In Islamic/pre-Islamic mythology (over simplifying greatly) genies are actually trapped demons forced into servitude long ago by human sorcerers. They must comply with your wish but use any ambiguity they can as a form of malicious compliance. It’s also worth noting that the idea of genies granting 3 wishes is mostly a western invention and is also likely influenced by Christian ideas of “deals with the devil” (see Foust for how that usually works out for the wisher)
The monkey’s paw comes from a short story of the same name by W.W. Jacobs back in 1902. It seems the genie that grants three wishes dates all the way back to 1697 in “The Ridicuolous Wishes” by Charles Perrault.
This is the most askhistorians moment on Lemmy for me, thus far, I would like to read your thesis.
Thnx!
Isn’t it also that originally captured genies had more superhuman abilities rather than unlimited power? As in they could perform a human could if they were not bound by physical limitations, but materializing stuff out of thin air is impossible for them.
Another thing I heard is that the entities that could actually do that had a witch-like deal to them, meaning that refusing a request from such a spirit most likely had some dire consequences for you.
“Pre-Islamic”…
When are we going to have the balls to admit all the cultural appropriation and assimilation committed by the Abtahamic faiths?
Islam did to Arabic, Semetic and other middle eastern mysticisms, as the Catholic church did to European paganism.
A bit of genocide, with the motto of the round table. “Embrace, expand, extinguish”.
Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.
Kinda like how smart phones were a popular technology innovation that rapidly spread, the idea of no-human-sacrifices-required was kinda the same thing. I promise you, the various European pagan religious leaders back then were abusing their power just as Abrahamic religious leaders abuse their power today.