Some thoughts on the Magical Practices of the Zar along the Red Sea in the Sudan

Abstract The widespread presence of the Zar cult in East Africa, especially in Sudan during colonial period, and its relationships with Islam is a very complex and broad subject. This short note on the Zar cult, a very specific and detailed practice, had numerous analogies not only inside colonial Sudan itself, but also in the Arabian Peninsula, in Sub-Saharan East Africa, and in some areas of southern Central Asia; within these cultural and geographical regions, apparently so far from each other, the Zar cult played a significant role in the history of the Red Sea connections and in the history of slave trade.