Jinn, Dragons, and Divs: Supernatural Beings in Medieval Islamicate Literatures
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Great Lakes Adiban Society
Organizer Name
Cameron Cross
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Presider Name
Franklin Lewis
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Chicago
Paper Title 1
The Monstrous in Medieval Arab versus Medieval Western Writings
Presenter 1 Name
Sally Abed
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Alexandria Univ.
Paper Title 2
Repenting of Poetry: Al-Farazdaq’s Notice to the Devil
Presenter 2 Name
Kevin Blankinship
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Utah
Paper Title 3
Devil the Divine: The Sainthood of Iblis in Persian Mysticism and Its Portrayal in Medieval Perso-Islamic Paintings
Presenter 3 Name
Abolfazl Moshiri
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 4
Dragon-Spawn, Elephant-Men, and the Quiddity of Evil in Persian Epic
Presenter 4 Name
Cameron Cross
Start Date
11-5-2018 3:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1345
Description
This panel will address medieval Islamicate literary approaches to creatures who are neither ordinary humans nor ordinary animals. A plethora of spirits, monsters, and other enchanted beings play key roles in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish texts ranging from cosmological, geographical, and medical treatises to works of history, romance, and lyric poetry. How did the intellectual and cultural heritage of Islamic societies, including elements such as Hellenistic learning, pre-Islamic mythology and folklore, and Judaeo-Christian demonology, create a unique environment for writers to explore non-human ontologies? At the same time, authors could employ the explicit invocations of jinn, ghouls, and magic serpents in the Qur’an and hadith as defenses against charges of indulging in mere fantasy. In what ways did these references serve as intellectual justifications for literary curiosity regarding the extreme cases of created life—the invisible, magical, or extraordinary inhabitants of sites both local and exotic? How did situating these entities in either a distant haunted past and a perceptible present shape writers’ relationships to temporality? Open to contributions from scholars of literature, history, religion, and culture, amongst other disciplines, this panel seeks to provide a space for the discussion of these and related questions.
Cameron Cross
Jinn, Dragons, and Divs: Supernatural Beings in Medieval Islamicate Literatures
Schneider 1345
This panel will address medieval Islamicate literary approaches to creatures who are neither ordinary humans nor ordinary animals. A plethora of spirits, monsters, and other enchanted beings play key roles in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish texts ranging from cosmological, geographical, and medical treatises to works of history, romance, and lyric poetry. How did the intellectual and cultural heritage of Islamic societies, including elements such as Hellenistic learning, pre-Islamic mythology and folklore, and Judaeo-Christian demonology, create a unique environment for writers to explore non-human ontologies? At the same time, authors could employ the explicit invocations of jinn, ghouls, and magic serpents in the Qur’an and hadith as defenses against charges of indulging in mere fantasy. In what ways did these references serve as intellectual justifications for literary curiosity regarding the extreme cases of created life—the invisible, magical, or extraordinary inhabitants of sites both local and exotic? How did situating these entities in either a distant haunted past and a perceptible present shape writers’ relationships to temporality? Open to contributions from scholars of literature, history, religion, and culture, amongst other disciplines, this panel seeks to provide a space for the discussion of these and related questions.
Cameron Cross