It is said that God created the Jānn [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 Yūsuf was sent to the Jinn; others, that they had only preachers or admonishers; others, again, that seventy apostles were sent, before Muḥammad, to Jinn and men conjointly. It is commonly believed that the preadamite Jinn were governed by forty (or, according to some, seventy-two) kings, to each of whom the Arab writers give the name of Sulaiman (or Solomon); and that they derive their appellation from the last of these, who was called Jānn ibn Jānn, and who, some say, built the Pyramids of Egypt.
The following account of the preadamite Jinn is given by al-Qazwīnī:—
“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 favours 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 ʿAzazīl (afterwards called Iblīs, from his despair), and a slaughter was made among them. At that time, ʿAzazīl 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 affair 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 Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn.’ ([Sūrah l. 49]).”
Iblīs, 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 Iblīs was originally, according to some, ʿAzazīl (as before mentioned), and according to others, al-Ḥāris̤; his patronymic is Abū Munnah or Abū ʾl-G͟himr. 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 ʿAbbās; (2) That he was of the Shait̤āns (or evil Jinn), as it is said in the Qurʾān, “Except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn”; this was the opinion of al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and is that commonly held; (3) That he was neither of the angels nor of the Jinn, but created alone of fire. Ibn ʿAbbās founds his opinion on the same text from which al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī derives his: “When we said unto the angels, worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [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 Iblīs was one of these Jinn. He adds, that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth, and was called the T̤āʾus (lit. “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 Iblīs being elated with pride, and refusing to prostrate himself before Adam, God transformed him into a Shait̤ān. But this reasoning is opposed by other verses, in which Iblīs 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 fire, how was he created of light? for the angels were [all] created of light.” The former verse may be explained by the tradition that Iblīs, 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 a fortiori) to be obeyed by the Jinn.
According to a tradition, Iblīs and all the Shait̤āns are distinguished from the other Jinn by a longer existence. “The Shait̤āns,” it is added, “are the children of Iblīs, 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: Iblīs 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, ʿIzrāʾīl. 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 (shihāb), often exclaim, ‘May God transfix the enemy of the faith!’ Many also are killed by other Jinn, and some even by men. The fire of which the Jinn is created circulates in his veins, in place of blood; therefore, when he receives a mortal wound, this fire, issuing from his veins, generally consumes him to ashes.”
The Jinn, it has been already shown, are peaceable. They also 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, Iblīs; namely, T̤īr, who brings about calamities, losses, and injuries; al-Aʿwar, who encourages debauchery; Sūt, who suggests lies; Dāsim, who causes hatred between man and wife; and Zalambūr, 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 to the purpose:—
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 on 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 fly; 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, 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 admonishment. Yet it is related that ʿĀyishah, one of the Prophet’s wives, having killed a serpent in her chamber, was alarmed by a dream, and fearing that it might have been a Muslim Jinnī, as it did not enter her chamber, when she was undressed, gave in alms, as an expiation, twelve thousand dirhams (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.