Zar Spirit Rituals and Music in the Arabian Peninsula

Zar rituals in the Arabian Peninsula encompass all-night musical events in which participants, who believe themselves possessed by a spirit or jinn (genie), dance and partake in other practices in an attempt to communicate with the entity and appease it. The possessed person usually suffers from some physical or mental illness believed to have been caused by the spirit. One can rid him/herself of the being through a series of visits to a sheikh, i.e., religious man, but this process is lengthy and sometimes is believed to aggravate the spirit which in turn will cause the host body to suffer from additional depression, nightmares, mental unrest or other ailments. The zar ritual, on the other hand, pacifies the spirit, although it may not expel it. Although in Arabia zar evenings might include both sexes, as a rule, women have been more involved in zar than men, and gender exclusive zar are the most common. The spirit may be the same or opposite sex of the host body, and this is manifest by the movements and manner in which the human gyrates and covers his/her head while dancing. The musicians must adjust their music depending on whether the spirit is male or female, as different songs mollify the different genders. Traditionally, the musicians and zar leaders were of African or slave descent. Indeed, it is believed that zar originally came from east Africa and spread to the Peninsula through slavery and immigration. Today's participants come from a variety of backgrounds, including college students, who sometimes view the music, dance, and back-arching movements more as “fun” in line with exuberant trance-like western nightclub dancing, than spirit possession. In general, among those who are skeptics of the supernatural element, it is believed that the purpose of zar-events is to provide frustrated participants, especially women who are relegated to the home and an austere life in Wahhabi Islam, an emotional and physical release. This poster session will present zar rituals of the past in Kuwait, Bahrain, and parts of Saudi Arabia and show a comparison of these with and zar related music-dance events of today, including their function, customs, and musical genres.