Tamegroute

Tamegroute is a village located in the Draa River valley in southern Morocco. It historically served as a hub of learning and religion through its famous Sufi zawiya. This was a historical center of the Nasiriyya order, one of the most influential Sufi orders in the Islamic world. Tamegroute's glazed ceramics are also very well known.Zawiya Nasiriyya/NaciriaTamegroute has been a religious center since the 11th century. The Nasiriyya zawiya was founded in the 17th century as the seat of the religious (Sufi) brotherhood of the Nasiriyya. Tamegroute had a religious school made famous by Abu Hafs Umar b. Ahmed al Ansari in 1575–76. The Nasiriyya order took its name (and its reputation) from founder Sidi Muhammad bin Nasir al-Drawi (1603–1674), who took over teaching at the Tamegroute zawiya in the 1640s. Since that time the leaders of the zawiya have been descendants of bin Nasir without interruption from father to son until the present day. Sidi Muhammad bin Nasir was a theologian, scholar and physician, especially interested in mental disorders. He wrote several works of fikh, some poetry, and hundreds of letters and treatises on Islamic law. He followed and extended the teachings of Shadhili and under his leadership the Nasiriyya became the 'mother'zawiya' of Sufi islam in the Maghreb with several branches in different parts of the country, including the zawiya of Irazan in the Sous valley where 500 students were financed by the brotherhood.