The people of the air : healing and spirit possession South Iran

Iranian zar had not been one of my main research topics, although I had had direct observations of some of the zar spirit possession rituals during fieldwork in Bashagard of Hurmuzgan (1994-1996), an arid and exceptional area of the Persion Gulf which remains largely obscure to the eyes of researchers. My aim here is to translate integrally the specific chapter of Ghulam Husayn Sa’idi’s book – Ahl-I Hava (The People of the Air, 1967) – where, for the first time in the history of Iranian studies, he introduces zar and its details (Sa’idi 1967: 44-64). Many researchers have previously quoted and even translated some parts of Sa’idi’s book, but never before has an entire chapter been translated for use in the wider academic debate regarding zar in Iran. Therefore readers of this chapter should know that a great part of this chapter is based directly on Sa’idi’s observations, which I have interpreted and explored with my own direct experiences in Bashagard, as well as with comparative data from other research done on this topic.