Who Are the Pre-Adamites?

I am looking at a simple question. Were there people, or other intelligent races, here before the biblical Adam?

Those earlier beings are the Pre-Adamites.

Who are the Pre-Adamites? Early Islamic tradition already names jinn and hinn as earlier intelligent creatures. Hindu books of repeating ages tell a long story of races before this time. Persian story books and Nabatean farm legends tell that kind of story too. Isaac La Peyrère’s 1655 book on men before Adam is the written case I still use.

I put that next to the Nephilim. I also keep flood survivors, the Elohim, and the creation stories in view.

What Pre-Adamites are

When I say Pre-Adamites, I mean anyone said to be in the world before Adam. I am reading that through Genesis. They may be human. They may not be human.

Some accounts mean earlier people. Gentiles before the Hebrew Adam. Earlier Adams in long ages. Farm ancestors who already had parents.

Other accounts mean intelligent creatures that are not ordinary humans. Jinn, hinn, and related Arabian tradition belong there.

On this site I put Pre-Adamites with deep-time humanity, with giants, and with flood survivors. I do not force them into one list of races.

Early Islam: jinn and hinn

Medieval Islamic tradition often says mankind comes after earlier intelligent creatures. Those creatures include jinn and hinn.

Jinn are often pictured as human-like pre-Adamites. They are born of fire. They already walked the earth when Adam’s line arrived.

The Qur’an is close to that tradition. In Q 15:26–27, a standard tafsir reading says jinn were created before humankind from fire.

Tafsir is Qur’anic commentary.

I use that verse as scripture for “creatures before Adam.” It is not a full Pre-Adamite teaching by itself.

Hinn belong to Arabian and Islamic tradition of races before Adam. They stand next to the jinn.

Some lists also name binn, timm, and rimm.

Later historians sometimes say hinn or binn were cleared from the earth so jinn could live there. Those chains are often weak. I still take those stories seriously.

From the mid-9th century another idea appears. It is the idea of several Adams. Each age lasts about 50,000 years. Some Ismaili and Sufi teachers accepted that 50,000-year age.

Ismaili and Sufi groups are inner schools of Islamic teaching.

Mainstream voices often called that idea heretical. So “before Adam” can mean before this Adam. It does not have to mean before every possible Adam.

Mankind is the successor of earlier intelligent creatures such as jinn and hinn.

Jinn and hinn are non-human pre-Adamites. Earlier people and earlier Adams are human pre-Adamites. I keep those as two related questions.

Hindu cycles (brief)

Hindu Puranas describe repeating cycles of creation.

Puranas are Hindu books of gods, ages, and origins.

Humans, gods, and other beings rise and fall before the current age.

I read those repeating ages next to the Pre-Adamite idea. This is not a commentary on Genesis.

Earlier races belong there. So do flood figures who start humanity again, such as Manu. The world is older than a single first man.

La Peyrère: Prae-Adamitae (1655)

Isaac La Peyrère (c. 1596–1676) was a French theologian. Older forms of the name include Isaac de la Peyreira.

His Latin Prae-Adamitae appeared in 1655. The English Men before Adam followed in 1656, with Systema theologicum.

He starts from Romans 5:12–14. If Adam sinned under law, and law began with Adam, then a lawless world already existed. People already lived in that world before Adam.

In his model, Gentiles came first. Adam is father of the Hebrews / Jews. Original sin tracks Adam’s line.

The Flood is partial. It wipes Adam’s race, except Noah’s family. It is not a total wipe of every human on earth.

The book was condemned and burned in Paris. La Peyrère later abjured Calvinism before Alexander VII.

Abjured means he formally took the teaching back. I still use the book.

The Genesis details he uses still help. Cain fears “whosoever findeth me.” A protective mark follows. A wife is already available. A city stands in Nod. All of that implies other people outside Adam’s tiny household:

Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the land; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it will come to pass, that whosoever findeth me will slay me. … And the LORD set a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife… and he builded a city…

Genesis 4:14–17 (JPS Tanakh 1917 substance)

The points I still use from his case:

1. Cain’s exile, mark, wife, and city imply other people already on earth.
2. The many kinds of people look older than one family after Eden.
3. Peoples spread across the earth are hard to squeeze into Adam’s immediate family alone.
4. Ancient civilizations appear too early for a short Adam-only timeline.
5. Giants / Nephilim do not fit a simple Adam-only family.
6. The Flood reads as regional, or limited to Adam’s race, in his model. It is not a total wipe of the planet.

Later writers twisted pre-Adamism into racist polygenism.

Polygenism is the claim of separate human origins used to rank races.

I do not take that abuse from La Peyrère. I read other races and intelligences before Adam as a paleo-contact and deep-time trail. That is not a racial ranking dressed as theology.

Huschenk-Nameh and Nabatean Agriculture

The Huschenk-Nameh is the Hushang-Nameh tradition as cited in 19th-century legend collections. Sabine Baring-Gould’s Legends of Old Testament Characters is one of those collections. It places pre-Adam people on the isle Muscham in the Maldives.

Persians call the flat-headed men Nim-ser. Their king is Dambac. After Adam settles in Ceylon they submit. After his death they guard his tomb by day. Lions guard it by night. They guard it against the Divs.

Divs are demonic or anti-divine beings in Persian tradition.

This is a Persian and Eastern story book. The names are given. The picture is sharp. I use it as another story of a race before Adam.

Nabatean Agriculture (Kitāb al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭiyya) was written or translated by Ibn Wahshiyya around 904. It claims people lived before Adam. It claims Adam had parents. It claims Adam came from India. In that telling Adam is father of an agricultural civilization. He is not father of all humanity.

The book circulated among Jewish philosophers. Judah Halevi and Maimonides dispute Sabian and Nabatean claims while they summarize them.

In Maimonides’ outline, Adam appears as an individual born of male and female. He is a prophet or envoy of the moon. He has compilations on cultivating the soil. He travels from India toward Babylon.

I read that as Adam the culture-bringer and farm founder, not only Adam the first man. I put that split next to creation stories and the Elohim pages.

Genesis: Adamites, Cain, Nod, Nephilim, flood

Genesis is where I use Pre-Adamites as a paleo-contact trail.

Adam is the named first man in the standard Genesis reading. Pre-Adamite questions ask what else was already here. Other people. Other intelligences. Or earlier Adams.

Cain, Nod, wife, and city is La Peyrère’s main argument from Genesis. Fear of strangers points past a closed Adamite family of four. So do a protective mark, a wife, and a built city.

Nephilim / giants in Genesis 6 do not fit a simple Adam-only family. I follow that on the Nephilim. They are hybrid. They are tall. They stand next to the Adamite line in deep time.

Flood / Noah is the reset question. La Peyrère’s partial flood leaves room for other survivors and other lines. I put that next to Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah.

Romans 5:12–14 is still the theology he starts from. Law, death, and Adam turn on that text. That is not proof that nothing intelligent lived earlier.

I also keep the 12 Elohim for the idea that Elohim is a host of creators. I keep the Dead Sea for the geography of destruction next to flood and judgment stories.

I read Pre-Adamites, Nephilim, and flood survivors as a long human story next to the biblical Adam.

How I use this in my research

Pre-Adamites give me the before-Adam question that I take to other pages.

The Nephilim holds giants and other beings outside a single Adamite line. Creation stories holds origins, a prior cosmos, and Elohim. Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah holds flood survivors and a deep-time flood. The 12 Elohim holds Genesis creator-host language. The Dead Sea holds destruction and judgment geography.

Jinn and hinn strengthen the same trail. So do La Peyrère’s Gentiles-before-Adam, Nabatean farm legends, and Cain’s neighbors in Nod. Genesis sits inside a longer world of races and intelligences. It is not a closed timeline that starts at Adam alone.

FAQ

Who are the Pre-Adamites?

People or intelligent races said to exist before the biblical Adam.

These include Early Islamic jinn and hinn. They also include several-Adams ages. La Peyrère’s Gentiles before the Hebrew Adam belong here. So do Nabatean legends of people before Adam, and Persian story-book races before Adam.

What do Early Islam traditions say about Pre-Adamites?

Mankind often comes after jinn and hinn as earlier intelligent creatures. Some mid-9th-century teachers speak of several Adams and ages of about 50,000 years. Qur’anic readings place jinn before humankind from fire. That is a creatures-before-Adam verse. It is not the whole teaching by itself.

Who was Isaac La Peyrère?

Author of Prae-Adamitae (1655) and Men before Adam (1656). He used Romans 5:12–14 plus Cain’s mark, wife, and city in Nod. He argued for people before Adam. He argued for two creations: Gentiles first, then Adam as Hebrew father. He argued for a partial Flood. Later racist polygenism misused that trail. I do not.

How do the Nephilim fit with Pre-Adamites?

Genesis 6 giants / Nephilim do not fit a simple Adam-only family. I read them with the Pre-Adamites, and with deep-time and paleo-contact research. See the Nephilim.

How do I use Pre-Adamites in research?

As the before-Adam question. The close pages are Nephilim, creation stories, Utnapishtim / Noah flood survivors, Elohim, and Dead Sea geography. I use it as paleo-contact and deep-time research where the trail fits.

Related on this site

1. The Nephilim: giants and other beings beside the Adamite line.
2. Creation stories: origins, prior cosmos, and Elohim neighbors.
3. Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah: flood survivors and deep-time deluge.
4. The 12 Elohim: Genesis Elohim / creator-host trail.
5. The Dead Sea: destruction and judgment geography.