A Muslim Shaman of Afghan Turkestan

Abstract

During field work in 1968 in the town of K in northern Afghanistan (cf. Centlivres 1971) the authors attended a therapeutic seance performed by a baxsi2 or shaman with the aid of a qobuz or horsehair fiddle. Both the baxsi as a healer and his qobuz have long been observed among the Kazakh and Kirghiz, but their presence in Afghanistan was, to the best of our knowledge, first reported by Slobin (1969). This paper will therefore deal primarily with the performance, role, and status of the baxsi in Afghan Turkestan.

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