Zar : spirit possession, music, and healing rituals in Egypt / Hager El Hadidi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ḥadīdī, Hājir, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zār--Egypt.

Zār.

Spiritual healing--Egypt.

Spiritual healing.

Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric--Egypt.

Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric.

Spirit possession--Egypt.

Spirit possession.

Music--Egypt--Religious aspects.

Music.

Healing--Religious aspects.

Healing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cairo, Egypt : The American University in Cairo Press, [2022]

Summary:

An examination of the history and waning culture of zar in Egypt, and the world in which Muslim women negotiate relations with spiritsZar is both a possessing spirit and a set of reconciliation rites between the spirits and their human hosts: living in a parallel yet invisible world, the capricious spirits manifest their anger by causing ailments for their hosts, which require ritual reconciliation, a private sacrificial rite practiced routinely by the afflicted devotees. Originally spread from Ethiopia to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf through the nineteenth-century slave trade, in Egypt zar has incorporated elements from popular Islamic Sufi practices, including devotion to Christian and Muslim saints. The ceremonies initiate devotees--the majority of whom are Muslim women--into a community centered on a cult leader, a membership that provides them with moral orientation, social support, and a sense of belonging. Practicing zar rituals, dancing to zar songs, and experiencing trance restore their well-being, which had been compromised by gender asymmetry and globalization.This new ethnographic study of zar in Egypt is based on the author's two years of multi-sited fieldwork and firsthand knowledge as a participant, and her collection and analysis of more than three hundred zar songs, allowing her to access levels of meaning that had previously been overlooked. The result is a comprehensive and accessible exposition of the history, culture, and waning practice of zar in a modernizing world.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781617977718

1617977713