Sigrid van Roode: ‘Zār jewellery reveals the world of unseen Egyptians’
Zār jewellery from Egypt can be found in many museums and private collections in the West, but for a long time very little was known about it, except that it was used in rituals to protect against spirit possession. PhD candidate Sigrid van Roode has explored its history and discovered that the jewellery was much more than simply adornment: it is an unexpected additional source of information about women’s lives.
‘When I was studying Egyptology a hundred years ago, I came across zār jewellery in Cairo,’ says Van Roode. ‘It was very popular with tourists and I actually bought an item myself as “a piece of Egypt to take home”. But no one knew much more than that it was worn in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by women who were possessed by a spirit, and was used in a ritual to communicate with the same spirits. If you asked further questions, it was dismissed as a silly superstition.’
Van Roode did not give up. Several years later, after building up her own collection of zār jewellery, she decided to explore its history in more depth. ‘The zār ritual still exists, but the jewellery is no longer used. That triggered me to investigate why this was so, what it had been used for in the past, and how it actually came to be involved.’
Roots in Africa
She started her search in Africa, where the zār ritual has its roots. ‘The whole spirit-possession religion behind it stems from an African religion, which came to Egypt via the slave trade. So the underlying thinking is originally African, rather than Egyptian. The use of these objects can therefore best be compared with “power objects”, which you see in various African cultures.’
People who wear a piece of zār jewellery believe that they’re possessed by a spirit. ‘A spirit like this always wants something from you: a slaughtered chicken as a sacrifice, or the more expensive variant of a camel, but also jewellery,’ explains Van Roode. ‘In return, it will stop making you feel miserable.’ The ritual is aimed at bringing about this agreement between the person and the spirit. In line with the African power objects, an item of zār jewellery is therefore much more than adornment: it’s an ‘animated object’ that symbolises this agreement.
Personal images
The flat pendants often have an Arabic text on one side and a depiction of the spirit on the other side. ‘This is the side that women wore against their skin,’ says Van Roode. ‘That makes the jewellery very personal. It really is something between the spirit and you.’
At the same time, these images offer a wealth of information about Egypt in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is because zār, like other African spirit-possession religions, is also a form of shared remembering. What you see in the images is therefore what that community considered to be important.
Jewellery as an unexpected historical source
‘If you sit and look at the jewellery for a while, it can tell you a lot about the world of the people who wore it,’ says Van Roode. ‘For instance, you’ll often see river beings. This is logical, because the Nile controlled life in Egypt to a very great extent. The next largest group is officers. This shows you that the social world of these women was strongly influenced first by the Ottoman oppressors and then the British. The exile of the khedive Abbas Hilmi in 1914 is explicitly depicted, which indicates that they had a distinct opinion about such events. All kinds of fertility symbols also emphasise how important it was to have children. In this way, you can see a self-image emerging of people you never find in the literature: the illiterate majority.’
Savings account
Indirectly, the jewellery also gives insight into the women’s financial lives. ‘I calculated how expensive a zār ceremony was,’ says Van Roode. ‘It turned out to be around one year’s salary. Women therefore sometimes used a zār ceremony if they suspected their husband of looking for a second wife, so that he wouldn’t be able to afford the dowry.’
The silver that was used to make the jewellery also has economic value. ‘Jewellery in general has always had a secondary meaning as a savings account. If you were afraid that your husband might want to divorce you, the value of your jewellery meant you could still take care of yourself – a few extra pieces of jewellery for a zār were very handy in this regard.’
You can see more of the zār jewellery on Sigrid van Roode’s Instagram page: @bedouinsilver. She also has a foundation, Qilada, which helps collectors: it safeguards the future of donated collections by researching and publishing them; on request, it will also give them to museums in the country of origin.