Behind the millennial Al Azhar Mosque, the oldest university and educational institution of Islam, the colorful bazaar bustle of Khan el Khalili is lost in the narrow dark streets of Darb el Ahmar. Just a few years ago, this district was Kairo's largest drug-handling center. Today it has become quiet again. Startled by approaching steps, cats scurry around the corner. Sheikha Sabiha lives here, on the poor edge of the old city, near the northern city of the dead. "Sheikha" is a kind of job title. Sabiha is a full-time exorcist.
When she talks about the invisible world of demons and spirits, it's hard to believe she's from this century. The world in which she lives is no longer found in modern Cairo. But appearance is deceptive. One does not do it justice, if one thinks only of medieval necromancy, devil expulsion and Abrakadabra. She is well aware of this world and talks about "Tsar" - something anthropologists know came from Ethiopia through Sudan to Egypt. In Amharic, the official Ethiopian language, Zar means "a dance ritual for repelling the evil spirits" - and Sabiha obviously takes that seriously. She is a "Kodia", in her own words a "mediator between our world and the hidden spirits that influence our lives". Sabiha believes that every human being is given a "jinn" at birth, a spirit that accompanies him like a shadow through life. Everything will be fine as long as the mind can handle its companion. But if he gets insulted, it will be dangerous. Djinns are also mentioned in the Koran as being "created by God from a smokeless flame". But with the spirits that Sabiha means, they only have the name in common. The Sheikha emphasizes that spirits - whether they are angry or contented - are easy to tame as long as a competent mediator, such as, for example, is engaged in communication.
Men seem to struggle less often with the evil djinn, at least Zars are organized in Egypt almost exclusively for women. The women come to her with a colorful array of problems. These range from simple colds to difficulties in marriage or the inability to conceive a child. Most of them are a certain group of women: widowed, divorced, or, for similar reasons, miserable women. Whatever depresses her, Sabiha's medicine remains the same: "The jinn is upset," she says, "a Tsar party must be held to repent." There are two treatment techniques. In the "African" method, which is mainly practiced in the south of Sudan and in Ethiopia, the patient remains sitting in a chair while drums are beaten, in Egypt and Sahel countries it is a more "psychodramatic" Technique in which the woman is encouraged to act in front of spectators as on a stage.
First, Sabiha must contact the mind and find out how to reconcile it. Mostly an animal sacrifice is needed to appease the mind - a chicken or a goat. When the jinn is identified, the actual ceremony begins. Mostly it takes place in the home of the unfortunate. In Kairo's inhabited city of the dead and in the south of the city, at the mosque of Sheikh Abu Es-Saud, however, a marquee is also regularly erected, in which a half-public czar is held. He is open to strangers and is organized for several patients. This is mainly because it is cheaper.
However, only a Czar, which is held exclusively for one person and at home, will help with tangible problems. A group of about ten women takes the "possessed" in their midst, forms a circle. A swaying, later also wild-whirling dance begins. Accompanied and driven by the dancers are loud drums and sharp trill songs of a group of musicians. Inexorably, the mood intensifies into a shared ecstasy. The Sheikha calls the spirits meanwhile. The constant rhythm drives the dancer into a trance. "Allah, ... Allah!", The bystanders sigh to the beat of the music. This can take hours. The patient is allowed to smoke, drink alcohol and do other things that Islam prohibits. She should go out of herself, dance to the edge of a collapse. It happens that she clings in trance to those around her, sometimes to the musicians as well. There must not be an easily excitable man. Only homosexual men are allowed to make music with a female czar. Similarly, the Tsars are taboo for unmarried women.
Tina, a Cairo-based European, regularly attends Zar parties. "What lets one fall into a trance is this monotonous, actually unmelodious drum rhythm," she says. It's like a kind of powerlessness, "you're just gone, not there anymore." The women pay attention, notice immediately if the dancer can no longer control herself. They help her, so she does not tear out her hair in a trance. Shivering with sweating and uncontrolled, she is spattered with sacrificial blood, wrapped in a cloth and led out of the room. She washes and dresses herself anew. When she returns with the mediator, she is calm and collected, the evil spirit is expelled. Bloody handprints on the door jamb and house make the "purified" afraid of a return of the demon. However, they do not always bear witness to a Tsar party: they are also used to ward off the "evil eye" or come from a thank-offering that traditionally concludes the pilgrimage to Mecca. It happens, however, that one can not get rid of the spirit for a lifetime.
Similar, but different Zar parties run in the city of the dead. Tina often goes there since she happened to be invited once. The exorcistic character of a private czar can only be ascertained in a rudimentary manner, it is more of an amusement atmosphere. The Egyptians like to dance at weddings, at the birth of a child or even without cause. This very Egyptian joy in dance is certainly a reason for the popularity of Zar. In the city of the dead one can observe how the originally foreign Tsar ceremonies were Egyptized. The women have removed the dance from the exorcist framework and transferred it into their Islamic-Arabic cultural world. There are no animal sacrifices, and there is hardly any mention of djinns either. The women have come to join in the atmosphere together. Only those who feel like dancing, and no one has to dance. Anyone who gets carried away, must pay a fee. Every woman dances differently, some sway very quietly to music, others romp about. Above the scenery lies a heavy cloud of incense. Such a Czar is more like a disco than a necromancy.
It would be too easy to dismiss "unadulterated" Tsar ceremonies organized by Sheikha Sabiha as a primitive form of exorcism, or as a product of excessive superstition. In restrictive Egyptian society, women have fewer opportunities to get rid of pent-up tensions and aggression than men. A Tsar offers a liberating valve for releasing steam. Psychologists have long been interested in this phenomenon. The slipping into a hysterical state of mind and aggressive behavior they see as a manifestation of a "mental disorder". The person is unable to solve their problems and tends to flee into a fantasy world. For Egyptian women, a Czar can also be a vehicle to draw attention to themselves and a problem. A Czar is a big affair that every neighbor hears. Through a Tsar, the woman indirectly makes known her concerns - in public. This can be a tool to assert oneself against the husband, for example. If he intends to part with it, a tsar may allow the woman to exert social pressure on him.
In Sudan, the number of Tsar-possessed people has been rising for years. This is probably due mainly to the catastrophic economic and social situation of the country. In the cultural life of Egypt Tsar ceremonies are rather marginal. Here it is usually women of the lower class who live in a village environment and can not cope with the modern, progressive Egyptian society. Still, a Tsar is not an exalted cheap joke, Sheikha Sabiha is paying a handsome "courtesy fee" of up to 200 Egyptian pounds. That's about 150 marks - more than a monthly salary.
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