Sacred Mysteries: A Danger of Being Possessed by Jinn

The Telegraph ^ | 21 Jun 2013 | Christopher Howse

[nickcarraway]

Christopher Howse finds that a health leaflet mentions a belief that jinn can cause madnessM.

Christopher Howse8:36PM BST 21 Jun 2013Comments7 Comments Although the pamphlet, called Feeling Stressed, was subtitled “A leaflet for Muslims”, I took a look at it, and found something surprising. One of the questions addressed was: “What if my problem is caused by jinn possession?”

“People can mistake mental illness for jinn possession,” the answer began. “So, even if you feel that you may be possessed, it is important that you see a doctor.”

This is no doubt sound advice, but I was left wondering whether the appearance of jinn (which is the plural of jinni) was more a matter of culture than of religion. Further investigation left me even less sure.

European culture is hardly familiar with jinn. In the first tale of the Arabian Nights, we might remember, a traveller accidentally kills a jinni’s child by tossing a date stone behind him. But the Arabian Nights are about as far as general knowledge goes. In translation, they made a great impression on British culture in the 19th century. Newman was not alone, as an imaginative child, when he “used to wish the Arabian Nights were true”.

So the most famous jinni in the Western world is the Genie of the Lamp in the story of Aladdin. Victorian magic-lantern slides (like the one pictured here) showed Aladdin carried by him through the air. The tale had been incorporated into the One Thousand and One Nights in 1709 by its French redactor, Antoine Galland, in a version he had heard from a Syrian from Aleppo, a Maronite (a Catholic Christian of a Syriac rite).

[nickcarraway]

He was her husband. He was in the Mohammed movie, but I don't think he was Muslim.

[fanfan]

I liked it. Sorry I didn’t take the time to post that.