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Work in Progress; Assignment for MES 343

Depictions

Visual Art

There are very few visual representations of  jinn in Islamic art. Though jinn weren’t often depicted in Islamic visual art, when they do appear, they often depict specific jinn, such as the Jinn Kings or Iblis, a descendant of the jinn. Visual representations of jinn appear in manuscripts and their existence is often implied in works of architecture by the presence of apotropaic devices like serpents, which were intended to ward off evil spirits. Lastly, King Solomon is illustrated very often with jinn as the commander of an army that included them.

Painting from a Herat manuscript of the Persian rendition by Bal'ami of the Annals/Tarikh (universal chronicle) of al-Tabari, depicting angels honoring Adam, except Iblis, who refuses. Held at the Topkapi Palace Museum Library.

Iblis

Perhaps one of the most well-known jinn, Iblis was depicted in multiple visual representations like the Qu’ran and Manuscripts of Bal‘ami’s ‘Tarjamah-i Tarikh-i Tabari. Iblis was a unique individual, described as both a pious Jinn, and at times an angel, before he fell from Allah’s grace when he refused to bow before the prophet Adam. In visual appearance, Iblis was depicted in On the Monstrous in the Islamic Visual Tradition as a being with a human-like body with flaming eyes, a tail, claws, and large horns on a grossly disproportionate large head.

The red king of the djinns, Al-Ahmar, from the late 14th-century Book of Wonders.

The Seven Jinn Kings

In the Kitab al-Bulhan, or the Book of Surprises compiled in the fourteenth century by Abd al-Hasan Al-Isfahani, there are illustrations of 'The Seven Jinn Kings’. In general, each ‘King of the Jinn’ was represented alongside his helpers and alongside the corresponding talismanic symbols. For instance, the ‘Red King of Tuesday’ was depicted in the Kitab al-Bulhan as a sinister form astride a lion. In the same illustration, he holds a severed head and a sword. This was because the ‘Red King of Tuesday’ was aligned with Mars, the planet of war. Alongside that, there were illustrations of the ‘Gold King’ and the ‘White King’. Aside from the seven ‘Kings of the Jinn’, the Kitab al-Bulhan included an illustration of Huma, or the ‘Fever’. Huma was depicted as three-headed and as embracing the room around him, in order to capture someone and bring on a fever in them.

Ornamentation of intertwined serpents above the door of the citadel of Aleppo.

Architectural Representation

In addition to these representations of jinn in vicinity to kingship, there were also architectural references to jinn throughout the Islamic world. In the citadel at Aleppo, the entrance gate Bab al-Hayyat made reference to jinn in the stone relief carvings of serpents; likewise, the water gate at Ayyubid Harran housed two copper sculptures of jinn, serving as talismans to ward off both snakes and evil jinn in the form of snakes.

Alongside these depictions of the jinn found at the Aleppo Citadel, depictions of the jinn can be found in the Rūm Seljuk palace. There are a phenomenal range of creatures that can be found on the eight-pointed tiles of the Seal of Sulaymān device. Among these were the jinn, that belonged among Solomon’s army and as Solomon claimed to have control over the jinn, so did the Rūm Seljuk sultan that claimed to be the Sulaymān of his time. In fact, one of the most common representations of jinn are alongside or in association with King Solomon. It was thought that King Solomon had very close ties to the jinn, and even had control over many of them. The concept that a great and just ruler has the ability to command jinn was one that extended far past only King Solomon– it was also thought that emperors, such as Alexander the Great, could control an army of jinn in a similar way. Given this association, Jinn were often seen with Solomon in a princely or kingly context, such as the small, animal-like jinn sitting beside King Solomon on his throne illustrated in an illuminated manuscript of The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence by Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini, written in the 13th century.

Talismanic Representation

The jinn had an indirect impact on Islamic art through the creation of talismans that were alleged to guard the bearer from the jinn and were enclosed in leather and included Qur’anic verses. It was not unusual for those talismans to be inscribed with separated Arabic letters, because the separation of those letters was thought to positively affect the potency of the talisman overall. An object that was inscribed with the word of Allah was thought to have the power to ward off evil from the person who obtained the object, though many of these objects also had astrological signs, depictions of prophets, or religious narratives.