27 Dec. 2001 - 2 Jan. 2002
Issue No.566
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Dec. 2001 - 2 Jan. 2002 Issue No.566 |
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Some enchanted evening
The New Year is a time to make resolutions, or cast a few spells. Fayza Hassan discovers the charm of magic
"Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense." Thus begin the adventures of Harry Potter. Harry is the Dursleys' nephew, a little boy who is not really unlike other little boys, except that he is endowed with a gift for witchcraft. Harry's "difference" deeply embarrasses and frightens his relatives, whose only wish is to blend into the English landscape. Like most of us, they claim not to believe in magic, but then again, somewhere suspicion is gnawing: What if...?
Paper figures; the sacred heart surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.
Fear, attraction, repulsion -- the feelings are mixed. If one scratches the surface even slightly, few are prepared to take a firmly sceptical position concerning the occult.
J K Rowling's editors masterfully orchestrated the publicity that launched the Harry Potter saga, and the film has only exacerbated the craze. Clearly in these troubled times, the appeal of "good' magic" has become irresistible.
The most "normal" among us cannot help being fascinated by the young wizard's antics and his triumphs over the forces of darkness. Wouldn't George W Bush love to be Harry now, just long enough to catch the Evildoer?
A NEED FOR PROTECTION: Historical evidence shows that early humans lived in misery, anxiety and often terror. To feed themselves and their families was difficult, and they were all but defenceless against the wild beasts and reptiles that roamed the land. Other dangers troubled them: the darkness of the night, which encouraged the beasts of prey to prowl around their caves; the sound of thunder, the lethal violence of lighting and the general vicissitudes of the climate. Although "why he did so is inexplicable, [man] proceeded to fashion in his mind a whole host of invisible, hostile beings, devils, demons and evil spirits. These, he believed, not only had the power to curse him and everything he had, but also to cast upon him and his woman and beasts the Evil Eye and he went daily and hourly in terror lest they should do so," writes E A Wallis Budge in Amulets and Superstitions. Once the monsters were created in his mind, man attributed all his physical ailments and every misfortune that befell him or a member of his family to their evil doing. No one was above their powers and whatever could be done to deflect their ire was welcome.
A cure for a headache; Etienne Dinet's The Snake Charmer; Rudolph Ernst's Fortune Teller; El-Gazzar's Fortune Teller.
ROMANCING THE SPIRITS: According to Wallis Budge, even before antiquity, there were men and women who openly decided to make themselves the servants of evil spirits. They were regarded as magicians and witches, and those who did not have a privileged relationship with the maleficent creatures sought the intervention of their human allies to protect them from harm.
Western civilisations have a long history of commerce with the supernatural, which unfortunately always seemed to end in the burning of witches and opposition to magical practices. We have inherited a reminder of those days, although few realise it: the traditional din saluting the 12th stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve was meant in times gone by to drive the evil spirits away.
MAGIC IN THE AIR: The East, however, never displayed a similar repugnance for the netherworld, and in the case of Muslim populations, with the Jinns clearly mentioned in the Qur'an, there was every reason to integrate their presence into people's daily lives. "The Arabs are a very superstitious people," wrote the 19th-century traveler E W Lane, "and none of them are more so than those of Egypt. Many of their superstitions form a part of their religion, being sanctioned by the Kur-àn; and the most prominent of these is the belief in 'Ginn' or Genii." Lane was obviously fascinated by Egyptians' beliefs, and took the trouble to study their many aspects carefully: "The ginn are said to be of pre-Adamite origin," he elaborated, "and, in their general properties, are an intermediate class of beings between angels and men, but inferior in dignity to both, created of fire, and capable of assuming the form and material fabric of men, brutes and monsters, and of becoming invisible at pleasure. They eat and drink, propagate their species (like, or in conjunction with, human beings) and are subject to death though they generally live many centuries."
According to Leela Esmat, who wrote her PhD dissertation on magic symbols in the work of the painter Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar, it is a common belief that Jinns live among us and often marry humans. They may or may not inform their partner of their nature, but are recognisable by the fact that their body does not produce a shadow in the light; and they can at will take the shape of various domestic animals or enter the body of an ordinary human, who thus becomes "possessed." The zar, a popular ceremony of exorcism, is not, as we may have been led to think, meant to rid the victim of his or her demon, cautions Esmat. Rather, its purpose is to calm the evil spirit who, as opposed to his Western counterpart, enjoys the commotion. Pleased by the ceremony, he is likely to leave his victim in peace, at least for a while.
Special people acquainted with magic can get in touch with the Jinn at will, Esmat says. For their incantations, they use a secret language, Syriac, which she argues may be related to ancient Hebrew. When magicians are not charlatans, they are able to perform truly surprising acts. Esmat relates an experience she witnessed first-hand. A relative of hers became ill and his health kept deteriorating despite the efforts of the best physicians. Desperate, his family finally resorted to a learned sheikh, who told them that the illness's symptoms indicated a powerful spell had been cast on the man. The sheikh was invited to the house of the relative and, after certain preparations, he entered the room of the patient, reading specific suras from the Qur'an. Esmat followed. Suddenly, with a mighty crash, a heavy metal plate fell out of nowhere onto the floor, almost at her feet. The sheikh forbade anyone to touch it and, protecting his hands with several layers of fabric, picked it up, declaring that the object was made of lead and had to be melted down to undo the spell. The plate was transferred to a pot and placed on the fire. Soon bits of papers displaying writing in black ink began to appear. When the metal had melted, Esmat and the sheikh carried the matter to the Nile and disposed of it. "I asked the Nile to forgive us," says Esmat "but there was no other safe way of getting rid of this horror." Her relative began to recover soon after this incident.
RESPECTING THE HIDDEN: Jinns live in the chain of mountains called Kàf, Lane informs us, "which are believed to encompass the whole earth... Some are believers in El-Islam; others are infidels. The latter are also called Sheytans or devils of whom Iblees (that is Satan or the devil) is the chief; for it is the general and best supported opinions that he (like the other devils) is a ginnee, as he was created of fire; whereas the angels are created of light and are impeccable."
Arabs stand in great awe of both good and bad Jinns and never neglect their duties toward them, Lane believed. Among the many examples he used to illustrate his observations, he was particularly impressed by the fact that "on pouring water, etc., on the ground, [it is customary among Egyptians] to exclaim or mutter 'Destoor' -- that is to ask the permission or crave the pardon of any ginnee that may chance to be there." In the Thousand and One Nights, the merchant who killed the young Jinn by carelessly throwing away the stone of the date he was eating found himself in no end of trouble. The Jinn are said to be put in prison during the holy month of Ramadan and to be released on the last day of this month. An old custom required that housewives sprinkle the threshold of their houses with salt at dawn on Eid, to prevent the evil spirits from sneaking in.
A LOVE OF WATER: Jinns are said to inhabit rivers, ruined houses, wells, baths and even the latrine. "[H]ence, persons, when they enter the latter place and when they let down a bucket into a well or light a fire... say 'Permission!' or 'Permission ye blessed!' -- which words in the case of entering the latrina they sometimes preface with a prayer for God's protection from evil spirits," writes Lane. Esmat confirms that, according to popular belief, male and female evil spirits inhabit the bathroom, which one should not enter before turning on the light. Similarly, girls in rural areas are warned against crying in the bathroom or wearing black underwear, said to be particularly attractive to the evil spirits. If she disobeys, a girl could become the victim of a lamsa (literally, touched by the evil spirits).
THE NATURE OF JINN: Lane gathered that the Jinn are supposed to "pervade the solid matter of the earth, as well as the firmament, where approaching the confines of the lowest heaven, they often listen to the conversation of the angels respecting future things, thus enabling themselves to assist diviners and magicians."
In the story of "The Merchant and the Jinn," the father of the slain Jinn is seen approaching in a whirlwind: "It is the general belief of the Arabs of Egypt that the 'zoba'ah' or whirlwind which raises the sand or dust in the form of a pillar of prodigious height, and which is so often seen sweeping across the fields and deserts of this country, is caused by the flight of one of these beings; or in other words, that the ginnee 'rides the whirlwind.' A charm is usually uttered by the Egyptians to avert the zoba'ah, when it seems to be approaching them: some of them exclaim, 'Iron, thou unlucky!' -- as genii are supposed to have a great dread of that metal," wrote Lane, while Esmat adds that Jinn are supposed to be particularly wary of firearms, which explains why the word 'iron' is used to repel them.
A good description of what a Jinn looks like can be found in the tale of "The Fisherman and the Jinni" as recounted by Scheherazade in the Thousand and One Nights: "But presently there came forth from the jar a smoke which spired heavenwards into ether... and which trailed along earth's surface till presently, having reached its full height, the thick vapour condensed, and became an Ifreet [according to Lane, the equivalent of an evil Jinn, but the name can also refer to the ghost of a dead person] huge of bulk, whose crest touched the clouds while his feet were on the ground. His head was as a dome, his hands like pitchforks, his legs long as masts and his mouth big as a cave; his teeth were like large stones, his nostrils ewers, his eyes two lamps and his look was fierce and lowering." One has to wonder at the power of human imagination when Lane asserts: "Falling stars are perceived by the common people as darts thrown by God at an evil Jinn, whereupon every person must exclaim 'May God transfix the enemies of the faith' on such an occasion."
Winifred Blackman, who lived in the Egyptian countryside in the 1920s, states that the fellahin believe every human has a star in the sky; when he or she dies, that particular star falls to the ground
THE JINN AND THE GANN: While the existence of Jinn is acknowledged in the Qur'an, many fables have been woven around them that are not recognised by orthodox Muslims but are part of the common lore. In Lane's time, believers were embroiled in a controversy about the origins of Jinn. While all agreed that the Jinn predated man, some distinguished another class of beings of similar nature and also created before Adam: different from us in form and much more powerful, they were governed by 40 (or, according to another opinion, 72) kings, all named Suleyman (Solomon). "The last of these Suleymans was named Gann Ibn- Gann; and from him, some think, the ginn (who are also called gann) derive their name. Hence some believe the ginn to be the same with the pre-Adamite race here mentioned; but others assert that they (the ginn) were a distinct class of beings and brought into subjection by the other race," reported Lane.
AMULETS AND TALISMANS: Ancient civilisations left behind large numbers of amulets and talismans. According to Budge, the use of these objects was not confined to a specific place, people or period, "and the great mass of the evidence about the matter now available justifies the statement that the use of amulets and talismans was, and, it may be added, still is, universal." It seems that people as civilised as the Ancient Egyptians, the Sumerians and the Babylonians were as obsessed by the fear of evil spirits as their savage ancestors had been.
GOOD AND EVIL IN ANCIENT EGYPT: The Ancient Egyptians believed that at one time nothing had existed except a mass of dark and inert water called Nu or Nenu. It was steeped in darkness and was the dwelling of a god called Neberdjer, who existed as a liquid, an essence, or in name only and ruled over a host of creatures called Mesu Betshu (spawn of rebellious malice). "The god took council with his heart, and possessing magical power (heka), he uttered his own name as a spell or word of power, and he straight-away came into being under the form of the god Khepera, and began to work on creation." As expected, the evil spirits opposed Khepera and the world was born out of the struggle between the forces of good and evil, with the former coming out only slightly ahead. Thus the first act of creation, the making of light, launched the never-ending fight between Set, the personification of darkness, night and evil, and Her-ur, the personification of light and good. The day was established, but so was the night. The Sun-god Ra was never able to emerge absolutely victorious over the monster Apep, instructed by Set to stop the sun from rising. Ra fought him furiously but did not manage to slay him, "and as a result his evil spirits were able to attack men and to harm them spiritually and physically," comments Budge. "In spite of the high character of their religion," he adds, "the Egyptians found it necessary to burn daily a wax figure of Apep in the great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes and to recite numerous spells in order to prevent that monster from obstructing the course of the Sun-god and from working destruction upon themselves through the operations of the spirits of evil." Even after converting to Christianity in the first century CE, the Egyptians retained their beliefs in the evil spirits and the efficacy of amulets, talismans and magic as means of defence against their power, and, concludes Budge, "they believe this to the present day."
Interestingly, a number of Egyptologists believe today that what passed as magical power in Ancient Egypt was in fact advanced knowledge of a secret technology, the exclusive domain of a few initiates (somewhat like the secrecy surrounding nuclear power today), who used it to cow their subjects into believing that they had supernatural powers. Their secrets remained so well guarded that they did not survive their times.
UNDER THE SPELL: clockwise from main picture: El-Gazzar's Invocation of the Spirits; Isis; Ra; Bes, divine protector of new mothers; Khnum fashioning a human and double; the divining disc of Pergamon.
WRITTEN CHARMS IN MODERN EGYPT: Lane was greatly impressed by the conviction Egyptians displayed in the power of written charms (higab). "The composition of most of these amulets is founded upon magic, and occasionally employs the pen of almost every village schoolmaster in Egypt." According to Lane, the most esteemed of all higabs is the Mus'haf (or copy of the Qur'an). The Turks that he met often wore a small Mus'haf in an embroidered leather or velvet case hung upon their right side by a silk string that passed over their left shoulder. This practice, however, was almost extinct by the 19th century, when Lane made his two lengthy visits to Cairo. Still, he observed that the Mus'haf and other higabs (made of certain passages from the Qur'an and the sacred names of God, the names of angels, Jinni, prophets, eminent saints as well as a combination of numerals, and some special diagrams supposed to have secret virtues) were particularly popular with women, who generally wore them enclosed in cases of gold, gilt or silver. These higabs are still believed to preserve the wearer from disease, enchantment, the evil eye, and a variety of other evils.
Strict Muslims, however, regard the practice of wearing a higab or placing a Mus'haf under one's pillow as sinful. "Imagine," says Kamal Makhlouf, a no-nonsense practicing Muslim, "that the wearer of a Mus'haf forgets to remove it before entering the latrine, or acts improperly in the room or the house where a Mus'haf has been placed for protection. Wouldn't that be a religious offence?" For Makhlouf, the only protection needed is found in reciting suras from the Qur'an, such as Surat Yassin, or simply invoking the name of God. If a person has followed the tenets of Islam correctly and harbours no evil thoughts, he or she will be shielded from danger. If the person has acted in ways contrary to the true spirit of Islam then no higab, no matter how powerful it is claimed to be, will offer protection.
Many Muslims and Christians still prefer to use material objects for protection, as evident in the thriving business of framing particular suras, invocations, or the name of God in elaborate calligraphy to be hung on the walls of homes and offices. Christians use images of saints and crucifixes in much the same way.
Among Muslims, the ninety-nine names of God, comprising all His divine attributes, "if frequently repeated and written on a paper, and worn on the person, are supposed to make the wearer a particular object for the exercise of all the beneficent attributes," says Lane, adding that, in like manner, "it is believed that the ninety-nine names or titles of the Prophet, written upon anything, compose a charm, which (according to his own assertion as reported by his cousin and son-in-law Imam Alee) will, if placed in a house, and frequently read from beginning to end, keep away every misfortune, pestilence, and all diseases, infirmity, the envious eye, enchantment, burning, ruin, anxiety, grief and trouble." Other powerful charms are pieces of the Ka'ba covering, dust from the tombs of saints and various amulets worn for a specific purpose (such as fertility). A more modern form of higab can be seen in the various inscribed medals worn by those who suffer from rheumatic pain or backaches, and who believe in their curative powers.
THE EVIL EYE: Blackman remarked extensively on the fellahin's fear that the evil eye strike their children or their beasts. Children seemed to be particularly susceptible to this evil, and parents went to extraordinary lengths to preserve them. According to Blackman, one of the reasons (although by no means the only one) why children looked particularly dirty in the countryside was to deflect the eye of envy. Until recently, well-to-do families who had been blessed by the birth of a boy after several girls hid their good fortune by dressing the boy in girls' clothes and growing his hair until he had reached the age of seven. The subou' (the ceremony that takes place on the seventh day of a child's birth) is meant to ward away the demons that are bound to assault infants, but the proceedings seem to be incapable of protecting the newborn from the evil eye for any length of time.
A charm to cure coughs
Blackman recounted that if illness struck the child of a woman who had received the visit of friends and neighbours, she would cut out a human figure in paper and, with a pin, uttering the name of each visitor in turn, prick the figure, then set the figure on fire, telling the child to look at it while it burned. In my own home, every time a certain relative visited us, my brother, the only boy in the family, fell ill. As soon as she left, a piece of pottery was broken behind her back, since none of the servants dared to cut a piece from the garment she was wearing -- believed to be the strongest antidote to the evil eye. Eventually, to avoid exposing him to her destructive envy (she was childless), he was put to bed and said to be ill whenever she came to call on my mother.
Likewise, animals were vulnerable to the attacks of the evil eye. The buffalo that produced Blackman's daily supplies of milk in a village where she had settled "refused on more than one occasion to yield the necessary quantity for [her] morning meal. Its owners were convinced that this was due to the evil eye, so they put some fire in a pottery saucer, together with incense, and passed it seven times over the buffalo's head. Immediately after this, the milk flowed, convincing them that they were right in their suspicion."
THE SISTER AND THE DOUBLE: The superstitious hold that a supernatural double follows them throughout life. Women believe that this doppelganger becomes particularly active when they are pregnant. According to Blackman's observations, when a woman had several successive miscarriages, "she thinks that she has somehow or other incurred the anger of her ukht or karineh or both, and that they have taken the children away from her. She therefore consults a female magician who gets in communication with these subterranean beings and the mother inquires what she has done to make either or both of them angry." If the reply is that she has indeed angered one or both, then the would-be mother must bring bread made of wheat flour and eat it with the magician. "When the latter eats the bread it is as though the ukht and the karineh ate through her." After the bread has been eaten, the woman's doubles are supposed to have made peace with her. Through the magician, they then tell her how she should dispose of the afterbirth the next time she has a child. If she follows their directions, her child will live and she should repeat the same procedures every time she becomes pregnant. That way she will appease the ukht and the qarina, who will no longer take her children from her. The qarina plays a very important role in the events surrounding the conception and birth of children but, according to Makhlouf, this is simply a literal interpretation of the idea that each human being has a good and a bad side. Ignorant people, he argues, have transferred responsibility for their own evil thoughts onto a qarin or qarina, and imagine that their misfortunes result from the actions of supernatural beings.
THE HIGH AND THE LOW: Most Egyptians, whether Muslim of Christians, wrote Lane, recognise that there are two kinds of magic: spiritual or rawhaniya, which is believed to work by the agency of angels and jinni and by the virtues of the name of God; and semiya or deceptive, which is believed to operate by means of perfumes or drugs that affect the vision and imagination in the same way as opium.
Spiritual magic, considered "true," is in turn divided in two kinds: high and low. These are designated respectively by the terms rahmani or divine (relating to The Compassionate) and shaytani (Satanic).
"The ilwee [high] or rahmanee," relates Lane, "is said to be founded on the agency of God, and of his angels and good genii, and other lawful mysteries to be always employed for good purposes, and only attained and practiced by men of probity who, by tradition or from books, learned the names of those superhuman agents and invocations which insure compliance with their desires." The writing of charms for good purposes, Lane tells us, belongs to a branch of magic that includes astrology and numerology. "The highest attainment in divine magic consists in the knowledge of the 'Ism el-Aazam'. This is 'the most great name' of God, which is generally believed by the learned to be known to none but the prophets and apostles of God." A person acquainted with The Name can perform miracles, and magicians at all times were obsessed with discovering it. One of the legends of ancient times relates the story of the sun god Re, who appeared over the world and undertook its government. He reigned in peace until what happens to earthly kings also happened to him: he grew old and his subjects became rebellious, "more especially the wise goddess Isis who was wiser than all men, than all gods and spirits. She knew all things in heaven and earth as well as Rê' himself but there was one thing which she did not know -- and this want impaired her power -- the secret name of Rê'. For this god 'of the many names' kept his special name secret, the name on which his power was founded, the name which bestowed magical might, on those who knew it," wrote Adolf Erman, director of the Egyptian museum in Berlin in the 1890s.
Sufli (low) magic is supposed to depend on the agency of the devil and other evil jinni, to be used for bad purposes and performed by ill-intentioned individuals. It is not always easy to decide who is good and who is bad, however, and many women who have resorted to magicians in their time of need have found the result not always favourable. A friend of mine related one such very sad story. Her sister, happily married for many years, became convinced that her husband was cheating on her. He was no longer paying her attention, came home late every night, refused to eat dinner and became sulky and uncommunicative. She was advised to visit a sheikh in Mohandessin who, her best friend told her, had rid many wives of their rivals. My friend accompanied her sister to the given address, where they found the offices of an import-export business. The sheikh apparently shared the office with a businessman friend, who was convinced that the holy man's presence was beneficial to his trade.
My friend's sister was ushered alone into an office to meet the sheikh, a youngish man in a business suit. She emerged half an hour later, sobbing, and for a while refused to talk. Finally she confessed that the man, after hearing her story had begun to act improperly. When she objected he had apologised, and given her a higab to wear until a certain date. If she disclosed nothing of what had taken place and never parted with the higab, her husband would fall in love with her once more on the indicated date. If she did not do as told, great harm would befall her. Distraught, the young women believed that now that she had told her sister the charm would no longer work, and insisted on stopping the car to throw it in the Nile.
"I want to believe that it is only a coincidence and that the sheikh was a simple charlatan," said my friend, "but my sister, who was in perfect health, became severely ill and died on the exact day when her husband was expected to fall in love with her again."
In many more cases, the higab prepared by the magician simply does not work, or the magic procedure the petitioner must undertake backfires, as the story of Dawlat Hanem illustrates. Over 60 years ago, Dawlat Hanem married a man who had daughters from a previous marriage. Displeased with their father's choice and fearing that a new, young wife might produce the male heir he had been praying for, they decided to get rid of her. Ordinary chicaneries did not seem to inspire the newcomer with the irresistible desire to return to her parents, however; at a loss, the sisters held a brainstorming session with their Greek chambermaid, who was not partial to the new mistress of the house. Soon Dawlat Hanem began to find sand in her satin slippers and on her satin sheets. She remonstrated with the servants but thought nothing of it since she was not acquainted with magic practices. She stayed, and in time produced the male heir. Much later, a gossipy friend told her that the sand she had found on so many occasions had been brought from the cemetery. Those who wanted Dawlat Hanem to leave should have spread the sand on the bed and, walking backward, trail it toward the door, ushering the bride out. "But your stepdaughters did not listen carefully," giggled the friend; "they began spreading it from the entrance of the bedroom toward the bed, which of course was bound to have the opposite effect." Dawlat Hanem smiles at the thought. "So, do you believe in magic?" I ask. "I stayed, didn't I?" she answers with a wink.
Sources:
El-Gazzar's Talisman or the Young Devil.
Winifred S Blackman, The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 2000
E A Wallis Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, Dover Publications Inc., 1978
Robert A Armour, Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 1986
Adolf Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, Dover Publications Inc., 1971
E W Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, East-West Publications/Livres de France, 1978
J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury, 1997
Roger Benjamin, ed., Orientalism, The Art Gallery of NSW, nd
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