MARABOUT (the French form of the Arab. _murabit_, "one who pickets his horse on a hostile frontier"; cf. Portug. _marabute_; Span. _morabito_), in Mahommedan religion a hermit or devotee. The word is derived from _ribat_, a fortified frontier station. To such stations pious men betook them to win religious merit in war against the infidel; their leisure was spent in devotion, and the habits of the convent superseded those of the camp (see M'G. De Slane in _Jour. As._, 1842, i. 168; Dozy, _Suppl._ i. 502). Thus _ribat_ came to mean a religious house or hospice (_zawiya_). The great sphere of the marabouts is North Africa. There it was that the community formed by Yahya b. Ibrahim and the doctor Abdullah developed into the conquering empire of the Murabits, or, as Christian writers call them, the ALMORAVIDES (q.v.), and there still, among the Berbers, the marabouts enjoy extraordinary influence, being esteemed as living saints and mediators. They are liberally supported by alms, direct all popular assemblies, and have a decisive voice in intertribal quarrels and all matters of consequence. On their death their sanctity is transferred to their tombs (also called marabouts), where chapels are erected and gifts and prayers offered. The marabouts took a prominent part in the resistance offered to the French by the Algerian Moslems; and they have been similarly active in politico-religious movements in Tunisia and Tripoli. See L. Rinn, _Marabouts et Khouan_ (Algiers, 1884); and the article DERVISH.