Editing Ifrit (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''ifrit'' appears in Surah [[an-Naml]]: 39 of the [[Quran]], but only as an [[epithet]] and not to designate a specific type of demon.<ref name="Westermarck-2014a"/><ref name="McAuliffe">{{cite book
 | last = McAuliffe
 | first = Jane Dammen
 | title = Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān 
 | publisher = Georgetown University, Washington DC 
 | volume = 3
 | pages = 486–487
 }}</ref> The term itself is not found in [[Arabic poetry#Pre-Islamic poetry|pre-Islamic Arabic poetry]], although variants such as ''ifriya'' and ''ifr'' are recorded prior to the Quran.<ref name="McAuliffe"/> Traditionally, Arab philologists trace the derivation of the word to {{langx|ar|[[:wikt:عفر|عفر]]|ʻafara|to rub with dust, to roll into dust|links=no}}.<ref name="Chelhod-2005" /> It is further used to describe sly, malicious, wicked and cunning characteristics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baheth.info/all.jsp?term=%D8%B9%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA|title=الباحث العربي: قاموس عربي عربي|website=www.baheth.info|access-date=2019-02-19|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201710/http://www.baheth.info/all.jsp?term=%D8%B9%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Some Western philologists suggest a foreign origin of the word and attribute it to [[Middle Persian]] ''āfrītan'', which corresponds to [[New Persian]] {{Nastaliq|{{lang|fa|[[:wikt:آفریدن|آفریدن]]}}}} "to create", but this is regarded as unlikely by others.<ref name="McAuliffe"/> Johnny Cheung argued that there is a [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] spirit called an ''āfriti-'' in [[Avestan]]. He suggests that this Avestan term might be the ultimate source of Arabic ''‘ifrīt''."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cheung |first1=Johnny |title=On the (Middle) Iranian borrowings in Qur'ānic (and pre-Islamic) Arabic |date=2016 |pages=15 |journal=HAL |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01445860 |access-date=26 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

In folklore, the term developed into a designation of a specific class of [[demon]], though most Islamic scholarly traditions regard the term as an adjective.<ref name="Chelhod-2005" /><ref name="McAuliffe"/> Popular beliefs were elaborated in works such as in [[al-Ibshihi|al-Ibshīhī]]'s ''Mustatraf''. They became identified either as a dangerous kind of [[Shayatin|devil]] (''shayṭān'') preying on women, or as spirits of the dead.<ref name="McAuliffe"/> In [[Turkish language|Turkish]], the term is used for demons of the underworld.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Erdağı | first=Deniz Özkan | title=Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in "Semum" | journal=SN Social Sciences | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=4 | issue=2 | date=2024-02-01 | issn=2662-9283 | doi=10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w| doi-access=free }}</ref>