ZAWIYA OF SIDI BEL ABBÈS
Zaouä of Sidi Bel Abbès, with a restored mausoleum, particularly frequented by farmers, merchants and the blind
Located near Bab Taghzout, adjacent to the mosque and medersa of Sidi bel Abbès, the zawiya is one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in the city. It is in this mausoleum, built in 1605 by the Saadian Sultan Abu Fares and restored in the second half of the eighteenth century by the Alaouite Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, that rests Sidi Abou el-Abbes es-Sebti, one of the seven saints of Marrakech. The zawiya is particularly frequented by peasants, traders and the blind. You can still see every evening (and especially on Wednesday, the day dedicated to the holy man) offerings in kind or in cash (dates, baskets, but also dirhams...) deposited for the poor and the beggars. They gather in the courtyard of the mosque, between the porch 10 m high and decorated with ceramic rosettes and carved beams, and a monumental fountain superbly chiseled with stone friezes. The calligraphy, which runs all along the canopy, makes this fountain one of the jewels of Marrakech: its niche, under a broken arch with stalactites of stucco, is adorned with a recent and superb ironwork grille with multicolored interlacing. You reach the zaouïa by the souk El-Mjadlia, the souk of the smiths, today become souk with the pious objects (incenses, images, candles...), still covered and supported by broad pillars dating from its construction in 1850. Only Muslims are allowed to cross the entrance of the zaouia where a plaque, fixed in the wall, indicates that it is "forbidden to non-Muslims".
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