ʿAlawi Initiation through Men’s Eyes

For ʿAlawi boys, the only way to enter into the community of elites and to obtain sacred knowledge is to undergo a tripartite initiation. Previous studies on ʿAlawi community have paid much more attention to the ritual texts of initiation than the actual rites of initiation. The only known study that has examined the actual performance of initiation rites is Laila Prager’s dissertation from 2010.