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GABR (گبر‎). [MAJUS.]

GABRIEL. Arabic Jibrāʾīl (جبرايل‎). In the Qurʾān Jibrīl (جبريل‎). The angelic being who is supposed to have been the medium of the revelation of the Qurʾān to Muḥammad. He is mentioned only twice in the Qurʾān by name. Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah ii. 91: “Whoso is the enemy of Gabriel—for he hath by God’s leave caused to descend on thy heart the confirmation of previous revelations,” &c. And again in Sūratu ʾt-Taḥrīm, lxvi. 4: “God is his Protector, and Gabriel.” He is, however, supposed to be spoken of in Sūrahs ii. 81, 254; v. 109; xvi. 104, as “the Holy Spirit,” Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus; in Sūrah xxvi. 193, as “the Faithful Spirit,” ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Amīn; and in liii. 5, as “one terrible in power,” Shadīdu ʾl-Quwā.

The account of Gabriel’s first appearance to Muḥammad is related as follows by Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ: “Muḥammad was wont to retire to Mount Ḥirā for a month every year. When the year of his mission came, he went to Mount Ḥirā in the month of Ramaẓān for the purpose of sojourning there, having his family with him; and there he abode until the night arrived in which God was pleased to bless him. Gabriel came to him, and said to him, ‘Recite!’ And he replied, ‘What shall I recite?’ And he said, ‘Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created. Created man from clots of blood. Recite thou! For the Lord is most Beneficent. Who hath taught the use of the pen. Hath taught man that which he knoweth not.’ After this the Prophet went to the middle of the mountain, and heard a voice from heaven which said, ‘Thou art the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.’ He continued standing in his place to contemplate Gabriel until he withdrew.” [QURAN.]

Sir William Muir says: “It is clear that at a later period at least, if not from the first, Mahomet confounded Gabriel with the Holy Ghost. The idea may have arisen from some such misapprehension as the following. Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost, which overshadowed her. But it was Gabriel who visited Mary to announce the conception of the Saviour. The Holy Ghost was therefore another name for Gabriel. We need hardly wonder at this ignorance when Mahomet seems to have believed that Christians held Mary to be the third person in the Trinity!”

With reference to the verse quoted above, from the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah, Sale says the Commentators say that the Jews asked what angel it was that brought the Qurʾān to Muḥammad, and on being told that it was Gabriel, they replied that he was their enemy, and the messenger of wrath and judgment; but that if it had been Michael they would have believed in him, because that angel was their friend, and the messenger of peace and plenty.

It is also important to observe that the only distinct assertion of Gabriel being the medium of divine revelation, occurs in a Madanīyah Sūrah.

Gabriel is called in Muslim books ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Aʿz̤am, “The Supreme Spirit”; ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Mukarram, “The Honoured Spirit”; Rūḥu ʾl-Īlqāʾ, “The Spirit of casting into”; Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus, “The Holy Spirit”; and ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Amīn, “The Faithful Spirit.”

GAMBLING (Arabic maisir, ميسر‎; qimār قمار‎) is forbidden in the Qurʾān.

Sūrah ii. 216: “They will ask thee concerning wine, and games of chance. Say both is a great sin, and advantage also, to men, but their sin is greater than their advantage.”

Sūrah v. 93: “Only would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine and games of chance, and turn you aside from the remembrance of God, and from prayer: will ye not, therefore, abstain from them?”

The evidence of a gambler is not admissible in a Muḥammadan court of law, because gaming is a great crime. (Hidāyah ii. p. 688.)

GARDEN. Arabic jannah (جنة‎); Heb. ‏גַּן‎, pl. ‏גַּנִּים‎. In the Qurʾān the residence of our first parents is called Al-jannah, “the garden,” and not Jannatu ʿAdn, or the “Garden of Eden,” Jannatu ʿAdn being the fourth stage of celestial bliss. Al-jannāt, “the gardens,” is a term frequently used in the Qurʾān for the state of heavenly joy; and the stages of paradise, which are eight, are known as—(1) The garden of eternity, (2) The dwelling of peace, (3) The dwelling which abideth, (4) The garden of Eden, (5) The garden of refuge, (6) The garden of delight, (7) The garden of ʿIllīyūn, (8) The garden of Paradise. [PARADISE.]

GENII. Arabic jinn (جن‎), and jānn (جان‎). Muḥammad was a sincere believer in the existence of good and evil genii, and has left a record of his belief in the LXXIInd chapter of his Qurʾān, entitled the Sūratu ʾl-Jinn. It opens thus:—

“Say: It hath been revealed to me that a company of JINN listened and said,—Verily, we have heard a marvellous discourse (Qurʾān);

“It guideth to the truth; wherefore we believed in it, and we will not henceforth join any being with our Lord;

“And He,—may the majesty of our Lord be exalted!—hath taken no spouse neither hath he any offspring.

“But the foolish among us hath spoken of God that which is unjust:

“And we verily thought that no one amongst men or jinn would have uttered a lie against God.

“There are indeed people among men, who have sought for refuge unto people among jinn: but they only increased their folly:

“And they thought as ye think, that God would not raise any from the dead.

“And the Heavens did we essay, but found them filled with a mighty garrison, and with flaming darts;

“And we sat on some of the seats to listen, but whoever listeneth findeth an ambush ready for him of flaming darts.”

The following exhaustive account of the Muḥammadan belief on the subject is taken from the writings of the late Mr. Lane (the learned author of the Modern Egyptians and of Notes on the Arabian Nights), but slightly altered to meet the requirements of the present work.

According to a tradition from the Prophet, this species consists of five orders, namely, Jānn (who are the least powerful of all), Jinn, Shait̤āns (or devils), ʿIfrīts, and Marīds. The last, it is added, are the most powerful; and the Jānn are transformed Jinn, like as certain apes and swine were transformed men. It must, however, be remarked that the terms Jinn and Jānn are generally used indiscriminately as names of the whole species, whether good or bad, and that the former term is the more common. Also, that Shait̤ān is commonly used to signify any evil genius. An ʿIfrīt is a powerful evil genius; a Marīd, an evil genius of the most powerful class. The Jinn (but, generally speaking, evil ones) are called by the Persians Deves, the most powerful evil Jinn, Narahs (which signifies “males,” though they are said to be males and females); the good Jinn, Pīrīs, though this term is commonly applied to females. In a tradition from the Prophet, it is said, “The Jānn were created of a smokeless fire.” The word which signifies “a smokeless fire” has been misunderstood by some as meaning “the flame of fire.” Al-Jauharī (in the Ṣiḥāḥ) renders it rightly; and says that of this fire was the Shait̤ān or Iblīs created. Al-Jānn is sometimes used as a name for Iblīs, as in the following verse of the Qurʾān (Sūrah xv. 27): “And the Jānn [the father of the Jinn, i.e. Iblīs] we had created before [i.e. before the creation of Adam] of the fire of the Samūm [i.e. of the fire without smoke].” Jānn also signifies “a serpent,” as in other passages of the Qurʾān, and is used in the same book as synonymous with Jinn. In the last sense it is generally believed to be used in the tradition quoted in the commencement of this paragraph. There are several apparently contradictory traditions from the Prophet, which are reconciled by what has been above stated; in one it is said that Iblīs was the father of all the Jānn and Shait̤ān; Jānn being here synonymous with Jinn; in another, that Jānn was the father of all the Jinn, here Jānn being used as a name for Iblīs.

“It is held,” says al-Qazwīnī, “that the Jinn are aerial animals, with transparent bodies, which can assume various forms. People differ in opinion respecting these beings; some consider the Jinn and Shait̤āns as unruly men, but these persons are of the Muʿtazilahs [a sect of Muslim freethinkers], and some hold that God, whose name be exalted, created the angels of the light of fire, and the Jinn of its flame [but this is at variance with the general opinion], and the Shait̤āns of its smoke [which is also at variance with the common opinion]; and that [all] these kinds of beings are [usually] invisible to men, but that they assume what forms they please, and when their form becomes condensed they are visible.” This last remark illustrates several descriptions of genii in the Arabian Nights, where the form of the monster is at first undefined, or like an enormous pillar, and then gradually assumes a human shape and less gigantic size.

It is said that God created the Jānn [or Jinn] two thousand years before Adam [or, according to some writers, much earlier], and that there are believers and infidels and every sect among them, as among men. Some say that a prophet named Yūsuf was sent to the Jinn; others, that they had only preachers or admonishers; others, again, that seventy apostles were sent, before Muḥammad, to Jinn and men conjointly. It is commonly believed that the preadamite Jinn were governed by forty (or, according to some, seventy-two) kings, to each of whom the Arab writers give the name of Sulaiman (or Solomon); and that they derive their appellation from the last of these, who was called Jānn ibn Jānn, and who, some say, built the Pyramids of Egypt.

The following account of the preadamite Jinn is given by al-Qazwīnī:—

“It is related in histories that a race of Jinn in ancient times, before the creation of Adam, inhabited the earth, and covered it, the land and the sea, and the plains and the mountains; and the favours of God were multiplied upon them, and they had government, and prophecy, and religion and law; but they transgressed and offended, and opposed their prophets, and made wickedness to abound in the earth: whereupon God, whose name be exalted, sent against them an army of angels, who took possession of the earth, and drove away the Jinn to the regions of the islands, and made many of them prisoners; and of those who were made prisoners was ʿAzazīl (afterwards called Iblīs, from his despair), and a slaughter was made among them. At that time, ʿAzazīl was young; he grew up among the angels [and probably for that reason was called one of them], and became learned in their knowledge, and assumed the government of them; and his days were prolonged until he became their chief; and thus it continued for a long time, until the affair between him and Adam happened, as God, whose name be exalted, hath said, ‘When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn.’ (Sūrah l. 49).”

Iblīs, we are told by another authority, was sent as a governor upon the earth, and judged among the Jinn a thousand years, after which he ascended into heaven, and remained employed in worship until the creation of Adam. The name of Iblīs was originally, according to some, ʿAzazīl (as before mentioned), and according to others, al-Ḥāris̤; his patronymic is Abū Munnah or Abū ʾl-G͟himr. It is disputed whether he was of the angels or of the Jinn. There are three opinions on this point: (1) That he was of the angels, from a tradition from Ibn ʿAbbās; (2) That he was of the Shait̤āns (or evil Jinn), as it is said in the Qurʾān, “Except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn”; this was the opinion of al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and is that commonly held; (3) That he was neither of the angels nor of the Jinn, but created alone of fire. Ibn ʿAbbās founds his opinion on the same text from which al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī derives his: “When we said unto the angels, worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn” (before quoted); which he explains by saying that the most noble and honourable among the angels are called “the Jinn,” because they are veiled from the eyes of the other angels on account of their superiority; and that Iblīs was one of these Jinn. He adds, that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth, and was called the T̤āʾus (lit. “Peacock”) of the angels; and that there was not a spot in the lowest heaven but he had prostrated himself upon it; but when the Jinn rebelled upon the earth, God sent a troop of angels, who drove them to the islands and mountains; and Iblīs being elated with pride, and refusing to prostrate himself before Adam, God transformed him into a Shait̤ān. But this reasoning is opposed by other verses, in which Iblīs is represented as saying, “Thou hast created me of fire, and hast created him [Adam] of earth.” It is therefore argued, “If he were created originally of fire, how was he created of light? for the angels were [all] created of light.” The former verse may be explained by the tradition that Iblīs, having been taken captive, was exalted among the angels; or, perhaps, there is an ellipsis after the word “Angels”; for it might be inferred that the command given to the Angels was also (and a fortiori) to be obeyed by the Jinn.

According to a tradition, Iblīs and all the Shait̤āns are distinguished from the other Jinn by a longer existence. “The Shait̤āns,” it is added, “are the children of Iblīs, and die not but with him; whereas the [other] Jinn die before him, though they may live many centuries. But this is not altogether accordant with the popular belief: Iblīs and many other evil Jinn are to survive mankind, but they are to die before the general resurrection, as also even the angels, the last of whom will be the Angel of Death, ʿIzrāʾīl. Yet not all the evil Jinn are to live thus long. Many of them are killed by shooting stars, hurled at them from heaven; wherefore, the Arabs, when they see a shooting star (shihāb), often exclaim, ‘May God transfix the enemy of the faith!’ Many also are killed by other Jinn, and some even by men. The fire of which the Jinn is created circulates in his veins, in place of blood; therefore, when he receives a mortal wound, this fire, issuing from his veins, generally consumes him to ashes.”

The Jinn, it has been already shown, are peaceable. They also eat and drink, and propagate their species, sometimes in conjunction with human beings; in which latter case, the offspring partakes of the nature of both parents. In all these respects they differ from the angels. Among the evil Jinn are distinguished the five sons of their chief, Iblīs; namely, T̤īr, who brings about calamities, losses, and injuries; al-Aʿwar, who encourages debauchery; Sūt, who suggests lies; Dāsim, who causes hatred between man and wife; and Zalambūr, who presides over places of traffic.

The most common forms and habitations or places of resort of the Jinn must now be described. The following traditions from the Prophet are to the purpose:—

The Jinn are of various shapes, having the forms of serpents, scorpions, lions, wolves, jackals, &c. The Jinn are of three kinds—one on the land, one on the sea, and one in the air. The Jinn consist of forty troops, each troop consisting of six hundred thousand. The Jinn are of three kinds—one have wings and fly; another are snakes and dogs; and the third move about from place to place like men. Domestic snakes are asserted to be Jinn on the same authority.

The Prophet ordered his followers to kill serpents and scorpions if they intruded at prayers; but on other occasions, he seems to have required first to admonish them to depart, and then, if they remained, to kill them. The Doctors, however, differ in opinion whether all kinds of snakes or serpents should be admonished first; or whether any should; for the Prophet, say they, took a covenant of the Jinn [probably after the above-mentioned command], that they should not enter the houses of the faithful; therefore, it is argued, if they enter, they break their covenant, and it becomes lawful to kill them without previous admonishment. Yet it is related that ʿĀyishah, one of the Prophet’s wives, having killed a serpent in her chamber, was alarmed by a dream, and fearing that it might have been a Muslim Jinnī, as it did not enter her chamber, when she was undressed, gave in alms, as an expiation, twelve thousand dirhams (about £300), the price of the blood of a Muslim.

The Jinn are said to appear to mankind most commonly in the shapes of serpents, dogs, cats, or human beings. In the last case they are sometimes of the stature of men, and sometimes of a size enormously gigantic. If good, they are generally resplendently handsome; if evil, horribly hideous. They become invisible at pleasure (by a rapid extension or rarefaction of the particles which compose them), or suddenly disappear in the earth or air, or through a solid wall. Many Muslims in the present day profess to have seen and held intercourse with them.

The Zaubaʿah, which is a whirlwind that raises the sand or dust in the form of a pillar of prodigious height, often seen sweeping across the deserts and fields, is believed to be caused by the flight of an evil genii. To defend themselves from a Jinn thus “riding in the whirlwind,” the Arabs often exclaim, “Iron! Iron!” (Ḥadīd! Ḥadīd!) or, “Iron! thou unlucky!” (Ḥadīd! yā Mashūm!), as the Jinn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal; or they exclaim, “God is most great!” (Allāhu akbar!) A similar superstition prevails with respect to the waterspout at sea.

It is believed that the chief abode of the Jinn is in the mountains of Qāf, which are supposed to encompass the whole of our earth. But they are also believed to pervade the solid body of our earth, and the firmament; and to choose, as their principal places of resort, or of occasional abode, baths, wells, the latrina, ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of roads, the sea, and rivers.

The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water, &c., on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well, or visit the latrina, and on various other occasions, say, “Permission!” or “Permission, ye blessed!” (Iẕn! or Iẕn yā Mubārakūn!). The evil spirits (or evil genii), it is said, had liberty to enter any of the seven heavens till the birth of Jesus, when they were excluded from three of them. On the birth of Muḥammad, they were forbidden the other four. They continue, however, to ascend to the confines of the lowest heaven, and there listening to the conversation of the angels respecting things decreed by God, obtain knowledge of futurity, which they sometimes impart to men, who by means of talismans or certain invocations make them to serve the purposes of magical performances.

What the Prophet said of Iblīs in the following tradition, applies also to the evil Jinn over whom he presides: His chief abode [among men] is the bath; his chief places of resort are the markets and junctures of roads; his food is whatever is killed without the name of God being pronounced over it; his drink, whatever is intoxicating; his Muʾaẕẕin, the mizmār (a musical pipe), i.e. any musical instrument; his Qurʾān, poetry; his written character, the marks made in geomancy; his speech, falsehood; his snares are women.

That particular genii presided over particular places, was the opinion of the early Arabs. It is said in the Qurʾān (Sūrah lxxii. 6), “And there were certain men who sought refuge with certain of the Jinn.” In the commentary of the Jalālān, I find the following remark on these words:—“When they halted, on their journey, in a place of fear, each man said, ‘I seek refuge with the lord of this place, from the mischief of his foolish ones!’” In illustration of this, I may insert the following tradition, translated from al-Qazwīnī:—“It is related by a certain narrator of traditions, that he descended into a valley with his sheep, and a wolf carried off a ewe from among them; and he arose, and raised his voice, and cried, ‘O inhabitant of the valley!’ whereupon he heard a voice saying, ‘O wolf, restore to him his sheep!’ and the wolf came with the ewe, and left her, and departed.” The same opinion is held by the modern Arabs, though probably they do not use such an invocation.

A similar superstition, a relic of ancient Egyptian credulity, still prevails among the people of Cairo. It is believed that each quarter of this city has its peculiar guardian-genius, or Agathodæmon, which has the form of a serpent.

It has already been mentioned that some of the Jinn are Muslims, and others infidels. The good acquit themselves of the imperative duties of religion, namely, prayers, almsgiving, fasting during the month of Ramaẓān, and pilgrimage to Makkah and Mount ʿArafāt, but in the performance of these duties they are generally invisible to human beings.

No man, it is said, ever obtained such absolute power over the Jinn as Sulaimān ibn Dāʾud (Solomon, the son of David). This he did by virtue of a most wonderful talisman, which is said to have come down to him from heaven. It was a sealing ring, upon which was engraved “the most great name” of God [AL-ISMU ʾL-AʿZAM], and was partly composed of brass and partly of iron. With the brass he stamped his written commands to the good Jinn; with the iron (for a reason before mentioned) those to the evil Jinn or devils. Over both orders he had unlimited power, as well as over the birds and the winds, and, as is generally said, the wild beasts. His wazīr, Aṣaf the son of Bark͟hīyah, is also said to have been acquainted with “the most great name,” by uttering which the greatest miracles may be performed, even that of raising the dead. By virtue of this name, engraved on his ring, Sulaimān compelled the Jinn to assist in building the temple of Jerusalem, and in various other works. Many of the evil genii he converted to the true faith, and many others of this class, who remained obstinate in infidelity, he confined in prisons. He is said to have been monarch of the whole earth. Hence, perhaps, the name of Sulaimān is given to the universal monarchs of the preadamite Jinn; unless the story of his own universal dominion originated from confounding him with those kings of the Jinn.

The injuries related to have been inflicted upon human beings by evil genii are of various kinds. Genii are said to have often carried off beautiful women, whom they have forcibly kept as their wives or concubines. Malicious or disturbed genii are asserted often to station themselves on the roofs, or at the windows, of houses, and to throw down bricks and stones on persons passing by. When they take possession of an uninhabited house, they seldom fail to persecute terribly any person who goes to reside in it. They are also very apt to pilfer provisions, &c. Many learned and devout persons, to secure their property from such depredations, repeat the words, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!” on locking the doors of their houses, rooms, or closets, and on covering the bread-basket, or anything containing food. During the month of Ramaẓān, the evil genii are believed to be confined in prison; and, therefore, on the last night of that month, with the same view, women sometimes repeat the words above mentioned, and sprinkle salt upon the floors of the apartments of their houses.

To complete this sketch of Arabian mythology, an account must be added of several creatures generally believed to be of inferior orders of the Jinn. One of these is the G͟hūl, which is commonly regarded as a kind of Shait̤ān, or evil genii, that eats men, and is also described by some as a Jinn, or an enchanter, who assumes various forms. The G͟hūls are said to appear in the forms of various animals, and of human beings, and in many monstrous shapes; to haunt burial-grounds and other sequestered spots; to feed upon dead human bodies; and to kill and devour any human creature who has the misfortune to fall in their way; whence the term “G͟hūl” is applied to any cannibal.

An opinion quoted by a celebrated author respecting the G͟hūl is, that it is a demoniacal animal, which passes a solitary existence in the deserts, resembling both man and brute; that it appears to a person travelling alone in the night and in solitary places, and, being supposed by him to be itself a traveller, lures him out of his way. Another opinion stated by him is this: that, when the Shait̤āns attempt to hear words by stealth [from the confines of the lowest heaven], they are struck by shooting stars, and some are burnt; some falling into a sea, or rather a large river (baḥr), become converted into crocodiles; and some, falling upon the land, become G͟hūls. The same author adds the following tradition: “The G͟hūl is any Jinn that is opposed to travels, assuming various forms and appearances; and affirms that several of the Companions of the Prophet saw G͟hūls in their travels; and that ʿUmar among them saw a G͟hūl while on a journey to Syria, before Islām, and struck it with his sword.”

It appears that “G͟hūl” is, properly speaking, a name only given to a female demon of the kind above described; the male is called “Qut̤rub.” It is said that these beings, and the G͟haddār, or G͟harrār, and other similar creatures, which will presently be mentioned, are the offspring of Iblīs and of a wife whom God created for him of the fire of the Samūm (which here signifies, as in an instance before mentioned, “a smokeless fire”); and that they sprang from an egg. The female G͟hūl, it is added, appears to men in the deserts, in various forms, converses with them, and sometimes prostitutes herself to them.

The Siʿlāt, or Siʿlāʾ, is another demoniacal creature, described by some [or rather, by most authors] as of the Jinn. It is said that it is mostly found in forests; and that when it captures a man, it makes him dance, and plays with him as the cat plays with the mouse. A man of Isfahan asserted that many beings of this kind abounded in his country; that sometime the wolf would hunt one of them by night, and devour it, and that, when it had seized it, the Siʿlāʾ would cry out, “Come to my help, for the wolf devoureth me!” or it would cry, “Who will liberate me? I have a hundred dīnārs, and he shall receive them!” But the people knowing that it was the cry of the Siʿlāʾ, no one would liberate it; and so the wolf would eat it.

An island in the sea of China (Ṣīn) is called “the island of the Siʿlāʾ,” by Arab geographers, from its being said to be inhabited by the demons so named; they are described as creatures of hideous forms, supposed to be Shait̤āns, the offspring of human beings and Jinn, who eat men.

The G͟haddār is another creature of a similar nature, described as being found in the borders of al-Yaman, and sometimes in Tihāmah, and in the upper parts of Egypt. It is said that it entices a man to it, and either tortures him in a manner not to be described, or merely terrifies him, and leaves him.

The Dalhān is also a demoniacal being, inhabiting the islands of the seas, having the form of a man, and riding on an ostrich. It eats the flesh of men whom the sea casts on the shore from wrecks. Some say that a Dalhān once attacked a ship on the sea, and desired to take the crew; but they contended with it; whereupon it uttered a cry which caused them to fall on their faces, and it took them.

The Shiqq is another demoniacal creature, having the form of half a human being (like a man divided longitudinally); and it is believed that the Nasnās is the offspring of a Shiqq and of a human being. The Shiqq appears to travellers; and it was a demon of this kind who killed, and was killed by ʿAlqamah, the son of Safwān, the son of Umaiyah, of whom it is well known that he was killed by a Jinn. So says al-Qazwīnī.

The Nasnās (above mentioned) is described as resembling half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, and one leg, with which it hops with much agility; as being found in the woods of al-Yaman, and being endowed with speech; “but God,” it is added, “is all knowing.” It is said that it is found in Ḥaẓramaut as well as al-Yaman; and that one was brought alive to al-Mutawakkil. It resembled a man in form, excepting that it had but half a face, which was in its breast, and a tail like that of a sheep. The people of Ḥaẓramaut, it is added, eat it; and its flesh is sweet. It is only generated in their country. A man who went there asserted that he saw a captured Nasnās, which cried out for mercy, conjuring him by God and by himself.

A race of people whose head is in the breast, is described as inhabiting an island called Jabah (supposed to be Java), in the sea of Hind, or India. A kind of Nasnās is also described as inhabiting the island of Raij, in the sea of China, and having wings like those of the bat.

The Hātif is a being that is heard, but not seen; and is often mentioned by Arab writers. It is generally the communicator of some intelligence in the way of advice, or direction, or warning. (See Lane’s Modern Egyptians; Lane’s Notes on the Arabian Nights.)

GENTILES. Arabic Ummī (امى‎, from umm, “a mother”); pl. ummīyūn, lit. “Ignorant as new-born babes.” Hebrew ‏גּוֹיִם‎. According to al-Baiẓāwī, all the people of the earth who do not possess a divine Book. In the Qurʾān, the term is specially applied to the idolators of Arabia.

Sūrah lxii. 2: “He (God) it is who sent unto the Gentiles a Prophet, amongst them to recite to them His signs and to purify them, and to teach them the Book, the wisdom, although they were before in obvious error.”

GEORGE, St. [JIRJIS, AL-KHIZR.]

AL-G͟HĀBAH (الـغـابة‎). “The desert.” A name given to the open plain near al-Madīnah.

G͟HABN (غبن‎). Fraud or deceit in sales.

G͟HADDĀR (غدار‎). A species of demon said to be found on the borders of al-Yaman. [GENII.]

G͟HADĪR (غدير‎). A festival of the Shīʿahs on the 18th of the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, when three images of dough filled with honey are made to represent Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, which are stuck with knives, and the honey is sipped as typical of the blood of the usurping K͟halīfahs. The festival is named from G͟hadīr, “a pool,” and the festival commemorates, it is said, Muḥammad having declared ʿAlī his successor at G͟hadīr K͟hūm, a watering place midway between Makkah and al-Madīnah.

G͟HAIB (غيب‎). Lit. “Secret.” The terms G͟haibu ʾl-Huwīyah, “Secret essence,” and al-G͟haibu ʾl-Mut̤laq, “the absolute unknowable,” are used by Ṣūfī mystics to express the nature of God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

G͟HAIRAH (غيرة‎). “Jealousy.” Muḥammad is related to have said, “There is a kind of jealousy (g͟hairah) which God likes, and there is a kind of jealousy which he abominates. The jealousy which God likes is when a man has suspicion that his wife or slave girl comes and sits by a stranger; the jealousy which God abominates is when, without cause, a man harbours in his heart a bad opinion of his wife.” (Mishkāt, book xiii. c. xv. pt. 2.)

G͟HAIR-I-MAHDĪ (غير مهدى‎). Lit. “Without Mahdī.” A small sect who believe that the Imām Mahdī will not reappear. They say that one Saiyid Muḥammad of Jeypore was the real Mahdī, the twelfth Imām, and that he has now gone never more to return. They venerate him as highly as they do the Prophet, and consider all other Muslims to be unbelievers. On the night called Lailatu ʾl-Qadr, in the month of Ramaẓān, they meet and repeat two rakʿah prayers. After that act of devotion is over, they say: “God is Almighty, Muḥammad is our Prophet, the Qurʾān and Mahdī are just and true. Imām Mahdī is come and gone. Whosoever disbelieves this is an infidel.” They are a very fanatical sect. (See Qānūn-i-Islām.)

G͟HAMARĀT (غمرات‎), plural of g͟hamrah, “abyss.” A word used to express the agonies of death. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vi. 93: “But couldst thou see when the ungodly are in the floods of death (g͟hamarātu ʾl-maut), and the angels reach forth their hands, saying, ‘Yield up your souls:—this day shall ye be recompensed with a humiliating punishment.’”

AL-G͟HANĪ (الغنى‎). “The Independent One.” One of the ninety-nine special names or attributes of God, expressing the superiority of the Almighty over the necessities and requirements of mankind. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lx. 6, and is translated by Palmer, “He is rich.”

G͟HAṢB (غصب‎). “Using by force; usurpation.”

G͟haṣb, in its literal sense, means the forcibly taking a thing from another. In the language of the law it signifies the taking of the property of another which is valuable and sacred, without the consent of the proprietor, in such a manner as to destroy the proprietor’s possession of it, whence it is that usurpation is established by exacting service from the slave of another, or by putting a burden upon the quadruped of another, but not by sitting upon the carpet of another; because by the use of the slave of another, and by loading the quadruped of another, the possession of the proprietor is destroyed, whereas by sitting upon the carpet of another the possession of the proprietor is not destroyed. It is to be observed that if any person knowingly and wilfully usurp the property of another, he is held in law to be an offender, and becomes responsible for a compensation. If, on the contrary, he should not have made the usurpation knowingly and wilfully (as where a person destroys property on the supposition of its belonging to himself, and it afterwards proves the right of another), he is in that case also liable for a compensation, because a compensation is the right of men; but he is not an offender, as his erroneous offence is cancelled. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 522.)

AL-G͟HĀSHIYAH (الغاشية‎). “The Covering, Overwhelming.” A name given to the LXXXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, the word occurring in the first verse for the Day of Judgment: “Has there come to thee the story of the overwhelming?”

G͟HĀSIL (غاسل‎). “A washer of the dead.” An official is generally appointed for this purpose by the Imām of the parish.

G͟HASSĀN (غسان‎). A tribe of Arabs inhabiting the western side of the Syrian desert in the time of Muḥammad. (See Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. i. p. clxxxiii.)

G͟HAT̤AFĀN (غطفان‎). An Arabian tribe descended from Qais.

G͟HAUS̤ (غوث‎). Lit. “One to whom we can cry for help.” A mediator. A title given to a Muḥammadan saint. Some hold it to be the highest order of sanctity, whilst others regard it as second in rank to that of Qut̤b. According to the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah it is an inferior rank of sanctity to that of Qut̤b.

G͟HAẒAB (غـضـب‎). “Anger,” “wrath.” A word used frequently in the Qurʾān for the wrath of God, e.g. Sūrah iv. 95: “God shall be angry with him.”

G͟HĀZĪ (غازى‎). One who fights in the cause of Islām. A hero; a warrior. One who slays an infidel. It is also a title of distinction conferred by Muslim rulers upon generals and warriors of renown. In the Turkish Empire the title of G͟hāzī implies something similar to our “Field Marshal.” The Prophet is related to have said, “God is sponsor for him who goes forth to fight in the road of God, for His satisfaction and for that of His Prophet. He shall, if he be not killed, return to his home with plunder and rewards. And if he die, his reward is paradise.” (Mishkāt, book xvii. c. 1.)

G͟HAZWAH (غـزوة‎). A military force when it is led by either an Apostle (Rasūl) or an Imām. A small force commanded by one of the Imām’s lieutenants is a sarīyah, or brigade. (See G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, in loco.)

AL-G͟HAZZĀLĪ (الغزالى‎). Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-G͟hazzālī, is a well known Sunnī doctor surnamed Ḥujjatu ʾl-Islām (“the proof of Islām”). He was a native of T̤ūs, and for some time a professor in the college at Naisāpūr. Born A.H. 450 (A.D. 1058), died A.H. 505 (A.D. 1111), at T̤ūs. His exposition on the nature of God will be found in the article GOD. His great theological work is the Iḥyāʾu ʿUlūmi ʾd-Dīn.

G͟HĪBAH (غـيبة‎). “Slander; calumny.” Anything whispered of an absent person to his detriment, although it be true. (Buhtān expressing a false accusation.) G͟hībah is condemned in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xlix. 12): “O believers, avoid frequent suspicions, for some suspicions are a crime; neither let one of you traduce (g͟hībah) another in his absence.” A chapter is devoted to the condemnation of backbiting and calumny in the Traditions (vide Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. x.)

G͟HIFĀR (غـفـار‎). An Arabian tribe in the time of Muḥammad who inhabited a tract of country in the vicinity of al-Madīnah. They were descendants of Abū Zarri ʾl-G͟hifārī.

G͟HISHĀWAH (غشاوة‎). Lit. “A covering.” A dimness in the eye. A word used in the Qurʾān for spiritual blindness. Sūrah ii. 6: “Their hearts and their ears hath God sealed up, and over their eyes is a covering.”

G͟HISLĪN (غسلين‎). The water, blood, and matter, supposed by Muḥammadans to run down the skin and flesh of the damned in hell. See Qurʾān, Sūrah lxix. 36: “No friend shall he have here that day, nor food but g͟hislīn.”

G͟HŪL (غول‎). A man-devouring demon of the woods. A species of Jinn. [GENII.]

G͟HULĀM (غلام‎), pl. g͟hilmah. A boy under age. A term used in modern Muslim countries for a slave, the legal word being ʿabd. It occurs in the Qurʾān for a son. Sūrah iii. 42: “She (Mary) said, ‘How can I have a son when a man has not touched me?’”