Daira is an Arabic word which means a circle. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the phrase "sazivanje daire" has the meaning of collection or collecting of the Jinn in order to get answers from them to certain questions or to find a remedy for mental patients. In most cases daira or exorcism precedes ograma (an accidental meeting with demons) when a man unbeknownst walks or violates a tabooed space such as an old graveyard, walks over a crossroad, walks across a place where a dead man was ritually washed before burial or walks next to a river at night, etc. When he comes across one of the mentioned places a human experiences an emotional shock, in Bosnia they say "zgrane" or "ograjiše", from which he falls ill both spiritually and physically and sometimes a person can be paralyzed from it. Today it is considered that the worst ograma is the one done on "džinska sofra" i.e. a place where the Jinn gather in order to eat and talk. As soon as it is determined that a person has suffered from a Jinn attack one of the members of the household seek help from an Imam or a Dervish. He decides if there is a need to form a daire. If he concludes that this is the only way to help the diseased the Imam searches for a child which hasn't reached puberty to assist him with the ritual. During that time the diseased is at home and the Imam has no contact with him.
The ritual i.e. exorcism is done in various ways by the Dervish which are more or less similar. The daira can be gathered on a mirror, on a fingernail covered with black ink, on the palm of right hand or a coffee cup. In Arabia the daira are performed using a crystal cup holding a small amount of black ink over which a few drops of olive oil are added in order to form a thin layer of oil on the surface. Before the ritual the Dervish writes on a long piece of paper using Arabic script the following words: "Certainly you were heedless of it, but now We have removed from you your veil, so your sight today is sharp" (50:22), and fastens it to a child's (the medium) forehead using an elastic band. This is performed by the Dervish in order to prevent the shock that can be caused to the child by the grotesque figures of the Jinn.
Drawing a circle is the most important part of the ritual which is used by the Dervish to symbolically separate himself from the physical world and to create a shield against the Jinn attack. Another important item for the ritual is incense. It has a sedative effect on the Jinn, sooths their wrath and at the same time incites them to cooperation. When the Jinn appear, which usually takes a lot of time since the Jinn procrastinate on purpose, the communication with them begins over the child (the medium). A form of bargaining and outwitting takes place during this stage in order to find the culprit among the Jinn for the pain caused to the diseased. Of course as one could have predicted once the culprit has been identified his spiritual leader makes him leave the human body which causes the diseased to lose consciousness, and when he regains it he is healed.
But even when the ritual has a positive outcome the Dervish needs to practice patience and wit while disbanding the Jinn. Namely sometimes they don't want to leave the room where the ritual was performed because they are waiting insidiously for a mistake from the Dervish in order to attack him. That's why the Dervish calmly utters chapters from the Qur'an which have a devastating effect on the Jinn and they flee.
Ljudevit A. Ivandić in his book "Folk superstitions" (original title: Pučko praznovjerje) touches upon the gathering of daire where he says: "Gathering of the daire is always a dangerous affair. Most of the times the gathered Jinn don't want to leave, and if there is a guide that will soothe their anger with verses from the Qur'an and incense, they will surely take revenge upon him. In Bosnia, as far as I know, the gathering of the daire was until recently done in Novi Šeher-Žepče, while in Bihać there is an Imam who practices it, the most famous instance of daire was on Oglavak between Fojnica and Brestovski, in Živići not far from Busovača towards Fojnica and Fojnica itself."
In his other descriptions the author mentions the claims from folk that witnessed the dangerous consequences of these rituals: "The Catholic folk claim that during the daire various disaster occur; furious winds, trees breaking, dust being carried by the wind, buildings being knocked down. According to it the Christians knew that a daire was taking place. In Herzegovina in a few places the people refer to daire as "okupljanje daire". Ivan Zovko describes an event of "okupljanje daire" in the area of Livno, claiming that the Imam places his face over a bowl with water filled to the brim and stares in it until he can see the vision of the thing that afflicts the diseased.
Other authors also mention this bizarre ritual. M. Ružić describes the ritual of daire as follows: "the Imam makes a circle around himself using a knife in which he repeats prayers until the Jinn gather around him. but none of them can enter the circle. He then questions them about the diseased until he finds the one that caused the suffering and then he secedes the Jinn from the diseased”.
