Jinn in popular culture

Jinni or Genies frequently occur as characters or plot elements in a variety of fictional works. They are often divided into different categories, of which the most prominent are Marid, Genie and Ifrit

Books

 * Jinnicky the Red Jinn is one of Ruth Plumly Thompson's most popular original Oz characters. His most notable appearances are in Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, The Purple Prince of Oz and The Silver Princess in Oz.
 * Christopher Moore’s book Practical Demonkeeping describes the pre-human origin of the Djinn and God’s favor for humans.
 * The “Djinn in charge of All Deserts” gives the lazy camel his hump in the story "How the Camel Got His Hump" from Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.
 * Several references to djinn occur in the final short story, entitled “Ramadan”, of Neil Gaiman’s sixth The Sandman collection, Fables and Reflections. In Gaiman’s novel, American Gods, an ifrit drives a taxicab in New York.
 * In the Bartimaeus Trilogy books by Jonathan Stroud, a djinni is one of five major spirits, the others being afrits (a form of Ifrit), marids, foliots, and imps.
 * Djinn appear frequently in Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series. The Wardens who control fire, weather and earth capture the Djinn in bottles, and use them to channel their powers.
 * Dragon Rider, a novel by Cornelia Funke features a djinn named Asif, huge, omnipotent and with a thousand eyes.
 * In the book series Children of the Lamp, the protagonists discover that they are members of a djinn "tribe" named Marid. In the series "Children of the Lamp", djinn are said to be made of fire and have special powers that allow them to do anything they please that is okay according to "The Baghdad Rules". In "The Blue Djinn of Babylon" (the second book of the series), Edwiges, a djinn dedicated to breaking casinos, makes note of the rule that no djinn shall be allowed to make money for his or her self. Also it needs to be warm for djinn to use their powers and they need to take charcoal pills to keep from getting claustrophobic from being stuck inside of lamps, bottles, etc.
 * In Jinn a book by Matthew B.J. Delaney, the creature which is being hunted is a Jinn.
 * There are several passing references to djinn in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
 * “The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye” is a short story by noted British writer A. S. Byatt published in a short anthology of the same name.
 * In the supernatural drama The Jinniyah by Maria Aragon, an Englishman during the reign of Henry the Eighth opens a gift decanter and gains unwanted immortality when he releases the female Jinn inside.
 * In the Doctor Who novel The Stone Rose, the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler encounter an artificial life form called a GENIE- Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engines- which is described as the inspiration for the genies of Earth.
 * In the novel Proven Guilty in the book series The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Lucius Glau, Madrigal Raith's lawyer, is a jann- a scion of a djinn and a mortal.
 * Djinn is the title of the 1981 novel by French author Alain Robbe-Grillet.
 * In Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Rose of the Prophet trilogy, djinn are created by the gods to handle the day to day woes of humanity, thereby freeing the gods from having to deal with it.
 * Djinn are primary power found in Tim Powers book Declare.
 * In C.S. Lewis' 1949 novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver tells the Pevensie children that the White Witch is descended from Adam's first wife, Lilith. Mr. Beaver describes Lilith as "one of the Jinn."
 * One of the main characters in the second book of The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice is a queen djinn and one of the leaders of the djinn army.
 * Alura's Wish by Elizabeth Hallam tells of two djinn who live in fire opals. Once freed from the stones, these immortal spirits will serve their master's commands. But these djinn also have another purpose—to bring the wearer a true and lasting love.
 * K.F. Zuzulo's Zubis Rises features a genie named Zubis

Comics

 * In the anime and manga series Dragon Ball Z, the character Mr. Popo is a djinn that protects Kami’s Lookout and the final and most powerful villain faced by the heroes was a stylistically-Arabic demon called Majin Boo. “Majin” is the Japanese word for “Magical Being” or “Genie.” Befitting the genie that he is, Boo is a spirit formed from smoke and clouds that utilizes horrific transmutation sorcery which transforms living beings into candy to sate his monstrous appetite, as well as possessing incredible power that quite literally rivalled that of the most powerful gods in the Dragon Ball universe.
 * In the Image comic book series Amazing Joy Buzzards, El Campeon is a Mexican wrestler genie that can be summoned by the rock group by use of a magical amulet and saying the magic words "GO EL CAMPEON GO!".
 * In the Vertigo comic Fables, a Djinn is released from a bottle by a malicious vizir hoping to destroy Fabletown and murder his master, Sinbad. In this series, the Djinn are considered among the most powerful creatures in existence, described as almost 97% pure magic (compared to "your average elder god" who were about 50%) and as being "wild things with no sense of good and evil." Notably, the third wish must be for the Djinn to return to its bottle or else it will be free.
 * In the comic Jesi The Genie, a former milk goddess is cursed with becoming a genie, and then released during the time of the Arabian Nights by a young man. Jesi also appears in the webcomic Gaijin Hi.
 * ClanDestine, a comic book series by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer and published by Marvel Comics, is about a family of British superheroes in the Marvel Universe, children of a human and a female djinn.
 * Comic fiction author Tom Holt titled one of his novels Djinn Rummy, combining the word Djinn with the popular card game Gin Rummy. The novel is in fact about a number of djinns in the human world, many of whom have corporate sponsoring. Djinns appear frequently in a number of Tom Holt’s books, though it is normally taken for granted that the reader knows some of the fictional background of these characters. (I.e. the books are somewhat chronological).
 * The DC Comic’s characters Johnny Thunder and Jakeem Thunder are masters of the djinn from the 5th dimension named Thunderbolt. Genies in the DCU are summoned by their masters by saying their name backwards. Thunderbolt's true name is Yz, which when said backwards sounds like "say you". Disgraced superhero Triumph was later manipulated by the evil djinn named Lkz, which when said backwards sounds like "so cool". After a conflict involving both the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America the two genies were merged together changing the Thunderbolt's summoning word to "so cool". The 5th dimension is also home to Superman's enemy, Mister Mxyzptlk. In the pages of JSA it was revealed that imps, like Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite, are seen as something akin to children. Thunderbolt's son, Shocko, and Shocko's wife Peachy Pet are also djinn.
 * Although not an actual genie, the wish-granting Id, created by the higher dimension beings known as the Cathexis from the JLA storyline Divided We Fall bore many similarities to genies, in that it granted wishes that gave the wisher exactly what was asked for without giving them exactly what was desired, occasionally responding simply to casual comments; the first sign of its presence occurred when it latched on to Superman's comment about how he wished heroes with dual identities sometimes didn't have to deal with the pressures of such a role and thus split six of the Justice League between their civilian and superheroic identity
 * In the anime and manga series Magic Knight Rayearth the princesses from Chizeta, Tarta and Tatra have two djinn guardians.
 * In the anime and manga Aladdin and the Magic Lamp (Aladdin to Mahou no Lamp)from Toei Animation alladin have two djinn the Ring Servant and the Djinni of the lamp
 * In the Lebanon-published book Malaak (2007, first of a series), an angel with the appearance of a young girl fights evil jinns, which only she can see as they really are, who are involved in maintaining an ever-going civil war in an alternate reality Lebanon
 * In the comic book Re:Gex there is a character named Genie.

Movies and television

 * The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) features Baronni, a child Genie, who is freed and becomes Sinbad's cabin boy.
 * The original Twilight Zone features two episodes with genies in them: "The Man in the Bottle" and "I Dream of Genie".
 * The sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, which began in 1965 and ran for five seasons, featured Barbara Eden as a 2,000 year-old beautiful blonde Persian genie completely infatuated with the American astronaut master who had found her bottle and set her free in modern America. It was spun off into the animated series Jeannie in 1973.
 * The horror film Wishmaster features a hateful and evil Djinn as its villain. The film has spawned three sequels.
 * In the 1996 film Kazaam, Shaquille O'Neal played a rapping genie who lived in a boombox.
 * In the animated series Martin Mystery, episodes called “Curse of the Djini” and “Return of the Djini” featured an evil djinn trapped in a skull that could read peoples' mind’s and make them say their wishes. If the djinn died then the wishes would be undone.
 * In the episode "The Wish" of the UPN horror/comedy series Special Unit 2, Special Unit 2 encountered an evil genie-like link who needed to grant 3,000 wishes in order to gain free will. Unlike traditional djinn, this genie did not have supernatural powers other than the ability to transform between gas and solid states. As a result, the genie had to carry out wishes physically. So for example if someone wished for a million dollars the genie had to break into a bank and steal a million dollars for them. If someone wished for a relationship with a beautiful model the genie would have to kidnap the model. These wishes almost always ended in disaster for the genie's masters. After 3,000 wishes had been granted the genie would no longer have to live in bottles or grant wishes.
 * The 1964 comedy The Brass Bottle features a genie (Burl Ives) who causes more problems than he solves for his master (Tony Randall) and his fiance, Barbara Eden (who herself would enter the bottle the very next year in I Dream of Jeannie.)
 * The 2005 Japanese tokusatsu TV series Mahou Sentai Magiranger introduced a feline genie character in the middle of the series named Smoky, the Magical Cat. He resided in a lamp, which also acted as a gun to assist his master (Hikaru/MagiShine) in battle. His American counterpart is that of Jenji in Power Rangers Mystic Force.
 * An episode of the TV series Charmed called "I Dream of Phoebe" has the Charmed Ones confronting a trickster Genie that is trying to gain its freedom by granting three wishes; another, previous wish featured another genie whose wishes unintentionally caused disaster for the sisters despite his efforts to help when his lamp fell into the wrong hands before the sisters managed to undo his wishes.
 * An episode of the CW paranormal drama Supernatural called “What Is And What Should Never Be” has Sam hunting a Djinn (which has Dean) which did not actually grant wishes.  Instead, it would cause the victim to enter a dream state where their greatest wish was granted while the Djinn fed off their life.
 * Some episodes of TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured the introduction of vengeance demons, a race of demons who granted wishes for humans seeking revenge; like genies, these wishes commonly featured the exact wording of the wish being obeyed while not giving the wish-maker what they wanted, such as when Cordelia Chase's wish that Buffy Summers never came to Sunnydale created a world where vampires were in control, or when Dawn Summers's wish that nobody would leave her resulted in the guests to Buffy's 21st birthday party being unable to leave her house.
 * In a Season 7 episode of The X-Files called "Je Souhaite", Mulder and Scully find a man and his dim-bulbed, wheelchair-bound brother who chooses three wishes which backfire increasingly. The cause of which is an indifferent genie whose willingness to grant wishes belies a deeper motive.
 * Desiree from the animated series Danny Phantom is a genie-like ghost who grants any wishes she hears, gaining power from the wishes that she grants.
 * In the film Long Time Dead the characters do a ouija board, which brings out a vengeful spirit named Djinn.
 * In Fairly Oddparents there's a genie named Norm (voiced by Norm Macdonald) who, like traditional malevolent genies, grants the wish precisely without giving the wisher exactly what he wanted; although Timmy Turner- the series' main character- initially attempted to use Norm for three rule-free wishes in his first appearance, he subsequently realised his mistake and, having gained three more wishes by trapping Norm in another lamp, subsequently wished for a lawyer to help him draw up another wish to ensure that there would be no way for Norm to 'cheat' his way out of the wish.
 * In the 1940 movie The Thief of Baghdad, Abu the thief frees a genie from a bottle who promptly tries to kill him, but after Sabu tricks the genie back into the bottle, the genie gives him three wishes. Abu asks first for sausages, second to be taken to king Ahmad, and third, in a fit of anger in an argument, for Ahmad to go to Baghdad, after which the genie abandons Sabu.  Fortunately, Abu destroys the All-Seeing Eye, which has freed good spirits that will help him defeat the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar.
 * In the 1945 film A Thousand And One Nights, Evelyn Keyes plays a voluptuous redheaded genie named Babs who is the Slave of the Lamp of Nador. She falls head-over-heels for her new master, Aladdin, and reluctantly helps him win the heart of a busty blonde princess.
 * In the episode "Justin's Little Sister" of Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel, Alex calls upon a genie for wishes and in true fashion, the genie twists her wishes into their most extreme translations.
 * Disney's TV series Aladdin features a genie named Eden who becomes the girlfriend of Aladdin's Genie.
 * In the children's game show Nick Arcade, one of Mikey's enemies is a Djinni who turns him into a chicken. The Djinni can be found in the Forgotten Desert. The same Djinni appears in the Video Zone under the level "Enchanted Flight" trying to zap the contestant with lightning bolts.
 * In the horror movie franchise named "Wishmaster", the Djinn is an evil demonic like creature that must grant whoever wakes it three wishes in order to release his djinn race from hell and takeover the world. In all four films the djinn doesn not accomplish his task although in the fourth he gets extremly close.

Music

 * South Korean girl group Girls' Generation released hit song and mini-album Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) in June 2009, sweeping records charts in South Korea.
 * Christina Aguilera's song Genie in a Bottle is the first hit single and signature song from her debut album, Christina Aguilera.

Video games

 * The Game Genie cheat cartridge series was so named for its ability to change aspects of games at will.
 * In the videogames Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, players encounter Djinn as small benevolent creatures who use their powers to aid the protagonists in battle. There are 18 Djinn for each element. Some are hostile and must be beaten in combat to earn them.
 * The strategy game series, Heroes of Might and Magic, features Genies as playable characters and units. A Genie named Solmyr is also a major protagonist in the series.
 * In the 1980s video game Archon, the Djinn is the champion of the light side, opposite the Dragon who is champion of the dark side.
 * In the video game Primal, the world of Volca is inhabited by evil creatures called Djinns, led by King Iblees and Queen Malikel. Those Djinn live dormant in a volcano, awakening only when the volcano is about to erupt.
 * In the video game Sonic and the Secret Rings, there are two djinn: Shahra the Ring Genie, a Genie of the Ring, who assists Sonic through the game and Erazor Djinn, the game’s main villain who is a Genie of the Lamp.
 * In the video game series Final Fantasy, one of the summoned creatures is named Ifrit and offers fire elemental magic. Also, in Final Fantasy III the player must defeat a Djinn who has turned an entire town into ghosts.
 * The Pokémon Jirachi is said to grant any wish once it is written on a tag and attached to its three star points on its head.
 * Genies are a major plot element in King's Quest VI as part of the Green Isles folklore.
 * Iblees, while not being the main villain of the story, is featured as a summoned entity by the game's antagonist in second of the Quest for Glory games. The protagonist (Hero) also has the opportunity to summon a lesser djinn who grants him three wishes near the game's end.
 * In the Game Boy game Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land the games main villain uses a Genie to attempt to defeat Wario during the final boss battle.
 * In The Sims 2: FreeTime your Sims that have been created by yourself will get a Genie lamp by a gypsy, it will only grant 3 wishes per sim, after you have finished your wishes, you cannot have more.
 * In the Game Boy Advance game Mega Man Battle Network 3 White Version one of the Navis you must fight is Mist Man, whose appearance is that of a Genie.
 * In the expansion Hordes of the Underdark for Neverwinter Nights, there is a djinn you can encounter which acts as a portable merchant.
 * In the PC Online MMRPG, tibia in Darshia there are djinn selling and buying items
 * In MMRPG Guild Wars, good and bad djinns are encountered. Good djinns protect treasures and people, and also grant wishes. Multiple bad djinns are seen as enemies through games.
 * In the N64 title, Diddy Kong Racing, an elephant genie named Taj can change your vehicle from Car, Plane or Hovercraft if you choose to do so.
 * In the video game Shifters a genie is a class of form you can use.
 * In the video game, Shadow of Memories, a character in the game, Homonculus, is a djinn and 'helps' the main protagonist, though he seems to have an agenda of his own.
 * In the N64 title, Mario Party 2,there is an item similar to a magic lamp that calls a genie to get to a star.
 * Heroes of Might and Magic III features Genies (and their upgraded equivalent Master Genies) as recruitable units.
 * In the MMORPG RuneScape there is a quest involving a Genie. A Genie is also summoned when an experience lamp is selected as a random event reward.

Others

 * In the Dungeons & Dragons series of roleplaying games, genies are powerful elemental spirits from the Inner Planes, each of the four classical elements having its own subspecies of genie: Djinn for air, Dao for earth, Efreet for fire, Marids for water, and a fifth type known as the Jann, who draw their existence from all four elements. A six type, the Qorrash, has been added later and is linked to the pseudo-element of cold.
 * In the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering there are more than two dozen djinn-related cards, mostly larger-than-usual creatures with a drawback, and a dozen ifrit/efreet cards.
 * In Malaysia, all issues of the Economist dated December 19 2006 had the pages containing the article “Born of Fire” ripped out. The government's explanation was that “Muslims cannot believe in Jinns as this goes against Islam”.
 * In the MUD Lensmoor genies are one of the many remort races available, falling into four categories: djinn (air), efreet (fire), mariad (water), and dao (earth).
 * The Ars Arabica supplement to the roleplaying game Ars Magica classifies genies into several tribes: Jinn, Jann, Marid, Ifrit, Shaitan, and Ghul.

Jinn in fiction
The evil "Ifrit" are called “the seed of Iblees” in One Thousand and One Nights. The jinn’s power of possession was also addressed, and it is said that by taking seven hairs out of the tail of a cat that was all black except for a white spot on the end of its tail, and then burning the hairs in a small closed room with the possessed filling their nose with the scent, this would release them from the spell of the jinn inside them.

The Spirit of the Lamp in the story of Aladdin, a familiar djinn to the Western world, was such a jinni, having been bound to an oil lamp. Ways of summoning jinn were told in The Thousand and One Nights: by writing the name of God in Hebrew characters on a knife and drawing a diagram, with strange symbols and incantations around it.

Ifrit

 * In Dungeons & Dragons the Efreeti is a Genie from the Elemental Plane of Fire, of Lawful Evil alignment.


 * In the Final Fantasy series of games, Ifrit has become a trademark representative of the element of fire, inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons Efreeti, and appears to be a horned demonic entity in most of the artistic imagery of the game.


 * In the Original Devil May Cry video game, Ifrit is a fire demon which you can transform into temporarily after picking up his flaming gauntlets. The gauntlets give you the ability to use the fire element in your hand-to-hand combat, as well as cover you in a protective shield of fire when you jump to evade enemy attacks. Upon using your 'Devil Trigger' with the gauntlets on, the character Dante's attacks become more powerful, and he transforms into Ifrit during the attacks. Additional attacks are available in devil trigger mode, such as Inferno—an attack that raises fire all around you, killing or damaging any enemy too close, and the ability to launch a fireball at enemies.


 * In the Bartimaeus Trilogy, an Afrit is one of the 5 levels of demon that can be summoned by human magicians. It is considered the second most powerful out of the list, which goes in ascending order of power; Imp, Foliot, Djinni, Afrit, and Marid. They are described as beings of fire and power, and are often employed by the elite magicians as enforcers or bodyguards.


 * In Sonic and The Secret Rings, it is brought forth by Erazor Djinn from the depths of Jahannam (the game says it was sealed by Iblis). The Ifrit appears as a djinn (rather than a demon) that can control fire, it also appears as the boss of the 3rd level. It would be the second boss, but appears as the 3rd due to the fact that the game says Sonic's life is tied to the flames because of Erazor Djinn giving another character judgment. Sonic took the blow though and when he tries to fight the Ifrit, Shahra (the one who was to suppost to receive the blow) says he cannot fight fire with fire, convincing Sonic to fight it later.


 * In the game Exile 3, made by spiderweb games; an Efreet is a powerful, magic-casting demon who is fought from encounters in more dangerous parts of the Exile world on the surface. One such place to find them is in the mountains close to the Golem towers. The Efreet are hard to kill, have a poisonous bite, and can cast up to the highest level damaging spells. They also appear as fiery, demonic figures, and have a damaging flame aura around them that covers 1-square block all around.


 * Ifrit is also mentioned in the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods. A character named Salim, who has recently come to America as a salesman from Oman, encounters Ifrit as a taxi driver in New York. The ifrit claims to be one of the jinn, and Salim sees that the ifrit has eyes of burning flames but a body of solid flesh. Salim and the ifrit have an explosive sexual encounter before the ifrit exchanges himself for Salim, leaving his identity as a taxi driver for Salim to assume, and in a way, granting Salim's wish.


 * In the Weather Warden series, an ifrit is the djinn equivalent of a vampire.


 * In Heroes of Might and Magic an ifreeti is a demon from the Inferno town which has a hatred of djinns and does more damage against them.


 * In Tales of Symphonia, Efreet is the summon spirit of Fire.

Marid

 * Marids are found in the Bartimaeus Trilogy. They are the highest in the order of beings that include Afrits, Djinns, Foliots and Imps.


 * Marids were recently mentioned in modern literature in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. There they are considered the most powerful of all of the Demon classes that are generally accessed by magicians. References to marids were sparse in the books although Gladstone's Staff was said to possess at least "two marid's worth" of Power.  Also Bartimaeus described them as leaving a trail of Power like sludge.  Both references mentioned are located in The Golem's Eye. Though no Marids appear in the book in person, the power of them is shown when Gladstone uses the staff in the second book's flashback to the battle of Prague, when he used it to conjure a bolt of lightening that blew open the supposedly impregnable wall surrounding the city. It is also used in the third book to kill rogue spirits running around in human bodies, and is powerful enough to kill the enormously powerful spirit, Nouda.
 * Marids were also mentioned in the P. B. Kerr's Children of the Lamp children's book series as the most powerful tribe of djinn who presided over good luck.


 * Marid is one of the elemental enemies in the video game Vagrant Story. Its appearance resembles that of a bluish humanoid with fins and webbed feet, and wears a distinct coned-shaped headgear on its head. Marids are also included in Microsoft's "Rise of Nations:Rise of Legends." They are bluish colored genies which hurl spheres of elemental energy at their enemies.


 * Marid has appeared as a playable elemental character in the SNES game, "Arcana", which was also known as "Card Master: the Seal of Rimsala". Marid also appears as a mini-boss in the game which you must defeat in order to let her join the team. She happens to be the main healer of the group, and is thus effective in confronting high-powered villains in the game.


 * Marids appear in Final Fantasy XI as large, elephant like beasts. They were introduced in the Treasures of Aht Urgan expansion pack, which contains themes largely based on Arabian mythology.