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In Islam, Nār as samūm (Arabic: سموم, meaning "fire of poison"; also spelled Simoom or Semum; from the root س م م s-m-m, سم "to poison") refers to a type of infernal fire or hot wind. The term is related to a type of storm in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. According to the Quran, the damned will be tormented in samūm and demons are said to be created from samūm.

Etymology

The term Samūm derives from the root s-m-m سم, which means "to poison". It is also used of referring to a hot, dusty desert wind.[1][2]

In Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature and Bedouins beliefs, the wind of Samum became associated with a demon.[3] Johann Gottfried Eichhorn relates the term to the Three Days of Darkness in Book of Exodus.[4] Accordingly, the darkness comes just with the tempest of Samum.[5][6]

In Islamic traditions, it is usually interpreted as a kind of fire, which penetrates through the skin of human body in contrast to marijin min nar. However, both fires became usually associated with dangerous spirits.[7]

Quran and tafsīr

The Quran uses the term samūm three times. According to Surah 15:27, al-Jann was created from the fires of samūm (nār as samūm). Surah 56:42 states that "the people of the left hand" (the damned) will suffer from samūm. Yet, Surah 52:27 states that God protects from the fires of samūm.[8]

According to Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), samūm is the source from which Iblīs (Satan) and his angels (shayāṭīn) were created from.[9] According to ibn Abbas, the angels were created from "light" (Nūr), Iblīs and his demons from "poisonous fire" (samūm), and the djinn from a "composition of fire" (mārijin min nār).[8][10][11]

The exact nature is subject to much discussion. Tabari (839–923) offers many interpretations for the nature of samūm. According to one meaning it is "hot wind which kills" and in another "the flame of the fire of the hot wind" and yet in another he relates it to "night-wind" in opposition to harur (day-wind). Further, he states, some hold samūm to be the hell-fire (nar jahannama).

On the authority of Abu Ubaidah, samūm is the fire that "penetrates the pores due to its fineness in the day-time as well as at night". Abu Sãlih is reported as saying that samūm is smokeless fire located between the heavens and the veil. Tabari concludes, it is the heart of a flame and not wind, as others indicated.[12]

According to Ibn Abbas, the samūm is "the worst hot fire which kills". On the authority of 'Amir ibn Dinar, samūm is the fire of the sun.[13] Cosmographics in the medieval age of Islam usually depicted the sun setting on the gates of hell, and deriving its heat from the fires of hell (i.e. nār as-samūm) during night. On day time, the sun emits the fire of hell over earth.[14]: 42  Most mufassirūn repeat the mentioned interpretations, but usually more briefly.[15]

Adoptations by later religious traditions

The name of the Midrashic satanic figure Samael is linguistically related to the term samūm.[3][16][17] In Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, he is a twelve-winged seraph who refused to prostrate himself before Adam.[18] His depiction might have been influenced by the Islamic portrayal of Iblis who is similarly imagined as an angel related to samūm who refused to bow down before Adam.[19]

Likewise, Manichaeans relate their concept of the Devil, who is also called "Iblīs al-Qadīm" (Iblis without beginning),[20] to the pestilential winds (samūm) in one of the five Kingdoms of darkness.[21]

Studies in Ottoman lore mention the hotwind Samum as a Div (demon), who assists Satan in his plots against the prophet Solomon in Middle Eastern legends. He is also named Rothwind.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ John Penrice A Dictionary and Glossary of the Koran: With Grammatical References and Explanations of the Text Biblo & Tannen Publishers 1969 ISBN 978-0-819-60252-7 page 72
  2. ^ Rashid al-Din Rashid al-Din's History of India: Collected Essays with Facsimiles and Indices Walter de Gruyter 1965 ISBN 978-3-111-71602-2
  3. ^ a b Löwinger, Adolf (1924). "Der Windgeist Keteb". Mitteilungen zur jüdischen Volkskunde. 26/27: 157–170. JSTOR 41459639.
  4. ^ William Jenks Genesis-Judges J.B. Lippincott & Company, 1859 Pennsylvania State University Digit. 2010 p. 250
  5. ^ Marcus Moritz Kalisch Shemot: Exodus Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855 Harvard University Digit. 22. Nov. 2006 p. 169
  6. ^ Worrell, William H. (1918). "The Demon of Noonday and Some Related Ideas". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 38: 160–166. doi:10.2307/592600. JSTOR 592600.
  7. ^ Mehmet Yavuz Seker A Map of the Divine Subtle Faculty: The Concept of the Heart in the Works of Ghazali, Said Nursi, and Fethullah Gulen Tughra Books, 07.04.2015 ISBN 9781597848770 part 4
  8. ^ a b Erdağı, D. Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in “Semum”. SN Soc Sci 4, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w
  9. ^ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. "Angels". Encyclopaedia of Islam. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_23204.
  10. ^ Tabari, Muhammad ibn Yarir al- Tabari, Tabari The History of al-Tabari Vol. 1: General Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood UNY Press, 23.03.1989 ISBN 9780887065637 p. 252
  11. ^ Mahmoud M. Ayoub The Qur'an and Its Interpreters: Surah 1 and 2 Islamic Book Trust 2012 ISBN 978-9-675-06290-2 page 74
  12. ^ Peter J. Awn Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblīs in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060 p. 31
  13. ^ Racius, Egdunas (1999). "Islamic Exegesis on the jinn: Their origin, kinds and substance and their relation to other beings". Studia Orientalia Electronica. 85: 127–138.
  14. ^ Lange, Christian (2016). Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions. Cambridge United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50637-3.
  15. ^ The Society Studia Orientalia, Band 85 1999 University of Michigan Digit. 23. Febr. 2008
  16. ^ John Hamilton Warrack, John Warrack Carl Maria Von Weber CUP Archive 1976 ISBN 978-0-521-29121-7 page 214
  17. ^ Johann Christian August Heyse Dr. Joh. Christ. Aug. Heyse's allgemeines verdeutschendes und erklärendes Fremdwörterbuch: mit Bezeichnung der Aussprache und Betonung der Wörter nebst genauer Angabe ihrer Abstammung und Bildung Hahn, Lyon Public Library 1873 Digit. 9. Febr. 2017 p. 833
  18. ^ Dulkin, Ryan S. "The Devil Within: A Rabbinic Traditions-History of the Samael Story in 'Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer'." Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 2, 2014, pp. 153–175., JSTOR 24751800. Accessed 6 Sept. 2021.
  19. ^ Seidenberg, David Mevorach (2015). Kabbalah and Ecology. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-107-08133-8.
  20. ^ Peter J. Awn Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060
  21. ^ Jason David BeDuhn The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual JHU Press, 16.07.2002 ISBN 9780801871078 p. 74
  22. ^ Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph Freiherr von (2016). Rosenöl. Erstes und zweytes Fläschchen: Sagen und Kunden des Morgenlandes aus arabischen, persischen und türkischen Quellen gesammelt. BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-86199-486-2.[page needed]
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