Page 7 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Special Edition 5

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 0 7

THE TALE OF THE SLOUGHIA BURIED NEAR THE
HOLY MAN SIDI SHUAI

Translated from Arabic to French by Alla Kacimi El Hassani - Algeria
Translated from French by M.-D. Crapon de Caprona - USA

Morocco

It tells a story about Sidi Shuaib Ounftah buried in the Dawar Azib in Temsman*:

The Sloughia never left him, and it happened one day that the Spanish came down to

Temsman beach and kidnapped a little girl, then they boarded their boat and fled.

The girl's mother went, heartbroken, to complain about her condition to the Marabout,
whose generosity had spread among the population, asking him to return her daughter to
her.

Shuaib went to the sea with his Sloughia, and when they reached the shore, he signaled his
Sloughia to cross the sea.

At first she hesitated, but the sea opened before her, giving her room. She ran at full speed
and continued in this way until she reached the other bank, where she snatched the child
from her captors, who had barely caught up, and placed her on her back.

She had just returned, followed by the enemies who were chasing her before the waves of
water applied to them. As soon as she reached the land of Temsman, she fell to the ground
and breathed her last, but not before placing the child before her grateful mother and
receiving her master's satisfaction.

As a homage to the Sloughia, she was buried a few steps from the sanctuary of Sidi Shuaib,
and she is also visited by those who arrive at the sanctuary for blessings and healings.

Excerpt from the book “Transformations of popular religiosity in the countryside of the Center
and the East” (p. 121). Text of a 2014 Master’s thesis at the University of Oujda by Mourad Jedd.
Generously provided to the Sloughi Review by Alla Kacimi El Hassani.

*Editor’s note: Temsman is the same as Temsamane (Wikipedia) and Temsaman (Google Earth).
It is in the Moroccan north eastern province of Driouch near the Mediterranean sea.