Ifrit
Ifrit
The ifrit is a powerful category of jinn in Islamic tradition, created from smokeless fire. Known for their cunning and danger, they appear in the Quran and One Thousand and One Nights. These supernatural beings hold a central place in medieval Muslim folklore and cosmology.
Key Facts
- Mentioned in the Quran (Surah An-Naml, verse 39): an ifrit offers Solomon to bring him the throne of the Queen of Sheba.
- In Islamic tradition, jinn are created from smokeless fire, unlike humans (clay) and angels (light).
- Ifrits are described as the most powerful and malevolent class of jinn in Islamic folklore.
- They appear abundantly in One Thousand and One Nights (compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries), often as formidable antagonists.
- Belief in jinn and ifrits is theologically recognized in Islam, distinguishing between visible beings (humans) and invisible ones (jinn, angels, demons).
Works & Achievements
The founding text that explicitly mentions ifrits and jinn as real beings. These passages form the primary source for all Islamic theology concerning creatures of fire.
The first major Arab scholarly encyclopedia to attempt a philosophical classification of living beings, placing jinn and ifrits within an Aristotelian framework adapted to the Islamic context.
A major literary corpus that brought ifrits into world culture; dozens of stories feature these fire-beings with extraordinary powers, portrayed as both threatening and wondrous.
A grand geographical and historical encyclopedia of the medieval Islamic world that incorporates ifrits into a comparative cosmology drawing on Arab, Persian, and Greek traditions.
A Sufi mystical summa offering an esoteric reading of ifrits as intermediary spiritual forces; its influence on both Eastern and Western Islamic mysticism has been lasting.
A theological treatise affirming the reality of jinn and ifrits, distinguishing those who submit to Islamic law from those who defy it; a normative reference in medieval Sunni scholarship.
Anecdotes
In the Quranic surah An-Naml (verse 39), an ifrit offers the prophet Solomon (Sulayman) to bring him the throne of Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, before he could even rise from his seat. This episode illustrates the extraordinary power attributed to these beings, capable of accomplishing in an instant tasks that would be impossible for humans.
According to medieval Islamic cosmology, jinn — of which ifrits are the most fearsome class — were created from 'smokeless fire' (nār al-samūm), while angels were made of light and humans of clay. This hierarchy of creatures is described in several hadiths and Quranic commentaries, and profoundly shaped medieval theological thought.
In One Thousand and One Nights, the story of 'The Fisherman and the Jinni' features an ifrit imprisoned in a copper jar sealed with the seal of Solomon. Confined for centuries, he had at first promised treasures to whoever freed him, but consumed by rage over time, had resolved to kill his liberator instead — only to be ultimately outwitted by the fisherman's cunning.
The theologian and philosopher Al-Jahiz (776–869), in his encyclopedia Kitāb al-Hayawān, devotes several passages to jinn and ifrits, attempting to reconcile their Quranic descriptions with Greek natural philosophy. He classifies them among fire-born beings endowed with reason, distinct from animals and humans alike, reflecting the scholarly interest of the Abbasid world in these entities.
The term 'ifrit' came to mean, in medieval popular usage, any particularly cunning or malevolent being, human or otherwise. Chroniclers such as Al-Masudi report that the expression 'he is an ifrit' was used to describe a man of extraordinary skill or wickedness, attesting to how deeply these creatures were embedded in everyday imagination.
Primary Sources
An ifrit from among the jinn said: 'I will bring you her throne before you rise from your place. Indeed, I am strong and trustworthy for this.'
Say: 'It has been revealed to me that a group of jinn listened [to the Quran] and said: We have heard a wondrous recitation that guides to righteousness.'
Jinn are beings of airy fire endowed with intelligence and will; the most powerful among them, the ifrits, can take any form and cross vast distances in the blink of an eye.
Inside the jar was a genie of the race of rebellious ifrits, whom King Solomon, son of David, had imprisoned there for refusing to submit to his commands.
The Arabs count among the ifrits those jinn who have chosen rebellion and pride, refusing to submit to either God or the prophets; their power surpasses that of all other jinn.
Key Places
Birthplace of Islam and the place where the first mentions of jinn were revealed in the Quran. Ifrits are part of the Islamic cosmology that emerged from this pre-medieval Arabian context.
Capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and center of medieval scholarly culture where the tales of One Thousand and One Nights developed; stories of ifrits were collected, expanded, and set down in writing there.
Region associated with the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis), whose throne was brought to Solomon by an ifrit according to the Quran. This place roots the figure of the ifrit in a real geography and a specific scriptural episode.
The main center for the transmission and copying of One Thousand and One Nights manuscripts from the 13th century onward; it was here that the corpus was greatly enriched with tales of marine and urban ifrits.
Hub of Sunni theological tradition where Ibn Taymiyya wrote his treatises on jinn and ifrits, seeking to frame popular belief within an orthodox religious framework.
Gallery
Las Mil Noches Y Una Noche V16
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The 1001 Nights
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — anonymous
The 1001 Nights
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — anonymous
Allies Fairy Book-148
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Rackham
Asiatic researches, or, Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences and literature of Asia. Volume 2 (Printed verbatim from the
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Asiatic researches, or, Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into the history and antiqui
The history of the forty vezirs / or, The story of the forty morns and eves
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Shaikh Sardar, Munshi Gibb, Elias John Wilkinson, 1857-1901
Remains of Japhet: : being historical enquiries into the affinity and origin of the European languages.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Parsons, James, 1705-1770
Historica narratione della chiesa parocchiale et Archiconfraternità del Santissimo Corpo di Christo, posto in S. Giacomo Apostolo in Borgo
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Torriggio, Francesco Maria, 1580-1650
The history of the forty vezirs / or, The story of the forty morns and eves
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Shaikh Sardār, Munshī Gibb, Elias John Wilkinson, 1857-1901, tr
