Researchers owe a better understanding of the history of the Maghreb countryside, al-badia during the medieval and modern eras to the books of the Maliki Al-nawazil (pl of nazila “a new controversial juristic issue”) and the Sufi books of virtues, which, to some extent, established the notion of the religious and social independence of al-badia from the centralization of cities, while remaining subject to the jurists’ authority and supervision with the help of the notables and tribal chiefs’ authority. Religious independence does not mean a religion different from that of the city, but it is a set of tasks that accumulate many customs and traditions that make it a different religion from that of major cities. The Al-nawazil of the late Middle Ages (8-10 AH / 14-16 CE) reveal the entrenchment of the duality of “mysticism and doctrine” and the power of habits and customs. As a consequence, the Maliki jurists remarkably allowed the presence of “habit” and “custom” in their Al-nawazil in multiple and different contexts. This made the Maliki School more flexible and closer to observing people’s customs, including those that seem against the legislation of the Islamic religion, such as depriving women of their legal right to inheritance in some regions of the Maghreb. Habits and customs witnessed an increasing presence in people’s daily religious and social practices, including some additions in their worship. In the social field, some researchers assume that many customs and traditions such as marriage represent a continuation of an old mentality dating back to the pre-Islamic period in the Maghreb. The presence of habits and customs is embodied in the sources of Maghreb history based on the formulation of asked questions and the texts of the answers. The initial impression prevails that the presence of habits and customs in the Maliki jurists’ answers shows that the Maliki jurisprudence has been adapted to the conditions of the Maghreb environment since the first Hegira centuries. The intersection of the habit and custom terminologies is confirmed in the texts of Al-nawazil, so we read: “For that which has been customary and habitual” which are synonymous and have the same meaning. Some jurists seem to recognize the status of habit and its impact on Al-nawazil, as what al-Hawzali (d. 913 AH / 1001 CE) said that rulings are transmitted by the diffusion of customs. The sources of that period allow us to measure the extent to which the circle of habit and custom expanded at the expense of some religious rules. The sources of the Maliki Al-nawazil, whether those that have been investigated and published, or those that have not been explored yet, reveal huge accumulations, which are considered an indication of the jurists’ sovereignty in a marginal Maghreb environment confined to cities and metropolises at a time of the central state weakness. We refer to studies that investigated the social role of the religious institution, within narrow scopes; including the mosque institution.

custom – habit - Sufism - the Maliki School of Thought – The rural Maghreb.