Thread by @aaolomi

Usually djinn are ambiguous toward humans. What rare emotions they exhibit are love, contempt, curiosity and offense.

When they abduct people it’s usually for one of these reasons. It’s rarely random, but always described as having a purpose

The Queen of Sheba is sometimes described as part djinn. Her father married and loved a djinn princess.

It’s also said she had two half djinn siblings. When they were born they were carried off by the djinn who appeared as dogs

Children being taken is one of the more common legends. They sometimes switch out babies, taking a human and leaving a djinn.

In Egypt one folk remedy to this is to take your baby to the cemetery at night and wait for the djinn to swap them back

If however the baby has disappeared entirely then they’ve taken the child as replacement for one a human may have accidentally killed

Abductions also happen for love reasons. Djinn who fall in love with a person will abduct them.

Women disappearing on their wedding night are a common theme here though men too disappear.

The love is generally described as mutual though there are exceptions

The djinn princess Maymunah tried to abscond with Qamar until stopped by her father the djinn king Dimirat.

In another tale the djinn actually bring two lovers together, Sitt and Qamar. They take them while sleeping and put them in the same bed

In other instances the human disappears entirely. In one case, a man from Baghdad said a djinn from China stole his daughter. He went to the Sufi Sheikh Al Gilani for help.

The Sufi’s authority brought forth a djinn king who bowed before him and asked what he needed

Upon hearing the case he had the marid djinn dragged from China and demanded the return of the girl.

Abduction tales parallel the Malaysian and Indonesian lore on the orang bunian, a pre Islamic ancient and mostly benevolent race who sometimes also abduct humans

Some Muslims interpret the orang bunian as djinn

But not all such abductions are for love. Sometimes it is because a djinn has taken offense. An easily slighted race, one way they take retribution is by taking humans to djinn courts

One such tale says a man who killed a snake woke up to find himself before a djinn court. A massive outdoor structure with large crowd of djinn.

Organized like a medieval court, it was presided over by a judge with absolute power (usually a djinn king), witnesses and accusers

The man was sentenced to be killed until an ancient djinn intervened called Nasr. The venerable djinn had converted to Islam when he heard the Quran and using Islamic jurisprudence proved the innocence of the man

In a similar tale, a man who had spit seeds into a hole woke up in the desert to a raid of djinn who took him captive. He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment in a palace made of sea foam like material he could not escape.

He was gone so long his wife remarried

He was only released when good djinn attacked the kingdom he was stuck in and let all the prisoners go

In many instances djinn take offense because humans inadvertently do something offensive or in response to humans damaging nature as they are said to be the first inhabitants of earth

Trees & ruins in particular are said to be sacred & they’ll take retribution for dmg to either

The djinn courts themselves are said to be either open air with vast crowds of djinn murmuring and debating and passing sentence.

Those who pass through the desert can occasionally hear them

Or are said to be mist-like and vague, with defendants only recalling snapshots and glimpses

But in turn the djinn themselves can be taken to court. From Yemen to North Africa djinn courts are held to deal with the unruly beings

They are special makhama dedicated just for dealing with djinn

They are organized according to the days of the week, usually linked to the djinn king of that day. They are held in a sacred shrine usually associated with a folk saint.

The djinn (in the form of a possessed individual) is placed in a circle and faces the court

The court is led by a Sufi wise man, with human witnesses, a group of expert healers, and even goodly djinn.

The unruly djinn is questioned (istintaq) to determine why they are possessing a person, they are reasoned with, and forcefully demanded to leave

If they don’t, then they are bound by iron chains until the djinn relents

These possession and abduction narratives do intersect with mental health issues in clear ways as well. For example some djinn court stories say the defendant is taken away spiritually while the body wanders confused

There is also some contemporary attempt to map these tales onto ufo phenomenon though the narratives have very clear differences

The lore about djinn and humans interacting is quite rich and I’ll expand in future threads