Reichs-Telefonbuch: Reichs-Telefonbuch, 42.1938,1

Anthropos, 6.1911

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714825

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714825

Persistenter Identifier:: BV044722112

Titel:: Reichs-Telefonbuch

Untertitel:: Telephon-Adressbuch für das Deutsche Reich

Erscheinungsort:: Berlin

Verlag:: Hoffmann

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1934

Lizenz:: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Sammlung:: Allgemeiner Bestand

Wissensgebiet:: Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-712114

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-712114

Persistenter Identifier:: 1530089175578

Titel:: Reichs-Telefonbuch, 42.1938,1

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1938

Signatur:: Fn 54000:F4

Sammlung:: Allgemeiner Bestand

Berichte und Kommentare 545 Anthropos 86.1991 A Nubian Zikr An Example of African/Islamic Syncretism in Southern Egypt Anne M. Jennings The history of Islam in Africa has been, to a large extent, a history of the amalgamation of Islamic beliefs and practices with those of indige nous peoples. Wherever Islam has penetrated, the various populations of Africa have accepted it to a greater or lesser extent, without completely aban doning their own traditional customs. The result, in many areas, has been a syncretic combination of religions and cultures. Syncretism has been defined as “... a synthesis growing out of the contact or collision of two complexes of elements or insti tutions (not necessarily religious) from different cultural traditions” (Nutini 1988: 16). Syncretic combinations occur most often when, of the two cultural traditions in close proximity, one is polit ically more dominant than the other. Investigators have reported syncretic amalgams in Brazil, for in stance, where African slaves and their descendents were forced to adopt the religion of their masters (Bastide 1978), and in Mexico, where Indian peas ants reacted to the dominance of Catholicism by adapting their own ceremonies to it (Nutini 1988). Syncretic adaptations have also been investigated in groups where adherents of the less dominant cultural tradition are not forced to change by the invasive culture, but choose to include elements of this culture, over time, for their own purposes. Such has been the case in many African Muslim societies (Trimingham 1965; Lewis 1966; Parkin 1970). In this paper, I discuss a ceremony of one such group, the Nubians of southern Egypt, in order to explore the mechanisms by which pre-Islamic and Islamic beliefs have been melded in a single ritual. I describe a zikr which I witnessed while living in a Nubian village, examining the importance of each of the sacred substances which were used during the ceremony. I argue that these substances were not randomly selected for use in the zikr, but had certain pre-Islamic symbolic significance to Nubians. Furthermore, they were also of symbolic importance in Islamic cosmology; thus, their use in this ceremony made them doubly meaningful as ritual items. Syncretism occurs where there is “a moderate to high degree of structural, functional, and/or symbolic similarity among the supernatural, ritual, and/or administrative elements and institutions in interaction” (Nutini 1988: 17). I suggest that in successful syncretic ceremonies (that is, those that continue to be used over generations) the elements, symbols, or ideas which are adopted from the dom inant, invasive culture are those which find special resonance in the traditions of the less dominant host culture. The elements which are syncretically combined are often mutually salient symbols in both groups. The substances which were used in the ceremony described in this paper are examples of this mutuality. I. Syncretism in African Muslim Religions While the Islamic presence is apparent in many areas of Muslim African culture, from social struc ture to religious ritual, it is this latter area which has been the focus of most anthropological atten tion. Africans who became Muslims during the more than 1,000 years since Islam first entered the continent have merged their ancient belief systems with the newer religion in many ways. Islam, for its part, has tolerated much that was originally pagan: Muslim theology condones belief in angels, devils, jinn, divination, magic, witchcraft, and sor cery, all of which were cosmological conceptions in Arabia before the birth of Mohammed. In fact, “... as long as traditional beliefs can be adjusted in such a way that they fall into place within a Muslim schema in which the absoluteness of Allah remains unquestioned, Islam does not ask its new adherents to abandon their accustomed confidence in all their mystical forces” (Lewis 1966: 60). In Egypt and Sudan, part of the reason for this may be that Islam was not introduced by missionaries. On the contrary, the first Muslims into Africa were warriors, nomads, and traders - people who were not at all interested in proselitizing. In Egypt and Nubia, some formerly pagan ceremonies which are tolerated by Islam have been recorded (Barclay 1964; Trimingham 1965; Lewis 1966; Kennedy 1967; Callender and el Guindi 1971), the most widely-known of which are those of spirit-possession cults, or zar. These ceremo nies, having originated in Ethiopia and spread throughout Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, and the Arabian peninsula, attract mainly those who are excluded from orthodox Islamic practices, and so cling to pre-Islamic spirit worship and traditional rituals. Beliefs in jinn and the evil eye throughout Islamic Africa have been well documented, as has the practice of assimilating objects of pagan venera tion, such as rocks, trees, springs, and wells, to

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