According to folklore,
divs are characterized through their inverted nature. They tend to do the opposite of what has been told to them. They are active at night, but get sleepy at day. Darkness is said to increase their power. Throughout many legends divs appear as villains, sorcerers, monsters, ogres, or even helpers of the protagonist. It is usually necessary to overcome the
div to get his aid. After defeating the
div, one must attach a horseshoe, a needle or an iron ring on his body to enslave them. kills
Arzhang Div (The
Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp)A
div can not be killed by physical combat, even if their body parts are cut off. Instead, one is required to find the object storing the soul of the
div: After that object is destroyed, the
div is said to disappear in smoke or thin air. The notion of a demon tied to a physical object, later inspired the European
genie.
Armenian In
Armenian mythology and many various Armenian
folk tales, the
dev (in
Armenian: դև) appears both in a kind and specially in a malicious role, and has a semi-divine origin. In one medieval Armenian lexicon, the
dev are explained as rebellious angels. Dev is a very large being with an immense head on his shoulders, and with eyes as large as earthen bowls. Some of them may have only one eye. Usually, there are black and white devs. However, both of them can either be malicious or kind. The White Dev is present in
Hovhannes Tumanyan's tale "Yedemakan Tzaghike" (
Arm.: Եդեմական Ծաղիկը), translated as "The Flower of Paradise". In the tale, the Dev is the flower's guardian. Jushkaparik, Vushkaparik, or Ass-Pairika is another chimerical being whose name indicates a half-demoniac and half-animal being, or a Pairika—a female Dev with amorous propensities—that appeared in the form of an ass and lived in ruins. While the
divs are usually perceived as male, the
peris are often, but not necessarily, depicted as female. According to a story, a man saved a white snake from a black one. The snake later revealed that she was a
peri, and the black snake a
div, who attacked her. The
divs in turn, frequently try to capture the
peris and imprison them in cages. In his treatise about the supernatural
Ahl-i Hava (people of the air),
Ghulam Husayn Sa'idi discusses several folkloric beliefs about different types of supernatural creatures and demons. He describes the Div as tall creatures living far away either on islands or in the desert. With their magical powers, they could turn people into statues by touching them.
Turkic — Ali fighting
divs. Ali might serve as a substitute for
Tahmuras, a Persian hero, who conquered the
divs as well. Here, the sword
Zulfiqar clearly indicating the representation of Ali.In Kisekbasch Destani ("Story of the cut head"), a
Turkish legend from the 13th or 14th Century,
Ali encounters a beheaded men, whose head is still reciting the
Quran. His wife has been captured and his child has been devoured by a
div. Ali descends to the underworld to kill the
div. Here, he finds out, the
div further captured 500
Sunnites and the
div threats Ali, to destroy the holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina and destroy the legacy of Islam. After a battle, Ali manages to kill the
div, release the inmates, saves the devoured child and brings the severed head, with aid of
Muhammad back to life. In
Kazakh fairy-tales, they often capture women, live in caves, and eat human flesh. Many ancient people probably believed such tales to be true, and that places beneath the earth's surface, where no human has gone before, were inhabited by gods and
divs. In
Tatar folklore, the
divs are described as beings living in the depths of the waters under the earth. They may bewitch people or invite them as guests for dinner. They could smell the spirit of humans, whenever they enter their lairs. If one speaks
bismillah, all the offered dishes turn into horse droppings and the demon himself disappears. ==Footnotes==