Interpreting Djinns Actions: Ritual and Theological Knowledge in Moroccan Sufism

Abstract

This article aims to understand the role of theological knowledge in performing a curative ritual practice promoted by Moroccan Sufi leaders among the Hamdouchiya Brotherhood. According to local Islamic belief, jnun (pl. of djinn) are responsible for misfortunes that befall individuals. The search for a job, the materialization of a marriage, motherhood, or the cure (of diseases) are part of the set of demands made by women during ritual sessions convened in Sufi lodges. In these sessions religious specialists facilitate interactions with jnun during trance experiences with the personality of 'Ā'is̲ h̲ a Kandīs̲ h̲ a, one of the most famous female djinn in Moroccan society. Based on ethnographic research (2012–2017), I highlight the embodied practices mobilized both by Sufi leaders and believers to solve their conflicts or face their misfortunes. Understanding body language cannot be performed without explaining the communicative context. In this sense, the analysis gives particular attention to the reciprocal positioning, influence, and exchange between humans and jnun during the arrangement (both physical and conceptual) of Sufi rituals. The cult of saints in Morocco further allows people to criticize the theoretical-methodological limits imposed between “orthodoxy” and “popular Islam”. These terms conceived as a binary, would make it difficult to understand, for example, new possibilities for obtaining an “Islamically legitimate cure” i.e., one recognized as belonging to a traditional mode of production of knowledge within contemporary Moroccan society.