What is the name of the syncretic religious tradition, now declining, practised by some Nile Valley communities — particularly in Qena — that blends Islamic veneration of saints with ritual healing involving spirit possession and animal sacrifice?

• A Gnaoua
• B Stambali
• C Moulid possession rite
• D Zar ✓

Zar is a spirit-possession healing cult found across the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa — in Egypt it is practised mainly by elderly women (kudya) who lead all-female ceremonies with specific drum rhythms (nugara) believed to appease possessing spirits (asyad, or 'masters'), a practice technically forbidden by orthodox Islam but tolerated as folk medicine.