Z?r or Zaar is a pagan religious custom, apparently originating in central Ethiopia during the eighteenth century, later spreading throughout East and North Africa. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Ethiopian slaves had introduced Z?r into Southwest Asia. Z?r custom involves the possession of an individual (usually female) by a spirit. A featured musical instrument in the Z?r ritual is the tanbura, a six-string lyre, which, like the Z?r practice itself, exists in various forms in an area stretching from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Other instruments include the mangour, a leather belt sewn with many goat hooves, and various percussion instruments. The Zaar cult served as a refuge for women and effeminate men in conservative, Muslim-dominated Sudan. References