Moroccan religious authority is not held by a clerical body. It is held by the throne. The king carries the title Amir al Muminin, Commander of the Faithful, and the Alaouite dynasty claims sharifian descent from the Prophet through his grandson Hasan, which gives the monarchy a religious standing that no minister, mufti or scholar in the country can outrank. That arrangement is old. Idris I, the founder of the first Moroccan state at the end of the eighth century, was himself a refugee sharif, and the pattern of a religiously legitimated ruling house has held through several dynasties since.
The institutional depth is real. Al Qarawiyyin in Fes, founded in 859 by Fatima al Fihri as a mosque with a teaching function, is frequently described as the oldest continuously operating degree granting institution in the world, and its library holds manuscripts of the first order. The legal school is Maliki throughout, and the country has kept a strong attachment to the Ashari theological tradition alongside it.
Sufism is not marginal here. The Tijaniyya, whose founder is buried in Fes, sends pilgrims from across West Africa; the Boutchichiya has a large following including among the professional classes; and the moussem, the seasonal festival at a saint's tomb, remains an ordinary feature of the calendar.
Since the Casablanca bombings of 2003 the state has actively reorganised the religious field, unifying imam training, supervising sermons, promoting the combination of Maliki law, Ashari theology and Junaydi Sufism as the official Moroccan model, and training foreign imams for other countries at a dedicated institute in Rabat.