Jinn
In Islamic and wider Middle Eastern belief, unseen beings made of smokeless fire who share the world with humans.
Also: djinn, genie, ifrit, afarit, jinni
Jinn are mentioned in the Quran, which says they were created from smokeless fire, have free will, and may be believers or not; the seventy-second surah, al-Jinn, is named after them. Popular belief gives them homes in ruins, wells and bathrooms, and holds that they can cause illness or take over a person's body. An ifrit, plural afarit, is a powerful or hostile jinni. Folk traditions across the Gulf, Iran, Turkey and North Africa describe jinn in many forms, and the genie of English storytelling came through French from the same word. Rituals such as zar and ruqyah address jinn. Pre-Islamic Arabian beliefs about desert spirits probably influenced the later accounts.