Jinn | Magical Arabian Entities

Throughout time, people across the world told each other tales of how they came to be. Of heroes and monsters, romance and tragedy, death and rebirth. Pathology helped shape the ancient world, explaining the unexplainable. This is Pathology Unleashed. Look deep within yourself. What is your deepest wish? If you could have your heart's desire granted to you, would you take it? Would it matter to you how it came to be? What consequences it may bring? Or more importantly, who was granting your wish? Folklore of Southwestern Asia is rife with stories of Djinn, incredibly powerful and frightfully fickle beings, capable of bringing immense fortune, and equally immense misfortune, to those they may happen upon. Made famous by stories such as Aladdin, the Djinn, also commonly referred to as genies, have been ingrained in the culture in and around the Arabian Peninsula since before the rise of Islam. But unlike the modern depiction of the genie in a lamp, who grants three wishes to the summoner, Djinn of folklore are a lot more complex, and sometimes are quite terrifying. The Djinn in Arabian folklore are a type of interfering spirit not unlike the fae folk of Celtic legends. They are not quite terrestrial, but neither are they fully celestial. They are not immortal, however they are incredibly long-lived, with lifespans ranging anywhere from one to two thousand years. Djinn are ordinarily invisible to the human eye, but may allow themselves to be seen by mortals, and have the power to shapeshift to any form, be it an animal, an object, a cloud of mist or column of smoke, or even a human or a human-like being. They can travel vast distances in short spans of time, control the elements and fabrics of reality, create anything out of thin air, move through walls or between dimensions, and are unimaginably strong. Yet despite these mystical powers, Djinn have many mortal qualities. They require sustenance to survive, and are subject to human-like emotions such as passion, greed, envy, lust and wrath. Although they can live anywhere on the planet, they prefer deserts, ruins and places of impurity, such as graveyards, garbage dumps, camel pastures and hashish dens. In time, Islamic theology absorbed and modified the Djinn. Some became beautiful and good-natured, others were depicted as being cruel and hideous, while others still were rather ambivalent towards humans and other beings. According to the Qur'an, Djinn were created from smokeless fire on a Thursday, following the angels the day before and preceding human beings by millennia. But the purpose of their creation as per the Qur'an was the same as that of humans, to worship Allah. Like humans, Djinn have free will and are able to comprehend good and evil. As can be seen in the Qur'an, they too are subject to Allah's judgment and will be sent to either heaven or hell in accordance with the life they have led. Because they are naturally invisible to people, Djinn are capable of knowingly interfering with human lives. In pre-Islamic lore, there were stories of Djinn who would take human form and conceive children with humans. These half-Djinn people would go on to become seers, capable of communing with Djinn relatives and the divine. However, because ordinary humans cannot see Djinn, it is quite common for human beings to interfere with Djinn matters unintentionally. Ordinary human acts can hurt or even kill the Djinn without people being aware of doing so. When this happens, the Djinn will take revenge by cursing them with calamity, torturing them, or even possessing their very bodies. When a Djinn possesses someone, the person is driven to the point of sheer madness as the Djinn slowly rots away their mind and body, requiring an exorcism to expel the Djinn from the body. Perhaps the most famous appearances of the Djinn are in the stories collected in 1001 Nights, also commonly referred to as the Arabian Nights. As in traditional folklore and Islamic scripture, the Djinn in these stories are often extraordinarily powerful in comparison to humans, yet are not fully infallible or invincible. In many of the stories, the protagonists who encounter Djinn use cunning and wit to escape or trap the Djinn. In the tale of the Merchant and the Djinn, a Djinn appears to a man who had carelessly thrown away a date pit. The Djinn claimed that the pit had struck and killed his son, and he would kill the man in return. He allowed the Merchant one year to set his affairs in order before he killed him. When one year passed, the Merchant returned to where he had met the Djinn and was soon met by three Sheiks. Upon hearing of the Merchant's plight, the Sheiks made a bargain with the Djinn, that they would each tell him a story, and if the Djinn had enjoyed the story, he would relinquish one third of his claim on the man's life. At the end of the tale, the Djinn spared the Merchant's life. In the tale of the Fisherman and the Djinn, the titular fisherman finds a Djinn in a copper jar that was entangled in his net. The Djinn explains that for the first hundred years of his imprisonment, he swore to enrich the person who freed him forever. But nobody freed him. For the second century of his imprisonment, he swore to grant his liberator great wealth, but nobody freed him. After another century, he swore to grant three wishes to the person who freed him, yet nobody did so. And after four hundred years of imprisonment, the Djinn became embittered and swore to grant the person who freed him their choice of death. The Fisherman managed to trick the Djinn back into the jar and threatened to throw him back into the sea. After the Fisherman tells him the story of the Vizier and the Sage Dubon, the Djinn pled for mercy, swearing to help him in return. The Djinn kept his word to the Fisherman, showing him a mystical pond filled with exotic fish. Before departing, the Djinn told him to give what fish he caught to the Sultan. And in the end, the Fisherman became the Sultan's treasurer and lived well for the rest of his days. In the tale of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Aladdin encounters two Djinn, one from a magic ring and another, more powerful Djinn from a mystic oil lamp, the latter being pursued by a cunning sorcerer from the Maghreb. When the hero became trapped in a cave by the deceptive sorcerer, Aladdin rubbed his hands out of despair and he inadvertently released the Djinn of the ring who freed him from the cave. Aladdin returned to his mother with the lamp in his possession and when the pair rubbed the lamp in an attempt to clean it, they unwittingly released the Djinn of the lamp who was bound to do the bidding of whosoever held the lamp. The Djinn of the lamp made Aladdin rich and powerful, helping him to woo a beautiful princess. But Aladdin and the sorcerer come to blows as the story progresses, with both Djinn at the center of their conflict. Though the Djinn have been relegated to powerful wishmasters in modern fantasy stories, the Djinn of ancient mythology are so much more than that. They are immensely powerful, capable of wondrous feats of magic, but despite their great power, even they are not unbeatable. For sometimes, all it takes is strong faith and razor sharp wit to overcome a Djinn. They come in all shapes and sizes and can change those shapes and sizes in the twinkling of an eye. They could be good, evil or ambivalent, helpful or destructive. From ancient Arabian mythology to Islamic theology to One Thousand and One Nights, the Djinn were always respected and feared. For their legend reminded people of the ancient world, to be careful what you wish for. You may not like what comes of it, and you may never know just who may be listening.