JIN. ARAB. A demon, an evil spirit ; one of the fabled genii. They are not restricted to any particular region, but the gigantic monsters, called dev, reside peculiarly among the rocks and forests of Masandaran or Hyrcania. In Muhammadan belief there are reckoned five distinct orders of such creatures, viz. jann; jinn, shaitan, ifrit, and marid, whose chief abode is in the Kaf mountains. They are good and evil creatures. Solomon is said to have had power over the Jin. In Arab mythology they are beings created out of smoke less fire, 2000 years before Adam; - they are noticed in Suras i. xlvi. lvii. and lxxii. of the Koran.
To Muhammadan views, it is a material, intelli gent being, with a body similar to the essence of fire or smoke.
Jin lived in the mountains of Kaf, near the mysterious sea of darkness, where Khidr drank of the fountain of life. And no one could tell when he might come across one of those terrible creatures, incarnate in the form of a jackal, a dog, or a serpent ; or meet, perhaps, in his own hideous shape, the appalling Nesnas, who is a man split in two, with half a head, half a body, one arm, and one leg, yet hops along with astonishing agility, and is said, when caught, to have been found very sweet eating by the people of Hadramaut.
JINA. &mit. A victor over the desires. A teacher of the Jain doctrines, any one of the 24 deified teachers of the system, called also a Tirthan kara. The last of the Jina was Mahavira, who was born of Trisala, wife of Siddhartha, of the family of Ikshwaku, and prince of Pavana in Baratak shetra, and he married Yasodha, daughter of the prince of Samaravira. He afterwards became a Digambara or naked ascetic, and led in silence an erratic life for 12 years ; and during his wander ings in this state he was repeatedly maltreated. He then commenced to lecture at Apapapuri in Behar. His first disciples were Brahmans of Magada and Indrabhuti, or Gautama of the Brah man tribe of Gautama rishi, who is not identical with the Gautama of the Brahmans. Mahavira died at the age of 72, thirty-eight of which had been spent in religious duties.