Islam's scare factor

[asingh]

^^
Making of Holy Tombs for Muslim Saints..?

EDIT:
We also have the word Majnoo, from Urdu. It actually means 'crazy', but is usually used in the context of a crazed lover.

[AFL27]

As a Catholic, any film that has to do with Satan and exorcisms scare the living hell out of me.

[amerinese]

When I was a kid I saw this corny movie called "Trilogy of Terror", which as the name indicates, consisted of three horror stories. By far the best, featured this little Zuni warrior doll that was possessed and hunted this bimbo around her apartment. Totally awesome. I would strongly recommend it for a scary laugh.

[imglink]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/45/Trilogy_of_Terror_Poster.jpg/190px-Trilogy_of_Terror_Poster.jpg[/imglink]

[Loxias]

It's very interesting.
Actually much of what is known as magic and the occult in Europe can be traced back to texts from the muslim (as well as pre-Islamic) middle east. Most grimoires (like the Picatrix) were written in Arabic by Muslim magicians heavily influenced in their turn by pre-Islamic Neo-platonicians and hermeticists, associating djinns to zodiacal beings (the decans were quite terrifying but seriously revered even in Renaissance Eurooe). All of that has been quite influential on Western thought since the Renaissance.

[asingh]

Same goes with sorcerers,who are considered as beeing able to speak and interact with jinns. All of this of course is supersition taking roots in middle-age.

Mmm..ya. We have a somewhat similar strain here. Of course there is a ton of street slang for it. But it basically divulges in: Going to a sorcerer, explaining a problem, and he giving a talisman, or saying some chants, and then things happening. These aspects can be used to control people, or make someone do things as others wish. Usually it is called "totka" or "tona". But as a side observation, most of the people who have such powers have been Muslim men.

[The American]

It's very interesting.
Actually much of what is known as magic and the occult in Europe can be traced back to texts from the muslim (as well as pre-Islamic) middle east. Most grimoires (like the Picatrix) were written in Arabic by Muslim magicians heavily influenced in their turn by pre-Islamic Neo-platonicians and hermeticists, associating djinns to zodiacal beings (the decans were quite terrifying but seriously revered even in Renaissance Eurooe). All of that has been quite influential on Western thought since the Renaissance.

The Arabic influence in Europe is overstated, as it assumes that the only way in which Europeans could get ahold of knowledge of classical antiquity is from the Arabs. Little, if anything, is ever mentioned of the indigenous intellectual activity of Western Europe (Isidore of Seville is the perfect example as are the Irish monastics), the Jews, and especially of the Byzantine Empire (the Suda, a massive encyclopedia of classical philosophers, was completed during Byzantine times), which is the direct heir of Greco-Roman civilization.

[Loxias]

The Arabic influence in Europe is overstated, as it assumes that the only way in which Europeans could get ahold of knowledge of classical antiquity is from the Arabs. Little, if anything, is ever mentioned of the indigenous intellectual activity of Western Europe (Isidore of Seville is the perfect example as are the Irish monastics), the Jews, and especially of the Byzantine Empire (the Suda, a massive encyclopedia of classical philosophers, was completed during Byzantine times), which is the direct heir of Greco-Roman civilization.

I wouldn't argue that the Byzantine empire was a direct follower of the Roman Empire. And if we were to follow the line of thought of someone like Spengler, it could even be considered as a completely different civilisation. All in all, much of Middle Eastern and muslim culture is derived from Byzantine culture, which itself was a crucible of Hellenistic, Roman but also Near Eastern cultures. The hermetic tradition and most of Western occultism uptil the XIXth century is in direct filiation from the Byzantine empire, via muslim civilisation and essentially Middle Eastern. While hermeticism and associated esoterica was influential to the formation of Western culture, it's only a specific subsection of it (with a strong impact on horror fiction which is the topic here), and its influence is not evenly spread over Europe. There were many other sources of knowledge and culture, of course, as you mentioned.