Wearing Tradition: The Khirqa and Sufi Memory in Nacer Khemir’s Bab’Aziz

Nacer Khemir’s Bab’Aziz (2005) treats the dervish cloak (khirqa) as more than costume: a site where ascetic practice contests fashion’s novelty-driven logic. Focusing on the narrative shift from the Prince’s conspicuous consumption of silk to the dervish’s adoption of rough wool, this article argues that the film visualizes an “anti-fashion” stance rooted in Sufi discourses. In this cinematic setting, the khirqa functions as a kind of haptic archive—a tactile record of transmission and wear—through which spiritual lineage, authority, and continuity become legible. Bringing Ibn ʿArabī into dialogue with film theory’s concept of haptic visuality, the study shows how the cloak operates as a primary cinematic signifier of sartorial regulation, where disciplined appearance is figured as ethical formation rather than fashion trend. Bridging history, sociology, and material culture studies, the article suggests that the khirqa endures as a transhistorical emblem mediating spiritual identity across changing spatiotemporal contexts.