Analysis

In reflection of the different objects and the deep analysis of the text, there are several insights that emerge regards to the Jinni as depicted in the text, Thousand and One Nights. My main object, the medieval brass water-jug, is shown to have similar physical traits as the Jinni portrayed in the story, Fisherman and the Demon. The long neck and sprout have taken the shape of an animal, with its head pointing towards the sky and fang-like teeth on the neck of the jar. Much like the Jinni, its eyes are prominent as well, and its alley-like “throat” is seen as quite literally an alley connected to the base of the jar towards the sprout.  

One main analysis that I found to be quite interesting is the depiction of animals in medieval, Islamicate works of literature and illustrations, and upon further research, it is found to be that according to Islam, animals are the conscious of God. Therefore, the depiction of animals served to have numerous functions within the Islamic art, with various animal motifs working to be different symbolic animals depending on the context that these figures are situated in. Depictions of animals in Islam can also be a combination of decorative and symbolic in its respective usage, and this is seen by the water-jug with its sprout carved as the shape of an animal head, perhaps symbolic of abundance. The orange Div Akvan portrayed in the painting had a combination of animal features on its face, its ears wide like the shield, fangs and claws sharp like pincers and eyes like lanterns. As described in the passage that explicitly described the Jinni in correlation to the significance of animals in the Islamic works of text, and artistic illustrations, one can see a mirroring portrayal of Jinni’s physical traits through these objects.

 In relation to the manuscript, it is safe to say that both the fisherman and the Jinni exhibit two types of virtues and moral ground, each in the opposite spectrum. The passage indicates that the monster waited several hundred years in hopes of his freedom and his willingness to reward the person who grants his liberty. In the end, the monster still gives the fisherman the option in his choice of death, perhaps to save that last inch of his moral standard which he believes to be keeping his promise and proceeding with his self-proclaimed vows. The fisherman exhibits good virtues and intelligence, as he is able to outsmart the monster’s ill intentions and tells the monster his stories in order to buy time. the fisherman did nothing but hope for a good catch in order to provide for his family, free the monster from its shackles, but gets rewarded with death. At the end of the story, the fisherman’s virtue leads him to a fruitful life. Both the fisherman and the Jinni’s characteristics can also be tied in with Aristotelian values of stoicism, which is the ability to endure hardships—the monster was able to endure his life sentence in a brass jar underwater for decades, and the fisherman was able to save the jinni and his own life through intelligence. These values of philosophy were common during the era of medieval Islam, and the object I have chosen in particular draws a meaningful connection between the significance of ethical philosophies during the era, and also its influence on the realms of storytelling and fiction, like the story of the Fisherman and the Jinni.