The Jilala (), or Tariqa Jilalia () is an ecstatic and music-therapeutic

tariqa A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking '' haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

of Sufi origin. It should not be confused with the folk revival group Jil Jilala. The Jilala are the oldest Moroccan Muslim confraternity, named after the Sufi master Abdul Qadir Gilani, in Morocco called Moulay Abdelkader Jilali or Boualam Jilali (Bū 'alam Jilali). The rituals of Jilala ranging the

dhikr ''Dhikr'' ( ar, ذِكْر}, , also spelled ''Zikr'', ''Thikr'', ''Zekr'', or ''Zikar'', literally meaning "remembrance, reminder" or "mention") is a form of Islamic meditation in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly chanted in order to remem ...

and invocation of

marabout A marabout ( ar, مُرابِط, murābiṭ, lit=one who is attached/garrisoned) is a Muslim religious leader and teacher who historically had the function of a chaplain serving as a part of an Islamic army, notably in North Africa and the Saha ...

s and

jinn Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic my ...

s, just like the other tranche confraternity of Morocco ( Gnawa, Hmadsha and Aissawa). The Jilala operate in small groups, usually less than five people. The musical instruments they use are the gasba flute (bamboo red flute) and

bendir The ''bendir'' ( ar, بندير, plural ''banadir'', ) is a wooden-framed frame drum of North Africa and Southwest Asia. The bendir is a traditional instrument that is played throughout North Africa, as well as in Sufi ceremonies; it was played ...

, those using bendir generally are also those who make the invocations and chants. When it comes to songs in honor of a type of spirits called ''buwwāb'' (black African jinn, traditionally associated to the Gnawa), some Jilala also use the krakebs, the typical large iron castanets of the Gnawa. Originally only a voice of sacred Moroccan sufism, and in their early repertoire, besides the invocation of saints and the jinn and the songs of praise of Allah, have a gripe songs of exile and death, and for this reason the musical style of this confraternity is melancholic. The Jilala Jilala music is all about throb and rasp. Throb - the acceleration and deceleration within a song, the breathy organic timbre of the gasba flutes, the in-and-out-of-phase frequencies of the paired flutes. Rasp - flutes, voices, bendirs, all buzzy. The bendir patterns inhabit the 2/4 and 6/8 universes common across Morocco, but I find the drum stroke patterns particularly loopy and provocative.
They are called, behind monetary compensation, upon to exorcise evil spirits, to purify the heart and for curing to heal the sick (in particularly useful in curing cases of

hysteria Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...

and depression), through the invocation of saints and spirits. In a ritual Jilala the '' lila'' is performed. The therapy or exorcism must be repeated every year in the same period. It is thought that if the therapy is not renewed, the sick or possessed the same symptoms recur at the approach of the date corresponding to the first crisis. In the time that elapses between two ''lila'', however, the symptoms disappear, or, at least, are kept under control. The participants in the rituals, especially women, falling into a trance (''hal''), dancing wildly (''jadba'' or ''jedba'') to the rhythm of flutes and ''bendir''. I fell into a trance can have different behavior, such as laughter, screams, cries. The Jilala have spread throughout Morocco (excluding

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while ...

), especially in the north and in the region of the city of Casablanca. There are similarities between the rituals of Jilala and other therapeutic-Moroccan musical groups with the phenomenon of Italian

tarantism Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider '' Lycosa tarantula'' (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate c ...

, for example the release and wild dance, the fact that the therapy has to be renewed each year, the fact that healers are musicians, and it gives a therapeutic value to the colors, the music and dance.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Abdelkader Ben Mouiha, Jilala of Fes. Extract from 'Sufi Soul' documentary (DVD extra), 2005
* Abdelkader Ben Mouiha, Jilala of Fes. Some recordings of the ancient repertoire of Jilala brotherood, 1994

Sufi orders Sufism in Morocco Sufi music Islam in Morocco Moroccan Sufi orders

See also

References

External links