Three Wishes in the Iraqi Desert

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kailhofer
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Three Wishes in the Iraqi Desert

Post by kailhofer »

As a Wisconsinite, I was naturally drawn to this story first, as the teaser mentions a city I've been to a good number of times...<br><br>A good twist to an old idea--A pseudo-genie grants your wishes, whether you want it to or not.<br><br><br>Why three wishes? They get four, technically.<br><br>What manner of djinn/creature/spirit was Afrit? I had never heard of a "puffy-winged genie". It was hard to tell what it was from the description. Is it original, or from mythology?<br><br><br>Either way, any story that mentions a part of the great state of beer and cheese gets a thumbs up from me!<br><br>Nate
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Three Wishes in the Iraqi Desert

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (via refdesk.com):<br><br>Main Entry: afreet  <br>Variant(s): or afrit   /'a-"frEt, &-'frEt/<br>Function: noun<br>Etymology: Arabic 'ifrIt<br>: a powerful evil jinni, demon, or monstrous giant in Arabic mythology<br><br>From the Encyclopaedia Britannica online:<br>ifrit<br> <br>also spelled afreet,  afrit,  afrite , or efreet , Arabic (male) 'ifrit , or (female) 'ifritah  in Islamic mythology, a class of infernal jinn (spirits below the level of angels and devils) noted for their strength and cunning. An ifrit is an enormous winged creature of smoke, either male or female, who lives underground and frequents ruins. Ifrits live in a society structured along ancient Arab tribal lines, complete with kings, tribes, and clans. They generally…<br><br>The upshot of this is that an afrit or afreet or ifrit IS a type of genie or djinn.  Of course, given the description above, an afrit might well consider himself (itself) to be more than a 'mere' genie (being 'enormous' and 'noted for ... strength and cunning').<br><br>The powers displayed by the creature appear to be mainly telepathy, strength (or its telekinetic equivalent -- made the mountain shake), and the ability to choke a living being by enveloping him/her in smoke (which could be a telepathically imposed illusion).  It may be that the creature WAS simply an angry ghost, but cultural conditioning provided the afrit as a model for his/its behavior. The slow painful death in extreme isolation might also have given the merchant time to build a towering rage (moreso than most slain innocents).<br><br>The deceased Misfits, presented with the self-proclaimed afrit as a model, might also have manifested themselves in the same way. Why they would kill the one survivor of the group, I don't know -- unless the Misfit-afrits were really just more telepathic illusions created by the original creature!<br><br>I thought the story worked fairly well in spite of Bill W.'s critique.  The use of guns in 'ancient' Persia seemed odd, but it depends on how you define 'ancient' -- the earliest musket-type weapons would have been around as early as the 15th century --<br><br>"Although the Chinese discovered gunpowder as early as the 9th cent., they did not develop firearms until the mid-14th cent. By that time, firearms, particularly in the form of heavy cannon, were in general use in Europe and Asia Minor. With such firearms, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople. From the 15th cent., when the matchlock appeared, ..." (infoplease.com encyclopedia)<br><br>So, there you go.  The "glaring inconsistencies" might not be so glaring after all.<br><br>Robert M.
Last edited by Robert_Moriyama on July 13, 2004, 03:34:06 PM, edited 1 time in total.
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