"Majdhūb, Māshī Majnūn": Deviant Saints and the Formation of Sufi Orthodoxy

*Anā majdhūb, māshī majnūn!* “I am *majdhūb*—not mad!” Attributed to the paradigmatic Moroccan mad saint, ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Majdhūb (d. 1568), this phrase is enshrined in a plaque hanging behind his tomb in the shrine of the ‘Alawite Sultan Mulāy Ismā’īl (d. 1727). Yet, it also circulates, in Sufi treatises, hagiographic narratives, and casual cafe conversations. It is reiterated to explain a male saint donning women’s clothes and a bearded female saint critiquing the reigning sultan. In each iteration, “*anā majdhūb, māshī majnūn*” invokes then dismisses the specter of madness to justify the deviance of these ecstatic saints. In my dissertation, I ask: What do hagiographic representations and oral narratives of the *majdhūb* reveal about the dynamic of madness, gender, and sainthood? I argue that articulations of the *majdhūb* as deviant illuminate the ways in which anxieties over unreason, gender, and excess shaped the discursive formation of Maghribi Sufism.