The Jinn, it has been already shown, are peccable. They eat and drink, and propagate their species, sometimes in conjunction with human beings; in which latter case, the offspring partakes of the nature of both parents. In all these respects they differ 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-Aạwar, who encourages debauchery; Sóṭ, who suggests lies; Dásim, who causes hatred between man and wife; and Zelemboor, who presides over places of traffic.[35]
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, etc.[36] The Jinn are of three kinds: one on the land, one in the sea, and one in the air.[37] The Jinn consist of forty troops; each troop consisting of six hundred thousand.[38]—The Jinn are of three kinds: one have wings and fly; another are snakes and dogs; and the third move about from place to place like men.[39] Domestic snakes are asserted to be Jinn on the same authority.[39a]
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, differ 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 warning. Yet it is related that ´Aïsheh, 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.[40]
The Jinn were 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:—witness the following anecdote, which was related to me by a Persian with whom I was acquainted in Cairo, named Abu-l-Ḳásim, a native of Jeelán, then superintendent of Moḥammad ´Alee's Printing-office at Booláḳ.
One of this person's countrymen, whom he asserted to be a man of indubitable veracity, was sitting on the roof of a house which he had hired, overlooking the Ganges, and was passing the closing hour of the day, according to his usual custom, in smoking his Persian pipe and feasting his eyes by gazing at the beautiful forms of Indian maidens bathing in the river, when he beheld among them one so lovely that his heart was overpowered with desire to have her for his wife. At nightfall she came to him, and told him that she had observed his emotion and would consent to become his wife; but on the condition that he should never admit another female to take or share her place, and that she should only be with him in the night time. They took the marriage-vow to each other, with none for their witness but God; and great was his happiness, till, one evening, he saw again, among a group of girls in the river, another who excited in him still more powerful emotions. To his surprise, this very form stood before him at the approach of night. He withstood the temptation, mindful of his marriage-vow; she used every allurement, but he was resolute. His fair visitor then told him that she was his wife; that she was a jinneeyeh; and that she would always thenceforward visit him in the form of any females whom he might chance to desire.
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 and 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!" (Ḥadeed! Ḥadeed!), or, "Iron! thou unlucky!" (Ḥadeed! yá mashoom!) as the Jinn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal: or they exclaim, "God is most great!" (Alláhu akbar!).[41] A similar superstition prevails with respect to the water-spout at sea, as may be seen in the adventures of King Shahriyár in the introduction to the "Thousand and One Nights."
It is believed that the chief abode of the Jinn is in the Mountains of Ḳáf, which are supposed 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, ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of roads, the sea, and rivers. The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well, and on various other occasions, say "Permission!" or "Permission, ye blessed!" (Destoor! or Destoor yá mubárakeen![42])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 Moḥammad they were forbidden the other four.[43] 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. What the Prophet said of Iblees, in the following tradition, applies also 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 Ḳur-án, poetry; his written character, the marks made in geomancy;[44] his speech, falsehood; his snares, women.[45]
That particular Jinn presided over particular places was an opinion of the early Arabs. It is said in the Ḳur-án, "And there were certain men who sought refuge with certain of the Jinn."[46] In the Commentary of the Jeláleyn, I find 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-Ḳazweenee:—"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 this city has its peculiar guardian-genius, or Agathodaemon, which has the form of a serpent.[47]
It has already been mentioned that some of the Jinn are Muslims, and others infidels. The good Jinn acquit themselves of the imperative duties of religion, namely, prayers, alms-giving, fasting during the month of Ramaḍán, and pilgrimage to Mekkeh and Mount ´Arafát; but in the performance of these duties they are generally invisible to human beings.[48]