Muqadma Tul Sheikh Pdf

[Práxedes Jamal]

Thestruggle of Sufis for the purification of intention towards God leads them to formulate specific practices, and over time these become an indispensable part of Sufi teachings. The saints are not calling for anyone to believe in them despite their visions and blessings. The initiation into a Sufi order is a necessary ritual that transmits the spiritual blessing (Baraka, spiritual power) of the guide (murshid) to the disciple (murid).

Complex ceremonies, which use symbolic dances to bring the participants to ecstatic trance, are held by the Aissawa in private during domestic ritual nights (llat), and in public during celebrations of national festivals (the moussem, which are also pilgrimages) as well as during folk performances or religious festivities, such as Ramadan, or mawlid, the "birth of the Prophet." The Moroccan and Algerian States organize these festivities.

In Morocco, the ceremonies of the Asswa brotherhood take the form of nightly rituals (known simply as "night", lila), organized mainly by Imam Sheikh Boulila (Master of the Night) at the request of women sympathizers. Women are currently the principal customers of the orchestras of the brotherhood in Morocco.

As the Asswa is supposed to bring to people blessings (baraka), reasons for organizing a ceremony are varied and include celebration of a Muslim festivity, wedding, birth, circumcision, or exorcism, the search for a cure for illness, or to make contact with the divine through the extase. Rituals have standardized phases among all the Asswa musin ensemble. These include mystical recitations of Sufi litanies and the singing of spiritual poems along with exorcism, and collective dances.

According to Assawa lore, this ceremony was not established nor even practiced at the time of Chaykh Al-Kmil. Some members of the brotherhood believe that it emerged in the 17th century at the instigation of Assw disciple Sd `Abderrahmn Tar Chentr. Alternatively, it may have appeared in the 18th century under the influence of Moroccan Sufi masters Sid `Ali Ben Hamdch or Sid Al-Darqw, who were both well known for their ecstatic practices.

More broadly, the actual trance ritual of the Asswa brotherhood seems to have been established progressively through the centuries under the three influences of Sufism, pre-Islamic animist beliefs, and urban Arab melodic poetry such as the Malhun.

Al Siqiliyya are an annex of the Khalwatiyya. Based in Morocco since the 18th Century, it has also been suggested that they may have some link to Sicily, which had a sizeable Muslim population until the mid 13th Century, and in fact was ruled as an Islamic emirate (called Siqlliyya) from the mid-10th Century to the end of the 11th. The connection between Sicily and Morocco, and Fez in particular, seems to be the role played by Jawhar al-Siqilli (d.992) in the Fatimid conquests of the Maghreb.

During the last few decades, Gnawa music of Morocco has been modernized and therefore became more profane. However there are still many lilat organized privately, which conserves the sacred, spiritual status of the music.

Today Gnawa musicians do not consist of only men; women are becoming respected musicians and still are muquadmat or Shawwafa who are communicating with the spirits. However, they also decided to play the religious instrument, called the gembri. The Haddarat Zaida Gania is a group of women who have learned the female art of oral tradition of the Hadra (zikr) from their mothers and female ancestors. I met them in the Moroccan city of Eassaouira while I was working at the Oasis Dance Camp in Morocco in 2011. They perform Sufi and Gnawa music. I was blown away by their performance and I hope I will find the opportunity to bring them to the United States.

She is the daughter of one of the masters of the Diwan in the South Western Algerian city of Bechar. In 1972 she founded her first music band with four other female musicians. The band started performing in weddings for only women. In 1976, Hasna and her female ensemble were featured in a huge concert in Bechar by the Union of Algerian Women. In January 1999, Hasna arrives in Paris after being invited by the Cabaret Sauvage at the festival of Algerian Women. After her first successful album, Hasna is invited at many concerts and music festivals around the world. I personally saw her perform many times in London, U.K. We became friends through interesting circumstances and I am always happy to hear that she is rewarded and respected for her art.

The Gnawa believe that many misfortunes that happen to people are not just accidental but Djinns could cause them. That is why some people are under the affliction of some illness, infertility or depression; therefore they come to seek the help of the Gnawa.

This influence resonates from other black groups such as the Bori in Nigeria, the Stambouli in Tunisia, the Sambani in Lybia, the Bilali in Algeria and those outside Africa such as the Voodoo religion, the Candomble in Brazil and the Santeria in Cuba.

Sidi Blel is a Sufi brotherhood in Algeria that is also related to the Gnawa. The ceremony takes place during a Wada at a zawiya often led by a sheikh but the Zikr is often recited by scholars called Tolba. The dances Kouyou, the Tbal (a bass drum) and Karkabou (North African castanets) as well as the music called Dwan are performed by music Gnawa or Sidi Blel troupes. The ritual Tabyette consists of bringing a bull who will be taken with the Sidi Blel musicians around the city with a flag of the Sufi brotherhood before it will be offered as a sacrifice to the Djinns.

There might be that many other animals such as a sheep, a ram or a rooster will also be sacrificed after a prayer. Following this ritual, the dance called Dendoune is performed by the same musicians or sometimes if the celebration is part of a Di\wan festival other music ensembles will perform and end the festival with a dance performance of a Kouyou.

Stambali is a ritual of possession in Tunisia, using music as a healing form. This ritual came from Sub-Saharan Africa where music, chanting and dance enable people to get into a trance and embody supernatural entities. The term designates generally a series of practices where the Stambali is the last phase, with a healing vocation or a conspiracy of the Evil Eye. Stambali gathers elements originating from Africa and the Maghreb

It is a ceremony where mostly Black Tunisians (former slaves) take part and where dance and instrumental sounds are associated to African rhythms. This ceremony is very similar to the Haitian Vaudou or the Brazilian Candombl.

Rhythmic recitation of names and chanting of religious poetry are frequently performed together. In conservative Sufi orders no instruments are used, only the daf (frame drum); other orders use a range of instrumentation.

It is important to mention that all Sufi brotherhoods use music and dance in their ceremonies. Often a sacrifice of an animal needs to be performed. In every ceremony, everyone will be fed as eating the food of the ceremony is a baraka.

Each Gnawa group gets together with a moqadma, the priestess that leads the trance (Jedba) after feeding the instruments and the various colors brought by her in a bundle with incense. When she gets into a trance, she starts channeling a spirit and may give messages to the community. The Lila ceremony then continues where everyone is dancing until the goal is achieved and the trance is over when the participants have been cleansed from their affliction. The participants negotiate their relationship with the mluk either by placating them if they have been offended or strengthening an existing relationship. Each melk is accompanied by its specific color, incense, rhythm and dance.

Furthermore, the French writer Demerghem in "le Culte des Saint" (1954) gives a complete picture of the Sufi Brotherhoods and their rituals in Algeria as he watched them for many years. Not surprisingly, the rituals did not change and the people are still worshiping the saints and their followers. Despite the development of orthodox medicine, people call the Sufi brotherhoods for help.

Fantastic information! I feel like I need to bookmark this and read it ten more times to absorb even half of it. Thanks Amel for writing and compiling and sharing, and thanks Gilded Serpent for publishing.

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