Origin of Genies
Genies are mentioned in the Koran, which was according to Islam; the word of God handed down to the prophet Mohammed.
Called genies in English from the latin word genius. In Arabic the jinn (genies) were apparently created two thousand years before humanity.
These genies gave been with Arab culture for a long time, passed from generation to generation as part of an oral tradition and later in the organized recitation handed down to the prophet Mohammed. In 1,001 Nights or The Arabian Nights, there are genies, and that too, was a collection of oral history, gathered from around thge Islamic world. While man was made from clay, genies were made from smokeless fire. Genies could be good or evil, They lived in a world populated by humans, demons, devils and angels, with God as the ultimate authority.
Because so many people in the Middle East had long believed in genies, their spirits were included in the great works of art of the Islamic Golden age
There are various types of genies, some acting as familiars, like black cats and dogs. Others are sworn enemies of humans. While possessing great powers, genies can be tricked into serving human masters. such as in the case of Aladdin, where the genie serves whomever owns the lamp.
Genies can be fearsome creatures but they have an ordered world, which might include marriage. Genies are often considered to be hidden or out of sight, which I suppose can attest to their living in a parallel world to ours and taking mortal shapes and achieving mortal desires when it suits them.
Many Genies are shape shifters and can be a great ally or a powerful enemy. While the Islamic world was a centre for art, culture, mathematics, science and book publishing, a centre for rational thought, it was also home to conjurerrs and magicians and the creatures that inhabited the spiritual world.
In our version of Aladdin, the genie has great power but is very lazy. Being a slave to the lamp, he was once a human being who is trapped by another genie into taking his place as a prisoner in the lamp. He acquired the limitless powers furnished by the lamp and also its eternal imprisonment.
Of course all works out in the end for those that hold good thoughts and are of a clever mind.
