Syncretic Spirits of Fire: Narratives of the jinn and related beings in Near Eastern religious corpora

Abstract

It is known that belief in the jinn did not emerge with the advent of Islam in the seventh century CE. Rather, Islam adopted and modified the characteristics of the jinn as they were extant in the belief systems of the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. What has not been studied in detail, however, is the impact that other pre-Islamic belief systems may have had on the portrayal of the jinn in the Islamic context. This thesis analyzes the jinn as they are characterized in the Qur’an and other Islamic exegetical literature and compares these characterizations to that of the metaphysical beings portrayed in the religious corpora of Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Attention is given to shared or similar narratives in the corpora in which the jinn and other like spirits play a significant role (e.g. Satan’s refusal to worship Adam, the construction of Solomon’s temple) as well as to linguistic similarities between the terms used to name said spirits. The results of this research pinpoint the external origins of specific characteristics of the jinn and outline the implications of the position and abilities of pre-Islamic spiritual entities in the monotheistic context and divine economy of Islam.