AISSAOUA. - French form of the name of the Muslim brotherhood of the 'Isawiyya (in Maghrebi pronunciation Aisawiyya), founded in Morocco in the 16th century by the famous holy man Sidi Muhammad ibn 'Isa, and still widely diffused throughout North Africa. Muhammad ibn 'Isa, b. at Meknes (Miknas) and d. there around 1524 A.D., passed for a mystic and thaumaturge, of the type frequent in North Africa, who followed the mystical rule of the Shadhiliyya, in the Moroccan branch of the Jazuliyya; but the fame of the brotherhood that traces back to him is above all based on the external practices, of noisy and popular thaumaturgy, that characterize its adherents. The seat of the brotherhood, whose leadership is held by descendants of the founder, is at Meknes, where the tomb of the saint is. Its zawiyas are numerous in southern Morocco (region of the Zarhun), in Algeria (Duar Uzara, and the departments of Oran and Constantine), in Tunisia (Tunis, Jerba, Sfax, Sousse, Bizerte).

Some zawiya is also reported in Cyrenaica, at Benghazi, and one at Mecca. Francesco Gabrieli

@incollection{ec1_aissaoua, author = {Gabrieli, Francesco}, title = {Aissaoua}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {607--608}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aissaoua} }

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