Fugara Shamans
Courtesy of a discussion on the wonderful Cabinet of Wonders Fortean forums, I found an amazing site on the Fugara - the Bedouin Shamans of Jordan.
The deeper one digs into this site the more amazing information one finds. There is much about the Shamanic conception of the jinn, particularly from the point of view of the tribes of the Jordan Valley.
Also of great interest is some rare and not generally known historical info about the nomadic bedouins of Southern Jordan - particularly the little-researched Shamanic al-Sulaba tribe as well as the more well-known Aniza.
This last tribe are interesting for their ‘water of life’ legends (which hark back to the Sufic Khidr motifs) which featured in a much discussed passage relating to Idries Shah which featured in Louis Palmer’s Adventures in Afghanistan
The Aniza are also widely regarded as providing the original framework of the European Witch Cult through the person of Abu el-Atahiyya whose teachings passed into Europe when the Aniza migrated to medieval Islamic Spain.
