Marid
A marid (Arabic: مارد mārid) is a type of shaitan (demon) in Islamic tradition.[1] The Arabic word, meaning "rebellious," is applied to such supernatural beings.
Hans Wehr's A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines marid as a "demon" or "giant."[2] The term is directly mentioned once in the Quran in Surat As-Saffat (Q37:7).[3]
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Etymology
[edit]The word mārid (Arabic: مارد) is an active participle derived from the Arabic root m-r-d (مرد), whose primary meaning is "recalcitrant" or "rebellious." Lisan al-Arab, the encyclopedic dictionary of Classical Arabic compiled by Ibn Manzur, documents only forms of this general meaning.[4] The term appears as an attribute of evil spirits in the Quranic verse Surah aṣ-Ṣāffāt (37:7), which references a "safeguard against every rebellious devil" (Arabic: شيطان مارد, romanized: shayṭān mārid). Cognates from the same Semitic root include the Hebrew words for "rebellion" (Hebrew: מרד, romanized: mɛrɛḏ) and "rebel" (Hebrew: מוֹרֵד, romanized: moreḏ).
The Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic lists secondary meanings of mārid as "demon" and "giant"[5] (Persian: دیو, romanized: div). Edward Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon cites a classical source describing the term as "applied to an evil jinnī of the most powerful class,"[6] though this distinction is not universally accepted. For example, the MacNaghten edition of One Thousand and One Nights uses marid and ifrit interchangeably (e.g., in The Story of the Fisherman).[7]
A debated theory by historian Konstantin Jireček believed that mārid refers to the Greek: Μαρδαϊται, romanized: Mardaitai, referring to marauder mercenaries during the Arab–Byzantine wars, who were eponymously linked to the Albanian tribe of Mirdita.[8]
Features
[edit]Amira El-Zein describes the mārid as a supernatural being that attempts to predict the future by ascending to the heavens and eavesdropping on angels.[9](p 143) The Quran references the mārid in Surah aṣ-Ṣāffāt (37:7), which states that "the lowest heaven is adorned with stars to ward off rebellious devils" (Arabic: شَيْطَانٍ مَارِدٍ, romanized: shayṭānin māridin),[9](p 143) and in Surah an-Nisa (4:117), which condemns the invocation of "none but a rebellious Satan." In Islamic tradition, similar to the ʿifrīt, the mārid is associated with a distinct class of beings from the netherworld.[10]
A narration attributed to Ali, recorded byAli ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi, states that when God resolved to create Adam, He punished humanity's predecessors by obliterating the nasnas (half-formed beings), erecting a veil between jinn and humans, and confining the "rebellious giants" (Arabic: مَارِدَة, romanized: māridah) to the atmosphere.[11] According to the Maliki Athari scholar Ibn 'Abd al-Barr in his work Al-Tamhîd, the mārid is a demonic entity more malevolent than ordinary shayṭān (devils) but less powerful than an ʿifrīt.[12] The mārid appears prominently in the Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan, a pre-Islamic epic. In the narrative, King Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan orders a mārid to lead him to King Solomon's treasure. True to its rebellious nature, the marid deliberately disobeys. Sayf later learns from the prophet Khidr that he must command the opposite of his true intent to manipulate the mārid.[13]
A study on Muslim beliefs in Egypt notes that, according to tradition, humanity's survival depends on divine restraint of demons; if unchained, marids would annihilate humankind.[14]
Though mārids and ʿifrīt are both classified as powerful devils, they differ in disposition. While the ʿifrīt is characterized as cunning, treacherous, and deceitful, the mārid is portrayed as less intellectually adept and susceptible to manipulation by humans.[15]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Nazari, Morad. "Jinn in Islamic texts and culture". Academia.edu.
- ^ Wehr, Hans (1979). A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-02002-2.
- ^ "Surah As-Saffat - 7". Quran.com. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
- ^ Manzur, Ibn. "Lisan al-'arab (entry for m-r-d)". p. 5376.
- ^ Wehr, Hans; Cowan, J.M. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (3rd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Spoken Language Services. p. 903.
- ^ Lane, Edward William. "An Arabic-English Lexicon: Derived from the best and the most copious Eastern sources". Archived from the original on 8 April 2015.
- ^ Mac Naghten, Sir William Hay, ed. (1839). Alif Laila. Vol. 1. Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co. p. 20.
- ^ Jireček, Konstantin (1879), Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien während des Mittelalters, p. 16
- ^ a b
el-Zein, Amira (2009). Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-5070-6. - ^ "mārid". In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Glossary and Index of Terms, (Brill, 2012) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei2glos_SIM_gi_02894
- ^ Ayoub, Mahmoud M. (1984). The Qur'an and Its Interpreters, Volume 1, Band 1. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-791-49546-9.
- ^ Humam Hasan Yusuf Shalom (2021). Sulaiman : Raja Segala Makhluk (Bukel) (in Indonesian). Pustaka Al Kautsar. p. 131. ISBN 9789795929277. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
Marid." - Jika yang dimaksudkan adalah jin yang lebih kuat dan lebih dari itu, maka mereka berkata, "Ifrit."
- ^ Tobias Nünlist Dämonenglaube im Islam Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 ISBN 978-3-110-33168-4 p. 100 (German)
- ^ Sengers, Gerda. Women and Demons: Cultic Healing in Islamic Egypt. Vol. 86. Brill, 2003.
- ^ Fartacek, G. (2010). Unheil durch Dämonen? Geschichten und Diskurse über das Wirken der Ǧinn ; eine sozialanthropologische Spurensuche in Syrien. Österreich: Böhlau. p. 68