What Is Istinzal?
Istinzal is a Moroccan divination ceremony in which a healer uses a child as a medium.
Contemporary History Of Istinzal.
Istinzal was a common diagnostic technique in Morocco used to find interpreted answers to a querent's specific question or concern.
This is a subset of a group of antiquated divinatory practices known as scrying (Bourguignon 1973:9), which were previously popular among Jews and Christians in medieval Europe (Trachtenberg 1974:219-222).
Westermarck(1926:353) has described Muslim Moroccan variants:
A medium, ideally a young child, is instructed to await the appearance of demons while staring at a reflecting surface—typically a drop of ink or oil placed on the medium's hand.
The demons who supply the knowledge requested in answer to certain queries posed by the healer can only be seen by the medium.
There is no interpretation of possession even if the medium is likely in a condition which is quite similar to a trance after hypnotic inductions.
Istinzal is in danger of dying out(as is the case in Israel).
In the 1950s and the 1960s, istinzal was seldom ever used. Since then, Israeli practitioners and diviners have used it less and less as a method of divination.
How Is Istinzal Performed?
- The child is put near a light source, preferably an oil lamp or candle that has been specially prepared for the sole purpose of divination.
- A tiny amount of ink or oil is then placed into the palm of the child's hand.
- To entice the spirits closer, incense is then burnt.
- As the healer sings incantations and begs and implores the spirits, the child stares into the liquid.
- The child is the one who sees and describes the spirits, despite the fact that the adult healer monitors and leads the entire Istinzal ceremony.
Istinzal is one of a number of comparable traditions that may be traced back to Babylonia in the second or third millennia BCE.
Istinzal In Islamic/Persian Literature.
This particular magical technique is a part of the niranjat science and may be found in cosmographical works as well as other literary genres.
According to Tusi's Aja ib al-makhluqat, the following incident occurred:
"Izz ad-Dawla is said to have been a wise man and a strong sovereign who was knowledgeable in niranj.
A slave girl he had bought had captured his heart.
He constructed a wooden hut for them to spend the night in.
While the guards were on guard duty outside, he shut the door.
When he woke up one night, he was unable to locate the girl.
Every door was closed.
He took a seat and watched.
He asked the girl, "Where have you been?" when he spotted her at daylight.
"A dervish arrived and took me with him," she said.
Tell me if he comes back, he said.
The girl was taken the next night by the dervish.
Izz al-Dawla was contacted by the girl, and he apprehended the dervish and asked him,
"Who are you?"
The dervish replied, "I am a man who is knowledgeable in niranj."
Teach me this science so I may offer you this slave girl, Izz al-Dawla pleaded.
He gave him the girl while receiving instructions in this science in exchange.
The name Is-tinz-al is thus derived from Izz al-Dawla who practiced and perfected this specific art of divination.
Refer to Aja ib al-makhluqat by Muhammad b. Mahmud b. Ahmad Tusi, Tehran: Nashr va Tarjuma-yi Kitab, 1345/1966, 48586
References And Further Reading:
- Bilu, Yoram. “The Moroccan Demon in Israel: The Case of ‘Evil Spirit Disease.’” Ethos 8, no. 1 (1980): 24–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/640134.
- A. A. Seyed-Gohrab. “Magic in Classical Persian Amatory Literature.” Iranian Studies 32, no. 1 (1999): 71–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4311205.
- Urkevich, Lisa. “Drummers of the Najd: Musical Practices from Wādī al-Dawāsir, Saudi Arabia.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 41 (2011): 401–9. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41622150.
- Bilu, Yoram. “Pondering ‘The Princes of the Oil’: New Light on an Old Phenomenon.” Journal of Anthropological Research 37, no. 3 (1981): 269–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3629728.
- De Jong, F., and P. Gran. Review of On Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840: A Review Article with Author’s Reply, by Peter Gran. International Journal of Middle East Studies 14, no. 3 (1982): 381–99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/163679.
- Ruska, Julius. Isis 5, no. 2 (1923): 451–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/223752.
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