Jinn Djinn Genie : The Origin Of The Jinn Race

A large percentage of us grew up watching shows depicting genies. However one thing they almost always seem to do is make them hokey and jokey. The truth of the matter is … Genie’s are not necessarily sweet and bubbly and jokey cartoons at all. There is so much history that I never knew about the Jinn race.   Welcome to the episode Jinn, Djinn, Genie : The origin of the Jinn race. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Aladdin, I Dream of Genie, and Kazam. What do all
these shows have in common? Genies. Another thing they all
have in common is the depiction of genies that they
try to paint. Genie in the Disney movie Aladdin, one

(00:25):
of the most memorable depictions to many of us elder
millennials and younger gen xers, the motor mouthed Quippi, hilarious
and loving Genie who just wants to be free. Genie,
the female genie in I Dream of Genie spelled Genie
as in the woman's name. This Genie was brought to

(00:45):
life by the statuesque Barbara Eden and was there to
prove that girls could be genies. Two. Stuck in a
bottle for two thousand years and ready to mingle, she
is released from her confinement to meet her master and
fall in love with him. She uses her powers at will,

(01:06):
but is full of good intention and pure heart. Then
there's Kazam. The towering seven foot one inch tall shack
depicts this genie as he is freed from his magical boombox,
steps in as a sort of stand in father figure
to the twelve year old boy. Childish comedy, slapstick humor,

(01:30):
and a cartoonish purple chiffon and pointed gin shoes proves
that Hollywood, in one way or another, didn't want to
show what genies were truly capable of or what they
really look like. Take all of these examples and take
the direct opposite, and that is most likely what they

(01:52):
really are. A large percentage of us grew up watching
shows depicting genies. However, one thing they almost always seem
to do is make them hokey and jokey. The truth
of the matter is, genies are not necessarily sweet and
bubbly and jokey cartoons at all. There is so much

(02:15):
history that I never knew about the gin races those
tuning in for this one. I don't have enough time
to cover all the different types of genies and temperaments
in the normal space of an episode, so I'll be
covering the small blanket to try and break through the
surface of these historical spirits. Welcome to the episode, Gin

(02:38):
Gin Genie. Is Mothman really a supernatural force predicting impending doom?
Did Apollo eleven really land on the Moon in nineteen
sixty nine? And is that a cult living two doors

(03:03):
down that wave to you every single day while you
get your mail. If these are the things you ponder
while you should be sleeping, then I would like to
welcome you to Creepy Confidential. I'm your host, Noel, the
resident weirdo Wisconsinine. I open case files on cryptids, cults, conspiracies,

(03:23):
and other worldly creepy. I'm searching around every corner and
every book to find a new or old discovery that
was right under our creepy noses. Every week we bring
you a new case live episode or a new guest
on our after Dark live stream to chat with the audience.
So get ready, creeps. It's Creepy Confidential. Subcreeps, welcome back

(03:54):
and thank you for your patients. Things have been a
little quiet on the episode front. As many of you
may know, Creepy Confidential hit the road with the Library
Lectures tour with our first class being Paranormal. One oh one.
I made it to Wisconsin and back to Ohio and
it was creeptastic being able to be face to face

(04:17):
with the creep nation and talking about the paranormal. As
you guys know, that was kind of my first love.
More lectures are on the horizon, don't you worry. Paranormal
one oh one, one O two and one oh three
will be making its way to libraries near and far,
as well as more subjects on the docket, so I
cannot wait to bring that to you. July is fast

(04:41):
approaching and that means Gulikan twenty twenty five is almost here.
July twelfth and thirteenth, Creepy Confidential will be at This
convention is convention for horror enthusiasts, filmmakers, artists, and industry
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(05:01):
We will be vending all weekend and you can catch
an exclusive Phantom focus panel led by yours truly as
well as a few friends here in the industry, and
we will have our Creepy roadshow there as well. This
year's items include our Paranormal Touch Table. This touch table

(05:24):
features the Stone Tape Theory experiment. A theory called place
memory influenced the development of the stone tape theory in
that it helped pave the way for spirits to be
attached to specific places. So these are items that we
believe may also have similar qualities. During the convention, creeps

(05:45):
can stop by our booth and view the items we've
collected for this discussion and experiment. The items can be
handled by brave convention goers to potentially add their energy
to the item for historic reasons. Will your energy be
adhered to the coffin nails forever or perhaps the Edwardian

(06:08):
crystal door knot or can you feel the energy of
the years and people past? What sort of actions did
these items witness? And are those whispers of memories now
in your hand? So I want you to stop by,
say hello, check out our touch table, and of course

(06:29):
pick up some Creepy Confidential merch. You're gonna go to
gholikan dot com to get your convention tickets. And also
something to mention is I will be at the Excellence
Awards as well, but I will not look like I
usually do, so that will be more of an appearance
versus something that a table. But the Excellence Awards is

(06:52):
also something that's happening on the Friday night, so you'll
see that at ghulikan dot com. Last thing to mention
is to remind everyone that Creepyconfidential dot com is your
one stop shop for all things creepy. You can listen
to the entire audio podcast archives you can binge watch

(07:13):
all the after dark live stream shenanigans or check out
our creeptastic merch designs featuring our one of a kind
episode art. So, with all those announcements and thank yous
done for now, now comes onto the show Jin date

(07:38):
all the way back to pre Islamic Arabia. Within the
Arabic mythology, many people think that Greek and Roman mythology
are the only mythologies that exist, but that simply isn't true.
Every country and continent I swear has some version of
their own ancient mythologies for their culture. Chinese, Japanese, and

(08:04):
even Americans have their own mythology systems. The only real
difference between them all is the time period when these
mythologies may have started or when the mythologies kind of
reign supreme of their power. Many cultures have weird, creepy
pieces of historical figures in their mythology that oftentimes existed

(08:28):
to help people keep a moral compass or to try
and explain behaviors in the everyday simple human. Some examples
that might sound familiar to help set the stage are
Papa Legba Baba Yaga, the Urai, which you may remember
from the Aoki Kihara episode if You've been here before,

(08:48):
and many more, all different countries and regions. But all
these spirits or beings are known to have a powerful
presence and strong behavior. They are never depicted as a
lighthearted or dare I say, comical be Genie spelled ji

(09:08):
nni but pronounced how we always know it. Genie in
Arabic mythology is said to be a being that inhabits
the earth but is unseen to the human eye. They
are capable of changing forms and known to have remarkable powers. Now,
when I wrote this line, just as a quick segue sidebar,

(09:30):
I should say when I wrote this line into my information,
I couldn't help but hear Robin Williams Genie say phenomenal
cosmic powers. I just couldn't help myself. I'm sorry, You're
welcome anyway. So belief engine was very common where at
the time were they were even thought to influence poets

(09:52):
with their powers. They were also acknowledged in the Quran
and were created in Islam as cree maures that are
almost parallel to humans and are even capable of choosing
between good and evil, and therefore have to face salvation
or evil damnation. Interesting twist because this makes them capable

(10:15):
of choosing to be good or evil, and whatever they choose,
and the choose their own adventure, they are going to
have to answer for their decisions. I personally, they'll think
this is not realistic, you know, for perhaps like the
true genie. But they are already spirits, right, they operate

(10:35):
on a totally different plane of existence. But I understand
why Islam mythology or other belief in mythologies might do this,
would choose to make them on the same playing field, right,
they have less of a chance of being loose cannons
and always being evil. And not that evil ones wouldn't exist,

(10:57):
but the chances would be lower. You know, That's just
my two sense in kind of trying to see how
they might have wanted them to be. Now, Gin are
not just prevalent in Islam and Arabic cultures. They are
also a fan favorite in North African, Egyptian, Syrian, and
Turkish folklore, and are very popular in their literature. Now,

(11:21):
before I get a little too ahead of myself, what
I uncovered about Gin is that in ancient doctrine, the
beginning of the race could go as far back as
a story of Adam and Eve and the battle between
God and the Devil. The devil was Jin himself, and
when he refused to bow down to the image of Adam,

(11:42):
God's creation, he was expelled from the heavens, and this
is what kicked off the war against God and man. Later,
the Gin, now known as the devil, is who tricks
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, at least
acording to the Quran, as I understand. The part I

(12:03):
found interesting is that while this instance says that the
devil is Gin, not all gin are evil. In Islamic tradition,
many served as friend and helpers to the everyday man,
although interaction with each other was very discouraged. In Arab traditions,
the Gin are said to be the original inhabitants on

(12:26):
Earth and actually once ruled the planet after battling other
life forms known as Hin and Bin. Hin were wind creatures,
and Bin were made from water. I took this as
a battle of the elements, with the Gin being the victors.

(12:47):
An eleventh century Persian cosmographer placed the Gin's creations even
earlier with God's creation of life. Before the creation of humankind,
The Persian would go on to pen a book, a
book with a title I'm not going to try and
take a crack at in their original language, but translated

(13:08):
into English is Marvels of Things and Miraculous aspects of
things existing. Wow. What a title. Now under this description
of the animal Kingdom, he wrote a chapter including monsters,
demons and you guessed it. Jin. Also mentioned are beings

(13:31):
referred to as Rim and tim, with some suggesting that
the Rim, Tim, Hin and Bin are all connected, being
Nephelin offspring from the sons of God and the daughters
of Man of the different mythology. Something interesting is that
in the Muslim imaging of the Gin, they are of

(13:56):
the shadow world, existing amongst humans but not visible to them.
They are able to influence humans and therefore being able
to cause men and women to make choices against their
best interest. Now, at this point in my research, I
am yet to come across anything involving a genie trapped

(14:19):
in a lamp and wanting to be released, or granting
wishes for that matter. So how did we get this image?
So let's continue down the rabbit hole, shall we. Now,
you creeps know I like to do a little Tarantino
action around here and kind of go back and forth.
So let's circle back to that famous literature I mentioned

(14:41):
a little while ago. One work of literature, specifically a
collection of mostly Middle Eastern and Indian stories known as
the thousand and one Nights. It includes tales of Sindbad,
the sailor, Ali Baba, and of course Aladdin. This collection

(15:01):
of tales would be translated to the title Arabian Nights,
and this is where the description of the genies we
know comes from, at least as far as the trope
of genie and a lamp type of background. To save time,
I'm going to give you a kind of cliffs notes
run through of the first part of the Latin story
to show the differences with my interpretation. Now, for those

(15:25):
kids out there listening that maybe a little younger, Cliff's
notes are these little books that you could buy that
would help students with reading projects. And they were considered cheating,
but they weren't cheating, but anyway, they still exist, so
you should use them. In the historical literature version, Aladdin
is a poor young man, but he's living with his mom.

(15:47):
And another plot twist, He's Chinese, Isn't that strange. That
was the first thing I thought was so weird. One day,
an evil magician claiming to be his uncle, following the
death of his father, tells Aladdin that he wishes to
stop buy his mom's and give him a little money.

(16:07):
His mother tells Aladdin that this is not your uncle
because he doesn't have a brother, so there's no way
that you have an uncle. The magician brought by two
gold pieces, and Aladdin was sent out to buy provisions
to make dinner, and she proceeded to work all day

(16:28):
preparing a supper. After a little wine and dine. In action,
the magician tells his mom that he will buy Aladdin
goods and let him live in an honorable way if
he helps him. Now fast forward, and it turns out
this dude needs Aladdin to proceed into this mountain to

(16:50):
bring him you guessed it, a lamp. He tells Aladdin
he's going to give him a magical ring, and he
also tells him that under the stone in the desert
there is hidden treasure destined to be his that will
make him richer than the greatest monarch on earth. The

(17:10):
magician tells him that no one other than him is
allowed to enter the cave or lift the stone that
he speaks of. Aladdin asks his supposed uncle to help
him lift the stone, for it is just too big,
and he tells Aladdin, I cannot help you, or it

(17:30):
will not show you the cave in the mountain. There
should be red flag number one for him. But anyway,
so Aladdin lifts the stone and a staircase is exposed.
He's warned to touch nothing other than the lamp that
he is sent in there to retrieve. Do not let

(17:51):
his clothes touch the walls, because if he does, he
will die. He is instructed to collect the lamp, pour
the liquor from the lamp, and discard the wick. The
magician draws the magical ring from his hand and puts
it on a Laddin's hand and tells him it is

(18:12):
a talisman against evil. So long as you obey me,
go therefore boldly, and we shall both be rich all
our lives. He does all that he has told, until
on the way out of the cave he stops at
one of the gardens in the cave and stops to
observe the trees. He notices that the trees are loaded

(18:36):
with extraordinary fruit of all kinds of colors, but it
turns out it is not ordinary fruit. Now the white
fruit are pearls, the clear and transparent ones are diamonds,
the deep red ones are rubies, the green ones are emeralds,
and goes on to notice that all the different color

(18:59):
fruit are other precious stones. Aladdin ignorant to the value
of what these gorgeous stones would have been. He just
would have preferred figs or grapes and something that he
could eat, but he filled his purse and bags, not
knowing the value of the riches that he was grabbing.

(19:21):
He returns to the opening of the cave and he
tells his uncle to lend him a hand so that
he can get out of there. The only thing that
uncle wants is the lamp and tells Aladdin to pass
him the lamp. First, frustrated that Aladdin just wants out first,
he flashes on him and recites an incantation, causing the

(19:45):
cave to close on him. It was at this point
he realized finally that this was not his uncle, because
now he was trapped within the earth of this cave.
The truth was that the value of the lamp was
high and would make whoever possessed it richer than any

(20:06):
earthly ruler, but the catch it had to be given
to you voluntarily as a gift from another person, hence
him getting Aladdin to get the lamp. A desperate Aladdin
began to pray in the darkness that he was entombed in,
and upon pressing his hands together, graized the magical ring

(20:30):
on his hand, and suddenly out pops a genie. The
genie asks, what wouldst thou have? I am ready to
obey thee I serve him who possesses the ring on
thy finger, I and the other slaves of that ring,
to which a desperate Aladdin says, whoever thou art, deliver

(20:52):
me from this place, and boom out of the cave.
Back at the opening, no sign of disturbances in the sand,
and no sign of the opening of the cave. After
the night of being back at home overnight the next day,
him and his mother discover they have no food, and
Aladdin's mother brings him the lamp to discuss that this

(21:16):
may bring us money. She took some fine sand and
water and began to rub it to clean it. In
an instant, genie of a gigantic size appeared before her
it spoke, and of course again says what wouldst thou have?

(21:38):
The terrified mother faints, and Aladdin, who's already seen one
of these things back at the cave, snatches the lamp
and barks at the genie. I am hungry, Bring me
something to eat. The genie disappears immediately and boom, silver
plate full of food. Now the story doesn't just have

(22:00):
the genie in the lamp, but now we also have
the genie in the ring. And that was something I
came across, was that genies were kind of trapped in
various things. But this story is where we get the
genie from the lamp. So my next question is if
the movie depictions are generally a good gin and not

(22:21):
an evil one, then are there historical mentions of evil genies?
It turns out there is a very specific mention about
a very familiar sounding being Ghoul. Sound familiar Ghoul in
the history of genies is a treacherous spirit of changing shape.

(22:46):
This spirit is the origin of where kind of us
horror people know or nowadays, but back then, also the
word ghoul, the corpse eating, grave robbing creature we've to
know and love in modern day, if you're a weirdo
like myself. But plot twist, these creatures typically were female entities.

(23:11):
Another place you may recognize this kind of name from
ghoul was Rosal Ghoul, the famous character in the DC
comics where he is the leader of the Assassins. So
also kind of a you know, not so nice guy.
I was personally most interested in the in this whole
research because it seriously left the norm of what is

(23:33):
typically represented for genies, you know, the whole nice genie
part here in the West. You know, that's what we
think of, is that nicety? But I also have more
history researching ghulschools, as they are mentioned heavy and with

(23:54):
the grave robbing times of our world history. Could they
be related all the way back to being a relative
of genies, not necessarily like an origin of where the
word comes from, but could they be related not Unlike
the wind Togo of Native American folklore, they were once
human but brought the curse on themselves by their cannibalistic behaviors.

(24:18):
In Arabic folklore, they can also shape shift, often taking
the form of a hyena or a hound. Because ghoules
target travelers and lustful men, it explained a man's sudden disappearance,
even if death or the fact that you know, he
probably just ran off with another woman, which was more likely.

(24:41):
Much like many early tales, it's a thought that these
tales were used to keep people from unsafe places or
practices of some kind. Besides getting lost in the desert
and dying of thirst, a possible reason for the telling
of the myth could have been to keep people away
from cemeteries and a bandoned buildings, since they would be

(25:03):
areas that would be rife with disease, these stories could
have been used as a tool to prevent disease from
spreading in largely populated areas. With this logic, it is
possible they use the tale of the Gin as a
life lesson or maybe as an explanation why someone made
a bad decision, you know, to live a life of crime.

(25:26):
They have then something to blame, you know, that mythical
creature can be blamed and then they don't have to
take the blame themselves. You know, I cheated on my
wife because the Gin made me do it. You know
I drank too much drink because the Gin made me
do it. It could all be blamed on that. Like
I mentioned, Gin have been a famous favorite figure in

(25:50):
North African, Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Turkish folklore. The origins
of the Gin in Islam and pre Islam religion had
them being part of the history of the beginning of
good and evil, and potentially even being the offspring of
the gods and man with endless powers such as those

(26:12):
these races of Gin. After all these years, where have
they gone? Before I leave you? There's a brief description
a traditional story which tells us why Gin may have disappeared.
The angels were created on Wednesday, the Gin on a Thursday,

(26:37):
and a thousand years later humans on a Friday. These
three races coexisted peacefully until corruption, violence, and greed overcame
the Gin. The warnings of God were ignored, and he
was given no choice but to send the angels to

(26:57):
purge the Gin. Most of them subsequently died, and the
few Gin that did survive were exiled from Earth for eternity.
I want to thank you for joining me today for
today's episode jin Jin Jeannie. For more creepy content, visit
Creepyconfidential dot com and join us on our social media pages,

(27:21):
where we like to share even more creepy content, and
we like to chat with our fellow creeps. So stay creepy,
my friends, and I'll see you next time right here
on Creepy Confidential