JINN OF ANCIENT PALMYRA

The oasis-city of Palmyra in what is now Syria was a crossroads of peoples and cultures in ancient times.
It was settled by the Amorites, Aramaeans and Arabs in that order. At various times Palmyra was subject
to the influence of the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and others. Impressive ruins,
including temples, survive to this day. Ancient jinn reigned in Palmyra as tutelary deities. They are
described by Javier Teixidor in The Pantheon of Palmyra (1979)…

Ginnayê

The Arab gods of Palmyra are frequently styled gny’, ginnaya, plu. ginnayê, namely genii or tutelary
deities. This Aramaic term is to be related to Arabic jinn … even though “jinn” in modern times has come
to mean the demons whose deeds are often not propitious to human beings, to such an extent indeed that at
times exorcism may be required in order to free individuals from their malefic power.
The Palmyrene ginnaya is like the Latin genius. The Classical writers acknowledged the existence
of deities who were tutelaries of persons and places. Virgil, for instance, refers to the genius loci in the
Aeneid I. 95. In petitions and oaths Romans often appealed to the genii of the persons addressed.
As is the case with the “jinn” for modern Bedouin, the Palmyrene ginnayê were believed to be like
human beings in presence and behavior. Consequently, the various ways in which they were represented by
Palmyrene artists mirror the specific roles that the deities played in Palmyrene society. The concern of
these genii was to take care of
human lives and enterprises. The Palmyrenes worshipped them everywhere and gave them the epithet šbb’,
“close,” meaning that the deities were guardians of people… This function assimilated them to the
Christian angels. Origen, the great theologian of the school of Alexandria, described the angels as “standing
over those worthy to be guarded”…
The Palmyrene genii were frequently invoked in pairs, and the reliefs usually portray each one in a
characteristic guise. Some scholars believe that certain pairs of gods stand for the Dioscuri… There is very
little evidence for a cult of Castor and Pollux at Palmyra or in the Palmyrene region. On the other hand,
pairs of genii differ from the groupings of two or three gods that are found in cultic inscriptions written in
Phoenician or in Aramaic; at Palmyra itself the liturgical formulae that invoked Bel, Yarhibol and Aglibol
or Malakbel and Aglibol stemmed from a theological conception different from the one that called upon
any two Arab genii.
The Palmyrenes acknowledged the genii as protectors of their caravans, their cattle, and their
desert villages. The Arabs at Palmyra, but especially those of the Palmyrene, were most likely Bedouin,
nomads and villagers alike, who combined two ways of life, much as the Bene Tamim of the Jebel
Shammar province, in Saudi Arabia, did until the nineteenth century… In the slow process by which
tribesmen passed from a nomadic type of life to a sedentary one the tutelary genii were always present.
They protected the Bedouin in their wanderings to drive cattle from one pasture to another, an occupation
which is still part of the desert landscape. Edomite Bedouin in the middle of the second millennium BC
used to move periodically into the better pastures of the Nile Delta, and this was the case in the last century
when the tribes from an-Nafud, between Teima and Hail, used to go up to Palmyra and Qariatein during the
drought years… Tutelary gods were called upon to protect these flocks against all possible depredatory
incursions.
No less necessary was the protection of the genii for the trading caravans. Camels loaded with all
kinds of products were easy prey to wandering robbers. The caravans had to be escorted through the desert
and this, the Palmyrenes believed, was the main occupation of the genii…
The tutelary gods are consistently portrayed wearing what must have been the typical dress of the
region: a tunic with long sleeves, a cloak thrown over the back in a way that recalls the Roman
palludamentum, and a loincloth that was knotted at the waist. This last piece of clothing can be compared
to the ihram which is worn by pilgrims when they start descending into Mecca and which is kept until the
last ritual in the Wadi Muna is completed…. A distinctive feature of the garb of the gods is the carrying of
weapons: a sword, a spear, and a round shield. If the deities are represented riding, the bow and the quiver
form part of the animal harness. The gods were believed to ride with bare legs, like their worshippers. But
the legs always appeared covered in the static figures created by the artists. The trousers worn by the Arab
gods in some reliefs document a Persian fashion, which was very much in favor at Palmyra in spite of the
Roman presence in the city. Bedouin in ancient times must have always carried arms: swords, short spears,
daggers, or lances. This practice has persisted until recent times….
The desert has always known an incessant traffic of persons and animals. In Roman times the
hamlets around Palmyra were not only centers of settled life but also relays for the passing caravans. In this
environment the cult of tutelary gods proliferated. They were believed to protect flocks and caravans and
therefore shrines were erected in their honor. These sanctuaries are today the sole relics of that complex
populace of transients and settlers.

Some Jinn Deities

Abgal – Standing alone or with other deities, he is often represented as a youth with long hair and
moustache, wearing the local costume and grasping a lance. Abgal is usually in the company of gods whose
cults flourished in the desert and among Arab nomads. He is associated with Azizos, Maan, Ashar, or
Shalman, gods of the steppes like himself.

Maan and Saad – Maan is styled “good and bountiful god” in an altar inscription at Ras esh-Shaar dating
to August, 194 AD. He holds a lance and rides a horse, whereas Saad, his associate deity, rides a camel.
Maan’s feast in Palmyra was celebrated on Aug. 16. On that occasions, meals of beef were prepared.

Ashar(u) – Another companion of Abgal. He is shown as a horseman, in Arab garb, holding a lance and
shield. Sometimes also worshipped with Saad. Ashar and Saad are portrayed at Dura-Europos with
identical Parthian coiffure, huge puffs of hair on each side of the face, bushy moustaches and the same
local garment.

Shlmn and Shlmt – Abgal is invoked with the god Shlmn on an altar as Ras esh-Shaar. The latter is called
“good and bountiful.” Shlmt is a goddess. Starcky believes Shlmn and Shlmt [perhaps brother and sister]
are identical with the Assyrian Shulman and Shulmanitu.

Shai’ al Qaum – This god is another protector of caravans. His Arab name means “Protector of the
people,” or “the One who accompanies the people,” and this suggests his cult was particularly favored by
the nomads. There are parallels between this god and the angel of Yahweh in Exodus 23:20.

Palmyra was also called Tadmor, and in ancient Arab legends, the city was said to have been constructed
by the jinn for King Solomon. The Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 11th edition, says that this belief may have
been passed to the Arabs by Tadmor’s Jewish population. Here is a reference to the legend from Charles
Lyall’s Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry (1930)…

The germ, if nothing more, of the stories about Solomon’s power over the Jinn, of which the Thousand and
One Nights are full, was current before al-Islam, since [the Arab poet] an-Nabighah, who died before the
Kur’an was revealed (though he was well acquainted with Christianity both at al-Hirah and in Syria),
speaks of the authority granted him [Solomon] by God over them, and the building by them for him of
Tadmor in the Wilderness “with slabs and pillars.”