Thread by @aaolomi

In Middle Eastern and Islamic folklore, a race of invisible beings, the djinn/jinn populate the world as both beneficent and malicious spirits. Many legends talk of their ability to cause destruction, chaos, and harm.

A thread on djinn who cause calamities and illnesses

Al Hirah causes nightmares and ill-ease at night.

The sinking feeling, the irrational fear of the dark, are said to be Al Hirah’s whisperings.

The Moroccan Haraja is a female djinn who haunts watery places and appears as a beautiful woman or a red dog with a woman’s head. She can frighten her victims to death.

She is associated with Aicha Kandicha

From Morocco to Sudan there are a dozen djinn called Aicha, some benevolent, some famed seductresses like Aicha Kandicha and others associated with madness like Aicha Rubala who causes people to lose their mind and disrupts the home

Tabi’a causes death of children and is related to the djinn Umm al Subyan, who causes sterility and sudden infant death syndrome.

Habobat al Sughar and Umm al Juhal afflict children under the age of 2

Tasadunt Imdran appears as a mule in the cemetery whose baying herald disease and madness in North and West Africa.

The terrifying djinn Kabus is associated with sleep paralysis, nightmares, and night-time emissions.

Qarinah, a Lilith-like djinn, is reputed to also causes sleep paralysis.

Danhash is said to be a king of the djinn, fearsome in appearance crowned and having wings. He causes stuttering and the sudden loss of pregnancy. He’s mentioned in the 1001 Arabian Nights as an Ifrit

Al-Muharriq was a pre-Islamic underworld deity venerated by the Banu Bakr bin Wa'il who later became a djinn of plagues and disease, particularly those illnesses that come with heat and fever.

The djinn Huma was also believed to cause fevers in people. This djinn is usually described as having three heads.

In Iraqi folklore, Dami is a female ogre-like djinn associated w/ filth, disease, & blood. She may have some connection with pre-Islamic Mesopotamian spirits.

Another, Ferij aqra'a, is a mostly harmless trickster who messes w/ river folk. He can cause sudden weakness in horses

Dasim, one of the sons of Iblis the Islamic devil, creates domestic upheaval by driving inhabitants crazy.

His brother Wasin causes anxiety and grief. Their other sibling, Tir, is a djinn of calamities and maladies.

In Malaysian folklore the Bajang is a spirit that appears as a civet or polecat. It attacks and kills children, causes convulsions and delirium and is found as a familiar spirit of sorcerers.

With the coming of Islam, some view the Bajang as a type of local djinn.

In the deserts near the Red Sea, resides the Ghaddar a dog-like djinn, who afflicts the genitals of sleeping travelers with disfiguration or devours them.

The demonic djinn Samum is described as a hot lethal wind, or a poisonous wind that brings disease and death. A pre-Islamic monster likely drawn from the Hebrew Samael, later Muslim commentators treated him as a djinn, or as a fiery, windy source from which the djinn were created

Many of these disease and calamitous djinn are associated with wind and fire, esp the Egyptian Ifrit.

In Moroccan Sufi and Marabout circles they are referred to as ryah literally meaning winds.

There may be some connection to older mythologies and folklore Mesopotamia.

@Moudhy has some great threads on the Mesopotamian entities Pazuzu and Lamashtu

Belief in djinn causing disease existed alongside advancements in medicine. The same world that gave us the medicine of ibn Sina had room for spirit-caused illnesses (like in early modern European medicine).

Indeed, there are some brilliant medical texts that show djinn caused illnesses, like tooth aches etc.