The Darker Islam within the American Gothic - Sufi Motifs in the Stories of H.P. Lovecraft

Oct 6, 2026

Explores the socio-political role of Islam as a recurring topos in H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, including daemon-sultans, Oriental figures, and Arab sages, in light of scholarship on Lovecraft’s racist views. Argues that Lovecraft’s “darker” Cthulhu gods may reflect a re-enacted Christian fear of the “Terrible Turk,” shifted to New England rather than European sites. Applies a Sufi perspective to “Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” linking Lovecraft’s Guide and Umr at-tawil references to Islamic mysticism.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Islam as a topos in Lovecraft

Christian fear and the “Terrible Turk” motif

Sufi reading of “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”

The Necronomicon and Lovecraft’s universe

IAN ALMOND The Darker Islam within the American Gothic: Sufi Motifs in the Stories of H.P. Lovecraft Abstract: This article has two purposes: in the first section, the socio-political place of Islam as topos in the stories of Lovecraft – the various Daemon-sultans, Oriental figures and Arab sages we encounter in his work – is examined, given the already extant research available on Lovecraft’s own reactionary, racist views. The article examines the possibility that Lovecraft’s dark Cthulhu gods, with their secret, subversive plan to invade our human reality, is actually a resurrection of a familiar Christian Urangst of the Terrible Turk at the gates of Vienna; this time, however, re-enacted against a background of New England, rather than Tours or Lepanto. In the second section, we consider a single tale of Lovecraft’s,“Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” from a Sufi perspective, seeing how the various references to the Guide Lovecraft calls the Umr at-tawil can be placed and re-interpreted in the context of Islamic Mysticism. Medieval Jews and Arabs were represented in profusion, and Mr Merritt turned pale when, upon taking down a fine volume conspicuously labelled as the Qanoon-e’-Islam, he found it was in truth the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, of which he had heard such monstrous things whispered some years previously […] “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” 1611 The moment is a curious one; Mr Merritt, perusing a library of somewhat daunting esoterica (demonology, magic, cabala), suddenly muddles up his sacred and profane in a most Oriental fashion, thinking to find a “fine volume” of monotheistic religion in his friend’s library, but actually discovering its arcane inverse,“the forbidden Necronomicon” in its place. Inside one Islam, Lovecraft’s Englishman finds another – not the acceptable Orient of Avicenna and Averroes, the High Islam of geometry and learning, but a darker Morgenland lying much closer to madness and monstrosity. In fact, Lovecraft’s “mad Arab,” whose work (we are always told) explains and elucidates some of the universe’s darker truths concerning the monstrous, 1 H.P. Lovecraft, Omnibus 1: At The Mountains of Madness (London: HarperCollins, 1994). Unless otherwise stated, all references will be to this edition. Special thanks to Burcu Ozdemir for her help in the preparation of this article. secret Elder Things and their primordial history, is a central text alluded to in almost every major story of Lovecraft’s. From “The Dreams in the Witch House”to “At the Mountains of Madness,” at least some passing reference is made to the Muslim elucidator of Lovecraft’s universe. In some stories, such as “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” the Arab’s book is actually proferred as a help and guide, an Oriental aid to control and command forces whose provenance is also clearly non-Western. Despite Lovecraft’s real-life, notoriously racist viewson “beady-eyed, rat-faced Asiatics,”2 the author’s inherent racism did not prevent him from placing an Arab as one of the key epistemological sources of his world-picture.That the source of such arcane knowledge might be Eastern should come as no surprise – indeed, Orientalists abound in Lovecraft’s stories, protagonists whose level of awareness of the darker cosmic reality of this earthly illusion coincides almost always with some kind of Oriental experience. The elusive Joseph Curwen of “Charles Dexter Ward,” for example, had made “at least two voyages to the Orient” before returning to his New England parish,3 the books in Harley Warren’s library, we are told, are mostly in Arabic (354), whilst“Through the Gates of the Silver Key” begins with de Marigny’s excessively oriental office – Boukhara rugs, turbans and hieroglyphic-inscribed clocks. The Arab’s Necronomicon is the Urtext which lies at the heart of Lovecraft’s fictitious universe. In over sixty stories and novellas, written for the most part during the Twenties and Thirties,

FAQs

What two main purposes does the article state for itself?

It first examines Islam’s socio-political place as a topos in Lovecraft’s stories. It then offers a Sufi perspective on “Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” reinterpreting relevant references through Islamic mysticism.

How does the article connect Lovecraft’s cosmic horror to an older European motif?

It suggests Lovecraft’s dark Cthulhu gods function as a resurrection of a familiar Christian Urangst tied to the “Terrible Turk,” but reenacted against a New England backdrop.

What role does the “forbidden Necronomicon” play in the article’s discussion?

It is treated as the Urtext at the heart of Lovecraft’s fictional universe, invoked across many stories to explain or trigger effects associated with madness, bizarre occurrences, and monstrous visitations.

Oct 6, 2026

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