The Calls of Islam , livre ebook

THE CALLS OF ISLAM
PUBLIC CULTURES OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Paul A. Silverstein, Susan Slyomovics, and Ted Swedenburg, editors
THE CALLS OF ISLAM
Sufis, Islamists, and Mass Mediation in Urban Morocco
Emilio Spadola
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2014 by Emilio Spadola
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
1 Competing Calls in Urban Morocco
2 Nationalizing the Call: Trance, Technology, and Control
3 Our Master s Call: The Apotheosis of Moroccan Islam
4 Summoning in Secret: Mute Letters and Veiled Writing
5 Rites of Reception
6 Trance-Nationalism, or, the Call of Moroccan Islam
7 To Eliminate the Ghostly Element Between People : The Call as Exorcism
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgments
I T IS THE gift of cultural anthropology to demand a researcher s commitment of body, heart, and mind. I am grateful to the many institutions and individuals in Morocco and the United States who supported my research and this book. Moroccan acquaintances, colleagues, and dear friends in Rabat and Fez set the gold standard for hospitality and collaboration. I am especially grateful to the extended family of Hajja Fatima and Hajj Abdelqader in Fez medina with whom I lived, and to their loving children (among them Sanae, Mounia, and Fatiha) and grandchildren who welcomed me in and sheltered and fed me, from my first fieldwork stint to my last. Sanae s help in establishing contacts in and beyond the medina significantly advanced my research with women trance specialists and participants and, later, with participants in the Green March. Sanae and her family s generosity extended far beyond this, however, to moments of flexibility and forgiveness of which I m sure I remain ignorant. We are family. Also in Fez, I met my brother and friend, Mohammed, and his loving family. In calling me to Islam with nothing less than his ordinary example, and in renaming me Ibrahim, Mohammed offered me gifts beyond any return. As a modest substitute, I offer my love of Fez and a promise, insha Allah , to return as often as I can.
The research for this book relied on numerous interlocuters in Fez as well as Rabat, across different ritual spaces, traditions, and social positions. I thank those who welcomed me despite my habit of crossing these boundaries: the experts who took time and care to teach me the details, context, and significance of the practices, and the clients, participants, and outright critics who shared their own experiences and observations of religious and daily life in Fez. I especially thank Madame Houria al-Wazzani and Dr. Antoine Fleury, who introduced me to the work of Mohamed Hassan al-Wazzani and kindly included me in several family celebrations. I also thank Aisha, author of Hajjayat Dada Gnawiyya in Chapter 6 , both for permission to reproduce and translate her work and for sharing her private experiences with the unseen that inform her public activism.
In Rabat, I enjoyed the institutional support of the Soci t Nationale de Radiodiffusion et T l vision, the Centre Cin matographique Marocain, the Ministry of Communication, the Biblioth que Nationale, the Moroccan American Center for Educational and Cultural Exchange (MACECE), and the Center for Cross Cultural Learning (CCCL). I am grateful to the directors and staff who permitted my entry and facilitated my research at each place, especially Mr. Daoud Casewit at MACECE and Dr. Abdelhay Moudden at CCCL. Abdelhay s work as scholar and novelist, our far-ranging discussions, and his generous friendship prompted my interest in the People and the Green March as central figures and events of Moroccan modernity. At the Centre Jacques Berque in Rabat, I have recently enjoyed discussions of Sufism and politics with Aziz Hlaoua, Nazarena Lanza, C dric Baylocq, and Marouane Laouina. My friend and colleague, Yelins Mahttat, also CCCL, improved my translation of Hajjayat Dada. Others in Rabat, including Ann Hawley, John Swepston, Mohammed Zahir, Abdellah and Halim Ait Ougharram, and the Ait Ougharram family, provided friendship, insight, humor, and often a place to stay as well.
This book was conceived of in New York City in conversation with members of Columbia University s Department of Anthropology. Brink Messick patiently taught me the crafts of research design and grant writing, shared his love of Morocco, and provided gentle guidance both during fieldwork and after. Elaine Combs-Schilling s helpful criticisms of my thinking and moral support always came when most needed. I benefitted greatly from the advice and teaching of John Pemberton, Val Daniel, Marilyn Ivy, Lawrence Rosen, Kathy Ewing, and Vincent Crapanzano. Kathy and Vincent deserve special thanks for their contributions to an earlier draft of the book. Crossing and joining paths with fellow anthropology students Amira Mittermaier, Todd Ochoa, Deirdre de la Cruz, Juan Obarrio, Yukiko Koga, and Jenny Sime always improved my work and spirits. Above all at Columbia, I owe a debt of gratitude to Roz Morris, whom I affectionately call my (tor)mentor. While Roz s contributions to anthropologies of media and religion are well known, these are equaled by her generous interventions as a teacher, reader, and colleague. Her capacities to listen and respond to ideas (and to elicit more rigorous engagement with them) have set the standard for me as a scholar.
While preparing the book manuscript at Colgate University, I enjoyed the intellectual camaraderie and thorough guidance of my fine anthropology and sociology colleagues, among them Nancy Ries, Mary Moran, and Paul Lopes. Bruce Rutherford, Georgia Frank, and Barbara Regenspan lent editorial wisdom, and good cheer. My spring 2013 anthropology of media students deserve special praise for reading and responding to the book still in manuscript form.
Many other colleagues and friends in numerous fields have shaped this book directly and indirectly. In religion and media, I thank Charles Hirschkind, Brian Larkin, Rafael Sanchez, Lisa Mitchell, Jenny Sime, Martin Zillinger, Maria Jos (Z ) de Abr u, and Yasmin Moll. Martin has provided excellent forums for exchanging and developing our overlapping research in Morocco. Z read two chapters in late stages of preparation and provided spot-on comments. Yasmin very generously lent me the epigraph ( Religion is communication ) gathered from her own research amongst New Callers in Egypt; her work is extending the calls of Islam in yet-to-be-imagined directions. Exchanges with scholars of Morocco (and much else) Brian Karl, Nadia Guessous, Brendan Hart, and Hisham Aidi stimulated and guided the thinking in this book as well. Hisham kindly read the manuscript and pointed me to key references. Susan Slyomovics, Paul Silverstein, Ted Swedenburg, and Rebecca Tolen provided editing guidance and encouragement at Indiana University Press, as did Tim Roberts. To Bruce Grant, my dear friend and mentor since Swarthmore College, I offer my endless gratitude. Bruce carefully read the full book manuscript and improved it with impeccable editorial counsel and encouragement.
Any remaining errors in this work derive not from the fine guidance of my intellectual comrades, but from my-I hope rare-failures to heed it.
After all else, I am grateful to my beloved Alex Spadola. Her tenderness, humor, and love infused my daily work of writing. To Alex, and to our marvelous boys, Bruno and Orlando, I happily dedicate this book.
Financial support for this book came from Colgate University s Research Council, the Social Science Research Council, the US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Program, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, through the Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship for Religion and Ethics. I gratefully acknowledge permission to include texts previously published elsewhere. Sections of Chapter 2 first appeared in Contemporary Islam (2008) 2, available at http://www.springer.com/ . A version of Chapter 3 was first published in Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa: Into the New Millennium , ed. Sherine Hafez and Susan Slyomovics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Excerpts of Chapter 4 were originally published in the Journal of North African Studies (2009) 14:2, available at www.tandfonline.com .
Note on Transliteration
T RANSLITERATION SYSTEMS ATTEMPT , and repeatedly fail, to assimilate different written languages. Transcribing Moroccan dialectal Arabic ( darija ), standard Arabic, and French provides multiple such opportunities. In aiming for imperfect assimilation, I use two diacritical marks for darija and standard Arabic, for ayn, and for hamza. I quote different French and English versions of Arabic terms as they appear in original sources (A ssaoua, A ss oua, and Isawa; Sidi Mohammed and Muhammad V). Other names of known figures and place names appear as they are commonly recognized in English (the prophet Muhammad, the city of