NOTES: JINN AND PRE-ISLAMIC DEMONOLOGY

DJINN: WHAT ARE THEY?

• Associated with Islam, and the pre-islamic world of the arabian peninsula
• Humanoid, ghostlike creatures
• Djinn is singular, Djinnni is plural
• From the root word J-n-n, meaning to hide or conceal
• God made three sentient types of being.
• Angels, from light
• Humans, from clay
• Djinni, from smoke and fire
• Ah, but Djinn predate islam
• Their origins are speculated on, they might have been previous gods “dethroned” by other religions
• May have represented a fear of the desert
• Can come into contact with, influence, and even possess human beings
• Djinn are actually more similar to Daimons functioned in ancient greece
• They are neither good nor bad
• Live in societies, they have kings, friends, and even religions
• It is said that many pre-islamic poets were inspired by Djinns to write their poems, similar to daimons inspiring greek poets
• In the ancient arab world, Djinn functioned kinda like Middlemen between the gods and humanity
• This is why the quran says that mohamed’s enemies claimed he was effected by magic
• Djinn possession and divine recitations were commonplace for the time
• The Quran talks about Djinn on multiple occasions, even dedicating an entire surah to them. En-Djinn.
• The Quran seems to identify Iblis, islamic satan, as a djinn.
• Other verses call him a fallen angel
• Iblis was a great djinn who led djinn armies in great battles, they fought for god. But when god created adam, and asked the angels to bow to him, Iblis refused.
• This rebellion is when Iblis became condemned as a Shaitan.
• He is not a powerful adversary to god, but a king of evil djinn who leads humans astray.
• This version of Iblis probably made islam much easier to incorporate into local religions and folklore
• “Legends of the Fire Spirits” Robert Leibling
• Five categories of djinn
• Jann - The most general term for all djinn
• Jinn - General, but also refers to specific Djinn and specific tribes of djinn
• Shaytan - Always evil. More similar to common demons.
• Ifrit - More powerful Jinn, mostly evil. These are common in the arabian nights. They like to hang out in ruins. They like sandstorms and shapeshifting.
• Marid - The most powerful kind of djinn, mostly evil. These are the big wish-granting kind.
• For example. In the story of aladdin, the djinn of the ring is is an ifrit, and the djinn of the lamp is a type of marid.
• There are also lesser types
• The Ghul, which can shapeshift and likes to eat human flesh. Inhabits cemeteries. Appear as beautiful women, to lure men to their deaths.
• There are way way more and way more myths.
• One states that he Djinn’s original homeland was a mountain on the edge of the world called Mount Qaf.
• Jinn are generally connected with specific places. Even today, places are considered to be infested with Jinn
• Madain Saleh, ruins from the nabetean kingdom, are said to be crawling with jinn.
• Ubar/Iram of the Pillars, the “Atlantis of the sands” its treasures are guarded by Jinn
• There are also famous individual Jinn
• Aisha Kandicha from Morocco. Looks like a beautiful dark-haired woman with the feet of a camel who lures men into the desert to kill them
• The Sufis and other holy mystics were kinda in charge of managin jinn
• A common form of exorcism was ecstatic Nawah music.
• The 1001 nights has a ton of Jinn lore.
• Some are chill, others are malicious.
• They have religions!
• Some listened to mohamed as he preached, later converting to islam. There are Christian Jinn, Jewish Jinn, etc. They are subject to gods punishment just as we are.
• Some consider Jinn to be beings that inhabit the world, others consider Jinn to be anything that cannot be perceived by the senses.

Ancient Israelite Demonology

• Isralites didnt have much in the way of malicious spirits until the advent of apocalyptic Judaism in the persian period
• The ancient near-east operates differently
• Apocalypticism shifted the paradigm to a battle between good and evil
• The more archaic form was more of a chaos vs order paradigm
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