arrows and then washes at a spring 60 In this story
II Parwīz However, in this case it is the dragon
the killing of the dragon is followed by contact
that would become invulnerable if it went to a
with water In the Shāh-nāma a similar reference
certain spring and wetted its hair 63
is made Both heroes, Rustam, after he had killed
the dragon Babr-i bayān which came out of the sea
once a week, and Borzū, after he had vanquished
b The serpent(-dragon) jinn
the dragon on Mount Zahāb, lose consciousness,
and on reviving also wash themselves in a spring 61
Sources of water such as wells or streams, mani-
Likewise in another episode of the Shāh-nāma,
festations of life around which vegetation spread,
after accomplishing the third of his seven trials
were thought to be endowed with properties of
(haft khwān), that of slaying the dragon, Isfandiyār,
generation, cleansing and in some cases with
one of the prince-heroes of the epic and eldest
medicinal or healing virtues 64 These were some-
son of shāh Gushtāsp, loses consciousness On
times also regarded by the Arabs and other Sem-
reviving, “he called for a new garment, and then
ites as inhabited by the serpent genie (jinn), and
immersed himself in a nearby stream, washed the
hence had a sacred significance 65 Serpents as well
dirt from his body Thus cleansed, he came before
as the jinn (pl ajnān, “genii”),66 the supernatural
the Lord Down on the ground again, contorting
spirits invisible to the human eye, whose existence
and writhing like a serpent, he cried out:
is recognised in the Qurʾān ( sūra s 72, 130; 37,
Must it not be that the dragon-slayer is constantly
158; 51, 56; and 55, 15), were considered from the
sustained by the One who grips the world?
oldest times as the general earthly genius loci of
trees, in particular roots of trees, as well as caves,
The troops invoked blessings upon their leader,
springs and wells 67 According to a tradition of
and all of the company bowed low before the
the Prophet Muḥammad cited by al-Damīrī in his
Just Provider ”62 Frequent reference is thus made
para-zoological encyclopaedia, chthonic creatures
in the legends to a loss of consciousness of the
such as serpents represent one of three categories
hero in the aftermath of the dragon-slaying and
of jinn 68 While usually invisible, the jinn liked
his subsequent contact with water that is known
to manifest, according to Muslim popular belief,
to have a “magical” cleansing effect and to be a
as creeping creatures, reptiles and amphibians,
transformative agent The purification thus con-
in particular serpents 69 In pre-Islamic Arabia,
stitutes a rite of separation from the act that has
the jinn were regarded as semi-divinities 70 The
been accomplished
serpents’ close association with metamorphosis
That water is an agent of transformation is fur-
was motivated by their mutant nature, manifested
ther evidenced in an account of the slaying of a
by behaviour such as the periodical sloughing off
dragon (shīr-i kappī) in Turkestan by Bahrām
their skin, living in water or tunnels beneath the
Chōbīn, Sasanian commander of Hurmuz IV (r
earth and alternating between land and water
578–590), rival to the throne of his son Khusraw
This aptitude to metamorphose was often seen
60 Bahman-nāma, BM Or 2780, fols 180, 181, as cited in
Armenian apologist, Eznik of Koghb (fl c 430– c 450),
Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr Cf Hanaway, “Bahman-
Bishop of Bagrewand, notes that they:
nāma,” EIr
61 Cf Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr
appeared sometimes as a man, sometimes as a serpent,
62 Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 4, p 503, ll 1702–
because of which it was made possible for serpent-
1714 English tr as cited in Dickson and Welch, 1981, vol II,
worship to be introduced into the world
p 201 See also al-Thaʿālibī, Taʾrīkh Ghurar al-siyar, tr and
Elc alandocʿ, tr and ed Mariès and Mercier, 1959, p 594,
ed Zotenberg, 1900, pp 309–12
ch 138; see also pp 574–5, ch 64 The theme of the ser-
63 Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II In Persian Literature,” EIr
pent as genius loci occurs also in the Alexander Romance;
64 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, p 168
Pseudo-Callisthenes I, ch 32, tr and ed Stoneman, 1991,
65 Whitehouse, “Holiness (Semitic),” ERE 6, 1913, p 754;
p 65
Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 119, 168, 171–2, 176
67 Wellhausen, 1897, pp 106, 212, 214 Robertson Smith,
66 Closely related to the nature of the jinn seem to be the
1889, repr 1927, p 120, n 1 Macdonald [Massé], “Djinn,”
Armenian shahapet s, serpent genii of places, and as such
EI² II, 546b Zbinden, 1953, p 49
“supernatural protectors” of tombs, homesteads or rural
68 Tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 449
sites, often also residing in vegetation, especially trees
69 Nöldeke, 1860, pp 412–4, and idem, 1913, p 669;
Aghatan gelos, pp 56–7, as cited in “461 šahap,” “462 šahapet,”
Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 120, 129; Ruska,
Hübschmann, 1895, pp 208–9 On the shahapet s, see
“Ḥayyā,” EI² III, 334b; Gohrab, 2000, p 87
Ananikian, 1925, pp 74–6; Ishkol-Kerovpian, “Šahapet,”
70 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 121–3, 138 Cf
WdM IV, 1, p 136; Russell, 1987, pp 329–34 The fifth-century
Macdonald [Massé], “Djinn,” EI² II, 546b
dragons and the powers of the earth
57
as a source of numinous or demonic power As
the sacred enclosure of the Meccan sanctuary 80
primarily chthonic creatures, yet able to undergo
yet these pre-Islamic cults were only gradually
so portentous a transformation, the jinn em -
and hesitantly abandoned 81 The ninth-century
body “the undefined and innominate divine,”71
historian of Mecca and its sanctuary, al-Azraqī
having a very close and necessary link with the
(d 222/837), reports on the authority of Ṭalq ibn
serpent 72
Ḥabīb that in the first century of Islam a male ser-
The close association of some jinn with trees
pent circumambulated the Kaʿba, the most sacred
through their characterisation as the spirit that
building of Islam, called the House of God (bayt
resides in vegetation,73 is exemplified in the story
Allāh), located in the centre of the Great Mosque
of Ḥarb ibn Omayya and Mirdās ibn Abī ʿĀmir,
of Mecca, and when warned by the Muslims that
historical persons who lived a generation before
were present, suddenly took to the skies and dis-
Muḥammad When the two men set fire to an
appeared:
inaccessible, knotty thicket, the jinn, taking the
We were seated with ʿAbd Allāh b ʿAmr b al-ʿĀṣ
form of white serpents, flew out of the burning
in the Ḥijr; the sun having come there (the shade
grove of al-Qurayya with doleful cries and the
having contracted) the assembly rose up, when
intruders died soon afterwards 74 It is believed
we beheld the glistening of a serpent which had
that the jinn slew them “because they had set fire
come out of the gate of the Beni-Shaibah [Banū
to their dwelling place” and thus violated their
Shayba] The eyes of the men were raised to look
haunt 75
at it; it went the circuit of the House seven times
In the Islamic period the pagan gods of the
and prayed with two bendings of the body behind
so-called Jāhiliyya period, considered to be the
the place of Abraham, when we went and said to
time of ignorance and false beliefs, were broken,
it, ‘O thou visitor, God has ordained thy blood
their sanctuaries destroyed and their guardians
to be shed, and there are in our land slaves and
dispersed 76 The gods and demigods were sub-
fools of whose mischief to thee we are afraid?’ It
sequently downgraded into jinn 77 The serpent
then went away in the direction of the sky and
we did not see any more of it 82
was one of the most ancient sacred symbols of
the pre-Islamic cults,78 however since Islam broke
Theodor Nöldeke has associated the behaviour
with these pre-Islamic practices, Muḥammad
of these Muslims with the belief in jinn,83 prob-
gave orders to kill the serpent (amara bi- qatli-
ably in order to give an explanation for such ves-
l-aym) even in the midst of prayer,79 even if the
tiges of the ancient cults 84 Even so the Prophet
believer is in a state of sacralisation (iḥrām), or in
Muḥammad insisted on regarding the serpent as
71 Wellhausen, 1897, repr 2007, p 106
were “by the serpent of God” and “by the serpent of the
72 Nöldeke, 1860, p 413
Kaʿba,” respectively, and hence meant that, just like the
73 The ancient conception of trees as animated beings (in
oath discussed above, these formulas were made “by the
ancient Greece, for instance, Aristotle, De plantis, I, p 815;
sacred serpent ”
Plutarch, De placitis philosophorum, V, 26; for Hebrew lore,
79 For this as well as further traditions, see Ḥamd
see Judges, 9–10; 2 Kings, 9), also explains the particularly
Allāh al-Mustawfī al-Qazwīnī, The Zoological Section of the
close association of jinn with trees; cf Robertson Smith,
Nuzhatu-l-qulūb, tr and ed Stephenson, J , London, 1928,
1889, repr 1927, pp 132–3
Persian text, pp 55–6, tr p 38, as cited in Ettinghausen,
74 Abu ’l-Faraj, Aghānī VI, p 92 and XX, pp 135–7;
1955, p 277
Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān III, p 85, as cited in Wellhausen,
80 Al-Azraqī, Kitāb Akhbār Makka, I, pp 377–9, as cited
1897, repr 2007, pp 152–3; Robertson Smith, 1889, repr
in Atallah, 1975, p 166
1927, p 133; Zbinden, 1953, p 76 Moreover, killing a ser-
81 Idem, p 166
pent is said to make enemies of the spirits; see Henninger,
82 Cited in al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr
2004, pp 15–6
Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 221 The French translation of the
75 Abu ’l-Faraj, Aghānī VI, p 92 and XX, 135–7, cited
text more precisely states: “ “Être pieux, muʿtamir, Dieu a
after Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, p 133
agrée ta prière et ta visite du lieu saint Mais, notre pays ne
76 Atallah, 1975, p 166
manque pas d’esclaves ni d’hommes incapables d’apprécier
77 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, p 120
le bien, sufahāʾ Nous craignons qu’il t’arrive malheure ”
78 Atallah, 1975, p 166 There was a custom to take
Alors, le serpent gonfla sa tête en forme de boule, baṭḥāʾ, il
sacred oaths “by the serpent between the two ḥarra [basal-
enroula sa queue autour de cette boule, il s’énleva dans les
tic lava fields],” recorded in Ibn Hishām’s edition of the
airs et disparu dans le ciel ” Al-Azraqī, Kitāb Akhbār Makka,
Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra, ed Wüstenfeld, 1857, p 16; Ibn al-Athīr,
I, p 263, as cited in Atallah, 1975, p 166
Nihāya, I, p 450; The History of al-Ṭabarī, vol 5, tr and ed
83 Nöldeke, 1860, p 415
Bosworth, 1999, p 179 and n 460 Cf Robertson Smith, 1889,
84 In his commentary on Ibn Hishām (ed Wüstenfeld,
repr 1927, p 130, n 1; Atallah, 1975, p 167 Wahib Atallah
vol 2, pp 41–2) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Suhaylī notes that in
(pp 162–9) moreover conclusively deduces that the transla-
several cases an orthodox Muslim is said to have wrapped
tions for the sacred phrases, Aymu-l-Lāh and Aymu-l-Kaʿba
a dead serpent in a piece of his cloak and to have buried it
58