Case file · Folklore / legend
Aicha Kandicha
A Moroccan jinniya who appears as a beautiful woman with goat's or camel's feet and seduces or possesses men.
1700 CE · 33.90, -5.55 · status: legend
The account
She is central to the Hamadsha brotherhood's healing rituals near Meknes, where possession by her is treated with trance and music, and appears in Egyptian zār as Aisha al-Maghribiya. Some stories tie her to a historical woman who fought the Portuguese.
The sceptical view
A living folk belief studied by anthropologists such as Vincent Crapanzano; no physical evidence.