Something about this particular manuscript was so disturbing that it ended up literally buried in Spanish Royal Commissioner’s palace. It survived through the ravages of time with its ghastly mysteries intact until a scholarly dig discovered it and innocently added it to the University of Toledo’s collection.

This prized find is one of the oldest specimens of what are referred to as ‘Solomonic Heritage’ manuscripts being older than any currently existing copies of the Goetia. It tells the tale of King Solomon’s heroic encounter with 72 powerful beings of evil incarnate.

The anonymous ancient sorcerer left complete details on the 72 most evil of the djinn, their names, their descriptions, their locations, their afflictions and the magical keys to counter their attacks on humans. This manuscript stands unique in comparison with traditional djinn grimoires, since djinn demand that the sorcerers must not reveal their secrets, or suffer terrible pain.

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The newly crowned Herrmann the Great gave a command performance for Czar Alexander III of Russia. The czar enjoyed the thought of being of the same rough coarseness as the majority of his subjects. He basked in his own straightforward, crude manner. This came off sometimes as being too harsh. And his direct, plain way of expressing himself matched well with his rough features and somewhat sluggish movements.

He was also noted for his immense physical strength. He felt that the ruler of Russia should be more powerful than the toughest rough and most burly peasant.

The czar was impressed by Herrmann’s delicate touch. He picked up a deck of cards and walked over to the wizard. He firmly grabbed the deck and tore it in half. He wanted to test Herrmann’s mettle. He handed the torn deck to the magician to see if he could outmatch the czar’s iron grip. Herrmann was always cool under fire. He only hesitated a moment as he proceeded with the challenge presented to him. He placed one half on top of the other and squared them neatly. Then he proceeded to tear both together. Czar Alexander was most impressed. He gave Herrmann a watch with a chain made of heavy twisted strands of gold.

Alexander tells an interesting tale of an incident that took place after the performance. He was playing billiards at the saloon with the attaché of the court when he noticed the Czar was also playing there. Herrmann shot the ball with all of his strength against a plate-glass mirror that extended from the floor to the ceiling. It shattered into fifty pieces. Every person in the room was horrified, none more than Herrmann.

The Czar brushed off Herrmann’s apology and considered the destruction of the mirror trivial. He ordered the game to proceed. With the Czar’s permission, Herrmann examined the mirror to estimate the damage done. He was hoping to have it repaired.

The Czar teased him, saying if he was such a good wizard why didn’t he make the mirror whole? That was the very cue Herrmann was hoping for. He hesitated for an instant, then ordered the mirror to be covered with a cloth concealing it from view. After about ten minutes, he whisked away the cloth and the mirror was completely restored and without a flaw.

Herrmann later told The North American Review that he would leave it to the reader’s imagination how it was done.

From Russia, Herrmann returned to the place of his birth, France. At the Eden Theatre in Paris, his performance was witnessed by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later to become King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of England, aka Alexandra of Denmark).

Alexander met his brother Carl again in 1885 in Paris. Carl was still miffed at Alexander from his triumph at Egyptian Hall. Carl was planning on retiring again and was grooming their nephew Leon to be his successor. However, he did not intend to retire until he regained his fortune. So an agreement was made between the two brothers to split the world. Compars was to return to Europe and Alexander to the United States.

Alexander left Paris to go back to America, where he became an established institution. Two years later, while in New York, Alexander was shocked to hear the news of the death of his brother Carl, who died on July 8, 1887 in Karlsbad in Germany. Even with the rivalry between them, Alexander could not help but feel that he owed everything to him. “We’ve always had a warm and brotherly feeling towards each other,” he told a newspaper.

Since Alexander was widely known in the States, when news of the death of Professor Herrmann hit the papers, many thought it was Alexander that had died. He was mourned in the papers.

Carl did regain his fortune before he died. Leon took his place and was doing well. Alexander was content to let Leon take over Europe.

Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Alexander and his wife Adelaide Herrmann performed together in elaborate stage shows. The great American impresario Michael B. Leavitt handled Herrmann’s American and Mexican contracts. Leavitt always paid all transportation costs as well as advertising, salaries, and other expenses. “Whenever I open a new theatre, ” Leavitt once said, “I want to insure of large crowds, I will have Herrmann the Great play the date.” He was always a drawing card wherever he played, receiving fifty percent of the gross receipt and earning $75,000 a year (about $3 million in today’s figures).

He often squandered his money and would ask Leavitt to advance him $5,000 or more. Leavitt never refused his star. He considered it a safe investment. “The name Herrmann the Great on any marquee was a sure sign of a successful run.”

Alexander and Adelaide lugged their show by railcar and kept their travels to the U.S. territories. They presented a full evening program, adapting such tricks as Robert Houdin’s Aerial Suspension routine in an illusion called Trilby. A board would be set on top of two chairs, and Madame Herrmann would be placed on top of the board. Both the board and Madame Herrmann would rise into the air. The two chairs would be removed. After a hoop was passed over, Madame Herrmann would descend back to the two chairs.

The Herrmanns presented this and many other fine illusions of the time. Their only rival was Harry Kellar.

Career

With the departure of Carl, Alexander began his independent career in 1862. Carl returned to play to the capitals of Europe. Alexander brought his own show to London in 1871 and began a three-year stretch at Egyptian Hall, which he called his “one thousand and one nights”. Egyptian Hall was one of the first buildings in England to be influenced by the Egyptian style, inspired by Europe’s new interest in the various temples on the Nile, the Pyramids and the Sphinx. By the end of the 19th century, the Hall was also associated with magic and spiritualism, as a number of performers and lecturers had hired it for shows. So when Alexander began his run there, it was already the hallmark of a professional magician’s career.

As he got older, he came to resemble his brother Carl. Carl wore an imperial beard and handlebar moustache, and his hair was thinning. Alexander had a full set of curly hair, a thick goatee and a moustache with upturned ends. Even though they resembled each other, Alexander developed his own distinct, magnetic personality. Carl’s humor was sly and he presented his magic in a mysterious manner; he was from the old school of magic. Alexander’s performance style, on the other hand, was to interweave comedy with his magic. He was a humorist who aimed to make his performances a joyous occasion.

Herrmann’s philosophy about performing magic was that “the magician depends for the success of his art upon the credulity of the people. Whatever mystifies, excites curiosity; whatever in turn baffles this curiosity, works the marvelous.”

Despite his performances’ humorous elements, Alexander still mystified his audiences. His intense eyes, imposing mustache and goatee gave him a satanic appearance; in person he looked like a magician. According to H. J. Burlingame, Alexander Herrmann’s personality presented “an atmosphere of mystery about the magician.” Burlingame also noted that Herrmann was one of the kindest and gentlest of men.

Rumors emerged that Carl was Alexander’s uncle, or that they were not related. A lawsuit claimed that Alexander’s real name was Nieman. It went on to say that Carl adopted young Nieman and used him as an assistant so he could groom him to become his successor. The suit claimed that Nieman had adopted the name Herrmann. In 1895, Alexander printed a statement to a San Francisco newspaper that contradicted everything in the lawsuit. He told the newspaper that he had been born in France on February 11, 1843, of German parentage. (His date of birth given here contradicts records that show that he was born February 10, 1844, according to Herrmann expert James Hamilton). He stated that his father was a physician in Germany and had moved to Paris before Alexander was born.^[1] Nevertheless, the rumors persisted even after his death; Alexander’s widow had to disprove them many times.

Carl retired during Alexander’s three-year stint at Egyptian Hall. While in America, Alexander had learned the value of making the press; he used that ability during his run in London. While strolling down Regent Street with a friend, he gathered a crowd. He stepped up to two gentlemen and picked a handkerchief from one. He did this clumsily to get the attention of two policemen that were behind him. As the two bobbies came towards him, Alexander deftly poached the watch of the second gentleman.

Alexander’s friend offered to vouch for him. As he was telling the virtues of his friend, the second man discovered that his watch was missing. He insisted that Herrmann took it. Alexander professed his innocence and asked the policemen to search him. They did not find the stolen items. Herrmann suggested that the two policemen should search themselves. The handkerchief was found on one of the cops, the missing pocket watch was on the other. Then one of the policemen noticed his badge missing. They searched one of the gentlemen and found the missing badge. Herrmann smiled and said, “It seems that I am the only honest person here.”

He tried in vain to explain to the police that the entire thing was just a magician’s joke. “We will not be deceived in that way,” the second cop said. So they hauled him off to the police station. There he was recognized and set free. The London papers got hold of the story and made it a sensation. The entire town was laughing at the practical joke Herrmann had played on London’s finest.

Herrmann had an outgoing personality and had no problem making friends. Not only did men find him sociable, but ladies took fancy to him. One in particular was a 22-year-old dancer from London by the name of Adelaide Scarcez (August 11, 1854 – February 19, 1932). Most of his acquaintances were from the theatrical world.

Alexander’s record-breaking run would soon end. He was set to tour Europe after his triumph at Egyptian Hall. Then he returned to the United States and Canada and made several tours. Meanwhile, the financial panic of 1873 wiped out his brother Carl. On May 9, the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Börse) crashed. They no longer were able to bankroll the corrupt mismanagement of the Deutsche Bank. A series of Viennese bank failures resulted. This caused a deflation of the money available for business lending. (See Panic of 1873.)

Carl needed money and the only way to pay his debts was to return to performing.

Wikipedia, Alexander Herrmann, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Herrmann

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Some evidence suggests the pillars really existed. Not only were they described in scrolls dating back to 1550 B.C.E., but they also were periodically put on public display and have been mentioned by credible sources throughout history. Solon, the Greek legislator and writer, studied them firsthand and noted that they memorialized the destruction of an ancient advanced civilization. The great historian Herodotus encountered the two pillars in a secret Egyptian temple he visited in 400 B.C.E. “One pillar was of pure gold”, said Herodotus, “and the other was as of emerald, which glowed at night with great brilliancy”. Because Hermes is the Greek name for Thoth, he named them the Pillars of Hermes.

The mysterious Pillars of Hermes were said to have been viewed by Alexander the Great, Achilles Tatius, Dio Chrysostom and Laertius, and other Roman and Greek historians have described them in detail. In Iamblichus: On the Mysteries, Thomas Taylor quotes one ancient writer who noted that the two pillars were created before the Great Flood. The Alexandrian scribe Manetho recorded that the pillars contained 36,525 manuscripts written by Thoth, although it should be noted that this figure is the exact number of days in 100 years, which symbolized perfection completion to the Egyptians.

When opened, Thoth’s pillars were said to contain not only many priceless manuscripts, but also a marvelous artifact that has become known as the Emerald Tablet. The green crystalline tablet carried a succinct summary of the Thothian writings and outlined a new philosophy of the Whole Universe. The priests of Amun kept the tablet and other texts in hiding, but its philosophy filtered down into other writings. Phrases from the emerald Tablet can be found in the Papyrus of Ani (1250 B.C.E) and chapters from the Book of the dead (1500 B.C.E.), the Berlin Papyrus No. 3024 (2000 B.C.E.), and other religious scrolls dating between 1000 and 300 B.C.E. one papyrus known as An Invocation to Hermes, which dates from Hellenic Egypt, actually refers to the tablet: “I know your names in the Egyptian tongue, and your true name as it is written on the Holy Tablet in the holy place at Hermopolis, where you did have your birth”.

Not until Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and became its Pharaoh in 332 B.C.E. did knowledge of the tablet’s existence spread. Historical documents show that Alexander traveled to Siwa, where he retrieved the writings of Thoth and the tablet. He then took the items with him to Memphis and then on to Hermopolis.

The pillars of Hermes were said to contain over 300 scrolls in addition to the Emerald Tablet, and reports indicate that Alexander moved them to the Temple of Heliopolis in 332 B.C.E. and put them on public display. Researcher Manly P. Hall found fragments of a letter from one traveler who had seen the Emerald Tablet in Heliopolis. “It is a precious stone, like an emerald”, wrote the man, “whereon these characters are represented in base-relief, not engraved into the stone. It is esteemed above 2,000 years old. Plainly, the matter of this emerald had once been in a fluid state like melted glass, and had been cast in a mold, and to this flux the artist had given the hardness of a natural and genuine emerald, by his art”.

Hermetic scholars believe that Alexander built the great library at Alexandria built the great library at Alexandria primarily to house and study the Thothian materials, and the writings of a scribe from the Temple of Heliopolis confirmed that view. His name was Manetho, which means Gift of Thoth and he was one of the first scribes allowed access to the contents of the pillars. He wrote that the writings were more than 9,000 years old and contained the sum of all knowledge. Unfortunately, only a few of Manetho’s works survived the burning of the great library at Alexandria. Some of his letters to Ptolemy II survived, as well as one of his books called Sothis. In that book, Mantheo wrote: “After the Great Flood, the hieroglyphic texts written by Thoth were translated from the sacred language into Greek and deposited in books in the sanctuaries of Egyptian temples”.

Mantheo wrote that the magical Book of Thoth, written in the hand of Thoth himself, was kept in a locked gold box in the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Hermopolis, and only one priest at a time was entrusted with the key. According to some historians, an occult brotherhood known as the Sons of Horus was formed before the Arab invasion of Egypt to preserve Thoth’s book and his other teachings, as well as the complete works of Mantheo. The alchemist Clement of Alexandria was given access to the secret documents around 170 C.E., but that is the last recorded reference to this original material.

When Alexander left Egypt in 331 B.C.E., he headed north to Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. According to some reports, he took the treasures from the Pillars of Hermes and stored them in an underground cavern in Cappadocia. Alexander went on to conquer all the remaining territory from Babylonia to India, but died on the return trip in 323 B.C.E. Alexander’s final wish was to be buried near the temple at Siwa in Egypt, but his tomb has never been found.

The legend picks up again in Cappadocia in 32 C.E., when a young boy named Balinas was exploring caves outside the city of Tyna and discovered the ancient texts hidden by Alexander. The precocious lad took a five-year vow of silence as he absorbed the materials and then sought out teachers versed in Hermetic philosophy to complete his education. He became known as Apollonius of Tyana and was renowned for his magical skills and healing abilities. He is said to have returned the tablet to Alexandria around 70 C.E. and made the enlightened city his home. He wrote most of his books in Alexandria, though he continued to travel the world, inspiring everyone he met with his great wisdom.

As for the Emerald Tablet, a few reports record it was buried for safe-keeping in a vault on the Giza plateau around 400 C.E., but no trace of it has ever been found. No one knows for sure if there is such an artifact as the Emerald Tablet, but several expeditions have been undertaken to search for it. The earliest surviving translation of the Emerald tablet is in the Arabic Book of Balinas, which was written around 700 C.E. Several Arabic translations made their way to Europe with the Moorish invasion of Spain in 771 C.E. The first Latin translation appeared in 1140 in a book by Johannes Hispalensis called Book of the Secrets of Creation. After the alchemist Albertus Magnus issued several more translations in the mid-1200s, the Emerald Tablet spread like wildfire. Most European alchemists had a copy and constantly referred to the “secret formula” it contained.

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The term may be linked to the slang expression to rook, to cheat or steal, a verb well established in the 16th century and associated with the supposedly thieving nature of the rook bird. The term was first used in print by the poet George Galloway in 1792 to describe “a cluster of mean tenements densely populated by people of the lowest class”

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In 1838 he went to Asia Minor, making Smyrna his headquarters. His explorations in the interior and the south led him to districts practically unknown to Europeans, and he thus discovered ruins of a number of ancient cities. He entered Lycia and explored the Xanthus from the mouth at Patara upwards. Nine miles from Patara he discovered the ruins of Xanthus, the ancient capital of Lycia, finely situated on hills, and abounding in magnificent remains. About 15 miles farther up he came upon the ruins of Tlos. After taking sketches of the most interesting objects and copying a number of inscriptions, he returned to Smyrna through Caria and Lydia. The publication in 1839 of A Journal written during an Excursion in Asia Minor roused such interest that Lord Palmerston, at the request of the British Museum authorities, asked the British consul at Constantinople to get leave from the sultan to ship a number of the Lycian works of art.

Late in 1839 Fellows, under the auspices of the British Museum, again set out for Lycia, accompanied by George Scharf, who assisted him in sketching. This second visit resulted in the discovery of thirteen ancient cities, and in 1841 appeared An Account of Discoveries in Lycia, being a Journal kept during a Second Excursion in Asia Minor. A third visit was made late in 1841.

In 1844 he presented to the British Museum his portfolios, accounts of his expeditions, and specimens of natural history illustrative of Lycia. In 1845 he was knighted as an acknowledgment of his services in the removal of the Xanthian antiquities to this country. He paid his own expenses in all his journeys and received no public reward.

Fellows was 2 times married: He died in London in 1860.

In addition to the works above mentioned, Fellows published the following: The Xanthian Marbles; their Acquisition and Transmission to England (1843), a refutation of false statements that had been published; An Account of the Ionic Trophy Monument excavated at Xanthus (1848); a cheap edition of his two Journals, entitled Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, particularly in the Province of Lycia (1852); and Coins of Ancient Lycia before the Reign of Alexander; with an Essay on the Relative Dates of the Lycian Monuments in the British Museum (1855).

Charles Fellows, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Fellows&oldid=348536016 (last visited Apr. 17, 2010).

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Body snatching was illegal, but the law was not enforced, as the removal of the body was not a crime. The disturbance of the grave was a misdemeanour, and the robbers replaced the coffin and shroud to avoid a charge of theft. Resurrectionists were more at risk from the public than from the authorities, who were influenced by famous surgeons at reputable hospitals, a notable example being Sir Astley Cooper, twice President of the Royal College of Surgeons. The surgeons at the major hospitals gave their services to patients but their philanthropy was not without self-interest. They charged their students for clinical instruction and especially for anatomy tuition. Towards the end of the 18th century the provision of bodies for dissection became a scandal. Body snatchers were aided by undertakers, and the anatomists, aware of these sources, shared the guilt. A poor person dying in a hospital might be dissected in the medical school of that hospital. Bodies were stolen before the interment of an empty coffin weighted with stones to deceive the mourners. The ultimate crime was murder, of poor persons without relatives or friends. Burke and Hare in Edinburgh were not resurrectionists as they murdered their victims for their clients, notably the infamous Dr Knox. Burke was found guilty—on the evidence of Hare—and hanged in Edinburgh in 1829 (Douglas, 1973). The London ‘Burkers’ were Bishop and Williams, who resurrected between 500 and 1000 corpses. Bishop and Williams, who were convicted and hanged for the murder of three of their victims, probably murdered many more.

The response of the government to these scandals was to legalize a supply of bodies from prisons, poor law houses and hospitals. A Select Committee on Anatomy, chaired by Henry Warburton, examined the problem, with much testimony from anatomists and surgeons—Astley Cooper, Benjamin Brodie, John Abernethy and several others—and reported in 1828. On March 12, 1829, Warburton introduced his first Bill, for ‘Preventing the Unlawful Disinterment of Human Bodies, and for Regulating Schools of Anatomy’, but this failed due to opposition in the Lords. Ten days after the execution of Bishop and Williams, Warburton introduced his second Anatomy Bill. Debate now was muted, the main opponent in the Commons being Henry Hunt, MP. William Cobbett vehemently denounced the Bill in his Political Register. Despite the eloquence of ‘Orator Hunt’, the Bill passed the Commons and Lords and became law on August 1, 1832 (The Statutes of the UK and Ireland, 1932).

This Act for ‘Regulating Schools of Anatomy’ required the Home secretary ‘to appoint’ not fewer than ‘Three persons to be Inspectors of Places [to be approved] where Anatomy is carried on’ and to license members of the medical profession ‘to practice Anatomy’. Executors had to respect the desire not to be dissected, expressed in writing or verbally, either by the deceased or a near relative. Undertakers were prohibited from these decisions. No body was to be moved for dissection until 48 h after death and 24 h after permission had been given by an inspector. Bodies had to be moved in a ‘decent coffin’ and after dissection ‘be decently interred in consecrated ground or, in some public burial place … of the religious Persuasion’ to which the deceased belonged. Prior legislation authorizing the dissection of an executed criminal was repealed, important in separating anatomical dissection from the punishment of a criminal.

The Anatomy Act of 1832 is a milestone of anatomical teaching in Great Britain, legalizing and controlling anatomical dissection. One consequence was that accurate figures were now available. In the following year, 609 bodies were provided for anatomy, 394 from parish workhouses, 135 from hospitals, 24 from prisons and hulks, 5 from asylums and 51 from dwellings. Clearly, the poor dying in workhouses were the chief source of bodies. The Act solved most of the problems of the anatomists, and the theft of bodies ended. Persons admitted to a workhouse or hospital may have feared being dissected if they died in these institutions, though they were protected by the safeguards of the 1832 Act, as described earlier. Whether the wishes of the subjects or their relatives were respected, depended how sensitive to these were the anatomists of the 19th century and subsequent years.

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THE RISE OF PUBLIC ANATOMY

There had been well-known anatomy museums in England since the 18th century. The famous collection amassed by John Hunter 1728-1793 was purchased by the government in 1799 for £15 000 and presented to the Company later the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Although there were many hundreds of visitors, the collection was not open to the public and was viewed mainly by medical men or others who could obtain an introduction. On a smaller scale, metropolitan hospitals and some medical teachers maintained private anatomy collections for their students. For the London public, there were exhibitions of anatomical waxworks, open to anyone with the price of admission. Guillaume Desnoues’s 1650-1735 detailed full-length anatomical models were brought to London in 1719 to educate and entertain the curious ‘without exciting the feeling of horror men usually have on seeing corpses’.

Other shows were more sensational; Abraham Chovet 1704-1790, the son of a London wine merchant, advertised in 1733 a model of: ‘a woman… suppos'd opened alive…’ showing the circulation of blood between mother and child with coloured liquids.

Desnoues's and Chovet's models ended up in Rackstrow's public museum in the Strand, which included an ‘anatomical exhibition’ with ‘a collection of real anatomical preparations’ and ‘a great variety of skeletons’.

Popular interest in anatomy waned in the late-18th century and Rackstrow's closed in the late 1780s.In the 1820s, two things happened that stimulated public interest in matters anatomical. One was, of course, the scandal of the murders committed by Burke and Hare in Edinburgh in 1827/1828, which provoked real or imagined concerns in London and elsewhere. The other was the increasing interest in wax or pasteboard anatomical models as a substitute for real bodies. In 1828 the word anatomical ‘turned to gold’ and wax modellers again began to stage public exhibitions of their work. Simmons’s waxworks at 167 High Holborn exhibited an ‘anatomical Samson’, which could be taken apart to reveal the viscera, ‘with a view to superseding the use of dead bodies’. Alongside it were waxworks of Burke and Hare. The Edinburgh scandal highlighted the shortage of subjects for dissection and models were presented as a way forward. Although models were never widely accepted as an alternative to dissection for medical student teaching, they made anatomy available to a wider audience: when Signor Sarti’s exhibition, with an anatomical Venus and Adonis, opened at 27 Margaret Street in 1839, the Athenaeum recommended it to ‘younger male readers’ who wanted to obtain ‘a few general ideas on the subject of anatomy, which they may do without labour or disgust’. The study of his models, claimed Sarti, would give the visitor ‘the power to communicate intelligibly with his medical advisor’ and ‘teach him the absolute necessity of putting implicit faith in those men who have made Anatomy and Physiology the study of their lives.’

via Dr Kahn’s Museum: obscene anatomy in Victorian London — Bates 99 12: 618 — JRSM.

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The Djinn are mentioned frequently in the Qur’an, and there is a Surah entitled Al-Jinn. While Christian tradition suggests that Lucifer was an angel that rebelled against God’s orders, Islam maintains that Iblis was a Djinn who had been granted special privilege to live amongst angels prior to his rebellion. Although some scholars have ruled that it is apostasy to disbelieve in one of God’s creations, the belief in Jinn has fallen comparably to the belief in angels in otherAbrahamic traditions.

Jinn is the plural for jini which is derived from the Arabic root JaNaA and means to hide or be hidden. Other words derived from this root are Majnoon, jonnon, and janeen; the first to call someone whose intellect is hidden meaning crazy, jonnon meaning craziness, and the third –janeen– means a baby inside a mother’s womb, hence janeen or hidden. The word genie derives from Latin genius, which meant a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at their birth. English borrowed the French descendent of this word, génie; its earliest written attestation in English, in 1655, is a plural spelledgenyes. The French translators of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights used génie as a translation of jinnī because it was similar to the Arabic word in sound and in meaning. This use was also adopted in English and has since become dominant.

The Arabic root JaNaA means “hidden, concealed”, as in the verb janna “to hide, to conceal”. (This is not to be confused with the Arabic word jannat, which means “paradise”). Arabic lexicons, such as William Lane’s lexicon provide the rendered meaning of jinn not only for spirits, but also for anything concealed through time, status, and even physical darkness. In Arabic, the word jinn is the collective plural; “jinnah” is the singular; jinnī is the adjective.

In other cultures, as in the Mythology Guanche (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain), also existed the belief in beings that qualify as genies, such as the so-called Gods paredros or Maxios (domestic spirits and nature), the Tibicenas (evil genies) and also demon Guayota (aboriginal god of evil) that, like the Arabic Iblis, is sometimes identified with a genie. The Guanches were of Berber origin in northern Africa which further strengthens this hypothesis.^[8]

Djinn in the pre-Islamic era

Amongst archaeologists dealing with ancient Middle Eastern cultures, any spirit lesser than angels is often referred to as a djinn, especially when describing stone carvings or other forms of art.

The pre-Islamic Zoroastrian culture of ancient Persia believed in jaini/jahi, evil female spirits thought to spread diseases to people. However, Zoroaster himself did not believe in the existence of such evil female spirits.

Inscriptions found in Northwestern Arabia seem to indicate the worship of djinn, or at least their tributary status. For instance, an inscription from Beth Fasi’el near Palmyra pays tribute to the “Ginnaye”, the “good and rewarding gods” providing a sharp resemblance to the Latin Genius and Juno: The Guardian Spirits.

Types of djinn include the Shaitan, the Ghul, the Marid, the Ifrit and the Djinn. According to the information in The Arabian Nights, Ifrit seem to be the strongest form of djinn, followed by Marid, and then the rest of the djinn forms.

Jinn in Islam

In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from ‘smokeless fire’ (energy) by Allah in the same way humans were made of earth. According to the Qur’an, Djinn have free will, and Iblisabused this freedom in front of Allah by refusing to bow to Adam when Allah told Iblis to do so. By disobeying Allah, he was thrown out of Paradise and called “Shaitan”. Djinn are frequently mentioned in the Qur’an,Sura 72 of the Qur’an (named Al-Jinn) is entirely about them. Another Sura (Al-Nas) mentions Djinn in the last verse. The Qur’an also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both “humanity and the Djinn”.

Similar to humans, jinn have free will allowing them to do as they choose (such as follow any religion). They are usually invisible to humans and humans do not appear clear to them. However, jinn often harass and even possess humans, for various reasons, such as romantic infatuation, revenge, or due to a deal made with a practitioner of black magic. Jinns have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and the air, in their own communities. Like humans, jinns will also be judged on the Day of Judgment and will be sent to Heaven or Hell according to their deeds.

Qareen

Every person is assigned a special “jinn” to them, also called a qareen, the jinns that whisper into your soul and tell you to give in to your evil desires. However, the notion of a qareen is not universally accepted amongst all Muslims. But it is generally accepted that shaitan whispers in Human being’s minds, and he is assigned to each human being.

Classifications and characteristics

The social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans – such as they have kings, courts of law, weddings, and mourning rituals. Muhammad reportedly divided jinn into three classes: those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, and those who travel about ceaselessly. Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud (d. 652), who was accompanying Muhammad when the jinn came to hear his recitation of the Quran, described them as creatures of different forms; some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garbs. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or a number of other animals. In addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims.  Muhammad is also said to have told the jinn that they may subsist on bones, which will grow flesh again as soon as they touch them, and that their animals may live on dung, which will revert back to grain or grass for the use of the jinn flocks.

Ibn Taymiyyah believed the Jinn were generally “ignorant, untruthful, oppressive and treacherous”.

Muslims believe that the Jinn account for much of the “magic” perceived by humans, cooperating with magicians to lift items in the air unseen, delivering hidden truths to fortune tellers, and mimicking the voices of deceased humans during seances.

Islamic concept of King Solomon and Djinn

The Holy Quran states that King Solomon (Sulayman) is said to have compelled the Djinn into his service and given them dominion over 25 parasangs of his realm. In his court, the Djinn stood behind the learned humans, who in turn, sat behind the prophets. Solomon’s wife, the Queen of Sheba, was reportedly born of the marriage between a Djinn and a human, some sources suggesting a Djinn named Rayḥāna was her mother. It was this connection to the Djinn that made people apprehensive about Solomon’s marriage to her. They feared that if their master Solomon married a half-Djinn, they would be forced to remain in the service of the offspring of that marriage forever. Thus, to make Solomon fall out of love with her, they told him that she was insane, and that her feet were hairy and resembled those of a donkey(Citation required).

The Djinn remained in the service of Solomon, who had placed them in bondage, and had ordered their king, Zūba’a, to perform a number of tasks throughout his life. Upon Solomon’s death, however, Zūbaa went to the places where his subjects were toiling, and called out to them to stop working. They happily obeyed, and one of them carved a message in stone, enumerating what they had built during their servitude.

Esoteric theories

In 1998, Pakistani nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood proposed in a Wall Street Journal interview that djinni (described in the Qur’an as beings made of fire) could be tapped to solve the energy crisis. “I think that if we develop our souls, we can develop communication with them. … Every new idea has its opponents, but there is no reason for this controversy over Islam and science because there is no conflict between Islam and science.” There are some that disputed his claim that science and Islam had no conflicts, on the very basis of his proposal to tap these beings, which they contested, do not even exist.

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