 |
| Fire, by Bob Clark |
What are djinn?
When most people hear the word, they think of genies or imagine some sort of malevolent creatures.
Djinn (or jinn -- I like the "djinn" spelling for the simple reason that I think the d looks nice, but it's not necessary for pronunciation) are the magical denizens of Arabian folklore and Islamic mythology, and resemble more familiar mythical creatures like fairies, giants, and elves. They are usually invisible, but can make themselves visible when they want to.
The Arabic root JNN means "to hide,"--jinn are literally hidden.
The word "genie" comes to us from the Latin "genius," which meant something closer to "personal deity" than "high intelligence." It is unlikely that djinn and genie share any etymological roots; the substitution of one for the other in translations of The 1001 Arabian Nights was simply due to the words sounding sufficiently similar.
To be fair, djinn are often described in The Nights as quite frightening -- take this fellow from The Nights's frame story:
"They had not rested long, before they heard a frightful noise from the sea, and a terrible cry, which filled them with fear. The sea then opened, and there arose something like a great black column, which reached almost to the clouds. ... they observed that the black column advanced, winding about towards the shore, cleaving the water before it. They could not at first think what this could mean, but in a little time they found that it was one of those malignant genies that are mortal enemies to mankind, and are always doing them mischief. He was black and frightful, had the shape of a giant, of a prodigious stature, and carried on his head a large glass box, fastened with four locks of fine steel."
(This djinn has a woman trapped in the glass box, whom he carried off on her wedding day.)
The djinn in the story of Alla ad Deen (also known as Aladdin) are similarly frightful:
"Alla ad Deen's mother took the lamp, and said to her son, "Here it is, but it is very dirty; if it was a little cleaner I believe it would bring something more." She took some fine sand and water to clean it; but had no sooner begun to rub it, than in an instant a hideous genie of gigantic size appeared before her, and said to her in a voice like thunder, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands; I and the other slaves of the lamp."
"Alla ad Deen's mother, terrified at the sight of the genie, fainted..."
Some djinn are, however, quite comely, like these fair maidens from the Adventures of Mazin:
"...When the others were departed, she [the genie] informed Mazin that the beautiful beings he had seen in the garden were of a race of genie much more powerful than her own, that they inhabited a country surrounded by seas and deserts not to be approached by human exertion, that the ladies he beheld were sisters to the queen of these genii, whose subjects were entirely female, occasionally visited by male genii, with whom they were in alliance for the sake of population, and to whom all the males were sent away as soon as born.
"She further told him, that these females had the power, from their silken robes, of soaring through the air with a flight an hundred times swifter than that of any bird, that they were fond of recreating in verdant spots, and bathing in the clearest waters, and that the garden he had seen them in was a favourite place of their resort..."
Djinn have their own, hidden kingdoms complete with with families, tribes, and sultans like our own, but they often take up residence in out of the way spots like graveyards, caves, or abandoned wells. (In one story, a djinn saves the life of a dervish who was cruelly thrown into a well, and helps him further by telling the man how to break the enchantment another djinn has cast on a young woman with whom he has fallen in love.)
Like people, djinn can be good or evil. According to The Nights, the good djinn accepted Islam and the bad djinn rejected it, which has given the good djinn power over the bad ones. In The Story of the Loves of Kummir Al Zummaun, Prince of the Isles of the Children of Khaledan, and of Badoura, Princess of China (there's a mouthful of a title!) two such opposed genies ultimately team up for the lovers' sakes:
"In this tower was a well, which served in the daytime for a retreat to a certain fairy, named Maimoune, daughter of Damriat, king or head of a legion of genies. ...
"As she was ascending into the middle region, she heard a great flapping of wings, towards which she directed her course; and when she approached, she knew it was a genie who made the noise, but it was one of those that are rebellious against God. As for Maimoune, she belonged to that class whom the great Solomon had compelled to acknowledge him.
"This genie, whose name was Danhasch, and son of Schamhourasch, knew Maimoune, and was seized with fear, being sensible how much power she had over him by her submission to the Almighty."
Because djinn travel invisibly in our world, you must always be cautious when doing anything that might inadvertently harm them, like tossing out a pot of water or spitting out date seeds. Indeed, in The Merchant and the Genie, some careless seed-spitting killed a young djinn, which nearly resulted in the merchant's execution in turn:
"...he saw a genie, white with age, and of a monstrous bulk, advancing towards him with a scimitar in his hand. The genie spoke to him in a terrible voice: 'Rise, that I may kill thee with this scimitar, as thou hast killed my son;' and accompanied these words with a frightful cry."
Djinn fall in love with humans in several stories. Mazin, as noted already. Here is another djinn-wife, from The Second old Man and the Two Black Dogs:
"My wife proved to be a fairy, and, by consequence, a genie, so that she could not be drowned; but for me, it is certain I must have perished, without her help. I had scarcely fallen into the water, when she took me up, and carried me to an island."
In the Story of Ins al Wujjood and Wird al Ikmaum, a djinn princess falls in love with a human:
"This island was some ages back inhabited by genii; a princess of whom became violently enamoured of a handsome young man, a son of an ameer of the city of Misr, or Cairo, whom she beheld in her flight sleeping in his father's garden in the heat of the day. She sat down by him, and having gently awoke him, the youth, on looking up, to his astonishment and rapture saw a most beautiful damsel..."
And in the History of Mahummud, Sultan of Cairo, the sultan of the djinn is called in to discipline one of his subjects, a recalcitrant fellow who has fallen in love with and carried off a young woman.
The Fisherman and the Genie is the first story in the collection in which we encounter the trope of the djinn that has been trapped in a vessel -- by Solomon, of course -- and must be released by a human (the story of Alla ad Deen is later in the book):
"...there came out a very thick smoke, which obliged him to retire two or three paces back. The smoke ascended to the clouds, and extending itself along the sea and upon the shore formed a great mist, which we may well imagine filled the fisherman with astonishment. When the smoke was all out of the vessel, it re-united and became a solid body, of which was formed a genie twice as high as the greatest of giants."
But this djinn grants no wishes, other than to grant the fisherman his choice of execution, which is a pretty poor wish.
Most djinn in The Nights are not trapped in magic boxes or lamps. They just fly about, attending to their own personal business. While they have stupendous magical powers, few feel compelled to grant wishes for us humans. (Nothing like the "3 wishes" rule appears in the book.)
In the Story of the Second Calender, a man is transformed into an ape by a jealous djinn after seducing the djinn's wife. There follows an exciting scene in which a magical, shape-shifting princess battles with the djinn in order to turn the man back to his proper form:
"...but suddenly we heard terrible cries, which made us tremble, and a little while after we saw the genie and princess all in flames. They threw flashes of fire out of their mouths at each other, till they came to close combat; then the two fires increased, with a thick burning smoke which mounted so high that we had reason to apprehend it would set the palace on fire.
"But we very soon had a more pressing occasion of fear, for the genie having got loose from the princess, came to the gallery where we stood, and blew flames of fire upon us. We must all have perished had not the princess, running to our assistance, forced him to retire, and defend himself against her; yet, notwithstanding all her exertions, she could not hinder the sultan's beard from being burnt, and his face scorched, the chief of the eunuchs from being stifled, and a spark from entering my right eye, and making it blind.
"The sultan and I expected but death, when we heard a cry of "Victory! Victory!" and instantly the princess appeared in her natural shape, but the genie was reduced to a heap of ashes."
The djinn in the story of Alla ad Deen come closest to our notion of wish-granting genies. There are (at least) two of them, one connected to a lamp, and one to a ring. They actually grant infinite wishes, which from a narrative POV makes it really hard to give your characters any real struggles because they can just make more wishes. The "3 wishes" rule was introduced in western retellings to reign in what is otherwise a too-powerful wish-granting system.
Interestingly, the story of Alla ad Deen is a late addition to The Nights. According to Wikipedia, "Some of the stories commonly associated with the Arabian Nights—particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"—were not part of the collection in its original Arabic versions but were added to the collection by Antoine Galland after he heard them from the Syrian[5][6] Maronite Christian storyteller Hanna Diab on Diab's visit to Paris."
"My wife proved to be a fairy, and, by consequence, a genie, so that she could not be drowned; but for me, it is certain I must have perished, without her help. I had scarcely fallen into the water, when she took me up, and carried me to an island."
In the Story of Ins al Wujjood and Wird al Ikmaum, a djinn princess falls in love with a human:
"This island was some ages back inhabited by genii; a princess of whom became violently enamoured of a handsome young man, a son of an ameer of the city of Misr, or Cairo, whom she beheld in her flight sleeping in his father's garden in the heat of the day. She sat down by him, and having gently awoke him, the youth, on looking up, to his astonishment and rapture saw a most beautiful damsel..."
And in the History of Mahummud, Sultan of Cairo, the sultan of the djinn is called in to discipline one of his subjects, a recalcitrant fellow who has fallen in love with and carried off a young woman.
The Fisherman and the Genie is the first story in the collection in which we encounter the trope of the djinn that has been trapped in a vessel -- by Solomon, of course -- and must be released by a human (the story of Alla ad Deen is later in the book):
"...there came out a very thick smoke, which obliged him to retire two or three paces back. The smoke ascended to the clouds, and extending itself along the sea and upon the shore formed a great mist, which we may well imagine filled the fisherman with astonishment. When the smoke was all out of the vessel, it re-united and became a solid body, of which was formed a genie twice as high as the greatest of giants."
But this djinn grants no wishes, other than to grant the fisherman his choice of execution, which is a pretty poor wish.
Most djinn in The Nights are not trapped in magic boxes or lamps. They just fly about, attending to their own personal business. While they have stupendous magical powers, few feel compelled to grant wishes for us humans. (Nothing like the "3 wishes" rule appears in the book.)
In the Story of the Second Calender, a man is transformed into an ape by a jealous djinn after seducing the djinn's wife. There follows an exciting scene in which a magical, shape-shifting princess battles with the djinn in order to turn the man back to his proper form:
"...but suddenly we heard terrible cries, which made us tremble, and a little while after we saw the genie and princess all in flames. They threw flashes of fire out of their mouths at each other, till they came to close combat; then the two fires increased, with a thick burning smoke which mounted so high that we had reason to apprehend it would set the palace on fire.
"But we very soon had a more pressing occasion of fear, for the genie having got loose from the princess, came to the gallery where we stood, and blew flames of fire upon us. We must all have perished had not the princess, running to our assistance, forced him to retire, and defend himself against her; yet, notwithstanding all her exertions, she could not hinder the sultan's beard from being burnt, and his face scorched, the chief of the eunuchs from being stifled, and a spark from entering my right eye, and making it blind.
"The sultan and I expected but death, when we heard a cry of "Victory! Victory!" and instantly the princess appeared in her natural shape, but the genie was reduced to a heap of ashes."
The djinn in the story of Alla ad Deen come closest to our notion of wish-granting genies. There are (at least) two of them, one connected to a lamp, and one to a ring. They actually grant infinite wishes, which from a narrative POV makes it really hard to give your characters any real struggles because they can just make more wishes. The "3 wishes" rule was introduced in western retellings to reign in what is otherwise a too-powerful wish-granting system.
Interestingly, the story of Alla ad Deen is a late addition to The Nights. According to Wikipedia, "Some of the stories commonly associated with the Arabian Nights—particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"—were not part of the collection in its original Arabic versions but were added to the collection by Antoine Galland after he heard them from the Syrian[5][6] Maronite Christian storyteller Hanna Diab on Diab's visit to Paris."
That doesn't mean that the story is inauthentic. But the djinn in this story do behave differently from those in the other stories, so it may come from a different mythical tradition. These djinn are, however, the ones Westerners are most familiar with.
Comments
Post a Comment