I managed to catch the question and answer period of a lecture on North African zawiya -- or religious brotherhoods -- at the Middle East Institute. One of the more interesting points was that many of the Moroccan dynasties began as zawiya. Coincidentally, I began to read about their modern role in Morocco in Elizabeth Warnock Fernea's A Street in Marrakech. Although I saw many maributs -- or saint's tombs -- while I was in Morocco, I lived there in complete ignorance of the complex societies that exist around them, about which I am only now beginning to learn.