Aisha al-Manoubia

A Tunisian woman saint, known as Sayyida Aisha. Her full name is Aisha bint Imran b. Sulayman al-Mannubiyya. She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili, founding master of the Shadhiliyya, and was revered among the people as a saint.

She was born in the village of Mannuba, 8 km west of the city of Tunis. The sources that describe the Hafsid dynasty ruling Tunis in her day and the village of Mannuba do not mention her; what is known of her life rests on a short hagiographical work compiled from the collection of legends written by the imam of the Mannuba Mosque. According to this work her inclination to Sufism was evident while she was still a child; she is said to have memorised the Qur'an at an early age.

When her family sought to marry her to her paternal cousin she refused the match in an ascetic spirit; she fled to Tunis, took refuge in a caravanserai outside Bab al-Gorjani, and lived by the wool she spun and wove with her own hands.

She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili. It is recorded that her spiritual life developed and deepened with time and that miracles began to be manifested through her.

At about seventy-six years of age, on 16 Shawwal 653 (18 November 1255) or 21 Rajab 655 (4 August 1257), she died — according to the report, while reciting the verse "Truly God is with those who are God-fearing and those who do good" (al-Nahl 16/128) — and was buried in the Maqbarat al-Sharaf cemetery at Bab al-Gorjani.

Her Circle of Influence — Many legends about her circulate among the people. The widespread giving of the names Sayyida and Aisha to girls and Mannubi to boys in Tunisia stems from her living fame; the shrine built over her grave became a place of visitation for the women of Tunis.

Her Poetry and Sufi Line — Her line is one of asceticism and charity. It is related that she kept nothing for herself but distributed what she had to the poor, and that one night, having gone to bed without giving away a dirham she had with her, she said, "Today our servanthood is deficient." She is said to have completed 1520 recitations of the whole Qur'an in her lifetime. Her understanding of remembrance is summed up in her saying, "There is no good in remembrance made by the tongue alone unless the heart takes part."

Her Tomb and Complex — In the early XX century one of those excessively devoted to her memory, claiming that al-Mannubiyya's grave had been revealed to him, built a wooden shrine over it, and the place became a site of visitation for the women of Tunis. Around the caravanserai where she took refuge after leaving her family and spent her life, a mosque, guest rooms, several houses and shops were built in time, and a small lodge came into being there. The house where she was born became a place held sacred in the reign of the Husaynid Muhammad al-Sadiq Bey (1859-1882), and with its zawiya, private apartments and a covered courtyard where the order's rites were performed collectively it turned into a full lodge. The source records that these buildings are in ruins.