Ribat

Part of a series on
Arabic culture
Architecture Styles Islamic Yemeni Nabataean Umayyad Abbasid Fatimid Moorish Mamluk Features Ablaq Alfiz Arabesque Arabic dome Banna'i Gardens Girih Horseshoe arch Howz Hypostyle Islamic calligraphy Islamic geometric patterns Islamic ornament Iwan Liwan Mashrabiya Riad Mosaic Multifoil arch Muqarnas Nagash painting Qadad Reflecting pool Riwaq Sahn Socarrat Stucco decoration Tadelakt Vaulting Voussoir Windcatcher Zellij Types Albarrana tower Alcázar Bazaar Caravanserai Bimaristan Hammam Kasbah Madrasa Maqam Mazar Mosque Medina quarter Qalat Ribat Sabil Shadirvan Tekyeh Well house Zawiya
Art Styles Ancient South Arabian art Nabataean art Islamic art Fatimid art Mamluk art Types Arabic calligraphy Arabic graffiti Arab carpet Arabic miniature Arabic pottery Palestinian wood carving Islamic embroidery Islamic hardstone carving Islamic garden Islamic glass Islamic ivory carving Islamic Metalwork Features Arabesque Arabic geometric patterns Banna'i Damascus steel Damask Girih tiles Hedwig glass Kiswah Muqarnas Pseudo-Arabic Zellij
Cuisine Khalij (Arabian Peninsula) Arab Mashriq (Levant) Mashriq (Mesopotamia) Mawset (Egypt) Mawset (Sudan) Arab Maghreb (North Africa)
Dress Headwear Agal Battoulah Haik Keffiyeh Litham Madhalla Taqiyah Tantour Tarboush (fez) Turban Clothing Abaya Bisht Burnous Djellaba Durra'ah Fouta towel Izaar Jellabiya Kaftan Macawis Robe of honour Sirwal Takchita Thawb Tiraz
Music Theory Arabic maqam Arab tone system Algerian scale Rhythm in Arabic music Taqsim Jins Lazma Teslim Quarter tone Arabic musical instruments Great Book of Music Kitab al-Aghani Genres Arabic pop Arabic hip hop Arabic rock Arabic jazz Classical Arab music Opera Al Jeel Khaliji Raï Art music Andalusian classical music Andalusi nubah Bashraf Dawr Dulab Layali Malhun Iraqi maqam Mawwal Muwashshah Qasidah Qudud Halabiya Sama'i Tahmilah Taqsim Waslah Folk Ataaba Algerian Raï Bedouin Chaabi (Algeria) Chaabi (Morocco) Egyptian folk Fann at-Tanbura Fijiri Gnawa (North Africa) Liwa Mawwal Mezwed Samri Sawt Shaabi Zajal
Dance Ardah Belly dance Dabke Deheyeh Guedra Hagallah Khaleegy Liwa Mizmar Ouled Nail Raqs Sharqi Samri Shamadan Schikhatt Tahtib Tanoura Yowlah Zār
Scripts Old Arabic Nabataean Arabic Paleo-Arabic Classical Arabic Modern Standard Arabic
Literature Prose Epic literature Saj (ryhmed prose) Maqama Love in Arabic literature Arabic erotic literature Arabic grimoires Literary_criticism Arabic short story Tabaqat Tezkire Rihla Mirrors for princes Islamic Quran Tafsir Hadith Sīra Fiqh Aqidah Poetry Anthologies Poets Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry Modern Arabic poetry Genres Madih Hija Rithā' Waṣf Ghazal Khamriyyah Tardiyyah Khawal Fakhr Hamasah Forms Diwan Qasida Muwashshah Urjūza Mathnawi Ruba'i Nasīb Riddles Kharja Zajal Mawwal Nabati Ghinnawa Humayni Arabic prosody Bayt Ṭawīl Madīd Basīṭ Kamil Wāfir Hazaj Rajaz Ramal Munsariħ Khafīf Muqtaḍab Mujtathth Muḍāriʿ Sarīʿ Mutaqārib Mutadārik National literatures of Arab States Algeria Bahrain Comoros Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syria Tunisia U.A.E. Yemen
Science Arabic chemistry Arabic astrology Arabic astronomy Arabic geography Arabic Golden Age Arabic mathematics Arabic medicine Arabic psychology Arabic technology
Philosophy Early Arabic Philosophy Islamic Aristotelianism Islamic Platonism Islamic Logic Kalam Sufi metaphysics Sufi philosophy Farabism Avicennism Averroism Concepts Al-aql al-faal Aql bi-l-fi'l Al-Insān al-Kāmil Dhati Peace Arcs of Descent and Ascent Asabiyyah Hal Irfan Nafs Qadar Qalb Texts Liber de Causis The Theology of Aristotle Al-isharat The Book of the Apple Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity The Incoherence of the Philosophers The Incoherence of the Incoherence Hayy ibn Yaqdhan Theologus Autodidactus On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy Muqaddimah Sicilian Questions Fusus al-Hikam
Mythology Ababil Atlantis of the Sands Bahamut Beast of the Earth Book of Idols Book of Wonders Buraq Dandan Falak Ghoul Hinn Houri Ifrit Iram of the Pillars Jinn Karkadann Kujata Luqman Magic carpet Marid Mount Qaf Nasnas One Thousand and One Nights Qareen Qutrub Roc Shaddad Shadhavar Shams al-Ma'arif She-Camel of God Wāḳwāḳ Zulfiqar Zarqa al Yamama Fictional Arab people Aladdin Abdul Alhazred Ali Baba Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad Battal Gazi Hayy ibn Yaqdhan Kara Ben Nemsi King Marsile Layla and Majnun Othello Palamedes Princess Jasmine Ra's al Ghul Sindbad Talia al Ghul
Spirituality North Arabian deities Allah Al-‘Uzzá Al-Lat Manāt Dushara Chaabou Manaf Nuha Al-Kutbay Asira Awal Azizos Bajir Quzah Manāt Manāt A'ra Abgal Aglibol Al-Qaum Atarsamain Baalshamin Bēl Hubal Suwa' Theandrios Wadd Malakbel Orotalt Ruda Sa'd Yarhibol Isāf and Nā'ila South Arabian deities Almaqah Amm Anbay Athtar Salman Dhat-Badan Haubas Ta'lab Qaynan Basamum Dhul Khalasa Haukim Nasr Sīn Ya'uq Yaghūth Yatha
v t e

A ribāṭ (Template:Lang-ar; hospice, hostel, base or retreat) is an Arabic term for 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-ʻAwāṣim in the ninth century CE.

These fortifications later served to protect commercial routes, as caravanserais, and as centers for isolated Muslim communities as well as serving as places of piety.

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.^[1] They can also be referred to by other names such as khanqah, most commonly used in Iran, and tekke, most commonly used in Turkey.^[2]

Classically, ribat referred to the guard duty at a frontier outpost in order to defend dar al-Islam. The one who performs ribat is called a murabit. Contemporary use of the term ribat is common among jihadi groups such as al-Qaeda^[3] or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.^[4] 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, meaning it is a place of reconquest and jihad.^[5]

In time, some ribats became hostels for voyagers on major trade routes (caravanserai).^[6]

In time, some ribats became refuges for mystics. In this last sense, the ribat tradition was perhaps one of the early sources of the Sufi mystic brotherhoods, and a type of the later zawiya or Sufi lodge, which spread into North Africa, and from there across the Sahara to West Africa. Here the homes of marabouts (religious teachers, usually Sufi) are termed ribats. Such places of spiritual retreat were termed Khānqāh (Template:Lang-fa). Some important ribats to mention are the Rabati Malik (c.1068–80) which is located in the desert of central Asia and is still partially intact and the Ribat-i 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Ribat was originally used as a term to describe a frontier post where travelers (particularly soldiers) could stay. The term transformed over time to become known as a center for Sufi fraternities. The ribats were converted to a peaceful use where Sufis could congregate.^[8] Usually the ribats were inhabited by a shaykh and his family and visitors were allowed to come and learn from him.^[2] Many times the tomb of the founder was also located in the same building.^[2] The institutionalization of these centers was made possible in part through donations from wealthy merchants, landowners, and powerful leaders.^[9] Some of these compounds also received regular stipends to maintain them.^[2]

These institutions were used as a sort of school house where a shaykh could teach his disciples the ways of the specific ṭarīqah (Template:Lang-ar, Sufi brotherhood or fraternity). 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 ḥaqīqah (Template:Lang-ar, Ultimate truth or reality).

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.^[10] Some of these women stayed in the ribats until they were able to remarry in an effort to maintain their reputation because divorced women were not widely accepted in Islamic society.

• Al-Awasim, Muslim side of the frontier between the Byzantine Empire and Early Islamic realm
• 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 Israel
• Minat al-Qal'a in Israel

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ribats.

• Cache of The Ribat by Hajj Ahmad Thomson, 23 06 2007.
• "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. 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).

• Branning, Katharine. "The Seljuk Han of Anatolia". Retrieved 2 May 2021. With a map and list of Seljuk hans.
  • Introduction and definition
  • Origins of the Han. The evolution of stopping posts from the Ancient Near East, through the Early Muslim ribats, to the Seljuk han (Turkish for caravanserai); with a list of "Great Seljuk era hans and ribats in Central Asia and Iran"
• ArchNet: Origin and layout of a ribat and its adaptation as a caravanserai. Accessed May 2021.