Al-Nadim fictionalized Sudanese slave women performing zar ceremonies in Egyptian households

Evidence

In another essay, called “Hadïth khuräfa” (Silly Talk), al-Nadïm relates the experience of a fictional reader who witnesses a ceremony in which the several Sudanese slave women are invited by women of his house and some of their friends to perform a kind of séance where they sing and dance in a circle, with the slave women in the middle. At the most powerful point of the ceremony, the oldest of the slave women is visited by the spirit of a shaykh and, in this persona, speaks to the surrounding Egyptian women, trying to treat their different complaints. One woman says that her little boy is very ill and that her husband demands that a medical doctor be brought to the house to cure him. The “shaykh”-slave woman insists that this is the wrong treatment and that the wife should kill a “black hen and a black rooster, with no other marks on them,” and then bring this to the “shaykh” along with a little piece of the boy’s clothing. The “shaykh” says then she will spend the night with the boy, after which he will recover. When the mother of the boy reminds the slave woman that her husband wants the doctor, the “shaykh” replies,“What do you need of doctors?” and glares angrily at her. Frightened, the mother agrees. But the next day, the reader who witnessed all this goes directly to the boy’s father to warn him of the ignorant mother’s plans. Luckily, the story ends with the mother telling her husband, who scolds her for believing in such superstitions. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 447

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader literature on zar spirit possession crossing the Egypt-Sudan border and to colonial-medicine debates — connects to: Sudanese slave women performed zär healing ceremonies in Egyptian Muslim households. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 447; Al-Nadim’s fictional freed slaves voiced nostalgia for mastery as civilizing care — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 682; Al-Nadïm blamed family negligence for allowing Sudanese slave women authority in Egyptian homes. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 449
• QUESTION: Worth confirming whether al-Nadim was Egyptian or Sudanese and his wider position in this magazine’s racial anxieties
• SHARE: For someone studying zar possession ceremonies or Egyptian-Sudanese cultural exchange in the 19th century
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Sudanese slave women performed zär healing ceremonies in Egyptian Muslim households. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 447; Al-Nadim’s fictional freed slaves voiced nostalgia for mastery as civilizing care — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 682; Al-Nadïm blamed family negligence for allowing Sudanese slave women authority in Egyptian homes. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 449