Eblis (or Iblis)

views updated May 21 2018

Eblis (or Iblis)

The "Satan" of the Mohammedans. It was said that Eblis was an inmate of Azaze, the heaven nearest God, and when the angels were commanded to bow down to the first man, he was the chief of those who rebelled. They were cast out of Azaze, and Eblis and his followers were sentenced to suffer in hell for a long time. It was supposed that he was composed of the elements of fire and that he succeeded the peris (fairylike nature spirits) in the government of the world.

Eblis

views updated May 18 2018

Eblis in William Beckford's Vathek (1786), the prince of darkness to whose realm Vathek is banished after he has impiously challenged Mohammed and brought about his own damnation; in later literature, the term ‘son of Eblis’ is found as an objurgation. The name probably represents Iblis.