Читать книгу Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 33

Founded in the early sixteenth century by the fakir and mystic Sheikh Abu Abd Allah Sidi Muhammed ben Isa as-Sofiani al Mukhteari (Ibn Isa), the fanatical Muslim sect known as the Isawiyya have adherents spread out across North Africa, the Middle East, and the Sudan. Because Ibn Isa was believed to have the ability to communicate with all creatures, the religious gatherings of the sect require that each individual member wear a mask that represents one of seven animals—camels, cats, dogs, panthers, jackals, boars, or lions.

Believing himself to be in the lineage of Biblical Esau, Ibn Isa, “the son of the Hairy One, Isa (Esau)” slept and prayed on two panther skins. In the qasida At-Taiya, which he composed, Ibn Isa defined his powers by writing that both humans and the Jinns, were all devoted to him, as well as the venomous reptiles and the beasts of the desert.

Before embarking on a pilgrimage, the Isawiyya sacrificed a bull or a calf in honor of Ibn Isa. Before the ritual, the calf or bull is dressed in women’s clothing, thus becoming an obvious substitute for a human victim. As the rites progress, the members of the cults work themselves into such a frenzy that the sacrificial animal is torn to bits and its flesh eaten raw. When they begin their journey homeward after the pilgrimage, they dye their hands and feet red to represent fresh blood.

European witnesses to an Isawiyya initiation rite told of watching the initiates dancing and whirling faster and faster until they reached a point of violent ecstasy. Then, as they were writhing in the dust, bowls of live snakes, lizards, toads, and scorpion were set before them. Immediately, the initiates seized the bowls and began stuffing the wriggling creatures into their mouths, biting and tearing at them until there was nothing left but bloodstains.