The Founder and His Heirs: The Question of Succession in an Islamic Brotherhood [Mauritania]

When Muhammad Fadil died, managing the heritage of the brotherhood & the tribe of which he had been head entailed making changes in how things had worked under the brotherhood's holy founder. This routinization followed traditional rules of kinship for transmitting spiritual & secular power. The disciples, whose ties were based on an initiatory & spiritual kinship, were excluded from the succession. Restricting the succession to the family in line with blood ties reflects the tariqas tribal nature. Quite significantly, this separation between the duties related to the brotherhood & those related to the tribe became even clearer over time. Although the first successors apparently maintained internal harmony, their successors became involved in conflicts over sharing the founder's heritage. 46 References. Adapted from the source document.