Search - Abou Gheit :: The Zar - Trance music for Women

For centuries women in Africa and the Middle East have used Zar music to cure pain in times of stress or illness. Followers of the Zar cult believe that sometimes their illnesses are caused by "red spirits" - the Zar - who use human bodies as hosts. These spirits attract attention to themselves by making their hosts sick. Only after acknowledging a spirit?s presence and meeting its demands can a woman hope to attain a symbiotic relationship with her possessor --- and she discovers the identity of this intruder by dancing to this music until she collapses into a trance.

A quote from Lucy - the famous Egyptian belly dancer:

"I started dancing when I was 12 years old. Since I can remember, whenever I heard music my body would just start to move. I couldn?t control it. I used to love it when the old women got together for a Zar. A Zar was called when someone was possessed by evil spirits. If you were mad, or sad, or upset, that?s how you would get it out. As a young girl, when I went to the Zar, I was always very affected by it. I would get so exhausted that I would collapse and fall. I realized that the music took me over. The beat can get inside of you and make you crazy. The rhythm gets you. You know, like when you?re listening to Western rock music, you get hysterical. You have to get up and dance. You can?t stop moving."

This album was recorded in Cairo by one of the few remaining Abou al-Gheit Zar groups left in Egypt, Awlad Abou al-Gheit. Their Sudanese roots can be heard in the music's distinctive African drum rhythms. Each spirit is believed to answer to a specific song and rythm. The album contains a 32 page color booklet about the history of the Zar, the ceremony itself and translations of all the lyrics. There is also an extensive section about the Jinn - spirits made of fire and air by Allah and mentioned in the Quran.