Here are myths and folklore about “people of the hills / mountain folk” from the Caucasus, Armenian Highlands, and areas around Ararat, including Islamic-era traditions that absorbed older myths.

1. Armenian Highlands / Mount Ararat Region

• Nhang & Nahapet (Pre-Christian / Armenian)

Armenian folklore speaks of ancient mountain peoples who lived in caves around Ararat—half-human, half-spirit.
One form is the Nhang, a shape-shifting mountain/river being, sometimes described as a “mountain man with animal strength” who lives in cliffs.

• The Narts (Shared by Armenians, Ossetians, Circassians)

The Narts are mythic giant heroes, but some versions describe a proto-people living in the mountains before humans.
A few Armenian retellings say the first Narts emerged from the stones of the high mountains, making them literally “people of the hills.”

• Arevordi / “Children of the Sun”

Certain hill tribes in Armenian legend are described as sun-born people who retreated into the mountains after a flood—clearly mythic versions of ancient pre-Armenian groups.

2. Georgian / Kartvelian Traditions

• “Kudiani” – Mountain Witches

Highland Georgia preserves myth of the Kudiani, women living in remote mountains who could transform or ride whirlwinds.
Though witches, they sometimes represent a pre-Christian mountain race feared by villagers.

• Ochokochi – A Forest/Mountain-Man

Ochokochi is a hairy mountain spirit who stalks passes and valleys.
He is sometimes described as the last survivor of an ancient people wiped out by the gods, living alone in remote hills.

• Devi – Giants of the Mountains

The Devi (Georgian giants/demons) often live in the highest mountains and predate humans.
Myths portray them as older races inhabiting the hills before the arrival of the Kartvelians.

3. Circassian & North Caucasus Traditions

**• The Amaz-an / “People of the Peaks”**

Circassian myths reference an early mountain-dwelling population said to be neither human nor Nart, hairless, pale, and nocturnal.
They were believed to vanish into crevices when threatened.

• Almas / Almasty – Wild Peoples

Widespread in the North Caucasus: the Almasty, a race of wild, hairy hill-people (sometimes proto-human).
Islamicized versions appear in Chechen and Ingush folklore (see below).

• Tsovinar People

Among Armenian and Cappadocian highlands: myths of mountain lake spirits who occasionally appear as “hill women”—daughters of the goddess Tsovinar.

4. Kurdish & Yazidi Highlands (Ararat Through Hakkari)

• “Çiyayê Miştere” – People of the Mystery Mountains

Kurdish folklore includes an ancient race called the Miṣterî, who lived only in the high ranges around Ararat and stayed separate from humans.
Said to be pre-flood peoples.

• The Yazidi “Children of the Mountains”

Some Yazidi oral traditions describe:

people created from black clay who lived on the mountains before Adam
or tribes guided by Tawûsê Melek to the remote hills before the rest of humanity

These myths blend Islam, Zoroastrianism, and Mesopotamian themes.

5. Islamic-Era Myths in the Caucasus & Ararat

Islam reached the South Caucasus early, and Islamic myth merged with local traditions. Here are specifically Islamic or Islam-inflected ideas about “people of the hills.”

• Jinn of the Mountains (Caucasus)

Chechen, Ingush, Dagestani Muslims preserve lore about:

mountain-dwelling jinn tribes
“white jinn” who avoid contact with humans and inhabit high passes
jinn who were created long before Adam and populated remote hills before humans arrived

Some are described almost identically to local pre-Islamic hill-folk.

• The “Ginzē” – Mountain Spirits Islamized as Jinn

In Dagestani Islamic folklore, older pagan spirits of the mountains were reinterpreted as a special race of jinn living in the rock faces.
Some versions say they are the descendants of Iblis who rejected him, living quietly among the mountains.

• “Shepherds of the Jinn” – Sufi Legends (Ararat to Tabriz)

Sufi lore in the region (Naqshbandi and Qadiri) claims that in the ancient mountains between Ararat, Van, and Lake Urmia, tribes of pious jinn shepherds tended invisible flocks.
Travelers occasionally reported:

phantom bells
humanlike figures disappearing into cliffs
lights on inaccessible peaks

These jinn were thought to be proto-people inhabiting the world before humans.

• Islamic Versions of the Almasty

Among Chechen, Ingush, and Karachay-Balkar Muslims, the wild hill-people (Almasty / Almas) are sometimes said to be:

jinn in physical form, or
a leftover race of humans not descended from Adam

Both interpretations come from Islamic cosmology.

• The People of Tubba’

Brought by Islamic storytellers into the region: the Himyarite kings called Tubba’ were said to have ruled ancient mountain peoples of the far north, interpreted by some Caucasus Muslims as the original “hill tribes” destroyed by God.
Usually considered legendary.

• “People Possessed by Angels or Jinn” in the Mountains

Islamic mystics in the Caucasus claim certain tribes in pre-Islamic times were so holy or so wild that:

angels or jinn “overshadowed” them
they lived apart from other humans
they vanished into the mountains when new faiths appeared

This repeats the idea of ancient mountain races predating human civilization.

6. Iranian Plateau Influence (Near Ararat)

• Parthian and Median “People of the Hills”

Zoroastrian and Iranian lore (which influenced Kurdish and Armenian myths) sometimes refers to:

Daêva-worshipping hill tribes in the mountains
older races defeated by culture heroes

Islamic storytellers merged these with jinn narratives.

Here is a clean, direct list of actual stories (not just beings) about “people of the hills / mountain peoples” from the Caucasus, Armenian Highlands, and Ararat region, including Islamic, pre-Islamic, and mixed versions.
These are named stories, myths, or oral tales you can look up or adapt.

STORIES OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLE — ARMENIA / ARARAT

1. The Stone-Born Brothers of Ararat

Armenian folktale.
Two giant brothers are said to have been born from the stones of Mount Ararat before ordinary humans existed.
They guard hidden springs and push avalanches down on anyone who approaches their territory.
Humans eventually drive them into the mountain, where they turn back into stone.

**2. The People of the Black Caves (Sev Yerkat)

Armenian highlands, Ararat–Van region.**
A mountain tribe who lived inside volcanic caves carved by ancient gods.
They only came out at dusk, avoided sunlight, and left offerings of obsidian tools.
A shepherd once followed them and disappeared—there is no ending; the tale warns not to seek them.

3. The Shepherd and the Nhang of Ararat

Features the Nhang, but explicitly calls it the last survivor of the old mountain people.
A shepherd rescues a girl from the Nhang, who confesses it once belonged to a forgotten hill race that lived before the Flood.

GEORGIA / KARTVELIAN STORIES

4. Ochokochi and the First Humans

Gurian myth.
Before humans lived in the valleys, the wilderness was ruled by mountain-men like Ochokochi.
A god named Ghmerti drives them into the highest ranges, where they still live and occasionally descend to abduct unlucky hunters.

5. The White People of Svaneti

Svan story.
Pale, silent mountain-dwellers with hair “white as snowfields.”
A Svan hunter shares bread with one; they gift him a stone that guarantees safe passage across mountains, then vanish forever.
Villagers believe they were an older people who chose to leave the world of men.

6. The Kudiani’s Village in the Cliffs

Mountain witches (Kudiani) live in a hidden cliff village.
A woman escapes after being abducted and describes a society of women who claim they are descendants of the first mountain people who never accepted Christianity or Islam.

CIRCASSIAN / NORTHWEST CAUCASUS STORIES

7. The Amaz-an in the High Pass

A Circassian legend about the Amaz-an, an extinct mountain tribe.
A young warrior encounters one who warns that when the last Amaz-an dies, the mountain will collapse.
The next winter, a huge avalanche destroys the pass—interpreted as the tribe’s end.

8. The Narts and the People of the Peaks

In some Nart sagas, the heroes meet a secretive race living above the clouds.
These mountain people forge weapons from “star-iron” and test the Narts’ honor.
Later generations of Narts try to find them again and fail.

9. Princess Psykhia and the Hidden Mountain Folk

Circassian tale where a princess is raised by ancient mountain people after being abandoned.
They teach her magic and medicine.
When she returns to humanity, they withdraw deeper into the peaks and never return.

CHECHEN, INGUSH & DAGESTANI — ISLAMIC-ERA STORIES

These blend Islamic jinn cosmology with older indigenous myths.

10. The Jinn Shepherds of Kazbek

A well-known Muslim folktale in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
A hunter sees jinn tending invisible herds near Mount Kazbek.
One jinn says their ancestors lived on the mountains long before Adam and stayed because “the mountains remember us.”

11. The White Jinn of the High Pass

From Dagestan.
Travelers are guided through a storm by a white-robed mountain jinn.
He explains that his tribe was punished for refusing to follow Iblis or angels—they chose purity and isolation, living forever in the peaks.

12. The Wild Man (Almasty) Who Could Speak Qur’an

Chechen tale strongly Islamic.
A village captures an Almasty, who reveals he is from a forgotten human tribe predating Adam.
He repeats parts of the Qur’an in a strange, old dialect, then escapes back into the mountains.

**13. The Vanishing People of Khunzakh

Dagestani Islamicized myth.**
A group of mountain-dwellers known as “the Hidden Ones” traded with humans only at night.
When Islam arrived, they left for an “unseen valley”—interpreted as the world of jinn.

KURDISH & YAZIDI REGION STORIES (ARARAT–HAKKARI)

14. The People Made of Black Clay

Yazidi holy tale.
Before God made Adam of yellow clay, He made a race of people from black mountain clay.
They lived on the highest peaks around Ararat and vanished when Adam’s children multiplied.

15. The City of the Invisible People (Şarê Nediar)

Kurdish story.
An entire mountain people live inside a hidden city that can be seen only once every 100 years.
A shepherd enters it, marries a woman, and returns decades later to find no time passed outside.
Commonly considered to be jinn or pre-human hill people.

16. The Silent People of Judi

Around Mount Judi (associated with Noah’s Ark in Islamic tradition).
Fishermen claim to see silent, barefooted mountain people wandering at dusk.
A local Islamic explanation:

“They are the children of those who perished in the Flood but were not fully human.”

This ties them directly to an Islamic retelling.

IRANIAN PLATEAU INFLUENCE NEAR ARARAT

17. The Daêva-Worshippers in the Mountains

Zoroastrian tradition preserved in Kurdish and Persian tales.
A race of mountain people who followed the ancient Daêvas (demons) resisted Zoroaster and fled into Ararat’s peaks.
In Islamic periods, storytellers reinterpreted them as evil jinn clans.

18. The Mountain of the Watchers / The People Who Taught Magic

An Iranian story near Lake Urmia.
A group of mountain beings taught humans metalwork and charms.
Later Islamic writers equated them with the fallen angels Harut and Marut or with jinn.

ARMENIAN–PERSIAN–ISLAMIC HYBRIDS

19. The Vanishing Builders of the Ararat Fortress

Locals say a fortress ruin on Ararat was built by a race of small mountain people who worked only at night.
When Islam spread, they left objects and tools behind and fled into the unseen world.
Islamic storytellers called them jinn masons.

20. The Star-Women of Aragats

A pastoral tale.
Three shining women descend from a mountaintop to teach weavers.
They claim to be the “last daughters of the first people” who came to these mountains from the sky.
Islamic retellings identify them as angels or righteous jinn.

Here are more explicitly Islamic stories from the Caucasus, Armenian Highlands, Eastern Anatolia, and around Ararat concerning mountain-dwelling peoples, jinn tribes, pre-Adamic humans, and vanished hill races.
These come from Chechen, Ingush, Dagestani, Azeri, Kurdish, Armenian Muslim, and Persian Islamic folklore that grew around the mountains.

I’m focusing on stories, not just beings.

ISLAMIC MOUNTAIN-PEOPLE STORIES (Caucasus, Ararat, Persia-Anatolia Border)

1. The Tribe Who Refused Iblis and Refused Adam

Dagestan (Islamic)
A mountaineer meets a strange man with oddly smooth skin and pale eyes.
The stranger says:

“We were a tribe created before Adam.
When Iblis called us to rebel, we refused him.
When Adam called us to descend, we refused him.
So Allah left us in the mountains.”

The man disappears into a cliff crevice still visible today.

This explains a neutral, pre-Adamic hill people who are neither angels, humans, nor sinful jinn.

2. The People of the “Second Covenant” on Mount Kazbek

Ingush (Islamic Sufi inflection)
A dervish climbs Mount Kazbek and encounters a village of people who pray in an ancient form of salat but speak no known language.
Their imam says:

“We took the second covenant with Allah before your father Adam.
Because we kept it, we were allowed to remain unseen.”

When the dervish descends, he finds the path closed by a storm. The village never appears again.

3. The Jinn Who Heard Noah’s Call on Mount Judi

Kurdish & Turkish Islamic
When Noah’s Ark rested on Mount Judi (Islamic version), humans left the Ark—but some jinn tribes also gathered on the slopes.
A tale says a group of them stayed to guard a spring where Noah prayed.

shepherd once sees them: glowing, human-like, barefoot, carrying clay jars.
They say they heard Noah’s call and chose to remain righteous.

These are a pious mountain-dwelling jinn people connected to a Qur’anic prophet.

**4. The Mountain Where the Pre-Human Perished (Qawm al-Jabbarīn)

Azeri & Persian Islamic folklore around Ararat–Urmia.
Some hills near Ararat are said to contain the graves of a race Allah destroyed before humans—Qawm al-Jabbarīn (“the People of the Giants”).
A wandering imam spends the night on a hill and dreams of a giant saying:

“We lived before Adam, but defied the message of the angels.
So Allah buried us in the mountains.”

The next morning, he finds his footprints in a circle of huge fossil-like depressions.

5. The Black Jinn of Zangineh Valley

Eastern Anatolia / Ararat region (Muslim Kurdish)
A valley between Ararat and Tendürek is said to be inhabited by black jinn who appear as short, muscular mountain people.
A trader once helps an injured boy who turns into a jinn child.
His father rewards the trader with a pouch of stones that become gold only during Ramadan.

The tribe claims ancestry from:

“The children of the jinn who followed Solomon and fled to the mountains.”

**6. The Speaking Rock of the Hidden Ummah

Chechen Islamic folklore
A boulder in the mountains is said to whisper Qur’anic verses at night.
A tale explains that beneath the rock lives a hidden ummah—a lost Muslim tribe descended from jinn who pledged allegiance to Prophet Muhammad when he recited Qur’an to the jinn (Surah al-Jinn).
They were told to live away from humans to avoid corruption.

Hunters claim to hear their adhan echoing faintly from within the mountain.

7. The People Who Survived the Flood by Clinging to the Peaks

Kurdish Islamic legend around Ararat
When the Flood came, a tribe living high on the mountains refused Noah’s call.
They climbed ever higher and survived a while, but Allah turned them into wind-spirits that haunt the ridges.
Travelers say distant humming on Ararat’s snowy cliffs is their grieving voices.

These are not jinn by origin, but humans transformed.

8. The Hadith Scholar and the 40 Mountain Jinn

Medieval Persian Sufi story told in Armenia & Eastern Anatolia
A hadith scholar traveling from Nishapur to Ani hears rhythmic chanting in a valley.
He finds 40 jinn in human form reciting sahih hadith by heart.
Their shaykh says:

“We withdrew to the mountains in the days of the Abbasids
to avoid the sins of men.”

They give the scholar a commentary on Sahih Muslim written in “jinn calligraphy.”
When he returns to the valley later, the place is deserted.

**9. The Two Nations of Jinn in the Caucasus Sea

Dagestani Muslim myth
The Prophet Sulayman (Solomon) once sent two jinn nations to live in the Caucasus mountains as punishment:

The Silent Ones, who may not speak
The Laughing Ones, who may not weep

People report meeting bizarre mountain hermits who never speak or who laugh at funerals—believed to be jinn descended from these nations.

10. The Woman Taken by the Mountain Tribe

Azeri Muslim version of an older Armenian story
A woman vanishes on a high pasture.
A year later she returns with a child and says she had lived among a tribe of “black-eyed mountain Muslims” who pray without touching the ground.
They release her only because her child uses Qur’anic verses.

The child grows up to have prophetic dreams.

These “mountain Muslims” are treated as a hidden ummah parallel to humanity.

11. The Pact Between Imam Shamil and the Mountain Jinn

19th-century Dagestani Islamic legend
Imam Shamil, fighting the Russians, is said to have made a pact with a tribe of jinn living in the mountains.
One story says they gave him a path through the cliffs that no Russian scout could find.
The jinn told him:

“Our forefathers lived here before the sons of Adam.”

This was a political myth explaining his uncanny knowledge of the terrain.

12. The Seven Shadow Tribes Who Met Muhammad

Chechen Sufi story
Seven tribes of jinn living in the Caucasus mountains heard Muhammad’s recitation at the Valley of Nakhlah.
They returned to their homes but vowed to protect travelers.
People claim that if you shout the basmala in a storm, the “shadow tribes” clear the path.

**13. The Tribe Who Followed Jesus but Never Heard of Muhammad

Islamicized Armenian tale
A Muslim scholar climbs a mountain and meets a group of ascetic men who follow Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus) and speak Syriac.
They say:

“We are the ones Jesus told to flee to the mountains until the world grows pure.”

When told Muhammad has come, they weep and disappear, leaving only sandals.
Some versions say they become Muslim jinn.

14. The People of the Cave in the Caucasus

Local Muslim extension of Surah al-Kahf
Some Muslims in the Caucasus believed a second group of Sleepers of the Cave existed in the northern mountains.
A shepherd finds seven men sleeping in a hollow and hearing them mutter Qur’an in dreams.
The shepherd returns with the imam, but the men have vanished, leaving goat-milk warm on a fire.

Some say they were mountain jinn imitating the Companions of the Cave.

15. The Mountain Where Angels Chained the Rebellious Jinn

Azeri Islamic legend
Near the Aras valley, old Muslim stories say the archangel Jibril chained rebellious jinn to a mountain cliff after they tried to corrupt early humans.
People hear metal scraping at night—supposedly the chains of these ancient mountain beings.

I. PRE-ISLAMIC INDO-IRANIAN MOUNTAIN-RACE MYTHS

Ancient Indo-Iranian religion is full of myths about non-human or pre-human peoples dwelling in mountains—giants, luminous races, cave-people, demon tribes, or earlier humans destroyed by gods. Many were preserved in Avestan, Vedic, Median, Scythian, Persian, Nuristani, and Iranian plateau folklore, and later entered Armenian, Kurdish, and Caucasus tales.

These are actual identifiable traditions, not generic.

**1. The Daêva-Yata – “Daeva-Worshipping Mountain People”**

Zoroastrian (Avestan)
The Avesta describes mountain peoples who worshipped Daêvas (the old Indo-Iranian gods/demons).
They lived in remote highlands before Zoroaster’s reforms.
Zoroaster’s hymns speak of driving the Daêva-people into the mountains, where they “shriek in hidden caves.”

These represent a pre-Zoroastrian race lingering in the mountains.

**2. The Pishacha / Bušyant – Cannibal Mountain Spirits**

Indo-Iranian shared myth
Iranian Bušyant and Indian Pishachas were said to be the first inhabitants of mountain caves, born from the bodies of the primal gods.
They feed on corpses, live in dark peaks, and predate humans.

Their origin is linked with the Chaos Age before human creation.

**3. The Pairika-People (Avestan Fairies)**

Avestan / Iranian
Pairikas (Parīs, later “Peris”) were gorgeous but dangerous mountain-dwelling women who seduced heroes and taught forbidden magic.
Some texts imply whole tribes of them lived around the Zagros, Caucasus, and Ararat-adjacent mountains.

Later, they were reinterpreted as jinn or fallen angels.

4. The Turanian Mountain Tribes

Persian epic traditions (Shahnameh)
The Turanians, enemies of the Iranians, are portrayed as emerging from the northern mountains (Caucasus, Pamirs).
Some stories say they descend from a pre-human line created when demons mixed with mountain spirits.
Their king Afrasiyab is often described as “not wholly human.”

**5. The Dev / Daeva Giants of the Mountains**

Iranian and Armenian epics describe mountain devs as ancient proto-races defeated by heroes.
Examples:

Devs in the Caucasus who enslaved early humans
Devs guarding mountain passes
Devs created before mankind and punished by Ahura Mazda

These later became the Devi / giants in Georgian folklore.

**6. The Alp or “Shining” Mountain Ancestors**

Nuristani / Proto-Iranian
Nuristani myth speaks of the Alp, shining beings who lived in snowy mountains before humans existed.
They were children of the Sky God and the Mountain Goddess.
When humans appeared, the Alp retreated into unreachable peaks.

These influenced later tales of Persian Peris and Caucasian “white mountain people.”

**7. The Yima / Jamshid Golden Race in Caves**

Avestan
Before the great winter/flood, the god Ahura Mazda told Yima to hide a golden race of humans in a mountain “vara” (sealed refuge).
These people were kept pure, luminous, ageless.
In some Iranian folklore, they still live inside mountains like Ararat or Sabalan.

This is one of the oldest Indo-Iranian mountain-race mythologies.

8. The Scythian “Bone-House People”

Greek sources describing Iranian-Scythian beliefs mention mountain peoples called “Bone-House” or “Dead-House” tribes who lived in caves and ate the dead.
These were likely distorted versions of Pishacha/Daiva mountain clans.

9. The Urmia and Ararat Mountain Maidens

Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian tribes believed the snowy peaks were inhabited by sky-spirit women, older than humans, who shaped storms and guarded sacred lakes.
Later, Armenian and Kurdish versions depict them as pre-human mountain races of females.

10. The Alp-Er Proto Tribe

Turkic but heavily Indo-Iranian influenced.
Myths describe an earlier human-like tribe carved from the mountain itself.
When real humans emerged, the Alp-Er retreated and became guardian spirits of rocks and high passes.

II. PRE-ADAMIC RACES IN ISLAM ADAPTED TO CAUCASIAN + ARARAT FOLKLORE

Islamic tradition across the Caucasus absorbed pre-Islamic Indo-Iranian ideas and reinterpreted them through:

Pre-Adamic humans (Banū al-Jān, Banū al-Ins before Adam)
Ancient jinn nations
Qawm destroyed by Allah before mankind
Survivors of the Flood
Hidden ummahs living in mountains

Below are the main myth types and stories that combine Islamic cosmology with Caucasus/Ararat mountain myth.

A. The Banū al-Jān Living in the Caucasus Mountains

Islamic lore says a race called Banū al-Jān (sons of the jinn) inhabited Earth 2,000 years before Adam.
In the Caucasus, this became localized:

Story: “The Elder of the Peaks” (Chechen, Islamic)

An old man encountered in the mountains says:

“We are the Banū al-Jān who ruled this land before Adam.
When the angels waged war on us, we fled to these peaks.”

This reflects the pre-Adamite race vs. angels motif from Islamic cosmology, mapped onto Caucasus mountains.

B. The People of the First Creation (al-khalq al-awwāl)

Sufi teachers in Dagestan claimed the first creation lived in the mountains of the north before being replaced by Adam’s race.

Story: The Dervish of the Broken Pass

A Sufi encounters glowing people praying on a ridge.
They say:

“We are the First Creation.
Our time ended when Adam was chosen.”

They vanish at dawn.

C. The “Adams Before Adam” in Eastern Anatolia (Ararat-Van)

Islamic scholars in medieval Armenia—especially Sufi sources—told stories of seven Adams before the Adam we know.

Story: The Seven Adams of Ararat

Each Adam ruled an age; each age ended in cataclysm.
The last pre-Adamic race fled to the slopes of Ararat and became:

mountain jinn
invisible people
spirits bound to caves

This syncretizes Islamic cosmology with Zoroastrian cycles.

D. Jinn Nations Created Before Adam Who Refused the Angels

Based on hadith and Qur’anic commentary (e.g., al-Tabari).

Story: The People of the Second Covenant (Dagestan)

A mountain tribe claims they took the original covenant (mithāq) with Allah before Adam.
Because they refused to follow either angels or Iblis, Allah allowed them to live separately.

This is an Islamic adaptation of Indo-Iranian neutral mountain races.

E. Pre-Human Races Destroyed by Allah (Qawm al-Jabbarīn)

Qur’anic term adapted to Caucasian highlands.

Story: The “Buried Nation of Ararat”

Imams in the Ararat region taught that the giant footprints in volcanic ash belonged to a race destroyed before humanity.
Their souls became wind-jinn haunting high ridges.

F. The Followers of Solomon (Sulaymān) Who Became Mountain Jinn

Islamic folklore says Solomon ruled both humans and jinn.

Story: The Black Jinn of Mount Tendürek

A Kurdish Muslim story:
A tribe of pre-Adamic jinn who disobeyed Solomon were exiled into mountains around Ararat.
Their descendants appear as short humanoids with black skin and glowing eyes.

This is the Islamicized form of Iranian Daêva-mountain tribes.

G. The Pre-Flood Survivors Transformed by Allah

In Islamic Ararat folklore, some mountain tribes survived Noah’s Flood but were cursed.

Story: The Wind-People of the Peaks

These survivors cling to Ararat’s highest ledges until Allah turns them into air-spirits as punishment for arrogance.

This blends Islamic flood theology with Indo-Iranian storm-spirits.

H. The Hidden Muslim Ummahs (Jinn Nations Converted by Muhammad)

Islamic teaching: some jinn became Muslim upon hearing the Qur’an.

Story: The Seven Mountain Tribes

Caucasus Muslims claim seven tribes of jinn living in the peaks are devout Muslims who heard Muhammad recite the Qur’an.
They pray, fast, and avoid humans.

This matches Indo-Iranian luminous mountain beings, reinterpreted as Muslim jinn nations.

I. The Iblis-Worshipping Tribes in the Mountains

Based on Qur’anic exegesis that some jinn follow Iblis.

Story: The Dark Tribes of the North Face

Azeri Muslim shepherds say certain mountain people avoid sunlight and whisper curses—descendants of jinn who followed Iblis before humanity was created.

This echoes Pishacha/Daêva demon mountain clans.

J. The “First Humans” Before Adam (Nasnas, Nisnās)

Islamic myth has a half-formed pre-Adamic race called Nasnas.

Story: The Nasnas of Sabalan

Persian tales near the Caucasus claim one-legged, one-armed beings lived in mountains before Adam.
Their last survivors became spirits haunting high ridges.

This combines Islamic lore with older Indo-Iranian accounts of malformed proto-beings.

✅ I. Pre-Islamic Indo-Iranian Mountain Races

**1. The Pāri / Pari (Fairy People) – Iranian Highland Spirits**

Origin: Old Iranian religion (Avestan pairika).
Nature: Beautiful but dangerous mountain women.
Locations: Zagros, Alborz, Armenian highlands.
Racial aspect: Considered a separate, ancient people allied with demons, living in cliffs and snowy peaks.

**2. The Daeva-People of Mount Harā / Alborz**

In Zoroastrian cosmology, the mountain Harā Berezaiti had demon tribes living on inaccessible heights.
Often portrayed as pre-human races banished to mountains after Ahura Mazda’s creation.

**3. Divs and White Divs of the Caucasus (Persian Epics)**

Large, monstrous mountain beings.
The White Div of Mazandaran lives in snowy mountains; similar beings appear in Caucasus folklore.
Sometimes described as an older race predating humans.

4. The Kakas / Kaka-people

Attested in medieval Iranian folklore.
A mountain race, hairy, cannibalistic, dwelling in the Caucasus and Ararat area.
Possibly derived from Indo-Iranian ogre myths.

5. The Uralian / Sarmatian Mountain Ancestors

Sarmatian tribes believed mountain spirits were their predecessors inhabiting the Caucasus ridge.
Sometimes interpreted as the souls of pre-human giants.

**6. Indo-Iranian Asura / Ahura Fallen Races**

Early Vedic enemies (Asuras, Dasyus) described as:
- cave-dwellers
- mountain tribes
- non-human or semi-human
Later syncretized in Central Asia with mountain-demon races.

7. Armenian Nhang and Vishap People

Dragon-humanoid races tied to Mount Ararat and Lake Van.
In some sources they are a proto-race or older beings who controlled mountains before humans.

✅ II. Islamic Traditions: Pre-Adamic / Ancient Races in Mountain Regions

**1. Hinn and Binn – Pre-Adamic Races**

Existed before Adam; some traditions place them:
- in the Caucasus mountains
- in the mountains around Lake Van
- or in the Armenian highlands
Described as:
- small mountain dwellers
- sometimes winged
- sometimes like early jinn
Destroyed by jinn or angels due to corruption.

**2. The Jabbarīn (Giants) of the Mountains**

Mentioned in Islamic lore as primitive mountain giants.
Linked to:
- Caucasus ranges
- Mountains between Turkey–Iran
Said to be wiped out before Adam or conquered by prophet-kings.

**3. Jinn Tribes Confined to the Caucasus**

Islamic folklore often localizes jinn nations to mountain belts:

The Mount Qaf myth is sometimes located by Sufi or Persian writers in the Caucasus or Ararat region.
Certain jinn tribes (the Marid, Ifrit, Shayatin) are said to live in:
- caves under Ararat
- snow peaks of Caucasus
- volcanic mountains of eastern Anatolia

**4. Nasnas – Half-formed Humanoid Race**

Mentioned by early Islamic folklorists.
Some regional traditions move them to:
- Caucasus mountains
- Ararat volcanic slopes
Depicted as:
- one-legged, half-body beings
- an ancient, incomplete race before Adam.

**5. Children of Tubba‘ and the Caucasus Strongholds**

In Yemeni-Islamic legends:

The ancient Himyarite kings encountered mountain races near the Caucasus, some said to be:
- remnants of pre-Adamic beings
- hybrid jinn-human tribes

**6. Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog) and the Caucasus Wall**

Islamic historiography frequently identifies:

The Caucasus / Darial Gorge
with Dhul-Qarnayn’s barrier.

Thus the inhabitants behind the mountains were often seen as:

non-human ancient races
corrupted peoples older than Adam
cannibalistic or shapeshifting beings

Some versions equate them to:

jinn tribes
degenerate humans
remnants of Hinn/Binn

**7. Al-Arwāḥ al-Sābika – “Old Spirits” of the Mountains**

Medieval Islamic demonology mentions:

“pre-Adamite mountain spirits”
especially in:
- Armenian mountains
- Caucasus passes
- Kurdish highlands
Often connected to local pagan survivals:
- Armenian vishaps
- Georgian devs
- Kurdish peris

**8. Qawm-e-Jabal – “People of the Mountain” in Islamic Local Lore**

Local Islamic folktales in:

Azerbaijan
Eastern Turkey
Northern Iran
Chechen and Dagestani regions
tell of:
mountain-dwelling non-human communities
often invisible or half-material
said to be:
- pre-Adamic
- jinn descended
- or “those whom the angels drove into the mountains before Adam’s creation”