Ribat

A ribāṭ (رِبَـاط; 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. They can also be referred to by other names such as khanqah, most commonly used in Iran, and tekke, most commonly used in Turkey. 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 or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. 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. In time, some ribats became hostels for voyagers on major trade routes (caravanserai). 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 (). Some important ribats to mention are the Rabati Malik (c.