Seydou

Detail from The Djinni's Tune.

The Black Spirit of the Moon

Detail from in Genie of the Moon.

Fantasy and mythology art inspired by the Middle East

Click image below to view Art from animation, book illustrations and graphic novels, produced by artists from diverse locales, including Turkey, Iran, Europe and North America:

Genie of the Moon

Inspired by the description of the black genie of the moon in Shaman, Saiva and Sufi: A Study of the Evolution of Malay Magic by R. O. Winstedt:

...in some ancient layer of Malay beliefs before the introduction of Saivism, the white spirit of the sun, the black spirit of the moon, and the yellow spirit of sunset may have been important, seeing that they have Indonesian names (mambang), have been incorporated into the Malay's Hindu pantheon, and have survived under Islam as humble genies...

The Djinni's Tune

Inspired by, but NOT claiming to be an accurate representation of, the story behind The River Tune from the album Segu Blue by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba.

According to the album literature, Bassekou Kouyate's ancestor, the griot Jelimusa Wulen Kouyate, met a djinni playing the ngoni on the bank of a branch of the Niger River. The griot asked the djinni for a gift: the instrument and the tune that the djinni was playing.

Made From Fire

Inspired by the Qu'ranic account of how God created humans from clay and djinn from smokeless fire.¹

Character's clothing is referenced from (but by no means claiming to be an authentic representation of) men's attire from northern Cameroon and northern Nigeria, including, but not limited to, Hausa attire.

The djinn (genies) originated from Arabic folklore²; the spread of Islam circulated the mythology of genies beyond the Arab world, with non-Arab Muslim cultures applying the concept of djinn to native spirits from pre-Islamic traditions.³ The Hausa pronunciation for djinn is 'aljan', a term that is also applied to the Bori spirits of pre-Islamic Hausa religion, giving traditional spirits an Islamic context.⁴

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