# Hatif

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hatif
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hatif.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatif
> Source revision: 1353923016
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Arabic folklore}}
'''Hatif''' ({{Langx|ar|هَاتِف|lit=calling, shouting|}}) is a voice that can be heard without one discovering the body that made it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kilito |first=Abdelfattah |author-link=Abdelfattah Kilito |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Arabs_and_the_Art_of_Storytelling/zujqBQAAQBAJ?hl=en |title=Arabs and the Art of Storytelling: A Strange Familiarity |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-8156-5286-1 |page=92 |language=en |author-mask=Abdelfattah Kilito}}</ref>

[Al-Jahiz](/source/Al-Jahiz) wrote that the [Bedouin](/source/Bedouin) believed that important messages could be transmitted without a visible medium. The receiver would hear the message in realtime without seeing the speaker. [Al-Masudi](/source/Al-Masudi) focused on the psychological backgrounds of this phenomenon, and explained the ''hatif'' as a [hallucination](/source/hallucination) caused by loneliness.<ref>Tobias Nünlist ''Dämonenglaube im Islam'' Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 {{ISBN|978-3-110-33168-4}} p. 327 (German)</ref> However, according to al-Jahiz, belief in ''hatif'' was so widespread among the Bedouin, they were perplexed if people doubted their existence.<ref>Tobias Nünlist ''Dämonenglaube im Islam'' Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 {{ISBN|978-3-110-33168-4}} p. 327(German)</ref> 

Such ''hatif'' was also attributed to jinn by pre-Islamic Arabs. This way, they talk to humans or avenge murder on a fellow jinn by driving the murderer insane.<ref>Amira El Zein: ''The Evolution of the Concept of Jinn from Pre-Islam to Islam''. p. 113</ref>

''Hatif'' doesn't necessarily come from humans or jinn, but also from ghosts, dwelling near graves to remind humans of their mortality or announce their death.<ref>Werner Diem, Marco Schöller ''The Living and the Dead in Islam: Epitaphs as texts'' Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004 {{ISBN|9783447050838}} p. 158</ref>

In modern Arabic, the term ''hatif'' is also used for a [telephone](/source/telephone), due to invisible communication.

== See also ==

* [List of ghosts in Middle East folklore](/source/List_of_ghosts)

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Arabian legendary creatures
Category:Jinn
Category:Ghosts

{{Folklore-stub}}

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hatif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatif) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatif?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.