Aq jol soul healers: Religious pluralism and a contemporary Muslim movement in Kazakhstan

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 359-371

  Jessa, Paweł ^a  

^a ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY   (Poland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ISLAMISM; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

ASIA; EURASIA; KAZAKHSTAN; WEST ASIA;

EID: 33847191447     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: 14653354     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634930601023011     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. This article is based on field research data collected in 2003 and 2004 in South Kazakhstan (Almaty, Turkestan and Kaskelen), in the framework of a doctoral dissertation entitled The cult of saint in South Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań), and of a research project entitled Religion and civil society in Central Asia at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany.
2. P. L. Berger, Świety Baldachim (Kraków: Nomos, 1997), pp 185-186.
3. See A. Sultangalieva, 'Evolutsia islama v Kazakhstanie', Central Asia and the Caucasus, 1999, 4(5) (http://www.ca-c.org/journal/cac-05-1999/ st_06_sultangal.shtml)
4. B. G. Privratsky, Muslim Turkistan. Kazak Religion and Collective Memory (Richmond: Curzon Press, 2002), pp 182-183.
5. From the Arabic walī (pl. awliya). In the literature on the subject, in order to translate the Arabic word walī, one is advised to use the term 'saint'. The term walī in the Koran, connected with Allah and the Prophet probably meant 'protector', whereas with reference to people, it means 'those, who are under the protection (of Allah)'. Muslims who legitimate their ideas by reference to the Sharī'a cite the following Qur'anic verse: 'Isn't it like this? Truly, the friends of God shall not fear or grieve' (10:62). In the Hadith, walī is referred to as 'close one', 'friend' or even 'beloved' by God. The concept of walī as developed within Sufi ideas originates in Shiite doctrine. However, the reverse process also took place, when the Shiite doctrine became inspired by the philosophy of Sufism.
6. It is difficult to establish the number of active participants in Aq jol groups and their sympathisers. Conversations with leaders of one of Aq jol's factions enable me to estimate that between 1998 and 2004 about 5,000 people passed the ritual of 'the opening of the heart' and thereby became 'mediums'. However only 30% of this number actively participate in Aq jol. In every province in Kazakhstan (there are 15 provinces), Aq jol organises about ten pilgrimages to holy places monthly. About 100-150 pilgrims take part in each pilgrimage.
7. See D. Penkala-Gawecka, 'Wybrańcy duchów, czyli jak zostać szamanem. Na przykladzie ujgurskiej szamanki z Kazachstanu', Lud, 2001, 85, p 161 and following
8. V. N. Basilov, Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakstana (Moscow: Nauka, 1992), p 106 and following.
9. Pious visits, pilgrimage to the sacred places, tombs; pilgrimage to the tombs of the prophets, 'saints' (avliyo), Shiite imams, and in northern Africa - to living Sufic leaders. From the Arabic ziyāra (pl. ziyārāt). Theoretically, the mazār is the object (the aim) of the visit, although in Central Asia ziyorat means the pilgrimage, as well as the act of subordination to the protection of the saint and the sacred places.
10. See J. W. Meri, 'Ziyara', The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill, 2002) t. XI, p 524
11. E. A. Rezvan, 'Ziiara', Islam: Entsiklopedicheskii slovar (Moscow: Nauka, 1991), p 77
12. T. H. Zarcone, 'Ziyara. The Turkish lands, including the Balkans and Central Asia', The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill 2002, t XI, p 534.
13. See V. N. Basilov, Isbranniki dukhov (Moscow: Politizdat, 1984), pp 52-76
14. Basilov, op cit, Ref 7, p 106 and following.
15. Basilov, op cit, Ref 7, p 110 and following.
16. In Almaty, the author talked to former members of the Aq ana section of Aq jol. According to them, the schism in the Aq jol was caused by an argument connected with money. They claim to have witnessed this situation, after which they decided to leave Aq jol. Presently they are members of an informal group accepting only the Qur'an and Sunna, and strongly denying any practice against the Sharī'a.
17. Juz - hundred; tribal confederation in Kazakhstan.
18. B. V. N. Basilov, Kult sviyatikh v islame (Moscow: Mycl, 1970), p 69 and following
19. G. P. Snesarev, Relikti domusulmanskikh verovanii I obriyadov u uzbekov Khorexma (Moscow: Nauka, 1969), p 279 and following,
20. A. Suvorova, Musulmanskie sviyatie Iudjnoi Asii XI-XV vekov (Moscow, 1999), pp 34-35.
21. P. F. Syzdykova (ed), Kazaksha - Oryscha Sozdik (Almaty: Daik-Press, 2001), p 79.
22. Snesarev, op cit, Ref 11, p 282.
23. The fear of the punishment sent by arūaq appeared helpful during the author's field research. During the author's first contacts with Aq jol, a sorceress failed to pick him up to take him to a weekly meeting of the group, since she was running late. On the way to the meeting she was involved in a minor traffic accident. She interpreted this incident as punishment from the spirits for not taking the author to the meeting. After this event, she promised she would take the author to any Aq jol meeting he wanted, and she kept her promise. During the first meeting in Aq jol the author received bata, in which the spirits accepted his presence in the group, making it easy for him to research the group and maintain contact with its members.
24. K. A. Bekabalak, 'Pokhoronno-pominalnaya obriyadnost kazakhov Iudjovo Kazakhstana', M. K. Kozybaev et al (ed) Obychai i obriyady kazakhov v proshlom i nastoyashem (Almaty: Nauchno-Isdatelskii Tsentr Fylym, 2001), p 313.
25. Aqqū (Kaz. Akky - 'swan') - the term refers to the members of Aq jol (a kind of a 'medium') transferring blessings (Kaz. bata) given by saints and ancestors (ata-baba) to individual people or the whole group.
26. M. Valyeeva, 'TsDUM', Islam na territorii byvshei Rossiiskoi imperii. Entsklopedicheskii slovar, Vol 2, 2001, pp 100-101.
27. Compare: B. Babadjanov, TsDUM', Islam na territorii byvshei Rossiiskoi imperii. Entsklopedicheskii slovar, Vol 4, 2003, p 70.
28. Compare: Penkala-Gawecka, op cit, Ref 7, p 174.
29. Following: W. J. Bursza, Antropologia kultury. Tematy, teorie, interpretacje (Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 1998), pp 105-106.
30. Ibid, pp 108-109.
31. Check: Penkala-Gawecka, op cit, Ref 7, pp 182-183.
32. J. Mariański, Religia i Kościół miedzy tradycja i ponowoczesnościa. Studium socjologiczne (Kraków: Nomos, 1997), p 212.