end of the 18th century in Kabylia by Mohammed `Abd al-Rahman (d. 1793) of the Aït Smai`il, a tribe in the Jurjura Mountains. He began his religious studies in Algiers and continued them at the Al-Azhar school in Cairo, where became deeply engaged in mystical doctrine and practice and also joined an Egyptian brotherhood. A legend has it that a miracle doubled his dead body, one being taken away by the Turks and buried at a place near Algiers and the other one remaining in his tomb at the brotherhood's lodge, hence his surname Abu Qabrayn (the man with the two tombs).

   It was the Rahmaniya head, Mohammed Amzian Ibn al-Haddad, and his son al-`Aziz who in 1871 proclaimed jihad against the French intruders and started the most tenacious of the many Kabyle tribal insurrections. After its suppression by the French, al-`Aziz was sent into exile, and he escaped and settled in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Nevertheless, the Rahmaniya branched out further under various names into Algeria, Tunisia, and the oases throughout the Sahara Desert.

   See also Islam; Zawiya.