sufi healing and social - ku scholarworks
TRANSCRIPT
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5. Sheikhs,
Saints, &
Baraka:
Sufi Healing
and Social
Construction
in Central
Sudan
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Sheikh Abdullah of Taiba receives visitors
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Meroitic pyramids
north of
Khartoum on the
Nile show
influences of
Egyptian religion
and architecture
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Sufi
Orders in
Sudan
Khatmiyya
Qadiriyya
Sammaniyya
Tijaniyya
Khalwa
(Islamic School)
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Reinhild Janzen, Abu Baker Malik, and Sheikh Siliman’s dervish
in Riyad district of Khartoum
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Sheikh Abdullah explains his work.
Abu Baker Malik translates, until
the sheikh decides to use his very
good English directly with the
visiting American academic.
Visible behind the Sheikh are
photographs of figures of his
ancestry and sources of his spiritual
power, his baraka; his father,
grand-father, and distinguished
Sufi teachers and healers of the
past inspire his work.
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Every year for ten days, during the Maulid, the birthday of the prophet
Mohammed, the illuminated tomb of the Mahdi is visible from the square
adjoining it. Thousands of people gather to celebrate and pray.
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More than 50 tents surround the
vast square, each one is the site
of a Sheikh with his following.
Here Sheikh Hassan and his
followers gather to pray every
evening during the Maulid.
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Riyadh maseed
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Sheikh Mahmoud’s maseed in Khartoum North —mosque, school, clinic,
kitchen, meeting rooms-- is surrounded by a vast cemetery.
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Maseed of Sheikh Mohmed Khier
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Sheikh Mahmoud’s maseed
complex includes a clinic or
hospital where these boys—
perhaps his students—recover
from injuries and infections.
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Maseed of Taiba
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The maseed of the sheikh usually includes a school. Here
students reading from the Koran verses they have transcribed on
wooden tablets and books.
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Devotees and clients wait to see Sheikh Abdullah in Taiba
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This young man, suffering from
mental disturbance, raises his
trousers so the photographer may
see the shackle around his ankle.
He and a dozen others similarly
shackled were brought to Taiba by
their families to be treated and
cared for by Sheikh Abdullah.
Beyond the basic counselling,
blessing, and care, Sudan’s healing
sheikhs specialize in various
illnesses and refer their cases to
each other as appropriate.
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The sheikh—known as the
Mahdi, the promised one-- who
led the resistance against the
Turkish colonial rule in the
1880s is memorialized in this
the most prominent building in
old Khartoum (Omdurman).
The Mahdi died shortly after
independence. He was
succeeded by the Khalifa, from
whose house this picture is
taken. The Mahdist state
survived until the British
conquest of 1898.
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This mannequin stands in the
entrance to the Khalifa’s
House, today a national
museum. The guard, just as
the mahdi’s soldiers, were
called dervishes. The term
combines military, spiritual,
and performance dimensions.
Today, many sheikhs are
accompanied by dervishes.
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Sheikh Mahmoud’s dervish
strikes a particularly pious
pose with as many prayer
beads as he could find.
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Sheikh Siliman receives devotees, hears their concerns, offers
his blessing to them and any objects they may bring to him.
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Pilgrims, devotees, and a hundred
other people crowd into Sheikh
Abdullah’s consultation room to
bring him their problems, hear his
counsel and receive his blessing
(baraka). The sheikh is seen here
with his back to the camera.
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The ceremony of recollection (dhikr), is a “a spiritual exercise
designed to render God’s presence throughout one’s being..using
a method of rhythmical repetitive invocation of God’s names” (J.
Trimingham).
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The climax of the dihkr performance, when singers-dancers
rhythmically chant the 100 names of God
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Meeting of the Republican Brothers and Sisters--a reform Sufi movement; in
these two views taken in succession, singing is being led by man on far left,
and women with outstretched hands on right.
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Common meal with Republican Brothers in Wad Medani
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John M. Janzen with Sheikh Mohmed
Khier right, Abu Baker left
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Scribes copy Koranic verses
for use in medicinal teas and
for the preparation of
amulets for patients
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Sheikh Mamoud’s scribe copies Koranic verses onto leaves of medicinal plants
that will be brewed as medicinal tea for patients
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Sheikh Mahmoud
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Abdullah of Taiba—
note line of baraka
descent in photos: his
father, grandfather, and
greatgrandfather
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The tomb of the parents of
Abdullah of Taiba,
principal source of his
baraka, spiritual strength.
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Pilgrims pray at the tombs of the forebears of Abdullah of Taiba.
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The tombs of the forebears of Abdullah of Taiba, including his
grandfather, Abdullah the Black.
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Al-Mirghani tomb
and mosque
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Some of the fifteen Sufi saints’ tombs of Abuharaz, near Wad Medani. The
Toyota Camry has just been blessed with water from a well near the tomb of
Jozif, distant spiritual ancestor of Abdullah of Taiba.
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Saints’ Tombs of Abuharaz at sunset