Saladin and the wonderful lamp: Why Iran really believes Israel is using Djinns to fight Hezbollah

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“Djinns can take many forms. Most often, they appear as a large snake, a black cat, a black dog, or a sheep,” warns the 2015 English-language book Djinns and Human Diseases, which in all seriousness discusses methods of protection from djinns and their tricks. The book explains how to identify a djinn, which is usually incorporeal and invisible but can sometimes take human form. To spot one, you only need to look at the feet of the person whose human nature you doubt. Djinns, according to the authorities, typically have feet that end in the hooves of a sheep, goat, or donkey.

The authors of this guide on combating malevolent supernatural beings state in the introduction that only overly arrogant and irrational people do not believe in djinns. Such unbelievers refuse to accept the words of the Quran, where djinns are mentioned multiple times.

Not all djinns are evil or dangerous. Medieval Arab writers noted that in ancient times, djinns even took human women as wives. According to one legend, the Kurds (a people to which the famous general Saladin belonged) are descendants of ancient beings born from marriages between djinns and humans.

The Quran states that djinns, created from smokeless fire before Adam, possess free will and can choose whether to be malevolent and dangerous beings or to live peacefully, without disturbing other creations of the Almighty.

“Among us, alongside the righteous, there are also sinners, the dissolute, and unbelievers,” one of the Quranic verses quotes a djinn as saying.

Many Muslim theologians believe that Satan is also a djinn — albeit one far more powerful than his kin. Most djinns are mortal; they suffer from illness, pain, and temptations, require food and water, and are of different genders, marrying and giving birth to baby djinns. Among them are Muslims, Christians, and Jews — those of the latter category, according to Muslim beliefs, have established particularly close cooperation with humans, especially among their fellow believers.

In Muslim tradition, King Solomon (known as Prophet Suleiman in the Quran) is believed to have had the ability to command people, animals, and djinns. Djinns served as his soldiers, servants, and builders. For reasons now forgotten, the builders were chosen from among the most insubordinate and malevolent djinns, who were only kept from open rebellion by their fear of the nearly omnipotent prophet.

In his final days, Solomon embarked on the construction of a holy structure (Muslims believe it was the Al-Aqsa Mosque) and feared that his unruly workers would flee, leaving the project half-finished after his death. To prevent this, Solomon devised a clever plan: he placed his throne near the construction site and sat on it, leaning on his staff. While sitting there, Solomon quietly passed away, but the djinns did not notice. Believing that the prophet was still watching over them, they completed the construction.

In Jewish sources, stories about Solomon do not mention djinns. This is likely because the word “djinn” comes from pre-Islamic Arab folklore and was probably unfamiliar to the ancient Jews. However, Jewish mythology does include beings quite similar to the Arab djinns.

The Babylonian Talmud and other sacred texts describe beings called shedim. They are mortal, of different genders, and require food. They can instantly travel great distances, take on human form, and are capable of cursing those who offend or disturb them.

Like djinns, shedim typically reside among ruins or in abandoned houses. Even their origins are similar. Shedim were the gods of the nations surrounding the monotheistic Jews during the Babylonian captivity. While the Jews did not deny their existence, they did not believe in their divine nature and considered shedim to be demonic beings. Djinns were likely also deities of ancient civilizations, whose ruins and fearsome idols Arab traders and soldiers would occasionally encounter.

King Solomon lived long before the Babylonian exile and knew nothing of the shedim — and yet, the Talmud credits Solomon with possessing a magical tool no less miraculous than the army of djinn builders attributed to his Quranic counterpart, Suleiman. Jewish texts recount how Solomon managed to extract a secret from the demon leader Asmodeus, which allowed him to build the most sacred site in Judaism: the Temple of Jerusalem. Asmodeus revealed the location of something called shamir. It could have been secret knowledge, a powerful conquered evil spirit, or perhaps a fearsome worm. The Talmud states that shamir was used to cut the enormous stones from which the Temple was built. In this way, shamir played the same role for Solomon as the djinns did for Suleiman.

In general, if you were to gather all the stories from the Talmud and Kabbalah about supernatural beings that aided Jewish kings, judges, righteous people, and rabbis, and add to them the tales of the mystical powers of Kabbalists, Hollywood superheroes would come off as kindergarteners by comparison. Some rabbis even attribute the very creation of the State of Israel and its survival amidst a hostile Arab environment to the powers of Kabbalists.

It is not only their fellow countrymen who believe in the might of Jewish sages. Following the spread of Islam across the Middle East, Jews found themselves surrounded by a much larger Muslim population. Nonetheless, Jewish communities persisted, and many even flourished, exerting influence over Muslim rulers.

Folklore attributed Jewish civilizational successes to its adherents’ connections with dark forces. Arab sources contain some rather eerie tales of Jewish sorcerers who could kill people with spells and then immediately resurrect them, or turn them into dogs and later restore their human form — all to frighten rulers and compel them to do the sorcerers' bidding.

Naturally, Jews were believed to have special relationships with djinns: it was thought that a skilled sorcerer could subdue them and make them work for him.

Millions of Muslims around the world still believe in djinns. In the rural areas of southern Turkey, strangers are met with suspicion and are not allowed into homes — not because people fear for their property, but because they believe evil djinns take human form to drive good-hearted people mad, especially those who offer them shelter. Ironically, this superstition is most widespread among the local “descendants of djinns” — the Kurds.

In the Arab villages around Ramallah, there is no doubt that headaches and stomach pains among people are the work of djinns, who entertain themselves by tormenting the farmers.

After sixty thousand Iraqi soldiers handed the city of Mosul over to just one thousand ISIS militants in the summer of 2014 almost without a fight, rumors spread across the country that the jihadists had an army of djinns on their side. It wasn’t that the Iraqi soldiers and officers were scared, dropping their weapons and fleeing in haste from Mosul, but rather that the djinns, with their magic, sowed panic among them, making the soldiers believe that the enemy was far stronger than it actually was.

Within ISIS itself, however, djinns are not considered allies. Online media linked to the group has even warned ISIS fighters that djinns could be spying on them, remaining undetected due to their ability to be invisible.

There is also at least one known example of an ISIS supporter attempting to blame djinns for inspiring his actions. In 2016, a man from Luton, England was caught by British intelligence just days before his planned trip to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. In court, he explained that he was being tormented by djinns and believed the only way to rid himself of them was by taking up the path of jihad.

In the decade before the rise of ISIS, after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, American forces portrayed themselves as exorcists expelling evil djinns from Afghan caves. The U.S. Air Force even dropped millions of leaflets over cities and villages, depicting the elusive Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a dangerous, bloodthirsty djinn. Americans knew that most Afghans believed in and feared djinns, so they used the image of these beings in an attempt to convince the Afghan people that they had come to fight evil.

According to some politicians in neighboring Pakistan, djinns even dictate the government’s strategy. For instance, former Pakistani Prime Minister and current prisoner Imran Khan was accused of using djinns to maintain power. Khan's political rivals claimed that his wife could control two fierce djinns, who, in exchange for meat, spied on his political opponents and reported their every move. This “information” was leaked through recordings of phone conversations from within Khan’s circle, made by disgruntled party officials who were unhappy with their boss’s growing influence. One of these officials was expelled from the party after recounting her version of djinn stories involving the PM’s wife.

And it’s not just politicians. One of Pakistan’s leading atomic scientists, the open Taliban and Al-Qaeda supporter Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, seriously believes that the most effective way to overcome the energy crisis is by enslaving djinns, who, being made of fire, constantly emit heat energy.

In Egypt, a former member of parliament and close associate of former President Hosni Mubarak is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence. Alaa Hassanain, known as the “deputy of djinns and goblins,” began his public career as a participant in television shows dedicated to the supernatural, claiming he could control djinns.

Hassanain was so convincing that he not only persuaded ordinary voters to cast their ballots for him, but also managed to get Mubarak to choose him as his lawyer. However, after the Arab Spring revolution ousted Mubarak from power in 2011, neither Hassanain’s legal career nor his public life as the “deputy of djinns and goblins” fared well. In 2022, the former television magician and politician was imprisoned on charges of stealing and selling numerous ancient Egyptian artifacts abroad.

Interestingly, he was assisted in his criminal endeavors not by djinns, but by Saudi citizens — ironic given Riyad’s attitude to the supernatural. In Saudi Arabia, since the late 2000s, a special unit within the Ministry of Justice has been operating to combat magic. It ensures that books about Harry Potter do not enter the country, has the authority to arrest and interrogate those suspected of witchcraft, and regulates the activities of exorcists who expel djinns.

But while the competition is fierce, the country most obsessed with djinns at the moment is certainly Iran. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fell out of favor with the country's highest leadership — the Assembly of Experts — and eventually lost his position after respected religious figures claimed that there were sorcerers in his circle who summoned djinns. A decade later, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, delivered an impassioned speech in which he identified the main enemies of the state. Among them were the United States, the coronavirus, and the army of djinns.

According to the ayatollah, djinns are assisting Iran's enemies in their preparations for war against the Islamic Republic. However, Khamenei did not specify who these enemies are. There was no need to, as Iranian media regularly report that djinns and other supernatural entities serve Israel. These claims often reference medieval tales of Jewish sorcerers who could easily kill and resurrect people using otherworldly powers.

Thus, when one of Iran's leading theologians, Mustafa Karami, stated that “djinns and other malevolent beings helped the Jews” reach the leaders of Hezbollah and destroy them, this was merely a reiteration of a narrative that has been a staple in the Middle Eastern mainstream for the past two thousand years.