Although multiple "Khalife-Général" have issued "'ndiggël politique"' in support of a presidential candidate in previous elections, several marabouts of the "grandson" generation openly rejected the command by voting for the opposition instead. These marabouts believed that the "ndiggël" violated their secular political rights, which was a sentiment shared among many other Mourides in Touba. In 1997, a rural council of Touba Mosquée in Senegal issued a set of new taxes meant to fund an ambitions development project in the holy city. City merchants promptly voiced their displeasure of the new taxes and threatened to kick the rural council, whose members were all appointed by the Mouride "Khalife-Général," out of the city. Although tax revolts are not uncommon elsewhere, this incident was particularly noteworthy as the merchants' blatant refusal exhibited a departure from typical state-society relations in Senegal. Declining economic performance in Senegal may lead to more taxes in the future, which means political actors may have to adjust or fundamentally alter their clientelist relationships with marabouts and "Khalife-Général". The term Marabout appears during the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. It is derived from the Arabic "murābiṭ" "one who is garrisoned": religious students and military volunteers who manned ribats at the time of the conquest. Today marabout means "saint" in the Berber languages, and refers to Sufi Muslim teachers who head a lodge or school called a zāwiya, associated with a specific school or tradition, called a "way, path" (. The pronunciation of that word varies by language. For example, it is pronounced "amrabadh" in the Berber Riffian language. Marabouts are known as "sidi" () in Maghrebi Arabic. Many cities in Morocco got their names from local marabouts, and the name of those cities usually begins with "Sidi" followed by the name of the local marabout. Modern Standard Arabic for "saint" is "walī" (). A marabout may also refer to a tomb ( "qubba" "dome") of a venerated saint, and such places have become holy centers and places of pious reflection. The roots of this tradition can be traced back to ancient times when the Berbers believed in polytheistic religions. Herodotus mentioned the tradition too, when he has spoke of the Nasamones bringing animal sacrifices to the tombs of holy men.