Narratives of the Djinn and the Dynamics of Sufi Religiosity in the Balkans. An Ethnographic Essay | Sibirskie Istoricheskie Issledovaniia – Siberian Historical Research. 2024. № 1. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/43/5

Narratives of the Djinn and the Dynamics of Sufi Religiosity in the Balkans. An Ethnographic Essay

This ethnographic essay explores the social work of local narratives of djinn and possession in the Sufi communities of North Macedonia and Serbia. Addressing the “neighbourhood” relations between djinn and humans, as well as situations of possession in everyday conversations, allows for a better understanding of the socio- cultural contexts and intrinsic processes that shape the ongoing transformations of Sufi traditions in this part of the world. The fragmentation of the religious field, the coexistence, and the clash of diverse Islamic discourses within it are discussed in this context. This essay covers two case studies that illustrate the dynamics of Sufi religiosity, such as revising religious knowledge and practice, as well as the growing complexity of the sacred landscape. Published in accordance with the research plan of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author declares no conflict of interests.

Download file

Counter downloads: 18

Keywords

vernacular religion, Islam, Sufism, djinn, folklore

Authors

Name	Organization	E-mail
Trofimova Ksenia P.	Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences	kptrofimova@gmail.com

Всего: 1

References

Белчев Т. Речник на турцизми, архаизми, дщалектизми и ретко употребувани зборови во македонскиот jазик. Штип: Универзитет "Гоце Делчев", 2016.

Вражиновски Т. Народна традицща. Религща. Култура. Скоще: Матица Македонска, 1999.

Опарин Д. Одержимость и экзорцизм в миграционном мусульманском контексте // Неприкосновенный запас. 2021. № 04 (138). С. 169-195.

Полевые материалы автора (ПМА 2011-2021) - интервью, проведенные и записанные автором в ходе полевой работы в Сербии, Северной Македонии, Боснии и Герцеговине в период с 2011 по 2021 г.

Резван М.Е. Герменевтика сновидения в контексте общемусульманской сновидческой реальности (на примере сновидений о Коране) // Центральная Азия: традиция в условиях перемен. СПб.: Музей антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого (Кунсткамера) РАН, 2009. С. 48-75.

Христофорова О. Колдуны и жертвы: Антропология колдовства в современной России. М.: ОГИ, РГГУ, 2010.

Assmann A. Shadows of Trauma: Memory and the Politics of Postwar Identity / transl. Sarah Clift. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.

Badeen E., Krawietz B. Islamic Reinvention of Jinn: Status-Cut and Success Story // Identidades marginales / ed. by C. de la Puente. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienti'li-cas, 2003. P. 93-109.

Bringa T. Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village. Princeton University Press, 1995.

Bryant R.Introduction. Everyday Coexistence in the Post-Ottoman space // Post-Ottoman Coexistence. Sharing Space in the Shadow of Conflict / ed. by R. Bryant. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016. P. 1-38.

Burchardt M., Becci I.Introduction: Religion Takes Place: Producing Urban Locality // Topographies of Faith. Religion in Urban Spaces / ed. by I. Becci, M. Burchardt, J. Casanova. Leiden: Brill, 2013. P. 1-21.

Clayer N. Muslim Brotherhood Networks in South-Eastern Europe // European History Online (EGO). Institute of European History (IEG). Mainz. 2011-05-11. URL: http://www.ieg-ego.eu/clayern-2011-en.

Clayer N., Bougarel X. Europe's Balkan Muslims. A New History. London: Hurst & Company, 2017.

Clayer N., Popovic A. Les courants anti-confrerique dans le Sud-Est europeen a l'epoque post-ottomane (1918-1990). Les cas de la Yougoslavie et de l'Albanie // Islamic Mysticism Contested. Thirteen Centuries of and Polemics / ed. by F. de long, B. Radtke. Leiden: Brill, 1999. P. 639-664.

Colin G.S. Baraka // Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / ed. by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 03 lune 2023.

Dujizings G. Religion and Politics of Identity in Kosovo. London, Hurst and Company, 2000.

Elbasani A., Roy O. Islam in the post-Communist Balkans: alternative pathways to God // Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 2015. No. 15 (4). P. 457-471.

Eneborg Y.M. The Quest for ‘Disenchantment' and the Modernization of Magic // Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. 2014. No. 25:4. P. 419-432.

Ewing K.P. The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization of Self Representations among Pakistani Sufis // American Ethnologist. 1990. Vol. 17, No. P. 56-74.

Firouzeh P. Sufi Lodges // Sufi Institutions / ed. by A. Papas. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. P. 157-173.

Green N. The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams and Visions in Islam // lournal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Third Series. 2003. Vol. 13, No. 3. P. 287-313.

Henig D., Bielenin-Lenczowska K. Recasting Anthropological Perspectives on Vernacular Islam in Southeast Europe. An Introduction // Anthropological lournal of European Cultures. 2013.Vol. 22, No. 2. P. 1-11.

Hobsbawm E.Introduction: Inventing Traditions // The Invention of Tradition / ed. by E. Hobsbawm, T. Ranger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. P. 1-14.

Keane W. On Semiotic Ideology // Signs and Society. 2018. Vol. 6, No. 1. P. 64-87.

Lambek M. Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery and Spirit Possession. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Larsen K. Spirit possession as historical narrative // Locality and belonging / ed. by N. Lovell. Routledge, 1998. P. 125-147.

Maarouf M. Jinn Eviction as a Discourse of Power. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Moroccan Magical Beliefs and Practices. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007.

Mateo Dieste J.L. Spirits Are Like Microbes: Islamic Revival and the Definition of Morality in Moroccan Exorcism // Contemporary Islam. 2015. Vol. 9. P. 45-63.

Mateo Dieste J.L. The Jewish Djinn in Northern Morocco. Old and New Neighborhoods // Сибирские исторические исследования. 2022. № 3. С. 14-32.

Merjanova I. Rediscovering the umma: Muslims in the Balkans between nationalism and transnationalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Mittermaier A. (Re)Imagining Space: Dreams and Saint Shrines in Egypt // Dimensions of Locality / ed. by G. Stauth, S. Schielke. Transcript-Verlag, 2008. P. 47-66.

Mittermaier A. Dreams from Elsewhere: Muslim subjectivities beyond the trope of self-cultivation // Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2012. No. 18. P. 247-265.

Norris H.T. Islam in the Balkans. University of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Novakovic D. Delovanje zajednice derviskih redova alije (ZIDRA) na Kosovu i Metohiji 19741991 // Istorija 20 veka. 2002. No. 2. P. 103-115.

Nunlist T. Demonic Beings: The Friends and Foes of Humans // Islam, Migration and Jinn. Spiritual Medicine in Muslim Health Management / ed. by A. Bottcher, B. Krawietz. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. P. 17-43.

Raudvere C. Claiming Heritage, Renewing Authority. Sufi-Oriented activities in post-Yugoslav Bosnia-Herzegovina // European Journal of Turkish Studies. 2011. No. 13. P. 2-13.

Rothenberg C.E. Spirits of Palestine: gender, society, and the stories of the jinn. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004.

Sedgwick M. The Organisation of Mysticism // Sufi Institutions / ed. by Alexandre Papas. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. P. 335-361.

Schielke S., Debevec L.Introduction // Ordinary Lives and Grand Schemes. An Anthropology of Everyday Religion / ed. by S. Schielke, L. Debevec. New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2013. P. 1-16.

Skaljic A. Turcizmi u Srpskohrvatskom jeziku. Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1966.

Thomson A. Memory and Remembering in Oral History // The Oxford Handbook on Oral History / ed. by Donald A. Ritchie. Oxford University Press, 2011. P. 77-95.

Troeva-Grigorova E. The Rhodopi Demons / ed. by G. Lozanova. Sofia: International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations, 2003.

Trofimova K. Holiness Constructed: Anonymous Saints in the Popular Traditions of Muslim Roma Communities in the Balkans // The Revival of Islam in the Balkans. From Identity to Religiosity / ed. by A. Elbasani, O. Roy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. P. 163-181.

Trofimova К. Transforming Islam among Roma communities in the Balkans: a case of popular religiosity // Nationalities Papers. 2017. Vol. 45 (4). P. 598-612.

Walton J., Rexhepi P. On Institutional Pluralization and the Political Genealogies of Post-Yu-goslav Islam // Religion and Society. 2019. Vol. 10 (1). P. 151-167.

Yazaki S. Classes of Beings in Sufism // Sufi Cosmology / ed. by Ch. Lange, A. Knysh. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2023. P. 68-88.