Zār

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Zār or Zaar (زار) is a pagan religious custom, apparently originating in central Ethiopia during the eighteenth century, later spreading throughout East and North Africa.[1] By the middle of the nineteenth century, Ethiopian slaves had introduced Zār into Southwest Asia.[1] Zār custom involves the possession of an individual (usually female) by a spirit. Also practised in Egypt, South Iran [2] and elsewhere within the MIddle East.

A featured musical instrument in the Zār ritual is the tanbura, a six-string lyre, which, like the Zār practice itself, exists in various forms in an area stretching from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.[3] Other instruments include the mangour, a leather belt sewn with many goat hooves, and various percussion instruments.[3]

The Zaar cult served as a refuge for women and effeminate men in conservative, Muslim-dominated Sudan.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Natvig, Richard (1988), “Liminal Rites and Female Symbolism in the Egyptian Zar Possession Cult”, Numen 35 (1): 57-68, DOI 10.2307/3270140 
  2. ^ Modarressi, Taghi. 1968. The zar cult in south Iran. In Trance and possession states, ed. Raymond Prince.Montreal: R.M. Bucke Memorial Society
  3. ^ a b Poché, Christian. "Tanbūra", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), xxv, 62-63.
  • Fakhouri, Hani. "The Zar Cult in an Egyptian Village." Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 2 (April 1968), pp. 49-56.
  • Seligmann, Brenda Z. "On the Origin of the Egyptian Zar." Folklore, vol. 25, no. 3 (September 30, 1914), pp. 300-323.
  • The zar and the tumbura cults]
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