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(Photo: Estate of Itzhaq Saad)
A year and a half ago, Usama Al-‘Uqbi was lying in a hospital bed in the south of Israel. He was partially paralyzed and his doctors had seemingly exhausted medical recourse. Enter Kamal Haniyya, a Bedouin sheikh and traditional healer, who ministered to Usama behind closed doors, his medical kit containing nothing more than a copy of the Quran. Twenty minutes later, Haniyya left his patient standing on his two feet, smiling.
To the cynic, this may sound like a page from the Arabian Nights. But for the Bedouins in the Negev – Israel’s southern desert region – the methods employed by Sheikh Haniyya and his predecessors have been healing patients for hundreds of years. Far from using a single method, the sheikh has a repertoire of treatments depending on what is appropriate for the patient and the moment. He might read to them from the Quran, or prepare solutions from medicinal plants. To the world of modern medicine “Western-style,” Sheikh Haniyya is seen as at best a practitioner of alternative healing or at worst, a quack or witch doctor. But to those to whom he ministers, Haniyya has a proven rate of success that needs no further approval. In fact, Haniyya himself rejects the epithet “alternative.” Quite the opposite, he says. “The world is today going back to the alternative medicine, which is in fact the original medicine. We may call it alternative, where in fact this is the origin.”
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Sheikh Kamal Haniyya (Dudi Saad/G.F. Photos)
Sheikh Haniyya, father of 15 children, lives in the Bedouin town Tel Sheva in the Negev. More than a decade ago, he began treating people by reading verses of the Quran to them. It is just in the last four years that Haniyya has turned to plants, researching their benefits and harnessing their medicinal value.
In his research, Haniyya has drawn from the writings of famous Muslim and Jewish doctors from past centuries, such as Abu Sina and Maimonides. He also read The Prophet’s Medicine, a collection of all the stories told about the prophet Muhammad that touch on the subject of illness or medical treatment. “If it is written in The Prophet’s Medicine that something is helpful, then there is no doubt that it is,” Haniyya explains.
Another source Haniyya draws upon is what he calls “the experienced ones.” “We have a saying, he says. ‘Ask the experienced one rather than the doctor.’ The experienced [healers] retrieve their experience from the past. One gets [the knowledge] from his grandfather, who got it from his uncle, and so on, up until the source.”
Finally, Haniyya is aided by contemporary doctors with knowledge of medicinal plants. “We found out that between all these sources there is a mutual closeness by way of the benefits they find in plants,” says Haniyya as he explains his method of work. “If all these sources agree with one another, than we say this [plant] is one hundred percent beneficial. However, if there is disagreement between them, than we put the plant aside, so that we won’t jeopardize the patient.”
The traditional healer plays a significant role in the Bedouin society. Many Bedouins may see a traditional, modern doctor only a few times during their entire lifetime. Yet, even traditional Bedouin medicine combines the major elements of treatment with plants and reading the Quran. Dr. ‘Arif Abu Rabi’a, head of the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University says, “I have to admit, that in the past five years more and more Bedouins – and Muslims as a whole – are addressing the traditional healer to be healed by the Quran.” Abu Rabi’a is researching the traditional medicine found within the Bedouin society. In his experience, he says, “not only simple people seek traditional treatment, but also professors from the university.” When asked about his view towards treatment through the Quran, Abu Rabi’a answered that he believes in it “one hundred percent.” “There is a saying, that you cannot argue with facts (meaning – modern medicine). I say, true, but the same goes for faith.”
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The Quran (Dudi Saad/G.F. Photos)
Sometimes, people who seek treatment with a traditional healer are doing so because they find no relief for their complaints in modern medicine. Sheikh ‘Ali Al-Asad, a 72-year-old traditional healer from Laqiya in the Negev, gives an example: “A man came to me, claiming he was constantly tired. The doctor could not find anything wrong with him and sent him home. When he came to me, I took a little bottle, filled it with water, and put 3 drops of cherry juice in it. A couple of days later, he told me he stopped feeling tired after he drank from the bottle.”
Nevertheless, Abu Rabi’a takes this kind of treatment very seriously. “In the traditional medicine of the healer, the patient is always right. If he tells the healer his belly hurts, then the healer believes him. If the patient tells him there is a demon in his head, then the healer will extract it. What is important is that a two-way dialogue is established between the healer and the patient. Mutual trust such as this is what builds trust for the continuation of the treatment,” explains Abu Rabi’a.
In the Bedouin system of beliefs, demons have a central place in regard to a person’s physical and mental health. If a Bedouin suffers pains in his body, is confronted with sudden fear, or is behaving in a manner which is contrary to his usual character, then he will ask the traditional healer to relieve him of the demon which entered his body and caused his problems. “It is very easy to blame the demons, because by doing so a person clears himself from responsibility for his problems or actions,” according to Abu Rabi’a.
Sheikh Haniyya is reminded of a time when a person came to him and told him that a few days after his wedding he began hating his wife — he began biting her and before long demanded she leave home. During his conversation with both the husband and wife, Haniyya was led to believe that a demon had entered into the woman’s body and made the couple hate each other. Haniyya read verses from the Quran to the woman, and from then on the couple were able to resume their lives together.
Haniyya is also known as an arbitrator between people. And while Haniyya himself will not admit it, his work is often not unlike that of a marriage counselor or modern mediator. He first tries to make a couple admit that there is a problem in their marriage. Then, they present their issues in the presence of the counselor. But unlike if they had gone to a modern counselor, the Bedouin couple mentioned above both believed that Haniyya had the power to help them, and that the reading of the Quran actually had a positive effect on them. Others might say that what really saved their marriage was the fact that they recognized their problem and wanted to solve it.
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Sheikh Haniyya in his garden (Dudi Saad/G.F. Photos)
Haniyya speaks of combining Quran treatment with plant treatment. “Most of the medicines today are composed of chemical components, which to the best of my knowledge cure a person for a time only.” According to Haniyya, those chemical substances might even harm a person later on in his life. “They can cure one part of the body, but in the future they might harm other parts, such as the liver, kidneys, and lungs.”
Over the years, Haniyya has accumulated a great number of fans. One of them is his own son, 22-year-old Islam Haniyya, a third-year student in the Department of Pharmacy at Ben-Gurion University. Despite Islam’s great admiration of his father’s profession, the young Haniyya remains critical of traditional healing medicine. “I am in no way degrading the traditional healing medicine. It has much success and it is no secret that this profession is developing more and more today. Nevertheless, one must be aware of a few things: first of all, taking one specific medicine after another one, or two at the same time, might cause undesired effects, some even life-threatening. The traditional healer might not be aware of this, and may not warn the patient,” says Islam. He then adds that healers like his father have no chance of concocting a medicine with precise measures, whereas in modern medicine everything is calculated scientifically and goes through a long process of research.
According to Islam, a Bedouin will often rather not go to the hospital, knowing he will have to go through many tests, x-rays, and diagnoses. “Maybe this is the reason why many choose to go to the traditional medicine, where there is more accessibility.” When asked his views regarding treatment through the Quran, he is much more cautious, offering a diplomatic answer which would not shame any politician. “Regarding the Quran, I have not dealt with it. I think and believe it has its benefits and successes. Nevertheless, I am a [pharmacy] student now, so I do not deal with it.”
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Islam Haniyya (Dudi Saad/G.F. Photos)
Traditional medicine among the Bedouins in the Negev cannot substitute for modern medicine completely. According to Abu Rabi’a, when it comes to acute diseases, the Bedouin would typically choose to go to the modern doctor. Also, there are those who would rather go to a modern doctor even when less serious diseases are at stake. “If a person has a real disease, he must see a doctor,” says traditional healer ‘Ali Al-Asad. And when Al-Asad himself becomes ill, he testifies that he goes to the doctor.
In any case, various experts have supported cooperation between traditional healers and modern doctors. The respect Bedouins hold for the traditional healer is apparently very hard to replace with an unfamiliar and aloof, — albeit professional –modern doctor. “This kind of cooperation is already taking place in many places in Asia, for instance China and India,” says Abu Rabi’a, “and it is also gradually gaining momentum in Israel.”