His story features variously inTalmudic stories where he is the king of theshedim. TheQuran refers to a "puppet" in theStory of Solomon inSurah Ṣād verses 30-40, which is according to themufassirūn (authorized exegetes of the Quran) referring to the demon-king Asmodeus (Sakhr).[2]
The nameAsmodai is believed to derive from theAvestan*aēšma-daēva (𐬀𐬉𐬴𐬨𐬀𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀*, *aēṣ̌madaēuua), whereaēšma means "wrath", anddaēva signifies "demon". While thedaēvaAēšma is thusZoroastrianism's demon of wrath and is also well-attested as such, the compoundaēšma-daēva is not attested in scripture. It is nonetheless likely that such a form did exist, and that theBook of Tobit's "Asmodaios" (Ἀσμοδαῖος) and theTalmud's "Ashmedai" (אשמדאי) reflect it.[4] In theZoroastrian andMiddle Persiandemonology, there did exist the conjuncted formkhashm-dev (خشم +دیو), where both terms are cognates.[5]
The spellingsAsmoday,Asmodai,[6][7]Asmodee (also Asmodée),[8][9]Osmodeus,[10][11] andOsmodai[12][13] have also been used. The name is alternatively spelled in thebastardized forms (based on the basic consonants אשמדאי, ʾŠMDʾY)Hashmedai (חַשְמְדּאָי,Ḥašməddāy; also Hashmodai, Hasmodai, Khashmodai, Khasmodai),[14][15][16][17]Hammadai (חַמַּדּאָי,Hammaddāy; also Khammadai),[18][19]Shamdon (שַׁמְדּוֹן,Šamdon),[20] andShidonai (שִׁדֹנאָי,Šīdōnʾāy).[19] Some traditions have subsequently identified Shamdon as the father of Asmodeus.[20]
TheJewish Encyclopedia of 1906 rejects the otherwise accepted etymological relation between the Persian "Æshma-dæva" and Judaism's "Ashmodai" claiming that the particle "-dæva" could not have become "-dai" and that Æshma-dæva as such—a compound name—never appears in Persian sacred texts.
Still, the encyclopedia proposes that the "Asmodeus" from the Apocrypha and the Testament of Solomon are not only related somewhat toAeshma but have similar behaviour, appearance and roles,[21] to conclude in another article under the entry "Aeshma", in the paragraph "Influence of Persian Beliefs on Judaism",[22] that Persian Zoroastrian beliefs could have heavily influenced Judaism's theology on the long term, bearing in mind that in some texts there are crucial conceptual differences while in others there seems to be a great deal of similarity, proposing a pattern of influence over folk beliefs that would extend further to the mythology itself.
However, the Jewish Encyclopedia asserts that although 'Æshma does not occur in the Avesta in conjunction with dæva, it is probable that a fuller form, such as Æshmo-dæus, has existed, since it is paralleled by the later Pahlavi-form "Khashm-dev"'.[23] Furthermore, it is stated that Asmodeus or Ashmedai "embodies an expression of the influence that the Persian religion or Persian popular beliefs have exercised" on Judaism.[24]
The Asmodeus of theBook of Tobit is hostile to Sarah,Raguel's daughter,[25] and slays seven successive husbands on their wedding nights, impeding the sexual consummation of the marriages. In theNew Jerusalem Bible translation, he is described as "the worst of demons".[26] When the young Tobias is about to marry her, Asmodeus proposes the same fate for him, but Tobias is enabled, through the counsels of his attendant angelRaphael, to render him innocuous. By placing a fish's heart and liver on red-hot cinders, Tobias produces a smoky vapour that causes the demon to flee toEgypt, whereRaphael binds him.[27] According to some translations,[which?] Asmodeus is strangled.[citation needed]
Perhaps Asmodeus punishes the suitors for their carnal desire, since Tobias prays to be free from such desire and is kept safe. Asmodeus is also described as an evil spirit in general: "Ασμοδαίος τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον or τὸ δαιμόνιον πονηρόν, and πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον".[28][29][25][30][needs translation]
The figure of Ashmedai in theTalmud is less malign in character than the Asmodeus of Tobit. In the former, he appears repeatedly in the light of a good-natured and humorous fellow. But besides that, there is one feature in which he parallels Asmodeus, in as much as his desires turn uponBathsheba and laterSolomon's wives.
Another legend depicts Asmodeus throwing King Solomon over 400 leagues away from the capital by putting one wing on the ground and the other stretched skyward. He then changed places for some years with King Solomon. When King Solomon returned, Asmodeus fled from his wrath.[32] Similar legends can be found inIslamic lore. Asmodeus is referred to asSakhr (Arabic:صخرthe Rock orthe Stony One), because Solomon banished him into a rock, after he takes his kingdom back from him. He is considered to be a king of thedivs orifrits.[33]
Another passage describes him as marryingLilith, who became his queen.[34]
In theTestament of Solomon, a 1st–3rd century text, the king invokes Asmodeus to aid in the construction of the Temple. The demon appears and predicts Solomon's kingdom will one day be divided (Testament of Solomon, verse 21–25).[35] When Solomon interrogates Asmodeus further, the king learns that Asmodeus is thwarted by the angelRaphael, as well as by sheatfish found in the rivers of Assyria. He also admits to hating water. Asmodeus claims that he was born of a human mother and an angel father.
In theMalleus Maleficarum (1486), Asmodeus was considered the demon oflust.[36]Sebastien Michaelis said that his adversary isSt. John. Some demonologists of the 16th century assigned a month to a demon and considered November to be the month in which Asmodeus's power was strongest. Other demonologists asserted that hiszodiacal sign wasAquarius but only between January 30 and February 8.
He has 72 legions of demons under his command. He is one of the Kings of Hell underLucifer the emperor. He incites gambling, and is the overseer of all the gambling houses in the court of Hell. Some Catholic theologians compared him withAbaddon. Yet other authors considered Asmodeus a prince of revenge.
Asmodeus appears as the king 'Asmoday' in theArs Goetia, where he is said to have a seal in gold and is listed as number thirty-two according to respective rank.[38]
He "is strong, powerful and appears with three heads; the first is like a bull, the second like a man, and the third like a ram or agoat; the tail of a serpent, and from his mouth issue flames of fire."[39] Also, he sits upon an infernaldragon, holds a lance with a banner and, amongst the Legions ofAmaymon, Asmoday governs seventy-two legions of inferior spirits.[38]
Asmodeus' reputation as the personification of lust continued into later writings, as he was known as the "Prince of Lechery" in the 16th-century romanceFriar Rush.[43] The French BenedictineAugustin Calmet equated his name with a fine dress.[43] The 1409Lollard manuscript titledLanterne of Light associated Asmodeus with thedeadly sin oflust. The 16th-century Dutch demonologistJohann Weyer described him as the banker at thebaccarat table in hell, and overseer of earthly gambling houses.[44]
In 1641, the Spanish playwright and novelistLuis Velez de Guevara published the satirical novelEl diablo cojuelo, where Asmodeus is represented as a mischievous demon endowed with a playful and satirical genius. The plot presents a rascal student that hides in an astrologer's mansard. He frees adevil from a bottle. As an acknowledgement the devil shows him the apartments of Madrid and the tricks, miseries and mischiefs of their inhabitants.[45][46] The French novelistAlain-René Lesage adapted the Spanish source in his 1707 novelle Diable boiteux,[43] where he likened him toCupid. In the book, he is rescued from an enchanted glass bottle by a Spanish student Don Cleophas Leandro Zambullo. Grateful, he joins with the young man on a series of adventures before being recaptured. Asmodeus is portrayed in a sympathetic light as good-natured, and a canny satirist and critic of human society.[43] In another episode Asmodeus takes Don Cleophas for a night flight, and removes the roofs from the houses of a village to show him the secrets of what passes in private lives. Following Lesage's work, he was depicted in a number of novels and periodicals, mainly in France but also London and New York.[47]
Asmodeus was widely depicted as having a handsome visage, good manners and an engaging nature; however, he was portrayed as walking with a limp and one leg was either clawed or that of arooster. He walks aided by two walking sticks in Lesage's work, and this gave rise to the English titleThe Devil on Two Sticks[37] (also later translatedThe Limping Devil andThe Lame Devil). Lesage attributes his lameness to falling from the sky after fighting with another devil.[48]
On 18 February 1865, authorEvert A. Duyckinck sent PresidentAbraham Lincoln a letter, apparently mailed from Quincy. Duyckinck signed the letter "Asmodeus", with his initials below his pseudonym. His letter enclosed a newspaper clipping about an inappropriate joke allegedly told by Lincoln at theHampton Roads Peace Conference. The purpose of Duyckinck's letter was to advise Lincoln of "an important omission" about the history of the conference. He advised that the newspaper clipping be added to the "Archives of the Nation".[49]
In theTreatise on the Left Emanation, which describessitra achra (Aramaic: סטרא אחרא), meaning the "other side" or the "side of evil", Asmodeus is described as a figure living in the third ether of Heaven. He isSamael's subordinate, and married to a younger or alternative form of Lilith (Samael is married to the older Lilith). Asmodeus is still able to inflict pain and destruction, but only on Mondays.[51]
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba informed by an angel about their child, possibly an allusion to Nizami's Tale of the Princess of the Yellow-Gold Pavilion. A red demon enslaved in the garden, presumably Asmodeus, is forced to work.
In Islamic culture, Asmodeus is known as a demon (Arabic:شَيطان,romanized: šayṭānPersian:دیو,romanized: dīv) calledSakhr (rock), probably a reference to his fate being imprisoned inside a box of rock, chained with iron and thrown into the sea.[52] or his association with the desires of the lower world. He features prominently as the antagonist of the prophet Solomon. He is sometimes identified with theifrit who offered to carry the Throne of Solomon.[53] In the story of Buluqiya,[who?][clarification needed] Asmodeus teaches a young Jewish prince about the seven layers of hell.[54]
Angels fighting to hold a demonic dragon in chains. On the left side of the picture, the head of Asmodeus lurks from a crag of the demonic manifestation. The image conveys the battle between the demonic passions and the rational intellect in the form of the angels, supposedly happening inside a human's heart.Siyah Qalam (1478)
Islamicexegesis (tafsīr) commentary about Asmodeus are abundant in Medieval Islam. Asmodeus became a central figure in of the QuranicṢād verse38:34: "We allowed Solomon to be seduced by temptation, and we cast a body upon his seat. Then he repented."[55]Tabari (224–310 AH; 839–923 AD) identifies the body mentioned in the verse as ashaytan in both hisAnnals of al-Tabari[56] as well as histafsir.[57]
Abd al-Razzaq Kāshānī comments on the same verse, "The satan who sat thereupon [sovereignity's throne] and took its ring away, represents the elemental earthly nature, ruler over the lower sea of matter, called Sakhr, the 'rock,' on account of its inclination toward the lowest things and clinging thereto, even as a stone on account of heaviness."[58]
Aziz ad-Din Nasafi [fa] depicts Solomon ascaliph, a symbol of the ruling intellect, whose task it is to reduce the physical passions to proper obedience, else the forces will capture the mind's seat and turn into an usurping demon.[59] Solomon's ring signifies the imperial command over the forces of nature, while Solomon's lapse into lust and idolatry caused him to lose.[59]
Attar of Nishapur elucidates a similar allegory: one must behave like a triumphant 'Solomon' and chain the demons of thenafs or lower self, locking the demon-prince into a 'rock', before therūḥ (soul) can make the first steps to the Divine.[60][61]
Supplementary materials which usually included inStories of the Prophets (Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ) give various reasons for Solomon's punishment and Asmodeus' consequently temporary victory; sometimes because of acting injustly before a family dispute or hands the ring to a demon in exchange for knowledge, while most sources (such as Tabari,ʿUmāra ibn Wathīma,Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi,ibn Asakir,ibn al-Athir) invoke the idea that one of his wives committed idolatry.[62]
When Asmodeus put the ring on his finger, he turned into the shape of Solomon and sat on his throne, ruling in wickedness, while the real Solomon emerged from his bath and not recognized by anyone in the palace, thus cast into the streets to wander as a beggar. Finally Solomon found work at a harbor, gutting fish. After 40 days the false Solomon's evil ways aroused suspicion and the royal minister Asaph recites some holy verses in the presence of the demon king, who screamed in rage, unable to bear the recitation, and tore off the ring. The ring then fell into a river and was swallowed by a fish. The fish eventually arrived at the table of the real Solomon who slipped the ring back on and was immediately surrounded by loyaljinn who carried him to his throne, where he and his army of men, jinn, birds, and beasts battle Asmodeus and locked him in a stone after his defeat.[63]
The idea of "Genie in a bottle" probably roots in the Islamic legend about the demon Asmodeus.[64] In a story ofThousand and One Nights, the "Tale of the City of Brass" refers to Asmodeus' fate after his failure against the Prophet. According to this story, travelers discover the demon locked in a stone in the middle of the desert. The story goes as follows according to Sir Richard Burton:
Then they came upon a pillar of black stone like a furnace chimney wherein was one sunken up to his armpits. He had two great wings and four arms, two of them like the arms of the sons of Adam and other two as they were lions' paws, with claws of iron, and he was black and tall and frightful of aspect, with hair like horses' tails and eyes like blazing coals, slit upright in his face.
In the essay on the Arabic "Tale of the City of Brass", Andras Hamori relied only on incomplete versions of the story without mentioning the name of the demon.[65]
In the story of Sakhr and Buluqiya, a young Jewish prince searching for the final Prophet (Muhammad), Sakhr is said to have reached immortality by drinking from the Well of Immortality. When Buluqiya arrives in an island during his search for Muhammad, he is greeted by two snakes as big as camels and palm trees, glorifying the name of God and Muhammad. They explain that they are tasked with punishing the residents of hell. Later on a different island, he meets Asmodeus the king of demons, who explains the seven layers (ṭabaqāt) and the punisher angels (zabāniyya) who sire hell's snakes and scorpions by self-copulation.[66]
^Nünlist, T. (2015). Dämonenglaube im Islam. Deutschland: De Gruyter. p. 156 (German)
^"Asmodeus/Asmoday".Judeo-Christian Demons. Deliriumsrealm.com. 25 March 2003. Retrieved2009-03-04.
^Stave, Erik (2002) [1901–1906]."Æshma (Asmodeus, Ashmedai)". In Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus; et al. (eds.).Jewish Encyclopedia. New York:Funk & Wagnalls.LCCN16-014703. Retrieved7 March 2018.since it is paralleled by the laterPahlavi-form "Khashm-dev" ("Khashm dev" = "Æshma dev"), written with the Aramaic "sheda," but pronounced "dev." [..] Asmodeus (Ashmedai) embodies an expression of the influence that the Persian religion or Persian popular beliefs have exercised on the Jewish—an influence that shows itself very prominently in the domain ofdemonology.
^Strave, Erik."Æshma (Asmodeus) etymology in Jewish Encyclopedia".Though "Æshma" does not occur in the Avesta in conjunction with "dæva", it is probable that a fuller form, such as "Æshmo-dæus", has existed, since it is paralleled by the later Pahlavi-form "Khashm-dev" ("Khashm dev" = "Æshma dev"), written with the Aramaic "sheda," but pronounced "dev."
^Ibid. Jewish Encyclopedia.In fine, Asmodeus (Ashmedai) embodies an expression of the influence that the Persian religion or Persian popular beliefs have exercised on the Jewish—an influence that shows itself very prominently in the domain of demonology. Thus 'Ασμο' ... corresponds to "Æshma", and the ending δαῖος ... to "dæva".
^Scholem, G. (1948). "New Chapters in the Story of Ashmedai and Lilith / פרקים חדשים מענייני אשמדאי ולילית".Tarbiẕ.19 (3–4). Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies:160–175.JSTOR23585831.
^Sami HelewaModels of Leadership in the Adab Narratives of Joseph, David, and Solomon: Lament for the Sacred Lexington Books 2017ISBN978-1-498-55267-7 page 167
^Eichler, Paul Arno. "Die Dschinn, Teufel und Engel im Koran." (1928). p. 19
^Christian Lange Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions BRILL 978-90-04-30121-4 p. 118
^Lewisohn, L., Shackle, C. (2006). Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition: The Art of Spiritual Flight. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 153
^Nünlist, T. (2015). Dämonenglaube im Islam. Deutschland: De Gruyter. p. 156 (German)
^Brend, Barbara. "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzād of Herāt (1465–1535). By Michael Barry. pp. 408. Paris, Flammarion, 2004." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.1 (2007): 357
^abBrend, Barbara. "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzād of Herāt (1465–1535). By Michael Barry. p. 357. Paris, Flammarion, 2004." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.1 (2007): 357
^Lewisohn, L., Shackle, C. (2006). Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition: The Art of Spiritual Flight. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 156
^Brend, Barbara. "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzād of Herāt (1465–1535). By Michael Barry. p. 360. Paris, Flammarion, 2004." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.1 (2007): 360
^Klar, M. O., and ﻣ. . کلار. “And We Cast upon His Throne a Mere Body: A Historiographical Reading of Q. 38:34 /" وألقينا على کرسيه جسدا ": قراءة تاريخية لآية 34 من سورة ص .” Journal of Qur’anic Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2004, pp. 103–26. JSTOR,http://www.jstor.org/stable/25728129. Accessed 5 Mar. 2023.
^Brend, Barbara. "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzād of Herāt (1465–1535). By Michael Barry. p. 355. Paris, Flammarion, 2004." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.1 (2007): 355
^The Book of Sindibād Or The Story of the King, His Son, the Damsel, and the Seven Vazīrs: From the Persian and Arabic. (1884). Vereinigtes Königreich: J. Cameron. p. 18
^Brend, Barbara. "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzād of Herāt (1465–1535). By Michael Barry. pp. 408. Paris, Flammarion, 2004." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.1 (2007): 64-68.
^Christian LangeLocating Hell in Islamic Traditions BRILL 978-90-04-30121-4 p. 118