Marid

Marid (Arabic: مارد‎‎ mārid) is an Arabic word meaning rebellious, which is sometimes applied to supernatural beings.

In Arabic sources

The word mārid is an active participle of the root m-r-d (مرد), whose primary meaning is recalcitrant, rebellious. Lisān al-`arab, the encyclopedic dictionary of classical Arabic compiled by Ibn Manzur, reports only forms of this general meaning.[1] It is found as an attribute of evil spirits in the Qur'an (aṣ-Ṣāffāt, 37:7), which speaks of a "safeguard against every rebellious devil" (شَيْطَانٍ مَارِدٍ, shaitān mārid). The Wehr-Cowan dictionary of modern written Arabic also gives secondary meanings of demon and giant.[2] Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon cites a source where it "is said to be applied to an evil jinnee of the most powerful class",[3] but this distinction is not universal. For example, in the standard MacNaghten edition of One Thousand and One Nights one finds the words marid and ifrit used interchangeably (e.g., in The Story of the Fisherman).[4]

In modern fantasy genres

In Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Sequence novel series, marids are the most powerful type of demons summoned by magicians.[5]

In the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, marids are genies from the Elemental Plane of Water.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ibn Manzur. "Lisan al-`arab (entry for m-r-d)"., p. 5376.
  2. ↑ Hans Wehr & J M. Cowan. A dictionary of modern written Arabic. Third Edition. Ithaca, N.Y.: Spoken Language Services. p. 903.
  3. ↑ Edward William Lane. "An Arabic-English Lexicon: Derived from the Best and the Most Copious Eastern Sources". Archived from the original on 2015-04-08.
  4. ↑ Sir William Hay Macnaghten, ed. (1839). The Alif laila (in Arabic). 1. Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co. p. 20.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Stroud. The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1). Disney-Hyperion; Reprint edition (2004). p. 36
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