this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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To my limited understanding, the reputation of Jinn in past Islamic mythology was more like the Fae Folk in European mythology. They could be absolute terrors, they could be rules-oriented, or they could be helpful.
Western ideas of genies are basically the result of Western storytellers finding the wish-granting genies most interesting, and ignoring all the rest.
Not my field of interest though, so take it with a grain of salt.
In the same vein, Greek daemons represent unpredictable supernatural beings of the same type as gods though with much less power.
The idea of unpredictable supernatural beings is one of those things independently created by unconnected cultures to either explain natural oddities or to serve the plot of some kind of aesop.