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This chapter traces the history and origins of zar in order to elucidate how it migrated with Abyssinian slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to Egypt. It lays the basis for understanding zar spirit possession as practiced in Cairo from the nineteenth century until today. Following a short overview of the history and origin of zar in the Red Sea region and the reasoning behind thinking about zar in Egypt as a transnational phenomenon, the chapter discusses zar practices in Cairo based on the author's fieldwork. It also considers the relationship between zar and Islam, the zar ritual placation process, spirit afflictions and their symptoms, and the role of gender and class in zar participation. Finally, it looks at zar professionals (leaders and musicians), zar music and dance, and zar paraphernalia.

This book examines how different people in metropolitan Cairo experience zar as spirits, as rituals, and as a spiritual and initiatory path. Zar is a healing ritual complex practiced in societies around the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. It also refers to jinn spirits who possess humans and afflict them with troubles and ailments. In Egypt, the way of zar is one of the healing options that address jinn. People seek out zar initiation when in crisis for a variety of motivations and reasons. Drawing on years of extensive ethnographic fieldwork in different parts of Egypt and on personal experience, this book explores some aspects of Egyptian zar spirit possession that have rarely been addressed in the literature: the zar community (tayfat al-zar), zar rites and rituals, and songs and music within zar communities. This introduction discusses zar and spirit possession from an anthropological perspective and provides an overview of the chapters that follow.

This chapter examines saint and spirit songs as “acts of transfer” as well as the most popular zar spirits in Cairo and the different ways through which they are placated in ritual. It first provides an overview of zar songs as “acts of transfer” before discussing the meaning enacted by a song dedicated to Hassan Abul Gheit, the patron saint of the Gheitaniya zar musicians. It then considers the historical context of the Abul Gheit song, along with the cultural memories of a marginal Sufi movement that originated in the nineteenth century. It also explores changes in the articulation of spirit possession by focusing on the spirit pair of Yawra Bey and Rakousha Hanem. Finally, it looks at zar music bands and their styles of singing, along with the history of the song “Banat al-Handasa”.