The writer Lazar Lagin wrote the fairy tale "Old Man Hottabych" under the impression of the 1900 English fairy tale "The Copper Jug" about a young architect and a genie from a jug. The Old Man Hottabych came out in three editions: the original from 1938, the edition from 1953 and the expanded version from 1955 … Each time the tale changed in accordance with the events taking place in the USSR: one was removed from the text, the other was inserted. Lazar Lagin did not edit subsequent editions and did not even disclose his name and patronymic on the cover, remaining as "L. Lagin". A year after the last edition, a film about a kind and clumsy genie was released …
Jinn are heroes of Arab mythology, most often acting in a role similar to the more familiar demons or devils. In Western culture, the genies gained popularity after the release of the collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights."
In myths, there were four types of jinn: evil efreet commanding fire, ghoul werewolf cruel, omnipotent rational marids and weak forces. Djinn lived in a parallel world, where people could not get. Even in translation, the word "genie" means "hidden".
Old man Hottabych was a marid - these supreme genies could be both evil and kind, were able to predict the future and help in achieving goals. They looked like tall, pale people with white beards, they knew how to release fire from their nostrils and turn into ethereal volatile creatures. But it was the marids who often became prisoners of various objects: for example, rings or lamps - in the fairy tale about Aladdin or bottles - in the story with Hottabych.
The Islamic prophet and Jewish king Suleiman ibn Daud, whom Hottabych served and was a slave to his ring, is better known as King Solomon. He possessed extraordinary wisdom, knew how to talk with animals, control the wind and had power over all creatures, including the jinn. The Khotabovichi brothers did not want to be under the rule of Suleiman anymore, for which they were punished by imprisonment in bottles.
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Asaf ibn Barakhiya (Burhiya), whom Suleiman ordered to forcibly deliver the jinn to the king, was indeed a vizier and one of the closest associates of King Solomon. The Mausoleum of Asaf Ibn Burhiya is one of the main attractions of the Kyrgyz city of Osh.
“- Yes-ah…” the examiner drawled and looked at Volka with curiosity. - What can you say about the shape of the Earth?
Old man Hottabych muttered something industriously in the corridor.
"The earth has the shape of a ball," Volka wanted to say, but due to circumstances beyond his control he answered:
- The Earth, about the most worthy of teachers, has the shape of a flat disc and is washed from all sides by the majestic river - the Ocean. The earth rests on six elephants, and those, in turn, stand on a huge turtle. This is how the world works, oh teacher!"
At the time of the release of Lazar Lagin's fairy tale, Hottabych was 3,732 years old, and 5 months of them "nearly three thousand years" he spent in a bottle, and, of course, was not aware of how far any science had gone. The theory of a flat earth lying on the backs of elephants standing on a giant tortoise comes from Hinduism. Moreover, in different versions, the number of elephants varies from three to seven, but most often there are four - along the cardinal points. Hottabych had a rather rare version.
The first evidence of the sphericity of the earth was given by Aristotle in 330 BC. By that time, Hottabych had been sitting in a bottle for more than a century …
Since Hottabych was from the Middle East, he needed a beard. In Islam, growing a beard was required or desirable, and shaving was prohibited. Like many other peoples, the beard was a symbol of masculinity, power and wisdom, but at the same time and old age. Therefore, almost all famous wizards and ancient sorcerers were bearded: Merlin, Chernomor, Gandalf, Santa Claus, Dumbledore and others. Tearing the hairs out of his beard to make his wishes come true was Hottabych's trademark - the others did with other conductors of magic. However, Hottabych knew how to transfer magic into his fingers and, with one click, perform miracles without the help of a beard and spells. So hair pulling was most likely just part of a familiar, but optional ritual …
The fact that Hottabych had a brother is not surprising. According to myths, the world of jinn was built on the same principles as the world of people. They had families, children and even pets. Genie girls were called jinnies or genies and also possessed magical abilities, one of which was the ability to charm any man-man. Alliances between genies and humans were not uncommon. According to some legends, many warriors and rulers had at least one genie in their family. One such ruler - Saladin - is mentioned in Walter Scott's novel The Talisman.
Hottabych had not just a flying carpet, but a seaplane carpet "VK-1", named by a genie in honor of Volka Kostylkov. The fantastic vehicle was often found in the literature of the Middle East, and from the tales of The Thousand and One Nights, the idea spread to the West. In Russian fairy tales, they often flew on the carpet to fight Koshchei or returned home from distant wanderings, for example, in the fairy tale "Elena the Beautiful", the films "Kashchei the Immortal" and "After a Rain on Thursday" or in the painting by Viktor Vasnetsov "Airplane Carpet". The oriental aircraft took a solid place next to other useful items: boots-runners, sword-kladenets, invisibility hat, self-assembled tablecloth and others …
Genies in their good incarnation, of course, could fulfill desires and protect people, but most often they did this only in fairy tales, moreover, European ones. In Arab myths and legends, they usually only punished the unwanted, and in exchange for the fulfillment of the desire, they took the soul. Often the jinn fulfilled the wish so literally that this alone became a punishment.
In order to appease or avoid the jinn, many Muslim peoples have their own signs. It is believed that genies gather at night in ruins, in wastelands and near stagnant water, are found in baths and toilets, and such places should be avoided. In houses, with the onset of night, they do not clean, do not look in the mirror and do not look into containers with oil. They also always cover their mouths when yawning and eat seven dates on an empty stomach.