JinniyahThe receptionist at the Project: Rebirth offices is startled when a completed membership application appears amid a flash of light on her desk. Glancing at it, she sees that it is for a heroine called Jinniyah, with a notation that that is merely the feminine form of Jinni, and that under the real name there is a note that the power a True Name grants over a djinni will not be granted so easily. The rest of the application seems complete, including the essay about “Why I want to be a hero with Project: Rebirth.” Intrigued, and since the day has been slow, she reads:
To understand who I am, you must understand history. Not the history of men, but the history of the djinn, who live around man and in the earth, and in the air, up to the gates of heaven and into the depths of what you in the West call Hell. Here are the relevant parts of that history, as told to me by the elders of our tribe.
In the beginning, during the first stages of creation, the Divine created angels from light. And the angels have been, and always will be obedient to Him in every way, for their substance is of the light that comes from Him. They assisted Allah with the rest of creation.
When the world was complete, and the seas were formed, and the plants were made, He created djinn out of smokeless fire. Djinn were, at that time, spirits of nature with no souls, similar to the faeries of Europe which you may be more familiar with. We had a society and law, and built the cities whose ruins endure to this day. But the djinn were a hot-headed race, and Allah often sent angels in the guise of prophets down to earth to admonish the djinn, but they were mostly ignored, for djinn were spirits of nature with no soul to be concerned about. Finally Allah sent an army of angels who defeated the djinn, and many fled to the depths of the earth or to the desolate regions you in the West call Hell, or were taken prisoner to Heaven.
Those who were taken to Heaven assisted the angels in the creation of animals, and fish, and insects who populate the earth. And so it was that the Divine made ready the garden. Then He took dry clay, and molded it into His image, and breathed Spirit into the vessel, creating Adam. Then Allah said to the angels, “Kneel down and prostrate yourselves before Adam, for I am giving him dominion over the earth.” And the angels bowed. Yet, one of the djinni taken prisoner by the angels was El-Harith, who grew up under the guidance of the angels and was strong in mind and will, and was the leader of the Sheytan tribe. El-Harith refused to bow to Adam, for Adam was an usurper who was displacing the djinn from the garden, and many djinn followed El-Harith and likewise would not bow. Then Allah cursed El-Harith, and changed his name to Iblis (whom you in the west call Satan), and cast him and all the djinn out of Heaven and locked the gates behind them. This, your holy book calls the revolt of the angels, but know that the angels, being of the Divine light, could not revolt against Allah, or oppose Him, and it was the nature spirits that were expelled from Heaven.
Then Iblis took the form of a serpent, and snuck into the garden, and there tempted Eve into tasting of the fruit of the Tree, and she gave it to Adam. And thus was man also cast out into the world with the djinn, where Iblis could tempt and torment them into choosing against the Divine. And the vessels of clay and fire did each reproduce and live according to their nature for thousands of years.
Then, the Prophet came, and djinn, like men, came to listen to him and think about what was said. Al-Yazid, a great Jinn sheikh, heard the word, and was convinced, and called a great meeting of the tribes in the Sacred Mountains of Asir, south of Mecca. The five tribes are the Jann, the Jinn, the Sheytan, the Ifrit, and the Marid. Here he set for the the great Choice: to side with the Prophet and Allah, or against them. Only in making this Choice could they remain in the lands of the Prophet, which they called home, for the spirits of nature could not abide the Dominion that was spreading. This phenomenon you also know of in the West, as the spread of the Dominion with the growth of the Church under Rome's guidance forced the faeries into the wilder places of Europe, and away from the gentle springs, brooks, meadows, and glens they called home.
There was much debate over the Choice, and the mountains were rocked by skirmishes between groups of Iblis' followers and those agreeing with Al-Yazid. Finally, the leaders of the tribes agreed to decide, but only on a tribe by tribe basis. The Jinn and the Jann sided with Muhammed and Islam. The Sheytan and Ifrit sided against the Prophet. The sheikh of the small Marid tribe allowed the djinni of his tribe to decide as individuals, for the Marid are very proud and the strongest of the djinn.
As the last choice was made, an angel appeared before the council. “By your words and your deeds,” the angel said, “you have entered into the realm of good and evil, as did man before you by eating the fruit of the Tree. With your choice you will carry a new responsibility, the responsibility of a soul. From now on, all the djinn alive now and yet to be must decide upon their own salvation or damnation.” With a great rending of the sky, the angel disappeared, and each djinn felt as if a door opened and another had closed. Soon after, Al-Yazid and his followers bowed before the Prophet, while the followers of Iblis made ready their resistance.
This then, is a condensed history of the djinn race. All djinn are strong in elemental and natural magic, even after the Choice, with members of the Jann and Sheytan tribes the weakest, and members of the Marid tribe the strongest. While very long lived, the djinn are not immortal, and we now have a soul to be concerned about, much like you vessels of clay.
I was born in the second century (Muslim), that's the eighth century Christian, into the Jinn tribe. You may be familiar with the concept that djinni can be bound to service by a Magus with the proper knowledge, through the stories of Scheherazade. This fate befell me as a young djinniyah, foolish with curiosity, and I spent the third to ninth centuries (Muslim) bound to a decanter formed of a single large ruby, forced to obey the Magus and then a succession of men and women who came into possession of my focus. These came at intervals as the decanter was hidden, lost, and found again by men and women with lesser or greater morals. During the time of my servitude, I was denied the company of my tribe, though it could not stop me from conversing with them and receiving small items from them. This gave me long periods of time to study creation, history, and magic, for scrolls are certainly small enough to teleport. One of the things I learned was the counter to the bindings Magi may use to compel service, which I could have done at the outset were I no so naïve in my youth.
Finally, a good man came into the possession of my bondage, and before his death set me free. Upon attaining my freedom, I joyously returned to my tribe. There I spent time in the company of friends and family, till I found I was lacking purpose and direction. This was the time that mortals began new explorations in science, even as magic began to be doubted as mere trickery and superstition. Still young and curious, and feeling confident in my understanding of magic, I diverted myself by following the progress of great names of science. I kept myself hidden from the race of men, but observed their progress and learned as they worked to discover the secrets of creation. I also observed the renaissance of magic in the late fourteenth century (Muslim) and then the merger of the two disciplines to create truly fantastic items – both for good and ill.
Then, a company called Portal Corp used science and magic to create a door into an alternate Creation. Thus I am come to Paragon City where the Portal was formed, to learn what I can of it, and the dangers it may possess to this world. Here I find a society being tempted into destruction and chaos, with stalwart individuals fighting to maintain the Good, and know that this too is a worthy cause. Asking among several heroes and heroines, I find the Project has a good reputation and members of several backgrounds, which is why I am applying for membership in your superhero group.
Coming to the end of the essay, the receptionist closes the application, and puts it in the pending applications folder along with the others that have come in over the past few days.Edited by: Oakleif at: 6/21/04 10:33 am
I've pieced the history of the djinn here together from several sources, including passages in the Qu'ran, notes by Burton in his translation of Arabian Nights, and several mythology websites exploring the mythology of pre-islamic Arabia. While it isn't completely true to any one of those sources, and has a bit of my own invention thrown into the mix relating it to european faeries and Paragon City, I tried to find common threads to link the different versions together without getting overly religious.
This may be an interesting way to explore Arabic culture beyond the patroitism that colors our current perceptions and the fanaticism that seems to be the loudest version of Islam currently heard here in the West.
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