Nar as-samum
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In Islam, Nār as samūm (Arabic: نار السموم, 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
[edit]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.[2][3]
In Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature and Bedouins beliefs, the wind of Samum became associated with a demon.[4] Johann Gottfried Eichhorn relates the term to the three days of darkness in Exodus.[5] Accordingly, the darkness comes just with the tempest of Samum.[6][7]
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.[8]
Quran and tafsīr
[edit]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. Surah 52:27 states that God protects from the fires of samūm.[9]
According to Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), samūm is the source from which Iblīs (Satan) and his angels (shayāṭīn) were created.[10] 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).[9][11][12]
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.[13]
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.[14] 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.[15]: 42 Most mufassirūn repeat the mentioned interpretations, but usually more briefly.[16]
Adaptations in later religious traditions
[edit]The name of the Midrashic satanic figure Samael is linguistically related to the term samūm.[4][17][18] In Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, he is a twelve-winged seraph who refused to prostrate himself before Adam.[19] 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.[20]
Likewise, Manichaeans relate their concept of the Devil, who is also called "Iblīs al-Qadīm" (Iblis without beginning),[21] to the pestilential winds (samūm) in one of the five Kingdoms of darkness.[22]
According to nineteenth-century Orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Ottoman-era legends identify the hot "red wind" Samum as a div (demon) who assisted Satan in his plots against the prophet Solomon.[23]
Popular Culture
[edit]The 2008 Turkish Horror film Semum, is named after this type of fire. The movie relies on the interpretation of Iblis by ibn Abbas,[1] which depicts Iblis and his tribe as angels dispelled from the presence of God, after they refused to prostrate themselves before Adam. In contrast to Islamic aggadic tradition, these angels/devils are named after the fire of their origin (samūm).[1] The author argues that the meaning of the Quranic term samūm lies in "torment" and these demons "torment the sinners in hell".[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Erdağı, Deniz Özkan (2024-02-01). "Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in "Semum"". SN Social Sciences. 4 (2). doi:10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w. ISSN 2662-9283.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Löwinger, Adolf (1924). "Der Windgeist Keteb". Mitteilungen zur jüdischen Volkskunde. 26/27: 157–170. JSTOR 41459639.
- ^ William Jenks Genesis-Judges J.B. Lippincott & Company, 1859 Pennsylvania State University Digit. 2010 p. 250
- ^ Marcus Moritz Kalisch Shemot: Exodus Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855 Harvard University Digit. 22. Nov. 2006 p. 169
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. "Angels". Encyclopaedia of Islam. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_23204.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Peter J. Awn Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblīs in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060 p. 31
- ^ 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.
- ^ Christian Lange (2016). Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50637-3.
- ^ The Society Studia Orientalia, Band 85 1999 University of Michigan Digit. 23. Febr. 2008
- ^ John Hamilton Warrack, John Warrack Carl Maria Von Weber CUP Archive 1976 ISBN 978-0-521-29121-7 page 214
- ^ Johann Christian August Heyse (1853). "Samiël, Samum". Allgemeines verdeutschendes und erklärendes Fremdwörterbuch (in German). p. 797.
- ^ 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.
- ^ David Mevorach Seidenberg (2015). Kabbalah and Ecology. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-107-08133-8.
- ^ Peter J. Awn Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060
- ^ Jason David BeDuhn (2000). The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0801871078.
- ^ Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1813). "XXI. Suleiman". Rosenöl, oder Sagen und Kunden des Morgenlandes (in German). Vol. 1. Stuttgart. p. 216.