"Oh my Lord ʿAbd al-Qādir": Text and context in jīlāla ritual songs in Morocco

This paper is intended to serve as the written complement to audio recordings of the music of the jīlāla brotherhood I collected in Morocco. The jīlāla traces its spiritual heritage to the Sufi saint ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (1077/78-1166), namesake of the influential Qādiriyya Sufi order. Jīlāla musicians traditionally perform in spirit possession rituals. They operate within Morocco together with the gnawa, ḥamadsha, and ʿīsāwa religious brotherhoods. However, few scholars have engaged with their music and their poetic texts. Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted in Meknes, Morocco, in this paper, I examine the jīlāla’s songs as they are performed in both the context of all-night events, where Muslim saints and spirits with distinct personalities are invoked to make their presence known through possession, and in all-female ceremonies. In doing so, I focus on the figure of ʿAbd al-Qādir, exploring how he continues to provide spiritual aid to followers and act as a shared reference for music associated with these diverse healing traditions.