For four hundred years, the zikir ritual has been performed weekly in Kadirîhâne Istanbul. Sufi rituals are believed to have compiled by founder (pîr) of order. The conductor (şeyh, postnişin) symbolizes founder. form consists chanting (dhikr) several divine names (esmâ). While participants perform with drone-like melodic repetitions or guttural rhythmic ostinatos, musicians songs, recitations,...

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more...

Abstract This article contributes to the wider historicity of female Sufi spiritual guides by engaging Indonesian examples about which very little have been written. While women can and do hold different levels rank leadership in orders (tariqah), usually among all-female congregations, this examines a rare example woman public position overseeing an entire tariqah network inclusive male discip...