Jinn Physics

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Can the jinn be explained in terms of our current knowledge of basic physics? Twenty years ago, in an article called ‘Jinn from a Scientific (?) Viewpoint’, UFO writer Chris Line made a (for some, surprisingly level-headed) case that they can.

His theory is that the jinn are ‘beings which dwell on a parallel level to man, but due to their existing at a different vibratory rate, they are not normally visible to us or detectable by us.’ Despite the fact that jinn are usually invisible, when they materialize, an energy change results – one that scientists can theoretically measure in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Line’s starting point is Islamic tradition, in particular the Qur’an, which contains information of a metaphysical nature, some of which deals with the jinn. As we have seen, the jinn are described as having ‘bodies of essential flame’, ‘smokeless flame’, or ‘smokeless fire’.

Line proposes that jinn’s bodies radiate energy from the infrared part of the spectrum. Angels, meanwhile, are described in the Qur’an as having ‘bodies of light’. Since angels are generally presumed to be invisible to humans, Line suggests that angels’ bodies are made of an invisible energy from the opposite end of the spectrum – that is, the ultraviolet.

Microwave radiation is found just below infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum. Line’s theory suggests that man’s release of microwaves into the Earth’s atmosphere may well disrupt or disturb the bodies of the jinn and/or the medium in which they live.

Islamic tradition maintains that jinn can materialize or vanish at will. According to Line, this suggests one of three things:

1 The jinn are able to control the matter that we call ‘everyday reality’,
2. They possess control over certain aspects of the human psyche and can create in people’s minds the subjective experience of matter; or
3. They can create external and very realistic illusions in the same manner that our technology creates holograms. (This last suggestion may include the first.)

Various researchers on the cutting edge of quantum physics, such as the Australian physicist Paul Davies, and in borderline medicine, such as biologist and human aura scanner Harry Old field, have speculated about the possible existence of some kind of blueprint for physical beings and objects – perhaps an electromagnetic lattice or hologram that in effect instructs each atom or molecule what to do and where to go.

Such speculation arises quite naturally because man’s present scientific knowledge is inadequate to explain the high degree of specialization exhibited by many atoms, molecules and biological cells.

Chris Line hypothesises that the jinn are able to construct and destroy these electromagnetic blueprints. He also proposes that these lattices attract, from the surrounding environment, the minerals, gases and other substances required to make up physical forms. When the blueprint is removed or destroyed, the physical form disintegrates.

In ascribing intelligent behaviour to the jinn, Line believes that these beings function on at least two levels: (1) in a system of electromagnetic energy, and (2) as a finer, psychic energy. The first level might be the equivalent of the concept of the ‘etheric’ in the Western mystery tradition – the lowest level of the human energy field or ‘aura’. The second might be the same as what this same tradition calls ‘astral’ or higher-level energy, he says.

Line says he conducted an investigation of the Earth’s atmosphere and its practical structure, based on the hypothesis that there are various different planes in the unseen world surrounding the Earth and that these planes might be connected with electromagnetic energy.

High-energy radiation from the Sun and beyond, such as cosmic rays, penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere and get absorbed by the planet, to be re-emitted as infrared radiation, thus producing most of the warmth we experience. Reflected downward by clouds and by the ionosphere and ozone layer, the infrared radiation is restricted to the lower part of the atmosphere.

Lower-frequency infrared penetrates deep into the Earth. ‘Consequently,’ Line proposes, ‘if a being had a body of low-frequency infrared, it could live deep down inside the Earth, interpenetrating what we consider to be solid materiality.’

Considering that angels are believed to possess bodies of light – corresponding to the lighter or finer end of the spectrum, the ultraviolet – one may be able to explain the age-old tradition that angels live ‘in the clouds’, that is, up above the ozone layer where ultraviolet prevails.

Line concludes,

The tradition that unseen beings originate from diff erent areas within the etheric (i.e., dense etheric) may be explained by variations in frequency of infrared: i.e., dense etheric around 1012 Hz and finer etheric nearer 1014 Hz, which would seem to imply that there should be a corresponding frequency gradient through the lower part of the atmosphere, the frequency rising with the height above the Earth’s surface.

He concedes that this hypothesis remains unproven.

* * *
Another scientifi c perspective on the nature of jinn is provided by Professor Ibrahim B. Syed, an American Muslim born in India who teaches nuclear medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Syed, who also heads the Islamic Research Foundation of Louisville, earned his doctorate in radiological sciences from Johns Hopkins University.

Syed points to the incredibly hot temperatures inside stars such as our Sun, where we find the state of matter called plasma – free-moving electrons and ions, or atoms separated from their electrons. Here, Syed suggests, may be where jinn are born. ‘Plasma could be interpreted as the smokeless Fire described in the Quran,’ he says.

Scientists have long speculated about the existence of life forms in stellar plasma. Some have called such life forms ‘plasma beasts’. Syed contends, Plasma beasts can be construed as nothing but the Jinns. Life on Earth is called Chemical life, whereas the life in the Plasma of the Sun is based on Physical life. In the Plasma, the positively charged ions and the freely floating electrons (negative ions) are both acted on by intense magnetic forces present in the sun (star). The Jinns are interpreted to be composed of patterns of magnetic force, together with groups of moving charges in a kind of symbiosis.

Syed postulates a complex existence for the inhabitants of ‘plasma land’, or the jinn, involving both charges and magnetic forces. ‘The positive and negative ions interact and respond to the presence of magnetic forces,’ he says.

The stable structure and movement of the Jinns is influenced by the magnetic forces. In physics we know that the moving charges influence the motion of these electrical charges or ions. This situation is similar to the influence of proteins and nucleic acids in Earth life. Finally these processes result in a favored form. For this to take place supply of free energy is required which is obtained from the fl ow of radiation within the sun. Therefore the Jinn can be construed to use radiant energy in their vital processes.

The notion that jinn may be plasma life forms has also been advanced by writer-researcher Jay Alfred, author of Our Invisible Bodies: Scientific Evidence for Subtle Bodies and other books. Echoing Chris Line’s theory, Alfred says that as plasma creatures, jinn ‘exist at a different “vibratory rate” or “energy level” and, therefore, are not normally visible or detectable by us,’ he says. ‘In other words, they can be said to be living in a parallel world which interpenetrates our own.’

Alfred believes that most jinn have difficulty seeing humans clearly – that people appear to them as ‘blurred images’. Some jinn can see humans more clearly than others and are the equivalent of psychics in their parallel world. Most jinn would probably regard humans as ‘ghosts’ living as we do in a parallel Earth.

As seen previously, Alfred says that it is clear from descriptions in the Qur’an that jinn, like humans, must be organised into different  religions – Muslims, Christians, Jews and others – and have their own mosques, churches and temples. ‘In other words,’ he adds, ‘jinns operate in societies, communities and within political systems and are startlingly similar to humans. Their plasma-based civilization has probably a longer history than ours.’

Plasma life forms would be electromagnetic, employing magnetic fields to form structures and electric fields as ‘agents of transport’ much as water serves as an agent of transport for carbon-based life forms. Alfred asserts that, similar to biological cells in the human body, complex plasma can exist in a liquid-crystal state. ‘Particles in a
liquid-crystal phase are free to move about in much the same way as in a liquid,’ he explains, ‘but as they do so they remain oriented in a certain direction. This feature may make it superior to water in its ability to support life in a higher energy location or universe.’

While the human carbon-based body has a brain composed of billions of neurons and neural networks that can encode vast quantities of information, the jinn’s bioplasma body may possess sophisticated holographic memory systems that employ plasma liquid crystal.

‘If we strip away the folklore and superstitions that have mired the study of the jinns through more than a millennium we will see that there is probably a kernel of truth that can be extracted from the literature to establish jinns as one category of plasma life forms,’ Alfred concludes.

The physics of the jinn phenomenon is a topic not just for fringe science publications. In 2006, The Economist sent a correspondent to Somalia and Afghanistan in search of information on the jinn phenomenon, including its possible scientific basis. Among other things, the reporter found the following:

A Parallel Universe

Islam teaches that jinn resemble men in many ways: they have free will, are mortal, face judgement and fill hell together. Jinn and men marry, have children, eat, play, sleep and husband their own animals. Islamic scholars are in disagreement over whether jinn are physical or insubstantial in their bodies. Some clerics have described jinn as bestial, giant, hideous, hairy, ursine. Supposed yeti sightings in Pakistan’s Chitral are believed by locals to be of jinn. These kinds of jinn can be killed with date or plum stones fired from a sling.

But to more scholarly clerics jinn are little more than an energy, a pulse form of quantum physics perhaps, alive at the margins of sleep or madness, and more often in the whispering of a single unwelcome thought. An extension of this electric description of jinn is that they are not beings at all but thoughts that were in the world before the existence of man. Jinn reflect the sensibilities of those imagining them, just as in Assyrian times they were taken to be the spirits responsible for manias, who melted into the light at dawn.

On the Term and Concept of Jinn

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In order to grasp the purport of the term jinn as used in the Qur’an, we must dissociate our minds from the meaning given to it in Arabian folklore, where it early came to denote all manner of ‘demons’ in the most popular sense of this word. This folkloristic image has somewhat obscured the original connotation of the term and its highly
significant – almost self-explanatory – verbal derivation. The root verb is janna, ‘he [or ‘it’] concealed’ or ‘covered with darkness’: cf. 6:76, which speaks of Abraham ‘when the night over shadowed him with its darkness (janna ‘alayhi)’. Since this verb is also used in the intransitive sense (‘he [or ‘it’] was [or ‘became’] concealed’, resp. ‘covered with darkness’), all classical philologists point out that al-jinn signifies ‘intense [or ‘confusing’] darkness’ and, in a more general sense, ‘that which is concealed from [man’s] senses’, i.e., things, beings, or forces which cannot normally be perceived by man but have, nevertheless, an objective reality, whether concrete or abstract, of their own.

In the usage of the Qur’an, which is certainly different from the usage of primitive folklore, the term jinn has several distinct meanings. The most commonly encountered is that of spiritual forces or beings which, precisely because they have no corporeal existence, are beyond the perception of our corporeal senses: a connotation which includes ‘satans’ and ‘satanic forces’ (shayatin) as well as ‘angels’ and ‘angelic forces’, since all of them are ‘concealed from our senses’ (Jawhari, Raghib). In order to make it quite evident that these invisible manifestations are not of a corporeal nature, the Qur’an states parabolically that the jinn were created out of ‘the fire of scorching winds’ (nar as-samum, in 15:27), or out of ‘a confusing flame of fire’ (marij min nar, in 55:15), or simply ‘out of fi re’ (7:12 and 38:76, in these last two instances referring to the Fallen Angel, Iblis). Parallel with this, we have authentic ahadith [recorded traditions] to the effect that the Prophet spoke of the angels as having been ‘created out of light’ (khuliqat min nur: Muslim, on the authority of ‘A’ishah) – light and fire being akin, and likely to manifest themselves within and through one another.

The term jinn is also applied to a wide range of phenomena which, according to most of the classical commentators, indicate certain sentient organisms of so fine a nature and of a physiological composition so different from our own that they are not normally accessible to our sense-perception. We know, of course, very little as to what can and what cannot play the role of a living organism; moreover, our inability to discern and observe such phenomena is by no means a sufficient justification for a denial of their existence. The Qur’an refers often to ‘the realm which is beyond the reach of human perception’ (al-ghayb), while God is frequently spoken of as ‘the Sustainer of all the worlds’ (rabb al-‘alamin): and the use of the plural clearly indicates that side by side with the ‘world’ open to our observation there are other ‘worlds’ as well – and, therefore, other forms of life, different from ours and presumably from one another, and yet subtly interacting and perhaps even permeating one another in a manner beyond our ken.

And if we assume, as we must, that there are living organisms whose biological premises are entirely different from our own, it is only logical to assume that our physical senses can establish contact with them only under very exceptional circumstances: hence the description of them as ‘invisible beings’. Now that occasional, very rare crossing of paths between their life-mode and ours may well give rise to strange – because unexplainable – manifestations, which man’s primitive fantasy has subsequently interpreted as ghosts, demons and other such ‘ supernatural’ apparitions.

Occasionally, the term jinn is used in the Qur’an to denote those elemental forces of nature – including human nature – which are ‘concealed from our senses’ inasmuch as they manifest themselves to us only in their eff ects but not in their intrinsic reality. Instances of this connotation are found, e.g., in 37:158 ff . (and possibly also in 6:100), as
well as in the earliest occurrence of this concept, namely, in 114:6.

Apart from this, it is quite probable that in many instances where the Qur’an refers to jinn in terms usually applied to organisms endowed with reason, this expression either implies a symbolic ‘personification’ of man’s relationship with ‘satanic forces’ (shayatin) – an implication evident, e.g., in 6:112, 7:38, 11:119, 32:13 – or, alternatively, is a
metonym for a person’s preoccupation with what is loosely described as ‘occult powers’, whether real or illusory, as well as for the resulting practices as such, like sorcery, necromancy, astrology, soothsaying, etc.: endeavours to which the Qur’an invariably refers in condemnatory terms (cf. 2:102; also 6:128 and 130, or 72:5–6).

In a few instances (e.g., in 46:29–32 and 72:1–15) the term jinn may conceivably denote beings not invisible in and by themselves but, rather, ‘hitherto unseen beings’.
Finally, references to jinn are sometimes meant to recall certain legends deeply embedded in the consciousness of the people to whom the Qur’an was addressed in the first instance (e.g., in 34:12–14) – the purpose being, in every instance, not the legend as such but the illustration of a moral or spiritual truth.

On the Jinn, or Genii

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The Muslims, in general, believe in three different species of created intelligent beings; namely, Angels, who are created of light; Genii, who are created of fi re; and Men, created of earth. The fi rst species are called ‘Meláïkeh’ (sing. ‘Melek’); the second, ‘Jinn’ or ‘Ginn’ (sing. ‘Jinnee’ or ‘Ginnee’); the third, ‘Ins’ (sing. ‘Insee’). Some hold that the
Devils (Sheytáns) are of a species distinct from Angels and Jinn; but the more prevailing opinion, and that which rests on the highest authority, is that they are rebellious Jinn … .

The species of Jinn is said to have been created some thousands of years before Adam. According to a tradition from the Prophet, this species consists of five orders or classes; namely, Jánn (who are the least powerful of all), Jinn, Sheytáns (or Devils), ‘Efreets, and Márids. The last, it is added, are the most powerful; and the Jánn are transformed Jinn; like as certain apes and swine were transformed men (Kur-án 5:65). It must however, be remarked here, that the terms Jinn and Jánn are generally used
indiscriminately, as names of the whole species (including the other orders above mentioned) whether good or bad; and that the former term is the more common. Also, that ‘Sheytán’ is commonly used to signify any evil Jinnee. An ‘Efreet is a powerful evil Jinnee: a Márid, an evil Jinnee of the most powerful class. The Jinn (but generally speaking, evil ones) are called by the Persians ‘Deevs’; the most powerful evil, ‘Narahs’ (which signifies ‘males’, though they are said to be males and females); the good Jinn, ‘Perees’; though this term more commonly applies to females.

In a tradition from the Prophet, it is said, ‘The Jánn were created of a smokeless fire.’ The word which signifies ‘a smokeless fire’ has been misunderstood by some as meaning ‘the flame of fire’: El-Jóharee (in the Seháh) renders it rightly; and says that of this fire was the Sheytán (Iblees) created. ‘El-Jánn’ is sometimes used as a name for Iblees; as in the following verse of the Kur-án: – ‘And the Jánn [the father of the Jinn, i.e. Iblees] we had created before [i.e. before the creation of Adam] of the fire of the samoom [i.e. of the fire without smoke].’ ‘Jánn’ also signifies ‘a serpent’; as in other passages of the Kur-án; and is used in the same book as synonymous with ‘Jinn’. In the last sense it is generally believed to be used in the tradition quoted in the commencement of this paragraph. There are several apparently contradictory traditions from the Prophet which
are reconciled by what has been above stated: in one, it is said, that Iblees was the father of all the Jánn and Sheytáns; Jánn being here synonymous with Jinn: in another, that Jánn was the father of all the Jinn; here, Jánn being used as the name of Iblees.

‘It is held,’ says El-Kazweenee, that the Jinn are aerial animals, with transparent bodies, which can assume various forms. People diff er in opinion respecting these beings: some consider the Jinn and Sheytáns as unruly men; but these persons are of the Moatezileh [a sect of Muslim freethinkers]: and some hold, that God, whose name be exalted, created the Angels of the light of fi re, and the Jinn of its fl ame [but this is at variance with the general opinion] and the Sheytáns of its smoke [which is also at variance with the common opinion]; and that [all] these kinds of beings are [usually] invisible to men, but that they assume what forms they please, and when their form becomes condensed they are visible.

– This last remark illustrates several descriptions of Jinnees in this work; where the form of the monster is at first undefined, or like an enormous pillar, and then gradually assumes a human shape and less gigantic size. The particular forms of brutes, reptiles, &c., in which the Jinn most frequently appear will be mentioned hereafter.

It is said that God created the Jánn [or Jinn] two thousand years before Adam [or, according to some writers, much earlier]; and that there are believers and infidels and every sect among them, as among men. Some say that a prophet, named Yoosuf, was sent to the Jinn: others, that they had only preachers, or admonishers: others, again, that seventy apostles were sent, before Mohammed, to Jinn and men conjointly.

It is commonly believed that preadamite Jinn were governed by forty (or, according to some, seventy-two) kings, to each of which the Arab writers give the name of Suleymán (or Solomon); and that they derive their appellation from the last of these, who was called Jánn Ibn- Jánn, and who, some say, built the pyramids of Egypt. The following account of the preadamite Jinn is given by El-Kazweenee.

It is related in histories, that a race of Jinn, in ancient times, before the creation of Adam, inhabited the earth and covered it, the land and the sea, and the plains and the mountains; and the favors of God were multiplied upon them, and they had government, and prophecy, and religion, and law; but they transgressed and offended, and opposed their prophets, and made wickedness to abound in the earth; whereupon, God, whose name be exalted, sent against them an army of Angels, who took possession of the earth, and drove away the Jinn to the regions of the islands, and made many of them prisoners; and of those who were made prisoners was ‘Azázeel [afterwards called Iblees, from his despair]; and a slaughter was made among them. At that time, ‘Azázeel was young: he grew up among the Angels [and probably for that reason was called one
of them], and became learned in their knowledge, and assumed the government of them; and his days were prolonged until he became their chief; and thus it continued for a long time, until the aff air between him and Adam happened, as God, whose name be exalted, hath said, ‘When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and
[all] worshipped except Iblees, [who] was [one] of the Jinn.’

‘Iblees,’ we are told by another authority, ‘was sent as a governor upon the earth, and judged among the Jinn a thousand years, after which he ascended into heaven, and remained employed in worship until the creation of Adam.’ The name of Iblees was originally, according to some,  ‘Azázeel (as before mentioned; and according to others, El-Hárith: his patronymic is Aboo-Murrah, or Abu-l-Ghimr. It is disputed whether he was of the Angels or of the Jinn. There are three opinions on this point.

1. That he was of the Angels, from a tradition from Ibn-‘Abbás.
2. That he was of the Sheytáns (or evil Jinn); as it is said in the Ku-rán, ‘except Iblees, [who] was [one] of the Jinn’: this was the opinion of El-Hasan El-Basree, and is that commonly held.
3. That he was neither of the Angels nor of the Jinn; but created alone, of fire.

Ibn-‘Abbás founds his opinion on the same text from which El-Hasan El-Basree derives his: ‘When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblees, [who] was [one] of the Jinn’ (before quoted: which he explains by saying, that the most noble and honourable among the Angels are called ‘the Jinn’, because they are
veiled from the eyes of the other Angels on account of their superiority; and that Iblees was one of these Jinn. He adds, that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth, and was called the Táoos (literally, Peacock) of the Angels; and that there was not a spot in the lowest heaven but he had prostrated himself upon it: but when the Jinn rebelled upon the earth, God sent a troop of Angels who drove them to the islands and mountains; and Iblees being elated with pride, and refusing to prostrate himself before Adam, God transformed him into a Sheytán. – But this reasoning is opposed by other verses, in which Iblees is represented as saying, ‘Thou hast created me of fire, and hast created him [Adam] of earth.’ It is therefore argued, ‘If he were created originally of fi re, how was he created of light? For the Angels were [all] created of light.’

The former verse may be explained by the tradition, that Iblees, having been taken captive, was exalted among the Angels; or perhaps there is an ellipsis after the word ‘Angels’; for it might be inferred that the command given to the Angels was also (and à fortiori) to be obeyed by the Jinn.

According to a tradition, Iblees and all the Sheytáns are distinguished from the other Jinn by a longer existence. ‘The Sheytáns,’ it is  added, ‘are the children of Iblees, and die not but with him: whereas the [other] Jinn die before him’; though they may live many centuries.

But this is not altogether accordant with the popular belief: Iblees and many other evil Jinn are to survive mankind; but they are to die before the general resurrection; as also even the Angels; the last of whom will be the Angel of Death, ‘Azraeel: yet not all the evil Jinn are to live thus long: many of them are killed by shooting stars, hurled at them from heaven; wherefore, the Arabs, when they see a shooting star (shiháb), often exclaim, ‘May God transfi x the enemy of the faith!’

Many also are killed by other Jinn; and some, even by men. The fire of which the Jinnee is created circulates in his veins, in place of blood: therefore, when he receives a mortal wound, this fi re, issuing from his veins, generally consumes him to ashes.

The Jinn, it has been already shown, are peccable. They also eat and drink, and propagate their species, sometimes in conjunction with human beings; in which latter case, the off spring partakes of the nature of both parents. In all these respects they diff er from the Angels. Among the evil Jinn are distinguished the five sons of their chief, Iblees; namely, Teer, who brings about calamities, losses, and injuries; El-Aawar, who encourages debauchery; Sót, who suggests lies, Dásim, who causes hatred between
man and wife; and Zelemboor, who presides over places of traffic.

The most common forms and habitations or places of resort of the Jinn must now be described.
The following traditions from the Prophet are the most to the purpose that I have seen.

• The Jinn are of various shapes; having the forms of serpents, scorpions, lions, wolves, jackals, &c.
• The Jinn are of three kinds; one on the land; one in the sea; and one in the air. The Jinn consist of forty troops; each troop consisting of six hundred thousand.
• The Jinn are of three kinds; one have wings, and fl y; another are snakes, and dogs; and the third move about from place to place like men. – Domestic snakes are asserted to be Jinn on the same authority.

The Prophet ordered his followers to kill serpents and scorpions if they intruded at prayers; but on other occasions, he seems to have required first to admonish them to depart, and then, if they remained, to kill them. The Doctors, however, diff er in opinion whether all kinds of snakes or serpents should be admonished first; or whether any should; for the Prophet, say they, took a covenant of the Jinn [probably after the above-mentioned command], that they should not enter the houses of the faithful: therefore, it is argued, if they enter, they break their covenant, and it becomes lawful to kill them without previous admonishment. Yet it is related that ‘Áïsheh, the Prophet’s wife, having killed a serpent in her chamber, was alarmed by a dream, and, fearing that it might have been a Muslim Jinnee, as it did not enter her chamber when she was undressed, gave in alms, as an expiation, twelve thousand dirhems (about £300), the price of the blood of a Muslim.

The Jinn are said to appear to mankind most commonly in the shapes of serpents, dogs, cats or human beings. In the last case, they are sometimes of the stature of men, and sometimes of a size enormously gigantic. If good, they are generally resplendently handsome: if evil, horribly hideous. They become invisible at pleasure (by a rapid extension or rarefaction of the particles which compose them), or suddenly disappear in the earth or air, or through a solid wall. Many Muslims in the present day profess to have seen and held intercourse with them.

The Zóba’ah, which is a whirlwind that raises the sand or dust in the form of a pillar of prodigious height, often seen sweeping across the deserts or fields, is believed to be caused by the flight of an evil Jinnee. To defend themselves from a Jinnee thus ‘riding in the whirlwind’, the Arabs often exclaim ‘Iron! Iron!’ (Hadeed! Hadeed!), or, ‘Iron! Thou unlucky! (Hadeed! yá mashoom!), as the Jinn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal: or they exclaim, ‘God is most great!’ (Alláhu akbar!), A similar superstition prevails with respect to the water-spout at sea, as the reader may have discovered from the first instance of the description of a Jinnee in the present work, which occasions this note to be here inserted.

It is believed that the chief mode of the Jinn is in the mountains of Káf, which are supposed (as mentioned on a former occasion) to encompass the whole of our earth. But they are also believed to pervade the solid body of our earth, and the firmament; and to choose, as their principal places of resort, or of occasional abode, baths, wells, the latrina, ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of the roads, the sea, and rivers. The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water, &c., on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well, or visit the latrina, and on various other occasions, say, ‘Permission!’ or ‘Permission, ye blessed!’ (Destoor! Or, Destoor yá mubarakeen!). –

The evil spirits (or evil Jinn), it is said, had liberty to enter any of the seven heavens till the birth of Jesus, when they were excluded from three of them: on the birth of Mohammed, they were forbidden the other four. They continue, however, to ascend to the confines of the lowest heaven, and there listening to the conversation of the Angels respecting things decreed by God, obtain knowledge of futurity, which they sometimes impart to men, who, by means of talismans, or certain invocations, make them to serve the purposes of magical performances. To this particular subject it will be necessary to revert.

What the Prophet said of Iblees, in the following tradition, applies to the evil Jinn over whom he presides: – His chief abode [among men] is the bath; his chief places of resort are the markets, and the junctures of roads; his food is whatever is killed without the name of God being pronounced over it; his drink, whatever is intoxicating; his muëddin,
the mizmár (a musical pipe; i.e. any musical instrument); his kur-án, poetry; his written character, the marks made in geomancy; his speech, falsehood; his snares are women.

That particular Jinnees presided over particular places, was an opinion of the early Arabs. It is said in the Kur-án, ‘And there were certain men who sought refuge with certain of the Jinn.’ In the commentary of the Jeláleyn, I fi nd the following remark on these words: – ‘When they halted, on their journey, in a place of fear, each man said, “I seek refuge with the lord of this place, from the mischief of his foolish ones!” ’

In illustration of this, I may insert the following tradition, translated from El-Kazweenee: – ‘It is related by a certain narrator of traditions, that he descended into a valley, with his sheep, and a wolf carried off a ewe from among them; and he arose, and raised his voice, and cried, “O inhabitant of the valley!” whereupon he heard a voice saying,
“O wolf, restore to him his sheep!” and the wolf came with the ewe, and left her, and departed.’ – The same opinion is held by the modern Arabs, though probably they do not use such an invocation. – A similar superstition, a relic of ancient Egyptian credulity, still prevails among the people of Cairo. It is believed that each quarter of the city has its peculiar guardian-genius, or Agathodæmon, which has the form of a serpent.

It has already been mentioned that some of the Jinn are Muslims; and others, infidels. The good Jinn acquit themselves of imperative duties of religion; namely, prayers, alms-giving, fasting during the month of Ramadán, and pilgrimage to Mekkeh and Mount ‘Arafát: but in the performance of these duties they are generally invisible to human beings. Of the services and injuries done by Jinn to men, some account must be given.

It has been stated, that, by means of talismans, or certain invocations, men are said to obtain the services of Jinn; and the manner in which the latter are enabled to assist magicians, by imparting to them the knowledge of future events, has been explained. No man ever attained such absolute power over the Jinn as Suleymán Ibn-Dáood (Solomon, the Son of David). This he did by virtue of a most wonderful talisman, which is said to have come down to him from heaven. It was a seal-ring, upon which was engraved ‘the most great name’ of God; and was partly composed of brass, and partly of iron. With the brass he stamped his written commands to the good Jinn; with the iron (for a reason before mentioned), those to the evil Jinn, or Devils. Over both orders, he had unlimited power; as well as over the birds and the winds, and, as is generally said, the wild beasts. His Wezeer, Ásaf the son of Barkhiya, is also said to have been acquainted with ‘the most great name’, by uttering which, the greatest miracles may be performed; even that of raising the dead.

By virtue of this name, engraved in his ring, Suleymán compelled the Jinn to assist in building the Temple of Jerusalem, and in various other works. Many of the evil Jinn he converted to the true faith; and many others of this class, who remained obstinate in infidelity, he confined in prisons. He is said to have been monarch of the whole earth. Hence, perhaps, the name of Suleymán is given to the universal monarch of the preadamite Jinn; unless the story of his own universal dominion originated from confounding him with those kings of the Jinn.

The injuries related to have been inflicted upon human beings by evil Jinn are of various kinds. Jinnees are said to have often carried off beautiful women, whom they have forcibly kept as their wives or concubines. I have mentioned in a former work, that malicious or disturbed Jinnees are asserted often to station themselves on the roofs,
or at the windows, of houses, and to throw down bricks and stones on persons passing by. When they take possession of an uninhabited house, they seldom fail to persecute terribly any person who goes to reside in it. They are also very apt to pilfer provisions, &c. Many learned and devout persons, to secure their property from such depredations, repeat the words ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!’ on locking the doors of their houses, rooms, or closets, and on covering the bread-basket, or anything containing food. During the month of Ramadán, the evil Jinn are believed to be confined in prison; and therefore, on the last night of that month, with the same view, women sometimes repeat the words above mentioned, and sprinkle salt upon the floors of the apartments of their houses. To complete this sketch of Arabian mythology, an account must be added of several creatures believed to be of inferior orders of the Jinn.

One of these is the Ghool, which is commonly regarded as a kind of Sheytán, or evil Jinnee, that eats men; and is described by some as a Jinnee or an enchanter who assumes various forms. The ghools are said to appear in the forms of various animals, and of human beings, and in many monstrous shapes; to haunt burial-grounds and other sequestered spots; to feed upon dead human bodies; and to kill and devour any human creature who has the misfortune to fall in their way: whence the term ‘Ghool’ is applied to any cannibal. An opinion quoted by a celebrated author, respecting the Ghool, is, that it is a demoniacal animal, which passes a solitary existence in the deserts, resembling both man and brute; that it appears to a person travelling alone in the night and in solitary places, and, being supposed by him to be itself a traveller, lures him out of his way. Another opinions stated by him is this: that, when the Sheytáns attempt to hear words by stealth [from the confines of the lowest heaven], they are struck by shooting stars; and some are burnt; some, falling into the sea, or rather a large river (bahr), become converted into crocodiles; and some, falling upon the land, become Ghools.

The same author adds the following tradition: – ‘The Ghool is any Jinnee that is opposed to travels, assuming various forms and appearances’; and affirms that several of the Companions of the Prophet saw Ghools in their travels; and that ‘Omar, among them, saw a Ghool while on a journey to Syria, before El-Islám, and struck it with his sword. – It appears that ‘Ghool’ is, properly speaking, a name only given to a female demon of the kind above described: the male is called ‘Kutrub’. It is said that these beings, and the Gheddár, or Gharrár, and other similar creatures which will presently be mentioned, are the off spring of Iblees and of a wife whom God created for him of the fi re of the Samoon (which here signifies, as an instance before mentioned, ‘a smokeless fire’); and that they sprang from an egg. The female Ghool, it is added, appears to men in the deserts, in various forms, converses with them, and sometimes prostitutes herself to them.

The Sealáh, or Saaláh, is another demoniacal creature, described by some [or rather, by most authors] as of the Jinn. It is said that it is mostly found in forests; and that when it captures a man, it makes him dance, and plays with him as the cat plays with the mouse. A man of Isfahán asserted that many beings of this kind abounded in his country;
that sometimes the wolf would hunt one of them by night, and devour it, and that, when it had seized it, the Sealáh would cry out, ‘Who will liberate me? I have a hundred deenárs, and he shall receive them!’ but the people knowing that it was the cry of the Sealáh, no one would liberate it; and so the wolf would eat it. – An island in the sea of Es-Seen (or China) is called ‘the Island of the Sealáh’, by Arab geographers, from its being said to be inhabited by the demons so named: they are described as creatures of hideous forms, supposed to be Sheytáns, the off spring of human beings and Jinn, who eat men.

The Ghaddár, or Gharrár (for its name is written differently in two different MSS. In my possession), is another creature of a similar nature, described as being found in the borders of El-Yemen, and sometimes in Tihámeh, and in the upper parts of Egypt. It is said that it entices a man to it, and either tortures him in a manner not to be described, or merely terrifies him, and leaves him.

The Delhán is also a demoniacal being, inhabiting the islands of the seas, having the form of a man, and riding on an ostrich. It eats the flesh of men whom the sea casts on the shore from wrecks. Some say that a Dalhán once attacked a ship in the sea, and desired to take the crew; but they contended with it; whereupon it uttered a cry which caused them to fall upon their faces, and it took them. – In my MS. Of Ibn-El-Wardee, I fi nd the name ‘Dahlán’. He mentions an island called by this name, in the Sea of ‘Omán; and describes its inhabitants as cannibal Sheytáns, like men in form, and riding on birds resembling ostriches.

The Shikk is another demoniacal creature, having the form of half a human being (like a man divided longitudinally); and it is believed that the Nesnás is the off spring of a Shikk and of a human being. The Shikk appears to travellers; and it was a demon of this kind who killed, and was killed by, ‘Alkameh, the son of Safwán, the son of Umeiyeh; of whom it is well known that he was killed by a Jinnee. So says El-Kazweenee.

The Nesnás (above mentioned) is described as resembling half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, and one leg, with which it hops with much agility; as being found in the woods of El-Yemen; and that one was brought alive to El-Mutawekkil: it resembled a man in form, excepting that it had but half a face, which was in its breast, and a tail like that of a sheep. The people of Hadramót, it is added, eat it; and its flesh is sweet. It is only generated in their country. A man who went there asserted that he saw a captured Nesnás, which cried out for mercy, conjuring him by God and by himself. A race of people whose head is in the breast is described as inhabiting an island called Jábeh (supposed to be Java), in the Sea of El-Hind, or India. A kind of Nesnás is also described as inhabiting the Island of Ráïj, in the Sea of Es-Seen, or China, and having wings like those of the bat.

The Hátif is a being that is heard, but not seen; and is often mentioned by Arab writers. It is generally the communicator of some intelligence in the way of advice, or direction, or warning.