Semum



"The one, who abandoned Semum after creating humans, can not be my lord."

- Semum about God.

"I will destroy all beauties of the disgusting human that you feed the worms under the soil with!"

Semum (or Samum) is a demon of the Turkish Horror Movie "Semum". The portrayal is based on religious scriptures of Islam and demonic possessions stories.

In the film
The Semum talks at the beginning of the movie, but only his voice is heared. The one he addresses is not shown either, but since he calls upon God during his speech, it becomes clear, he is talking to God. He swears to God, that he will lurk on humans and tempt them into destroying each other, finally convincing to abandon God and worshipping the creatures of fire instead.

Later the protagonist of the movie is possessed by the Semum. The Semum plagues her with nightmares and gets more aggressive the more the Semum takes over controll of her body. As the mental health of her gets worse, her husband consults a Hooca (priest), who is familiar with exorcisms. He is invited into the house and demands the Semum to leave the possessed female protagonist's body.

Since the exorcism fails, but the Hocca demands superiority of God towards the devil and his minnions, the Semum wants to kill the Hocca, taking him to hell for their battle. The Semum summons his fellows, who are however frightened by the divine shield the Hocca invokes by prayer. The Semum loses the battle, and while dying also his faith in the devil, who has abandoned him too.

After the defeat of the Semum, the Hocca reveals that the Semum could not have entered the world, if not summoned by a human from this world. However, other demons will take revenge on the witch, who bound the Semum, for that the Semum died in her service.

References to Islamic scriptures
The name Semum is used in the Quran to a specific fire, many early commentators and scholars believed to be the fire from which Iblis and his tribe, who once governed heavens, have been created. After God created humans, God commanded Iblis and the angels to prostrate themselves, but the Iblis refused, as he was created from the fires of semum. Afterthat, he was banished from heaven, along with his tribe. However, the Quran itself mentiones Iblis alone, his tribe is only mentioned by scholars based on tales from Muhammad's companions.

At the beginning, the Semum swears to God, he will seduce humans from all sides, probably a reference to Iblis' promise to lurk on the believers from all sides, in the Quran, as Iblis is portrayed as the lord of the semums.

It looks like, the Semum moves through the veins of a human body. This is probably a reference to a hadith, narrating that the Shayatin (servants of Iblis in Islamic theology) move through the blood vessels of human's. Although not called semums themselves, they are often thought of having been created from the fires of semum.

The defeat of the Semum by the Hoccas holy presence, resembles the notion that Islamic prayers can devils cause to vanish.

Trivia

 * While the Hocca always refers to the devil as "Iblis", the Semum refers to the devil as "Azazil", the former name of the devil before his fall. Thus emphazising, his rejection to accept God's judgment upon the devil.
 * Although a demon originated in Islamic belief, the Semum is not a jinn. The movie shows that the Semum is already alligned with hell and knows about the hidden, knowledge that is not available for the jinn. Also, the Semum lacks free-will, but is purely imbueded by malevolence, a characteristic a jinni can deprive from at any moment.