View source for Ribat

{{Short description|Small fortification}}
{{for|places in Iran|Robat (disambiguation)}}
[[File:TUNISIE MONASTIR RIBAT 02.jpg|thumb|[[Ribat of Monastir]], [[Tunisia]]]]
{{Arab culture}}
A '''ribāṭ''' ({{langx|ar|رِبَـاط}}; hospice, hostel, base or retreat) is an Arabic term, initially designating a small [[fortification]] built along a frontier during the first years of the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]] to house military volunteers, called ''murabitun'', and shortly after they also appeared along the Byzantine frontier, where they attracted converts from [[Greater Khorasan]], an area that would become known as [[al-Awasim|al-ʻAwāṣim]] in the ninth century CE.
The ''ribat'' fortifications later served to protect commercial routes, as [[caravanserai]]s, and as centers for isolated Muslim communities as well as serving as places of piety.
==Islamic meaning==
===Historical meaning===
The word ''ribat'' in its abstract refers to voluntary defense of [[Islam]], which is why ribats were originally used to house those who fought to defend Islam in [[jihad]].<ref name="Brill Online Reference Works">{{cite journal|last=Northedge|first=Alastair|title=ʿAbbāsid art and architecture|journal=Encyclopedia of Islam|volume=3}}</ref> They can also be referred to by other names such as ''khanqah'', most commonly used in [[Iran]], and ''tekke'', most commonly used in [[Turkey]].<ref name="Schimmel 1975 231–232">{{cite book|last=Schimmel|first=Annemarie|title=Mystical Dimensions of Islam|year=1975|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=0807812234|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mysticaldimensio00schi/page/231 231–232]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mysticaldimensio00schi/page/231}}</ref>
[[File:Ribat Sharaf, Sarakhs, Iran, May 2013.jpg|thumb|[[Ribat of Sharaf]], [[Iran]]]]
Classically, ribat referred to the guard duty at a frontier outpost in order to defend ''[[Divisions of the world in Islam#Dar al-Islam|dar al-Islam]]''. The one who performs ribat is called a ''murabit''.
===Contemporary use===
Contemporary use of the term ribat is common among [[list of designated terrorist groups|jihadi groups]] such as [[al-Qaeda]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Long|first=Mark|title=Ribat, al-Qaeda, and the Challenge for US Foreign Policy|journal=Middle East Journal|date=Winter 2009|volume=63|issue=1|pages=31–47|doi=10.3751/63.1.12|s2cid=143772587 }}</ref> or the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/OEWatch/201503/201503.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-06-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093100/http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/OEWatch/201503/201503.pdf |archive-date=2015-05-18 }}</ref> The term has also been used by [[Salafi]]-[[Jihadis]] operating in the [[Gaza Strip]]. In their terminology, ''ʻArḍ al-Ribat'' "Land of the Ribat" is a name for [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], with the literal meaning of "the land of standing vigilant watch on the frontier", understood in the context of their ideology of global jihad, which is fundamentally opposed to [[Palestinian nationalism]].<ref>"[https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/1059351/1226_1301926747_104-20radical-20islam-20in-20gaza.pdf Radical Islam In Gaza]" (PDF), [[International Crisis Group]], Middle East Report N°104, 29 March 2011, pp. 6-7 with note 61. Re-accessed 22 Oct 2023.</ref>
==As caravanserais==
In time, some ribats became hostels for voyagers on major trade routes ([[caravanserai]]).<ref name=Yale>{{cite book|last1=Ettinghausen|first1=Richard|author-link1=Richard Ettinghausen|last2=Grabar|first2=Oleg|author-link2=Oleg Grabar|title=The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250|pages=277–278|year=1994|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0300053304}}</ref>
==As Sufi retreats==
===Sufi brotherhoods===
Ribat was initially used to describe a frontier post where soldiers would stay during the [[early Muslim conquests]] and after, such as in [[al-Awasim]]. The term transformed over time to refer to a center for Sufi. As they were later no longer needed to house and supply soldiers, ribats became refuges for mystics.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hillenbrand|first=Robert|title=Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicarchitect0000hill|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamicarchitect0000hill/page/331 331]}}</ref>  The ribat tradition was perhaps one of the early sources of the [[tariqa|ṭarīqa]]s, or Sufi mystic brotherhoods, and a type of the later [[zawiya (institution)|zawiya]] or Sufi lodge, which spread into [[North Africa]], and from there across the [[Sahara]] to [[West Africa]]. Here, they are the homes of [[marabout]]s: religious teachers, usually Sufis. Such places of spiritual retreat were termed ''[[khanqah|khānqāh]]''s ({{langx|fa|{{Nastaliq|خانقاه}}}}). Usually, ribats were inhabited by a shaykh, and his family and visitors were allowed to come and learn from him.<ref name="Schimmel 1975 231–232"/> Many times, the tomb of the founder was also located in the same building.<ref name="Schimmel 1975 231–232"/> These centers' institutionalization was made possible partly through donations from wealthy merchants, landowners, and influential leaders.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Auer|first=Blain|title=Futuh|journal=Encyclopedia of Islam|volume=3}}</ref> Some of these compounds also received regular stipends to maintain them.<ref name="Schimmel 1975 231–232"/>
Some important ribats to mention are the [[Rabati Malik]] (c.1068–80), which is in [[Uzbekistan]] in the  [[Kyzylkum Desert]] and is still partially intact, and the [[Ribat of Sharaf]] from the 12th century, which was built in a square shape with a monumental portal, a courtyard, and long vaulted rooms along the walls.<ref name=Yale/> Most ribats had a similar architectural appearance which consisted of a surrounding wall with an entrance, living rooms, storehouses for provisions, a watch tower used to signal in the case of an invasion, four to eight towers, and a mosque in large ribats.<ref name=JSTOR>{{cite journal|last=Khalilieh|first=Hassan S.|title=The Ribât System and Its Role in Coastal Navigation|journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient|year=1999|volume=42|issue=2|pages=212–225|doi=10.1163/1568520991446811}}</ref>
These institutions were used as a sort of school house where a shaykh could teach his disciples the ways of a specific ṭarīqa. They were also used as a place of worship where the shaykh could observe the members of the specific Sufi order and help them on their inner path to [[haqiqa|ḥaqīqa]] ({{langx|ar|حَـقِـيْـقَـة}}, ultimate truth or reality).
===Female Sufis===
Another use of ribat refers to a sort of [[convent]] or retreat house for Sufi women. Female shaykhas (شيخة), scholars of law in medieval times, and large numbers of widows or divorcees lived in abstinence and worship in ribats.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hoffman|first=Valerie|title=Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt|year=1995|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia, SC|isbn=978-1570038495|pages=232}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Almoravids]]
* [[Al-Awasim]], Muslim side of the frontier between the Byzantine Empire and Early Islamic realm
* [[Khan (inn)|Khan]], Persian word for caravanserai; Turkish variant: ''han''
* [[Khanqah]], building used specifically by a Sufi brotherhood
* [[Ksar]], North African (usually Berber) fortified village
* [[List of caravanserais]]
*[[Rabad]], Central Asian variant for 'rabat'
*[[Rabat (disambiguation)]], Semitic word for "fortified town" or "suburb"
*[[Robat (disambiguation)]], Persian variant for 'ribat'
;List of Early Muslim ribats
* [[Cafarlet]] in Palestine
* [[Minat al-Qal'a]] in Palestine
==References==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
* [http://danishmuslim.wordpress.com/2007/06/23/the-ribat/+ribat Cache of The Ribat by Hajj Ahmad Thomson, 23 06 2007]{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20230223083208/http://bewley.virtualave.net/ribat.html "The Ribats in Morocco and their influence in the spread of knowledge and tasawwuf"] from: ''al-Imra'a al-Maghribiyya wa't-Tasawwuf'' (The Moroccan Woman and Tasawwuf in the Eleventh Century) by Mustafa 'Abdu's-Salam al-Mahmah)
* Majid Khadduri, ''War And Peace in the Law of Islam'' (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955), {{ISBN|1-58477-695-1}}. p.&nbsp;81.
* Hassan S. Khalilieh, "The Ribat System and Its Role in Coastal Navigation," ''Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient'', 42,2 (1999), 212–225.
* Jörg Feuchter, "The Islamic Ribаt - A Model for the Christian Military Orders? Sacred Violence, Religious Concepts and the Invention of a Cultural Transfer," in ''Religion and Its Other: Secular and Sacral Concepts and Practices in Interaction''. Edited by Heike Bock, Jörg Feuchter, and Michi Knecht (Frankfurt/M., Campus Verlag, 2008).
==External links==
{{commons category|Ribats}}
*{{cite web |last= Branning |first= Katharine |title= The Seljuk Han of Anatolia |url= http://www.turkishhan.org/homebase.htm |access-date= 2 May 2021}} With a map and list of Seljuk hans.
**[http://www.turkishhan.org/definition.htm Introduction and definition]
**[http://www.turkishhan.org/origins.htm Origins of the Han]. The evolution of stopping posts from the [[Ancient Near East]], through the Early Muslim ribats, to the [[Seljuk dynasty|Seljuk]] ''han'' (Turkish for caravanserai); with a list of "Great Seljuk era hans and ribats in Central Asia and Iran"
*[https://archnet.org/sites/3861 ArchNet]: Origin and layout of a ribat and its adaptation as a caravanserai. Accessed May 2021.
{{Fortifications}}
{{Islamic architecture}}
{{Sufism terminology}}
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{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Forts]]
[[Category:Ribats| ]]
[[Category:Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]]
[[Category:Maghreb]]
[[Category:Islamic architecture]]
[[Category:Arabic fortifications]]