The Jewish Djinn in Northern Morocco. Old and New Neighborhoods

In northern Morocco, Jewish djinn appear in various Muslim accounts of possessions and cures of afflictions, which present them as more dangerous and impure than other djinn or project onto them characteristics that resemble the stereotypes that Muslims have of Jews. Despite their marginality, these stories are the reflection of an old neighborhood between Muslims and Jews in Morocco, which was altered by the departure of the latter after the creation of the state of Israel. In spite of this emigration of the Jewish population, these Jewish djinn remain deeply rooted in various contrasting ritual spaces in Moroccan society today: among faklhs who practice rukya and Qur‘anic recitation; in the universe of brotherhoods such as the Gnawa, a tradition of old slave descendants; and in sanctuaries that still maintain specific days for patients possessed by Jewish djinn. In the northern Moroccan city of Tetouan, where I have done ethnographic work, these ideologically heterogeneous religious universes share similar rhetorics about the dangerousness of Jewish djinn. These definitions of Jewish djinn reflect a deep-rooted historical presence but also expose new images of Jewishness in Muslim-majority Arab societies. This ethnographic case allows us to draw some reflections for cross-cultural comparison on the representation of human diversity in the neighboring universe of djinn and non-humans, as a metaphor for intercommunity conflicts and tensions. The author declares no conflict of interests.

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