The Legend of Solomon and the Jinn: A Mythic Origin of the Kurds
- Dala Sarkis
- 14 hours ago
- 13 min read
Introduction
The legend of Solomon and the jinn is one of the old mythic origin-stories once told of the Kurds: a tale, recorded by medieval writers, in which the Kurds are said to descend from the union of the handmaidens of King Solomon with jinn, who settled in the mountains. It is a legend of the kind once told of many peoples, and we present it here as folklore and myth, not as history.
In this old story, recorded by medieval Judaic and Islamic writers, King Solomon, the wise king of legend who was said to command the jinn, sends his spirit-servants on an errand; and from their union with mortal handmaidens come a people who settle in the high mountains, said in the tale to be the ancestors of the Kurds. The legend is a curious and colourful thread in the body of lore surrounding the Kurdish people.
To know this legend is to encounter the way the medieval imagination wove myths of origin around peoples, and the place of King Solomon, the jinn, and the mountains in the lore of the region. We recount it as a legend and a curiosity of folklore, with a clear eye to the difference between such mythic tales and the true history of the Kurdish people.
Contents
What Is the Legend?
The legend of Solomon and the jinn is an old mythic origin-story, recorded by certain medieval Judaic and Islamic writers, that purports to explain the origin of the Kurds as a people. According to the legend, the Kurds descend from the union of mortal women, the handmaidens or concubines associated with King Solomon, with jinn, the spirit-beings whom Solomon was said in legend to command; their offspring settled in the high mountains and became, in the tale, the ancestors of the Kurdish people. It is a legend of a familiar kind, the mythic origin-story that traces a people to a wondrous or supernatural beginning, and it belongs to the body of myth and folklore that gathered around the peoples of the region in the medieval imagination. It is emphatically not a historical account of the origin of the Kurds, who are an ancient people of the Iranic family with a real and traceable history; rather, it is a legend, a curiosity of the medieval imagination, which we recount as such. As an old mythic tale of origin, recorded by medieval writers and woven from the figures of Solomon, the jinn, and the mountains, the legend is a colourful thread in the lore surrounding the Kurdish people, of interest as folklore and myth.
King Solomon and the Jinn
The legend draws on the widespread tradition of King Solomon as the wise king who commanded the jinn, the spirit-beings of the unseen world, sending them on errands and tasks across the world.
At the heart of the legend stands the figure of King Solomon, who in the legends of the region, across the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic traditions, is far more than a wise king: he is the master of the jinn, the spirit-beings of the unseen world, who command the winds and labour at his bidding. In this widespread body of legend, Solomon commands the jinn to build and to fetch, sending them on errands across the world, and rules over the realm of spirits as well as of men. It is this figure of Solomon, the commander of the jinn, that the origin-legend of the Kurds draws upon: in the tale, it is Solomon's command of the jinn, and an errand on which he sends them, that sets in motion the events from which, in the legend, the Kurds arise. The legend thus belongs to the rich tradition of Solomon and the jinn, the wise king and his spirit-servants, that runs through the lore of the whole region. This connection to the great figure of Solomon and his command of the jinn gives the legend its setting and its wondrous character. It is from this tradition of Solomon and the jinn that the origin-legend of the Kurds is woven.
Key Takeaways
The legend is an old mythic origin-story once told of the Kurds.
It says the Kurds descend from the union of Solomon's handmaidens with jinn.
It draws on the tradition of King Solomon as commander of the jinn.
In the tale, their offspring settle in the mountains as the Kurds' ancestors.
It was recorded by medieval Judaic and Islamic writers, such as al-Masudi.
It is a legend and folklore, not a historical account of Kurdish origins.
Quick Facts
Subject: A mythic origin-legend of the Kurds
Central figures: King Solomon, the jinn, and mortal handmaidens
The claim: The Kurds descend from unions of Solomon's handmaidens and jinn
The setting: The high mountains, where the offspring settle
Recorded by: Medieval Judaic and Islamic writers, including al-Masudi
Type: Mythic origin-story, legend, folklore
Solomon's role: The wise king who commands the jinn
Status: Legend and myth, not history
True origins: The Kurds are an ancient Iranic people with a real history
Interest: A curiosity of the medieval imagination and regional lore
The Tale of the Origin
In the legend, King Solomon sends his jinn on an errand to bring beautiful maidens; but by the time the spirits return, the king has died, and so the jinn themselves take the women, and their offspring settle in the mountains as the ancestors of the Kurds.
The tale, in the form recorded by the medieval writers, runs in this way. King Solomon, it is said, sent his servants among the jinn on an errand to a distant land, to bring back a number of beautiful maidens for the king. The jinn did as they were bidden and returned with the maidens; but by the time they came back, the great king Solomon had died. And so, finding the king gone, the jinn themselves took the women as their own, and from their union came a people of mingled mortal and spirit descent. This people, in the legend, withdrew or were sent into the high mountains, and there they settled and multiplied, becoming, in the tale, the ancestors of the Kurds, the mountain people. In some versions, the detail is added that the offspring were driven to the mountains and valleys by a command, woven into a folk-etymology of the name of the Kurds. The tale thus traces the Kurds to a wondrous and supernatural origin, the union of mortal women and spirit-beings, set in the high mountains that are the homeland of the Kurdish people. This is the legend in its mythic outline, recounted as a curiosity of folklore and a colourful tale of the medieval imagination, not as a historical account.
Recorded by Medieval Writers
The legend is found in the writings of medieval Judaic scholars and early Islamic authorities, including the 10th-century Arab historian al-Masudi, who recorded such tales of the origins of peoples.
The legend of Solomon and the jinn is preserved in the writings of certain medieval authors. A version was recorded by medieval Judaic scholars, and the tale was also taken up by early Islamic authorities in their accounts of the origins of peoples; among those who recorded such a story was the celebrated 10th-century Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi, in whose writings the Kurds are connected with the offspring of Solomon's handmaidens and the spirits. The recording of such origin-legends was characteristic of the medieval scholarly imagination, which often sought to explain the origins of peoples through tales connecting them to the figures of scripture and legend, such as Solomon, and to wondrous or supernatural beginnings. The presence of the legend in these medieval works tells us not about the true origins of the Kurds but about the way the medieval mind imagined and explained the peoples of the world. The legend is thus a document of the medieval imagination and its way of weaving myths of origin, recorded by writers of the Judaic and Islamic traditions. It is through these medieval writers that the legend has come down to us, a curiosity of the lore of the region.
The Mountains and the Name
The legend is bound up with the mountains, the homeland of the Kurds, and in some versions with a folk-etymology of the name of the Kurdish people, weaving the name into the tale.
A notable feature of the legend is its connection with the mountains, the high country that is the homeland of the Kurdish people. In the tale, it is to the mountains that the people of mingled descent withdraw or are sent, and there that they settle and become the Kurds, the mountain people; the legend thus reflects, in mythic form, the deep and ancient association of the Kurds with their mountain homeland. In some versions, the legend is woven together with a folk-etymology of the name of the Kurds, the tale being shaped so as to explain the name through some word or command in the story, as folk-etymologies often do; such etymologies are not sound philology but are part of the storytelling, binding the name of the people into the mythic tale of their origin. The connection with the mountains and the name reflects the way the legend seeks to root the identity of the Kurds, their mountain home and their very name, in the mythic story of their origin. This binding of the mountains and the name into the tale is a characteristic feature of the legend, the mythic rooting of a people's identity in a story of origin. It is in these features that the legend shows its character as an origin-myth, weaving the homeland and the name into the wondrous tale.
Legend, Not History
It is essential to be clear that this is a legend and a myth, not a historical account: the Kurds are an ancient people of the Iranic family, with a real and traceable history, not the offspring of spirits.
It must be stated clearly and plainly that the legend of Solomon and the jinn is exactly that, a legend and a myth, and not a historical account of the origin of the Kurds. The Kurds are an ancient people of the Iranic branch of the Indo-European family, speaking an Iranic language and descending, as far as history and scholarship can trace, from the ancient peoples of the Zagros mountains and the wider Iranic world; their origins lie in real history, in the movements and minglings of ancient peoples, not in any union of mortals and spirits. The legend of Solomon and the jinn belongs not to history but to folklore and myth, to the way the medieval imagination wove tales of origin around the peoples it knew. Such legends are of real interest as folklore and as documents of the imagination, but they must not be mistaken for, or presented as, true accounts of a people's origin. We recount the legend, therefore, as a curiosity of myth and folklore, with a clear and honest distinction between such mythic tales and the genuine history of the Kurdish people, who are an ancient and real people with a history of their own. This honest distinction between legend and history is essential to presenting the tale rightly.
Meaning and Significance
The legend is significant not as history but as folklore: an example of the way the medieval imagination wove myths of origin around peoples, and a colourful thread in the body of lore surrounding the Kurds and their mountain homeland.
The legend of Solomon and the jinn is significant not for what it tells of the true origin of the Kurds, which is nothing, but for what it shows of the workings of the medieval imagination and the body of lore that gathered around the peoples of the region. It is an example of the widespread human practice of weaving mythic origin-stories, tracing a people to a wondrous or supernatural beginning, and of the particular medieval habit of connecting peoples to the figures of scripture and legend such as Solomon. As such, it stands alongside the other myths and legends of the Kurdish folk imagination, such as the tales of the peri and the divs, and the great founding legends such as that of Kawa the Blacksmith, as part of the rich world of story surrounding the Kurdish people, though it differs from the cherished native legends in being a tale told of the Kurds by outsiders. In all this, the legend is a curiosity of folklore and the medieval imagination, a colourful thread in the lore of the Kurds and their mountains, of interest as myth and story rather than as history.
The legend reminds us, too, of the deep and ancient association of the Kurds with their mountain homeland, an association so strong that even the legends of outsiders placed the origin of the Kurds in the high mountains. This mythic rooting of the Kurds in the mountains, however fanciful the tale, echoes a real and enduring truth of the Kurdish identity and homeland.
The Legend and the Kurds
The legend is a tale told of the Kurds, part of the lore surrounding the Kurdish people, which we present honestly as folklore and myth, distinct from the true and ancient history of the Kurds.
The legend of Solomon and the jinn is part of the body of lore surrounding the Kurdish people, though it is a tale told of the Kurds by medieval outsiders rather than a cherished legend of the Kurds' own telling, like the great native legends of Kawa or of Mem and Zin. As such, it is of interest as a curiosity of folklore and of the medieval imagination, a colourful thread in the wider world of story surrounding the Kurds and their mountain homeland. We present it honestly and with care: as a legend and a myth, recounted for its interest as folklore, and always with a clear distinction from the true history of the Kurdish people, who are an ancient people of the Iranic family with a real and honourable history of their own. In presenting this legend, we honour the rich world of story and lore surrounding the Kurdish people, while keeping always the honest distinction between the tales of myth and folklore and the genuine history and identity of the Kurds. The legend is a curiosity worth knowing, a glimpse of the way the imagination has woven stories around the Kurds and their mountains, set rightly within the body of folklore rather than mistaken for history.
Debates and Misconceptions
Is the legend a true account of the origin of the Kurds? No. This must be stated plainly. The legend of Solomon and the jinn is a myth and a folktale, not a historical account. The Kurds are an ancient people of the Iranic branch of the Indo-European family, with a real and traceable history rooted in the ancient peoples of the Zagros and the wider Iranic world. The legend has no historical value as an account of Kurdish origins; its interest is purely as folklore and as a document of the medieval imagination. No one should mistake this mythic tale for the true history of the Kurdish people.
Is the legend insulting or demeaning to the Kurds? The legend should be understood in its context, as an example of the medieval habit of weaving fanciful origin-stories around many peoples, often connecting them to scriptural figures and to wondrous or supernatural beginnings; such tales were told of numerous peoples, and were a feature of the storytelling of the age, not necessarily intended as praise or insult. We recount the legend with respect for the Kurdish people, purely as a curiosity of folklore, and with a clear affirmation of the true, ancient, and honourable history and identity of the Kurds. It is presented as an interesting piece of old lore, not as a judgement on the Kurdish people.
Why record such a legend at all? Mythic origin-legends, even those told by outsiders and even those that are fanciful or unflattering, are of genuine interest as folklore and as windows into the imagination of the past. The legend of Solomon and the jinn tells us about the way the medieval mind imagined the peoples of the world, and forms part of the body of lore surrounding the Kurds. To know it, set rightly within folklore and clearly distinguished from history, is to understand a thread of the story-world that has surrounded the Kurdish people, while honouring their true history.
Related Topics
The Peri: the fairy spirits of Kurdish and Iranic folklore
The Divs: the demons of Iranic myth
Kawa the Blacksmith: the great native founding legend of the Kurds
The Shahmaran: the wise serpent-queen of Kurdish folklore
Mem and Zin: the great national epic of the Kurds
Newroz: the festival bound to the legend of Kawa
Zahhak: the serpent-tyrant of the founding legend
The Simurgh: the great mythic bird of Iranic legend
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the legend of Solomon and the jinn?
It is an old mythic origin-story, recorded by certain medieval Judaic and Islamic writers, that purports to explain the origin of the Kurds. According to the legend, the Kurds descend from the union of mortal women, the handmaidens associated with King Solomon, with jinn, the spirit-beings whom Solomon was said to command; their offspring settled in the high mountains and became, in the tale, the ancestors of the Kurds. It is a legend and folklore, not history.
How does the tale go?
In the legend, King Solomon sends his jinn on an errand to bring back beautiful maidens; but by the time the spirits return, the great king has died. Finding the king gone, the jinn themselves take the women, and from their union comes a people of mingled mortal and spirit descent, who settle in the high mountains and become, in the tale, the ancestors of the Kurds. In some versions a folk-etymology of the name of the Kurds is woven into the story.
Who recorded the legend?
The legend is found in the writings of medieval authors: a version was recorded by medieval Judaic scholars, and the tale was taken up by early Islamic authorities, including the celebrated 10th-century Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi. The recording of such origin-legends was characteristic of the medieval scholarly imagination, which often explained the origins of peoples through tales connecting them to scriptural figures and wondrous beginnings.
Is the legend true?
No. The legend is a myth and a folktale, not a historical account. The Kurds are an ancient people of the Iranic branch of the Indo-European family, with a real and traceable history rooted in the ancient peoples of the Zagros and the wider Iranic world. The legend has no historical value as an account of Kurdish origins; its interest is purely as folklore and as a document of the medieval imagination.
Why is the legend connected with the mountains?
In the tale, the people of mingled descent withdraw or are sent to the mountains, and there become the Kurds, the mountain people; the legend thus reflects, in mythic form, the deep and ancient association of the Kurds with their mountain homeland. This mythic rooting of the Kurds in the mountains, however fanciful the tale, echoes a real and enduring truth of Kurdish identity and the bond of the people with their highland home.
How should the legend be understood?
It should be understood as a curiosity of folklore and the medieval imagination, an example of the widespread practice of weaving mythic origin-stories around peoples, and a colourful thread in the lore surrounding the Kurds. It is a tale told of the Kurds by outsiders, distinct from the cherished native legends, and it must always be clearly distinguished from the true and ancient history of the Kurdish people.
References and Further Reading
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