George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
since they eat and drink, and propagate their species, and are subject to death 1. Some of these are supposed to be good, and others bad, and capable of future salvation or damnation, as men are; whence Mohammed pretended to be sent for the conversion of Genii as well as men 2. The Orientals pretend that these Genii inhabited the world for many ages before Adam was created, under the government of several successive princes, who all bore the common name of Solomon; but falling at length into an almost general corruption, Eblîs was sent to drive them into a remote part of the earth there to be confined: that some of that generation still remaining, were by Tahmûrath, one of the ancient kings of Persia, who waged war against them, forced to retreat into the famous mountains of Kâf. Of which successions and wars they have many fabulous and romantic stories. They also make different ranks and degrees among these beings (if they be not rather supposed to be of a different species) some being called absolutely Jin, some Peri or fairies, some Div or giants, others Tacwîns or fates 3.
The Mohammedan notions concerning these Genii, agree almost exactly with what the Jews write of a sort of dæmons, called Shedîm, whom some fancy to have been begotten by two angels named Aza and Azaël, on Naamah the daughter of Lamech, before the flood 4. However the Shedîm, they tell us, agree in three things with the ministring angels; for that like them, they have wings, and fly from one end of the world to the other, and have some knowledge of futurity; and in three things they agree with men, like whom they eat and drink, are propagated, and die 5. They also say that some of them believe in the law of Moses, and are consequently good, and that others of them are infidels and reprobates 6.
Of the scriptures.
As to the scriptures, the Mohammedans are taught by the Korân that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every word of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred books, were, according to them, 104. Of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edrîs or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Korân, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mohammed; which last being the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be expected. All these divine books,
