Popular Beliefs in the Palestinian Society: An Analytic Study

Banat, Bassam Yousef Ibrahim; Yahya, Hasan; Ahmad, Bashir; Halabiyah, Fadwa

doi:10.4236/jss.2022.109022

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Tellingly, the data indicate that the religion of the respondent had little to do with predicting level of jinn belief, suggesting that jinn belief is equally common among both Christians and Muslims. 107 However, the survey also found that women and people with less education tended to have stronger belief in jinn and related superstitions, whereas more religious people were less likely to believe in superstitious beliefs and practices associated with jinn. The opposite was true in a different survey from 2019 that found that, although only 48% of Palestinians believe in jinn possession, the belief is more prominent among religious people (55%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Dwelling and healing with saints and jinn in the haunted landscapes of Palestine

Al-Qobbaj,

Marshall

2024

cultural geographies

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The Jinn of Islamic and Middle Eastern popular mythology play a role in maintaining spatial divisions between sacred and profane space, public and protected areas, and acceptable and exceptional behaviour. Though research on jinn continues to be of importance in cross-cultural psychology, the rich relationship between jinn and place has largely been lost or severed. This paper seeks to restore this link through an examination of the relationship between unseen spirits and place in Palestine and throughout the Levant ( Bilad ash-Sham). Drawing upon both European and Palestinian historical ethnographic writing, as well as oral history interviews with Palestinian elders, this paper examines spatial practices that can attract, prevent, or heal harm from jinn and other unseen forces, as well as places where such spirits dwell, including graveyards, caves, wells, sacred trees, and shrines. Jinn play a dual role in helping to protect the sanctity of these places, while also threatening to violate the intimate space hearth and home. In this way, jinn play an important role in both establishing, and at times blurring and negotiating, and social mores their related physical boundaries. In examining how jinn threaten the sanctity of homes and bodies, but also how place-dwelling spirits help to heal bodies and sooth souls, this paper moves beyond mere metaphorical understandings of spectral geographies to understand the material implications of unseen and imagined forces. By doing so, this paper builds upon recent research exploring the deep connection between the environment and spiritual/sacred understandings of place.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%