Bibi Mushkilkusho
Tajik · numen · Tajik traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bibi Mushkilkusho, 'the Lady who unties difficulties', is the patroness of a Tajik and Central Asian women's rite performed to lift a family from an apparently hopeless situation. As with Bibi Seshanbe, the ceremony joins a shared meal, the distribution of roasted chickpeas and dried fruit, and the recitation of a tale in which a destitute figure is delivered by the lady's intervention. The epithet mushkilkushā, 'opener of difficulties', is in wider folk Islam an honorific of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and sources differ on whether the ritual patroness is a distinct female numen, a feminine reflex of the Alid title, or an Islamised continuation of an older beneficent goddess.
Domains
- difficulty resolution
Powers
- untie the knots of misfortune
Epithets
- Мушкилкушо — Unraveller of DifficultiesSukhareva, O.A. 'Perezhitki demonologii i shamanstva u ravninnykh tadzhikov.' In Domusul'manskie verovaniya i obryady v Srednei Azii, 5-93. Moscow: Nauka, 1975. (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Bibi SeshanbePaired with Bibi Seshanbe as the two great patronesses of women's vow-rites.Snesarev, G.P. Relikty domusul'manskikh verovanii i obryadov u uzbekov Khorezma. Moscow: Nauka, 1969. (secondary)
Sources
- Bibi Mushkilkusho is a patroness invoked in a Tajik women's vow-rite to release the supplicant from intractable troubles.: Sukhareva, O.A. 'Perezhitki demonologii i shamanstva u ravninnykh tadzhikov.' In Domusul'manskie verovaniya i obryady v Srednei Azii, 5-93. Moscow: Nauka, 1975. (secondary)
- The epithet Mushkilkusho is also attached in folk Islam to Ali ibn Abi Talib, and the female ritual figure overlaps with that association.: Snesarev, G.P. Relikty domusul'manskikh verovanii i obryadov u uzbekov Khorezma. Moscow: Nauka, 1969. (secondary)