Monster. Islam

Awe-inspiring and terrifying, the supernatural landscape of the Islamic world is populated with mixed or composite shapeshifting monsters. As the demonic “other,” these portentous symbols of chaos, evil, and death serve as warners, revealers, and explorers. In the Qurʾān, hell itself is personified: gifted with speech, it dialogues with God (S 50:30), summons “those who turned their backs and fled” (S 70:17), rages and roars (S 25:12), and is “nearly bursting with rage” (S 67:7–8; parallels in Judeo-Christian sources include 1 En. 56:8, in which the mouth of hell swallows sinners; 3 Bar. 4:5; 5:3, in which hell is the belly of a dragon; and in Ephrem’s Nisibene Hymns, 61:26, in which hell “groans” over the sinners).
Eschatological traditions (Arab. ḥadīth, pl. aḥādīth) engage in elaborate descriptions of the hell-monster Jahannam (a cognate of Heb. gēhinnōm) who is led in chains by the angels (Lange 2016b: 74–99). The notion of a beastly monster is further reinforced by its name al-ḥuṭama (S 104:4–5), “the Insatiable” or “the Crusher.” Islamic tradition and qurʾānic exegesis further embellish the gruesome activities of the personification of evil (Suyūṭī: 68, 411, 149–52, 227; al-Majlisī: 7.95–6; 8.464) which, however, is heroically reined in by the prophet Muḥammad (Suyūṭī: 68, 149–52, 227; al-Majlisī: 7.95–6). In a Shiʿi tradition, the role of the tamer is played by Muḥammad’s son-in-law ʿAlī, who seizes the monster’s reins and rear mounts the beast, while holding the keys to paradise and hell (al-Majlisī: 7:243; Lange 2016a: 127–8).
The Qurʾān speaks of an “angel of death” (Arab. malak al-mawt; Heb. malʾāk ha-māwet; S 32:11; cf. Exod 12:23; 2 Sam 24:16; Isa 37:36), called ʿIzrāʾīl/ʿAzrāʾīl in exegetical works, who is ascribed a monstrous demeanor, prodigious dimensions, and attributes (al-Qāḍī: 5.6–8, ET: 32–35; Günther: 321). Another angel, Rūmān, not mentioned in the Qurʾān, visits the graves of the deceased accompanied by two monstrous black angels with canine teeth, long shaggy hair, voices like thunder, eyes like lightning, breath like strong wind (al-Ghazālī: 23–24, ET: 33–34; cf. al-Qazwīnī: 60–61, GT: 74; Günther: 328–30). In hell, nineteen angels of punishment (S 74:30), often referred to as black-garbed zabāniya, who are supervised by Mālik, the keeper of hell (S 43:77), are portrayed as having a similarly shocking, gargantuan appearance, so much so that they can clutch multitudes of the damned with their enormous claws in a single moment (Suyūṭī: 416; al-Majlisī: 8:453; Lange 2016a: 144–45).