Thread by @aaolomi

In Islam, humanity shares the world with the jinn, an invisible race of beings formed of smokeless fire. Some jinn are good, some are ambivalent, and some are down right devilish.

A thread-

The chieftain of the wicked jinn is Iblis, the devil.

Originally a goodly jinn who was raised on to the heavens to live alongside the angels, he was accursed and cast down for his disobedience to God and arrogance.

He refused to bow to humanity proclaiming why should a being of fire bow before a creature of clay.

Unlike his Christian counterpart, Iblis is not nearly as powerful, nor the source of all evil. Rather he is a tribal chieftain and patriarch among the wicked jinn, the shaiytan. He leads them in spreading corruption.

His main weapon is waswas, the whispering of temptation into the hearts of humans.

Iblis also has sons.

Ibn Abi ad-Dunya says one is Dasim who enters into households to disturb its peace. It is said when people forget to give thanks to God, he enters into the house to cause strife between the family.

His brother Miswat or Sut is the lord of rumor, who encourages gossip and backbiting and lying.

Their other brother is the one-eyed Awar who spreads infidelity, faithlessness, and adultery.

Interestingly he is described not as a tempter, but as a propagandist who convinces societies to accept such things as good.

Thus, he does not just tempt people into adultery, but convinces them it is good for them.

Then there is Zalamboor, the lord of markets, who spreads greed and fraudulence.

Finally, we have Thabr or Tir, chief of calamities, who causes injuries and accidents

The Qur’an also mentions the marid, though does not clarify what they are, rather they are described as rebellious shayitan who used to eavesdrop on the affairs of heaven to get a glimpse of destiny, but who are now driven away with shooting stars (Q 37:7-10).

The ifrit are mentioned in the Qur’an as well. One is said to have served King Solomon promising to bring the throne of the Queen of Sheba from leagues way to in front of the king before he rises (Q 27:38-40).

Later writers would use this as a basis to interpret the ifrit as powerful jinn associated with magic and sorcerers who appear in sudden sandstorms and whirlwinds.

Damiri names even more devilish jinn: the ghul, aqarib, qatarib, si’lah, and jann.

The ghul were cemetery-dwelling jinn who feasted on the flesh of the living and the dead.

Capable of shapeshifting into alluring forms, they draw their prey far away then fall upon them.

Legends of the ghul were particularly important sites of resistance during the colonial era and there are many stories of North African ghul who reputedly lured colonial soldiers into the desert to kill them.

The aqarib were scorpion-like jinn whose sting brought fevers and death.

The qatarib were night birds, winged jinn who took flight spreading mischief and nuisance.

The jann took the form of serpents and snakes.

The si’lah feature prominently in various poems as dangerous tempters.

They are said to lay with mortals and produce half-jinn offspring.

These offspring of jinn and human were contentious with some scholars denying their existence while others taking them as a given. They are said to be either monstrous in appearance, or granted supernatural beauty.

The sil’ah were known to torture and play with their victims.

Al Qazwini says si’lah generally lurked in bushes and thickets by the day while ghul stalked by night.

Al Qazwini also mentions the ghaddar who takes canine form in Yemen and near the shores of the Red Sea.

This dangerous jinn stalks its prey feeding off their terror, or feasting upon their genitals.

Al-Isfahani names two more devilish jinn. The first is Huma who causes fevers and illness in others. Using a poisoned arrow, Huma strikes its prey causing sickness to spread quickly.

The other is Kabus, the winged shadow, it descends on sleeping humans causing sleep paralysis and night terrors.

Those who have caught a glimpse of Kabus report a terrifying and shadowy figure.

The catalog of jinn and monsters are useful for historians as evidence of the flurry of scientific and encyclopedic treatises which emerged in the medieval period.

Muslims looked to the world with wonder and wanted to catalog it.

The records of terrifying jinn also testify to the anxieties of the societies which produced them.

Take Dasim who causes strife in the household or Awar the propagandist for infidelity; both speak to the anxieties around social cohesion. In a society where family was the basic unit, the disruption of that unit was worrying.

Or take the ghul and si’lat both representing the fear of the other (at times gendered) as well as the healthy respect for the dangers of the desert.

Most significantly, they reveal that essential and enduring Muslim belief: we are not alone in this world.

I’ll cover more Islamic history and cosmology in future threads.