Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood: The Visionary Career of Muhammad al-Zawawi

Based on Muhammad al-Zawawi’s diary of 109 dream conversations with the Prophet Muhammad, this study provides an intimate view of 15th-century North African Muslim life. It reconstructs Zawawi’s life story over a critical ten-year period, and examines his career as a sufi in its historical context. The concluding chapter provides an introduction to the role of dreams and visions in medieval Islam, and particular attention is paid throughout the text to the way Zawawi and his successors used their visions to legitimate claims to being awliya , or living saints.