whispered a little too loudly the occult incantation that is the required opening for all dialogues with captured jinn. 'Jinnia great and jinnia grand, now I hold you in my hand. Tell me e'er I set you free what reward you'll offer me." A miniaturized genie speaking through glass sounds like a talking mouse in a cartoon.
Any time these one, two, three, swiftly will fulfill it be.' Released, expanding at once to his full immensity, the jinnia was struck by two things that marked out Ghazali as a most unusual mortal. Firstly, he did not quail.
So in this book, the jinn is the collective term. The singular is jinnia, which is where the word "genie" comes from. There's good ones and bad ones.
Ghazali however was made of sterner stuff. This was the jinnia's reply, 'Never bargain. Let me go. Weak men bargain.
I'll leave such soporific matters to you in your dusty grave, but as to your wish, I not only accept it as my command, Philosophers are children,' the jinnia said.
a terrifying entity whose name was too terrifying to utter. Ghazali was not however the jinnia's master. The words "master" and "servant" are inappropriate when applied to the relationship between human beings and the jinn, for any service a jinnia may perform for a human
That was unprecedented. Infinite wealth, a bigger sexual organ, unlimited power-- these wishes were at the top of any jinnia's list of the top demands of the human male. The human male wishing mind was surprisingly unimaginative.
This perhaps we may discuss.' Understand, jinnia, that I am a man of few personal needs. I need neither infinite wealth nor a bigger sexual organ nor unlimited power.
There's good ones and bad ones. Actually, one of the good ones is a jinnia princess who falls in love with a human being. And there was this awful moment halfway through the book where I thought that I might be rewriting "I Dream of Jeannie."
Tell me e'er I set you free what reward you'll offer me." A miniaturized genie speaking through glass sounds like a talking mouse in a cartoon. Many human beings have been deceived by this feeble squeaktiy squeak into swallowing the poisoned pill the captive jinnia will invariably offer them. Ghazali however was made of sterner stuff.
Make your promise while you're in. Without a sacred vow to keep, only fool lets jinnia leap.' Zumurrud Shah, knowing that he had little choice, offered the usual three wishes formula. Ghazali replied, sealing the contract, accepting in words that deviated somewhat from the usual ones, 'Anytime, 'neath any moon, I may ask you for a boon.
"The grand , Zumurrud Shah, on whose head was a golden crown, taken from the head of a prince he had accidentally or not so accidentally decapitated once upon a time, had, at a certain point in history, become the philosopher Ghazali's personal jinnia, a terrifying entity whose name was too terrifying to utter.
Ghazali was not however the jinnia's master. The words "master" and "servant" are inappropriate when applied to the relationship between human beings and the jinn, for any service a jinnia may perform for a human being is a boon rather than evidence of enslavement, an act of generosity, or in the case of a jinnia liberated from some sort of trap-- a lamp for example--
The words "master" and "servant" are inappropriate when applied to the relationship between human beings and the jinn, for any service a jinnia may perform for a human being is a boon rather than evidence of enslavement, an act of generosity, or in the case of a jinnia liberated from some sort of trap-- a lamp for example-- a gesture of gratitude.
Years passed. Decades passed. And Ghazali was dead, and with him died the contract, or so the jinnia believed. And the slits between the world silted up and closed, and Zummurd, which is fairyland, forgot for a time all about the world of men, all about the man