Ribat

Fictional Arab people South Arabian deities A ribāṭ (Arabic: رِبَـاط; hospice, hostel, base or retreat) is an Arabic term, initially designating 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.

[2] Classically, ribat referred to the guard duty at a frontier outpost in order to defend dar al-Islam.

Contemporary use of the term ribat is common among jihadi groups such as al-Qaeda[3] or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

[6] Ribat was initially used to describe a frontier post where soldiers would stay during the early Muslim conquests and after, such as in al-Awasim.

They were also used as a place of worship where the shaykh could observe the members of the specific Sufi order and help them on their inner path to ḥaqīqa (Arabic: حَـقِـيْـقَـة, ultimate truth or reality).

Female shaykhas (شيخة), scholars of law in medieval times, and large numbers of widows or divorcees lived in abstinence and worship in ribats.