Beliefs in supernatural beings

Supernatural beings and spirits influence human beings and affect their wellbeing and health. They may possess individuals or affect them from afar. The northern Sudanese, in particular, have identified many spirit entities. The realm of evil jinns is the one that concerns people most because they usually cause misfortune and disease. The Jinn family[1] contains many subdivisions: shayatin, zairan, khuddam (subject jinns), and ‘afarit, all of which are generic names. Some of the jinns have names, e.g., um al-subiyan, (literally, mother of the young ones) or habobat al-sughar (literally, grandmother of children). The ba’ati is spirit of the dead, while the qarin is a human-double. The zar and tumbura spirits are archetypal entities. The Nyima, one of several tribes in the Nuba Mountains in western Sudan that practise shamanism, call the spirits that possess their kujurs kuni which are to some extent conceived of as anthropomorphous beings.

The Jinn

	Belief in the jinns with their various subdivisions is common throughout the Sudan, especially among those of Arab stock or other Sudanese Muslims. The jinns are not always harmful, but they become so when they are provoked. People have thus developed a wealth of practices to frustrate them.
	The jinns are invisible, though they do take shape in the eyes of some classes of people. W.T. Clark has described the manners and customs of the northern Bega tribes of eastern Sudan. He divided those classes of people who could see jinns into the following categories:
	“1. The ‘masters of the rod,’ those people who know the ancient names for the subjugation of the jinns.
	2. Those, other than the preceding category, who dabble in spells, and,
	3. Those who are themselves about to be overtaken by the evil influence of the jinns.”[2]
	Though the jinns are invisible, yet they could appear as loathsome things and were-animals of all kinds except the lion and the crocodile. Some are Muslim, while others are unbelievers. They are capable of doing good or evil. Not all jinns are harmful. Some, hadi, are peaceful and calm; others, hasid, merely envious and mischievous. Some of them must be propitiated, but others should be aggressively driven out of the body.
	Circumstances dictate their activity. They are most active at night, at mid-day and at the hamarain, (the two reds) sunrise and sunset. This is why people are careful at these times not to perform any ceremonial activities, which are withheld to earlier or later times.[3] Harm, for example, may befall those who whistle at night, bathe at sunset or trespass upon jinns’ territories. It thus behoves one to be particularly careful; should one stumble unawares on a jinn, illness inevitably results.
	The jinns frequently deposit their infants in deserted and unappealing places. They live in cemeteries, and haunt the fireplaces, dustbins, rubbish heaps, bathrooms, and thresholds of ruined or uninhabited homes. The town of Sawakin, on the Red Sea coast, acquired a nationwide reputation for its proverbial black cats. These, like all black cats in the Muslim world, were believed to be of the jinn family. They haunt its ruined palaces and ancient houses.
	Evil spirits either influence a person from afar or possess him by inhabiting the body. In all cases it is the work not the worker that is manifest. One who has done wrong, breached a taboo, misbehaved or trespassed into jinns’ territory, leaves himself or herself open to harm. The zar spirits, for example, once they possess a woman, stay with her for life. They require special rituals to be performed and various requests to be fulfilled from time to time to pacify them. Twins, pregnant women, and nursing mothers, are particularly at risk and are easily harmed by the jinns. Hence, they need special protection. Clark reports:
	“Among the Bisharin a fire is kept burning for forty days and nights outside the house in which a birth has taken place …. The object of this is to keep the jinn away from the mother, who with the blood of childbirth on her is esteemed unclean and particularly vulnerable to the activities of these spirits ….”[4]
	Most jinns are under the nominal control of the Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon the son of David), and abide by his rules. Prophet Sulaiman was believed to have subordinated and used jinns and shayatin in white or sanctioned magic. The khatim (seal) and charms are basic instruments the faqirs used to control the occult powers.[5]
	The Hadandawa tribe, in eastern Sudan, retain in their folklore legends explaining their own origin. They believe that they are the outcome of the union of jinns with Ethiopian women. In many parts of the Sudan people believe that some human beings marry jinns. These people may be harmed if they betray their alliance and get married. Clark says:
	“Among the Atbai peoples of the northern Bega certain tribes are reputed to have jinns in subjugation. The Monassir, the Gerreb and an almost extinct section of the Eraiab, the Mohammmedai, are credited with power over the jinns …. But the exercise of these powers is accompanied by certain adverse effects and these people are reputed to be of miserable aspect and impotent to raise large families.”[6]
	Possession with jinns causes junun (madness, lunacy). The faki designates this type of mental derangement jinn kalaki. He believes that it is incurable. The lay mind holds the same belief and categorizes lunacy accordingly. Some diseases, they believe, are due to possession by the rih aswad (the black spirits). These are the jinns and shayatin, and they are managed by the faki. Other types of diseases are believed to be due to the rih ahmar (the red spirits) also known as the zar spirits. These are managed by shaikhat al-zar (the zar practitioner). A third group of jinns causes imbecility. The afflicted is known as ma’tuh (imbecile or demented). Healers and the laity alike do not consider this type of abnormality for treatment because they regard it as incurable.
	Jinns also cause epilepsy, and infantile and facial paralysis (the latter occurs when they slap one on the face.) Also, a shaytan may substitute its imbecile or deformed offspring for a healthy human child. People call this baby mubaddal[7] (a changeling), and it is usually imbecile or deformed. Mothers, therefore, never leave their children unattended during the first 40 days of life.

Um Al-subiyan

	Some jinns have specific names. Um al-subiyan, for example, is a shaytan that afflicts young children, while habobat al-sughar and um al-juhal harm babies under two years of age, causing epilepsy or general febrile convulsions. Um al-subiyan and habobat al-sughar as well as ghazala are synonyms that are euphemisms for ‘the enemy of children’. People describe this spirit as a lean and loathsome woman, travelling invisibly and destroying by her mere presence.
	Daoud Al-Antaki, the famous blind physician of Antioch (who died early in the 17th century) in his book Tazkirat uli Al-Albab, describes um al-subiyan as a disease of children. He gives the point of view of contemporary physicians and bases his explanation of its cause upon the four humours theory. In addition, he describes the then-prevalent ideas of the lay population. He says:
	“For others [i.e., other than physicians] it is due to a glance cast by an evil-eyed man. Or it is due to a fall in places inhabited by jinns like bathrooms, valleys and door steps. They harm the child because of its spiritual instability. The disease is characterized by loss of colour, spastic contraction of the limbs and involuntary movement of the head.”[8]
	This jinn also attends at childbirth, causing abortion, animate retention or stillbirth. Furthermore, besides her unquestioned enmity to children, she renders men impotent and marriages sterile, and disseminates venereal diseases.
	Certain types of charms combat the powers of um al-subiyan. These are the seven charms that the Prophet Sulaiman extorted from this jinn in the wilderness. The faki knows these charms and uses the appropriate one when required. In the Sudan um al-subiyan is also known as ghuzzail, um-ghizailat or ghazala (gazelle). This denotes epilepsy in children. The ghazala or ghazal (gazelle) also stands for lunacy in adults.
	The Sudanese historian Ibn Daif Allah gave an account of the supernatural achievements of Hasan Wad Husuna, a notable holy man in the Funj Kingdom. Ibn Daif Allah set on record for the first time the specialization of this shaikh in managing cases of epilepsy. King Badi Abu Rubat had asked shaikh Hasan to visit his brother Nasir who had a ghazal that gave him great trouble. The shaikh obliged and most probably cured the King’s brother. After this and other triumphs, Hasan Wad Husuna’s village became famous all over the country as a centre specializing in managing epilepsy.
	It is interesting to note that people firmly believe that touching an epileptic in a fit is hazardous. The idea is that, in so doing, one will contract the disease and transfer it to one’s offspring. People are, therefore, extremely averse to touching someone in a fit. Shaikh Hasan could manage such patients with no fear of possession, because he, his two brothers, and only sister, Fatima, were all sterile![9]
	A similar general belief is that gazelles, besides epilepsy, also transmit junun (lunacy). People call each other mighazlin meaning out of one’s mind. This belief, however, could be traced back to ancient Arabian popular legend.[10]

The zar and tumbura spirits

Zars are special spirits known as al-rih al-ahmar (the red spirits).[11] Nobody knows where these spirits live, where they come from or belong to. In 1937, Tigani Al-Mahi, using psychiatric jargon, described the possessing spirits as mashaiykh (singular shaikh) to connote archetypes. Each shaikh has a name. The appellation, however, is rarely used except with few notable shaikhs like shaikh Abd Al-Qadir, a notable Sufi saint. The rest of the archetypes have generic names, for example, Luliya al-Habashiya, Yoasy or awlad Mama. (See also page 131 for more discussion of the possession cults).

The Ba’ati (human apparition)

	The Ba’ati is the ghost of a dead person. The word MacMichael writes in History of the Arabs in the Sudan, is probably derived from the Fur word nabati. He says:
	“Popular belief, however, throughout Darfur[12] still attributes to all the Fur a power of metamorphosis, and the word nabati there is a common expression of abuse implying that the person to whom it is addressed is in his second existence, that he had died, that is, and instead of dwelling in Paradise, has come back to lead a second existence upon earth.”[13]
	The ghost usually visits relatives immediately after death. It is harmless, but the news of a person’s reincarnation has a damaging psychological impact on his family. Members of the bereaved cannot marry into other families. They become more or less social outcasts.

The qarin and the qarina

	Qarin and its female counterpart qarina are the supernatural ghost replicas of oneself. The term is also applied to the familiar wraith. Jokingly, people frequently describe a confirmed bachelor as mujawiz (married to a qarin).[14] We read in Trimingham’s Islam in the Sudan about the qarin (male double) and the qarina (female double) that:
	“In Omdurman it is a spirit which possesses. The Egyptian conception of it as a double born with every individual is not known. Only certain people are possessed and such people cannot marry or the qarina will harm them.”[15]
	The word recurred in the Quran about five times denoting either a double or a satan accompanying a human being. The word, however, has little place among the agents causing disease.

Ritual sacrifice

	In 1929 a British author, W.R.G. Bond, wrote to Sudan Notes and Records asking why people sacrifice animals so frequently in Sudanese society:
	“Whatever the occasion that is being described, the reader feels sure that before the tale is done, some wretched goat or other animal is ‘for it’, usually under circumstances, the mere record of which produces a feeling of nausea. And yet, when one meets individuals of the tribe, they are often cheery, kindly, and human enough. The writer has known a native turn his head away while a wounded gazelle was being put out of its pain, and a native woman burst into tears when an accident to a camel necessitated its being shot. Why then is every milestone of native life splattered with the blood of a publicly butchered animal?”[16]
	His was a European attempt to understand this practice, and his approach was by no means totally unsympathetic. However, the ritual sacrifice has played an important role in certain Muslim, Vedic, and Hebrew rites. In these systems it is held that what one consecrates and sacrifices is always oneself.[17]
	The karama,[18] or ritual sacrifice is an established practice in the Sudan and in all Muslim countries. It does indeed, usher in or conclude many social functions and occasions, or is performed to ward off a waba, an epidemic. Also, a sacrifice is offered to initiate and conclude several rites—transitional, health-related or otherwise. The karama is an offering of gratitude for helping in a job well done, making an occasion safe, or for asking the Supreme Powers to bring down rain, cause the Nile to flood, or curb an epidemic. It is an offering to God, to other deities and other unidentified spirits, and to holy men.
	We read in Trimingham’s Islam in the Sudan that:
	“Whilst the jinns are really feared there are certain superstitions connected with them which are regarded as mere khurafat (legends). For example, the ‘dust-devil’ is popularly regarded as a jinns riding a horse. Shooting-stars are thrown at jinns by angels. A well is never dug nor a house built without a karama to propitiate the jinns ‘lord of the place’ (sahib al-mahal) who may have been disturbed.”[19]
	This is so far a description that accurately fits a northern Sudanese community. However, the sacrifice in the ethnic groups in the southern region of the country are no different. In every village of the Lotuko country, Somerset reports, the hereditary headman sacrifices a bull or a goat at the beginning of each cultivating season and also at the rebuilding of the village, in the event of an epidemic, etc. It is believed that angry words used on the occasion of the sacrifice for good crops will adversely affect the crops. When a sacrifice is made to drive away disease, the victim’s skin is cut into strips, which are worn by all the villagers. In November is held the nalam or ceremonial hunt, the nature of the ensuing year being prognosticated from the characteristics of the first animal killed.[20]
	Edwards Evans-Pritchard described the Nuer sacrifice in the following words:
	“Nuer sacrifice on a great many occasions: when a man is sick, when sin has been committed, when a wife is infertile, sometimes on the birth of a first child, at the birth of twins, at initiation of sons, at marriages, at funerals and mortuary ceremonies, after homicides and at settlements of feuds, at periodic ceremonies in honour of one or other of their many spirits or of a dead father, before war, when persons or property are struck by lightning, when threatened or overcome by plague or famine, sometimes before large-scale fishing enterprises, when a ghost is troublesome, &c.”[21]
	Food, people’s most cherished possession, is usually sacrificed. Animal slaughter is the most common sacrifice. Both the taking of the animal’s life and the shedding of its blood during slaughter, are important. Therefore incantations like: ya ahl al-damm karamat kum, wa dabiehat al-damm salamat kum are common. This incantation addresses the hidden forces, and dedicates both the animal and its blood as offerings to them.
	It is also believed that the fumes escaping out of the cooking pot will carry the epidemic or evil away with them. Rich people expectedly show their gratitude or allegiance differently. They spend lavishly, and may sacrifice several animals instead of the usual one. They may also sacrifice animals other than common ones, such as camels or cows. The poor, on the other hand, may sacrifice balila (boiled dura) and dates.
	There are two types of communal karamas: a major one in which all the people join in the ritual, and a minor one that is conducted by young girls only, or sometimes all young children, in the evenings. Karamas, however, can also be performed by individuals or individual households.
	The major karama[22] is resorted to to ensure a good harvest, bring down rain, to ward off pests, epidemics, and all similar major events affecting the whole community. The animal is cooked in an open pot, and later the meat is distributed in proportionate shares to the people, each according to his contribution to the cost of the sacrificed animal. Holy working among the Berti of northern Darfur described the following ritual concerning animal slaying:
	“The sacrificer says bisimillahi Allahu akbaru three times and kills the bull by cutting its neck arteries. Next he washes the muzzle, penis and rump with water from a clay vessel (ibriq), also pouring some into the wound. This is called tahara (same name as the ritual wash before prayer) and the bull is then tahir (cleansed). Tahara is performed only with the sacrificial killing of animals.”[23]
	Al-Tom elaborated further on the karama practice among the same tribes. He said:
	“The offering in individual health sacrifices normally consists of either gruel with relish or of boiled millet. The decision to offer sacrifice is made by the female members of the household who do the cooking, but it may be promoted by a suggestion from the household head. One or two dishes are prepared for the purpose. They are consumed communally by a group of people which must include other than only members of the household in which the offering was prepared. There is no formal invitation before preparation of the karama, but once food is taken out of the house in which it was prepared and declared to be karama, neighbours who happen to be in the village at that time are sent for to partake in the meal. Before one starts eating any food including that offered as karama, one says bisimi-llahi (in the name of God). When eating karama one adds karama alla Yagbal (may God accept the offer). The last sentence is repeated after finishing the food.”[24]
	Cereal sacrifice is less important, and, though cheap, is also less common than bloody animal slaughter. We alluded earlier to other uses of balila. This may sometimes be sufficient for a karama. When an epidemic sweeps an area, people boil dura (sorghum) at sunrise and sunset. They also reason that the disease will leave with the escaping vapour. People say: yakfu al-bala bi al-balila (boiled dura protects against pestilence). All these rituals are accompanied with various incantations and songs, and practices reminiscent of animism.[25]
	The minor karama or karamat ‘afia as the Berti call it, is performed by children. All children involved in the karama contribute a few handfuls. The cereal used is usually the staple food in the locality—dura in central Sudan, and millet in western Sudan. The children preparing the karama usually shelter themselves under a big tree where they make the fire on which they cook. Younger children are kept away from cooking, but they still help in collecting firewood and they take the balila to their parents after it has been cooked. Several dishes are prepared and taken to any gathering of people in the village. Some balila, enough to feed all the children who participate in the karama, is left to be eaten by them under the tree. Other children, including boys who did not participate in the preparation of the food, and those who are too small to do so, are also invited to share the meal. Separate dishes are prepared for the very young children, boys and girls sharing the same dish.
	The children who are more than about six years old do not share the same dish; boys and girls eat separately from two different dishes in the same way as adults. Children may also prepare millet gruel (‘asida), relished with mulah, a gravy made of onion, oil, tomatoes, dried meat, okra, salt and pepper. This is a more expensive meal than balila and it requires greater skill in cooking. It is practised by the children only in the eastern part of the Berti area.[26]
	Whatever the karama was for, people take the cereal they have cooked and some of its water, and go from door to door looking for the sick, the invalid, parturient women, and the elderly. They rub them with this supposedly blessed fluid hoping for health and quick recovery. Karama food, on the other hand, is for everybody to eat.
	The sacrificial meat of dahiyya of ‘id al-adha (Muslim feast of sacrifice) is partly given to the poor, and partly eaten by family members. On the other hand, the sadaqa, the dead man’s commemoration feast, is reserved for the poor. Like other Arabs in the Sudan, writes Crowfoot, the Rubatab make offerings to the dead on the last Thursday in Ramadan, offerings, that is, of meat and food and soaked dates given by the living to the souls of the dead: these offerings are eaten partly on the Thursday afternoon by children who go from house to house to collect them, and partly in the evening by men when they break their fast.
	The people imagine that this food reaches the dead who are supposed to collect round it and eat it in joy and happiness, and that consequently a dead man whose living heirs have offered no food remains sorrowful among the dead that night and reproaches his living relations for their meanness. They call this the feast of the dead (‘asha’ al -maiyitin).[27]
	Crowfoot adds, if a man visits a graveyard where several walis are buried and wishes to make a general offering to them all, he puts it in a pot which is specially set there for this purpose, called a lamma. Childless men and women and unmarried women make vows to walis to obtain the fulfillment of their desires, and virgins take tassels off their rahats and tie them round the flags on a wali’s grave. Whoever gets hold of the flag of a wali will see his desire fulfilled and such a flag will protect any object from theft.
	On the morning after the birth, Crowfoot reported in Customs of the Rubatab,[28] a lamb, called the hurrara, is sacrificed in order that the mother’s belly may be filled with meat and fat: the midwife receives the hide, the head and foot of the lamb and scented grease only, not as in some parts clothes and money, and the feast made from the lamb is confined to women, it being disgraceful for a man to join in it.

The kujur spirits

	S. F. Nadel has studied shamanism in the Nuba Mountains in western Sudan and described the system at length in several publications.[29], [30], [31] He found that six of the tribes he visited in the region practise shamanism. These are the people of Nyima, Dilling, Koalib, Tabak, Tima, and Miri. The Koalib call both the spirit and its human vessel bayel; the Nyima, kuni; in Dilling uro and its medium as kujur.[32]
	The kuni spirits are to some extent conceived of as anthropomorphous beings. Sex and offspring are ascribed to them, and their kinship relationships are often traceable; they are also said to have human interests, emotions and moods, as well as individual names. But no more tangible physical characteristics are associated with these quasi-human aspects: the spirits are invisible and cannot be described—they are ‘like the air.’ These beliefs are more definite only where they are concerned with the varying gifts and faculties of spirits.
	Some spirits are more powerful than others, and the nature of their powers equally varies. The human vessel shares in these spirit faculties and in turn becomes a ‘specialist’ in one or the other sphere of life—in war or farming, in the treatment of infertility or disease, in helping lovers, or assisting people to recover lost or stolen property. Certain of the spirit faculties are firmly bound up with the institutional life of the group: age-grades, circumcision, a number of communal rites, all require the intervention of spirits and so the ministrations of particular shamans. In Chapter 2, page 109 a description of a kujur’s séance is given, and the kujur role as a healer is described in page 289.