| “ | My grandmother once swore that she had seen an ifrit, or perhaps a marid, late one evening, on the edge of the desert. We all told her that it was just a sandstorm, a little wind, but she had seen its face. And its eyes, like yours, were burning flames. | ” |
–Salim to the Jinn, "Head Full of Snow" | ||
The Jinn is an ifrit from the Middle East. Ifrits are a tribe of jinns. They are mostly the powerful ones. King Solomon is said to have control over ifrits.
Background[]
The Jinn once visited the City of Ubar (The Lost City of Towers). Each night, three or four thousand travelers would stop at the city, drinking wine and celebrating, but the city perished a few thousand years ago.
Significance in series[]
"The Secret of Spoons"[]
Shadow and Wednesday stop at a diner where Wednesday is meeting someone. He gives Shadow a list and sends him shopping. When Shadow returns to the diner, he passes by the man (the Jinn) Wednesday was meeting with as the man's eyes light up with fire.
"Head Full of Snow"[]
Salim is a young Muslim man selling trinkets and souvenirs for his brother-in-law. He sits all day long at a company called Panglobal, waiting to meet with Mr. Blanding who never shows. He asks if he can make an appointment for tomorrow and the assistant tells him he has to phone for appointments. He walks out into the night rain and hails a cab, giving directions to his hotel. The taxi driver speaks Arabic and they discuss Oman, where Salim is from, chatting about the Lost City of Towers, which vanished thousands of years prior. The taxi driver apologizes as he has been driving for 30 hours straight and Salim tells him about how he just arrived in America a week ago and is selling worthless trinkets to people who won't see him.
They get stuck in traffic and the taxi driver falls asleep. Salim reaches over the seat and gently rests his hand on his shoulder to wake him. The taxi driver awakens and Salim catches a glimpse of fiery eyes in the rear-view mirror. Salim recognizes him as an ifrit, a person of the fire that his grandmother once told him about. The Jinn tells him that he does not grant wishes and his life has been reduced to this terrible job as a taxi driver. Salim reaches over to once again touch his shoulder in comfort. The Jinn caresses his hand in return.
They arrive at Salim's hotel and Salim invites the Jinn up to his room. Salim undresses as the Jinn comes out of the shower, his eyes aflame. Salim tells him that he does grant wishes and they make love. When Salim awakens the next morning, the Jinn is gone and all that remains behind are the Jinn's belongings. Salim dresses in the Jinn's clothes and heads to the taxi, getting into the driver's seat. He looks in the rear-view mirror and says, "I do not grant wishes."
"House on the Rock (episode)"[]
Bilquis enters the House on the Rock as it is closing and feeds on one of the employees. She wanders through the deserted building and encounters the Jinn. They greet each other and Bilquis reveals she was not invited. Salim arrives, surprising the Jinn.
The Jinn asks why Salim followed him when he could have gone anywhere else and done anything he wanted. He tells Salim to leave but Salim replies back, "I do not grant wishes." They are interrupted by Wednesday's entrance. Wednesday asks the Jinn how many have arrived. The Jinn replies there are about a dozen plus Bilquis, who was not invited. Wednesday and Nancy take tokens from the Jinn and the Jinn offers Shadow a token as well but he does not let Laura and Sweeney through.
Bilquis greets Nancy before confronting Wednesday for not inviting her when she is an Old God. Wednesday acquiesces and invites her to "consult the Norns." She inserts a token into a machine where Selina, a fortune telling mannequin, moves around to music before a card is dropped into a slot below for her to retrieve. Wednesday inserts his token next and chortles when he receives his card, causing Shadow to ask what it is. He won't reveal what it says because, "a man's fortune is his own." Shadow inserts his token and receives his card, reading it out loud:
| “ | Every ending is a new beginning. Your lucky number is none. Your lucky color is dead. Motto: Like father, like son. | ” |
Laura asks the Jinn for a coin so she can get a fortune. He refuses but both Salim and Sweeney convince him to give her one. She inserts her token and receives her fortune, however, it is blank.
At a Motel America diner, Wednesday pours mead as the Old Gods feast and socialize. A sniper fires into the diner, shooting down Old Gods with bullets engraved with "Deus Mortuorum" (Latin for "God is dead"). As the bullets fly, the Jinn protects Salim and Shadow tackles Laura to the ground.
In the aftermath, Wednesday finds Zorya Vechernyaya incapacitated by a chest wound. He cradles her as Czernobog holds her hand and she dies. Czernobog curses the person who killed her so that they will not die in battle, no one alive will take their life, and "she" will find them. Laura realizes Shadow has been abducted and watches as his golden light fades into the distant sky.
"The Beguiling Man"[]
Laura watches Shadow's light travel farther and farther away from the Motel America diner. While Sweeney, Salim, and the Jinn eat breakfast in the Motel America diner, Laura wants to know what they are going to do next. Mama-ji enters the diner and tells the Jinn that Wednesday wants him to find Old Iktomi at the "Corn Palace" to get Wednesday's spear, Gungnir.
Inside the diner, Salim lays out a piece of cardboard as his prayer rug and prays to Allah. Once outside, the Jinn asks Salim if he needs money for a bus fare but Salim refuses, explaining that he can help the Jinn because of his belief in him. The Jinn passes him a helmet and Salim climbs into the sidecar of the Jinn's motorcycle.
"Muninn"[]
Jinn and Salim travel down the highway on Jinn's sidecar motorcycle. They arrive at a strip club named the "Porn Palace," however, the broken P in the sign makes it look like "Corn Palace." The Jinn explains how roadside attractions are all about making money. They enter the club as Jinn warns Salim about looking directly into Iktomi's eyes. He is a trickster spider and shape-shifter like Mr. Nancy. Gnaskinyan greets Jinn and tells him that Iktomi will grant Wednesday's request in return for a favor.
Iktomi opens up a small metal case and removes a seed. He deposits the seed in a glass of water and it quickly sprouts. Gnaskinyan leads Jinn and Salim to into another area of the club that has been converted into a growroom and is where Iktomi sit in a wheelchair. Salim avoids eye contact with Iktomi while the Jinn reminds Iktomi that his tricks do not work on him. Iktomi gestures to Gnaskinyan who retrieves a triangular guitar cases and passes it to Salim. Iktomi warns the Jinn that since Gungnir is an instrument of death, Thoth, the God of Death, might not allow it. Iktomi removes the seedling from the glass of water and places it in a cloth handkerchief before passing it to Jinn to also give to Wednesday. The Jinn and Salim leave the strip club and once again set off on their motorcycle.
Physical appearance[]
The Jinn is first described as unshaven with dark lips and wearing a "thick, dust-colored sweater, and black plastic sunglasses." When his sunglasses are removed, his eyes are burning flames.
Powers & Abilities[]
The Jinn being an Ifrit, a creature who, according to mythology, is made of smokeless fire, instead of ocular globes his eye sockets contain perpetually burning flames that he usually hides behind sunglasses. During his sexual encounter with Salim, the Jinn's body, alongside the one of Salim, are transfigured, becoming black and transparent, while their motel bedroom turns into a desert under a night sky. It is unknown how much of this actually happened, however during this sequence we see that the Jinn's inner fire also wraps around his heart, and that a third blaze is located at the level of his sexual organ - fire pouring into Salim's body instead of semen and filling it entirely (though the fire seems entirely harmless due to Salim not suffering any wounds).
Contrary to what fairy tales and popular cultures made people believe, the Jinn cannot grant people's wishes. However, just like in ancient fairy tales and legends, the Jinn can be bound to an object and are bound to those that release them from said artefact - the Jinn explains that he does Mr. Wednesday's biding because he released him from an amulet.
Gallery[]
| To edit the Gallery page, go to Jinn/Gallery. |
Note: The pictures are shown in episodic order. To see the order of the episodes, please visit the Episode guide.
Notes and trivia[]
- The Jinn is an ifrit, a supernatural creature in Middle Eastern mythology. According to Arab mythology, there are angels, there are humans (whom Allah made from mud), and then there are jinn (whom Allah made from smokeless fire), the people of fire.
- The Ifrit are often associated with the underworld and also identified with the spirit of the dead and had been compared to evil genii loci in European culture.
- Although Bilquis in Arabian mythology was the daughter of a jinn, the Jinn of American Gods is not related to Bilquis.
- The Lost City of Ubar, also known as The Lost City of Towers.
- On December 15, 2019, Mousa Kraish (the Jinn) announced on twitter that he had not been asked to return for Season Three but leaves open the possibility of returning in the future[1]