What Magic is This? Podcast will be entering some unfamiliar territory. For the Islamicate world, a whole other group of beings share this reality with us. They are the Jinn, beings made from smokeless fire that share many attributes with us mortals. Yet before we acquaint ourselves with the Jinn fully, it would be good to have a guide bridging the European and American traditions with that of the Islamicate world. Host of Spirit Box Podcast and friend of the show Darragh Mason went on a journey in 2016 to Delhi, known to many as the City of Jinn, to see how Jinn affected the lives of believers there.
Darragh Mason is a good friend the host of Spirit Box Podcast, one of my personal favourite podcast out there. Darragh is an absolute treasure and if you are not also supporting Darragh on Patreon, I highly suggest you do so as well. Please listen to Spirit Box and Please support all that Darragh gets up to!
•••••••
Darragh has covered the Jinn many times on Spirit Box Podcast but in my personal opinion, Darragh has one of the finest introductory resources regarding these supernatural beings on his Patreon. It is a whole collection of over 20 audio and video episodes that is well worth heading there to get some learning in and also support Darragh at the same time! His 4 part video presentation on the Jinn is especially helpful and was a great research resource for this series.
•••••••
If you’d like to see some of the Photos (including the photo used as the image for this website) of the places and things that Darragh shared in this episode, then click this link here! They are exceptional!
Show Notes & Book Recommendations
- City of Jinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple – The book which inspired Darragh to head to Delhi himself
- Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert Lebling – A fantastic introductory book on Jinn. Highly recommended by Darragh and I
- Darragh did a presentation on his adventure in Delhi for The Royal Society of Asian Affairs. If you’d like more information than what Darragh shared in the episode, you must watch this
- Living with Djinns: Understanding and Dealing with the Invisible in Cairo by Barbara Drieskens
- The Daughter of the Red Jinn King
- Les Djinns a quite famous poem by Victor Hugo – English translation
Music from this episode is from the fantastic documentary Sama: Muslim Mystic Music of India produced by PSTB India
What Magic is This? 