SIDI BOUMEDIENE

Choïab Ibn Hocine El-Andaloussi, called Sidi Boumediene, was born in Seville in 1126. He was initiated to Sufism in Fez by Sheikh Abou Al-Hassan Ibn Harzihim before retiring to the surroundings of Tlemcen. His spiritual quest then led him to Mecca where he became a disciple of Sheikh Sidi Abdelkader El-Djilali. He then left to take his teachings to Baghdad, Seville and Cordoba before settling in Bejaïa where he married and spent the last years of his life. In 1197, the Sultan of Marrakech called him but when he was in sight of Tlemcen, in Aïn-Tekbalet precisely, he stopped in front of the ribat (monastery-fortress) of El-Eubbad and exclaimed " that this place is propitious to sleep in peace! " before sinking into "eternal sleep".

Nicknamed the sheikh of sheikhs or the Ouali, "the friend of God", Sidi Boumediene is the perfect holy man, the "savior" (al ghaout) to whom we ask everything, and his mausoleum is the goal of many pilgrimages. He is attributed, among other things, a beautiful saying: " By praising what he believes, the believer praises his own soul and that is why he condemns beliefs that are foreign to his own. If he were just, he would not do so. "

Ransacked and burned down in the early 1990s, the shrine has undergone extensive renovations that have restored it to its pristine splendor. The mosque was built in 1328 by Abu El-Hassan, Merinid sultan of Fez. It is accessed by a dozen steps that rise to a very impressive monumental porch whose heavy door in cedar wood covered with bronze plates fixed by finely decorated nails is so massive that it requires a closing system quite fantastic. It is said that this door, originally made in Spain, miraculously arrived alone by sea. Beyond the square courtyard, the center of which is marked by a basin for ablutions, the prayer room consists of five naves. The delicate mihrab is marked by a beautiful openwork dome. The minbar in cedar wood was offered by Emir Abdelkader. On either side of the mosque, the outbuildings included baths, a medersa (1347) and a guest house. The historian Ibn Khaldun gave classes in the medersa. You can visit his mausoleum on the spot too, it is at the top of the stairs that start just above the site of Sidi Boumediene (ask on the spot if you do not find it). After the entrance to the shrine, a door on the left and a narrow staircase leads down to the tomb of Sidi Boumediene. A visit not to be missed.