Literature / A Master of Djinn

In an alternate history 1912 Cairo, Fatma el-Sha'arawi works for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The members of a secret brotherhood dedicated to Al-Jahiz, the sorcerer who released magic into the world decades ago, are murdered by someone claiming to be the returned Al-Jahiz himself. Fatma investigates the murders, trying to discover the identity of the imposter. This book was released in 2021, written by P. Djèlí Clark. It has three prequel novellas, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015.

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Tropes

• Action Girl: Fatma is a female Occult Detective with a ministry which investigates the supernatural who shows keen skill with magic or mundane weapons. Siti, her lover, is a good fighter as well, along with Haida, a young woman who's partnered with her.
• All Myths Are True: As well as the djinn in Egypt, there are also goblins and fae in Europe. The ancient Egyptian gods also possibly exist.
• Alternate History: It takes place in an alternate version of Egypt where magic is commonplace and was used to drive out the British colonizers.
• Always Identical Twins: It turns out Fatma's doorkeeper is really two identical twin brothers, who can do double the work this way, with one always on duty. They get twice the usual pay since together they're better than any other doorkeeper in Cairo.
• Amazon Brigade: The Forty Leopards are an all-female thieves' gang in Cairo renowned for the prowess which they show for stealing, and they're also good at fighting.
• Animal Motifs: For Siti, cats. She worships the lion goddess Sekhmet (symbolized by cats) and uses metal claws on her gloves to fight. She growls before getting into a fight. She's also described as purring often. Fatma's cat Ramses loves her as well. Her djinn form also has cat-like eyes.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ahmad foil's Abigail's plans by biting off her hand, the Ring of Power she's wearing included.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Haida is talking to Alexander near the end:
  "I know this must be a difficult time for you. Your sister is an evil maniac bent on world conquest. She killed your father, which is just terrible. Plus, I don’t think this house has much resale value."
• As the Good Book Says...: In an Islamic version, Haida recites a verse from the Quran describing how Allah created every people on earth in their colors and diversity to rebuke a racist old Arab woman with anti-black views.
• Ban on Magic: The US has infamous anti-magic edicts, it's mentioned, as when magic came back, persecution occurred there of people who had it (this is implied as partly being due to some people with this being black).
• Battle Couple: Fatma and Siti, her lover, both know how to fight skillfully, doing so as a team at times.
• Beneath Notice: At first, no one suspects Abigail is the lead imposter, because Al-Jahiz was male and they portrayed him as such in his “return”, but also she's a seemingly harmless woman.
• Big Bad: It turns out that Abigail Worthington is the leader of the Al-Jahiz conspiracy, having murdered her own father along with his followers, caused many more crimes and plotting to retake the lands that have broke away from the British Empire, dreaming of possible becoming queen herself.
• Bigger on the Inside:
  • Downplayed; Siwa's apartment above a carpet store looks bigger on the inside the first time that Fatma and Haida visit — it has a luxurious courtyard with a fountain, tasteful library to house his books, and even a tea room decorated with tapestries and teapots bearing camels. The ministry agents realize they're under the effects of an illusion when the details of the room start changing before their very eyes. When they pay Siwa a second visit, they convince him to drop the illusion and they see the apartment for what it really is — crowded with books that spill out of their shelves, littered with receipts for Siwa's gambling debts, and decorated with cheap posters of camel races.
  • Played Straight; the angelic council took over a human-built palace as their headquarters in Cairo, but they replaced the interior with a vast, extradimensional space to give themselves more room. Visitors have to be assigned guides so that they don't get lost in the maze-like architecture of the pocket dimension.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Abigail, apparently nothing more than a harmless, shallow, none too bright aristocratic Englishwoman, is actually a cunning, ruthless murderer.
• Blood Knight: Siti is positively gleeful when getting into a fight, enjoying this greatly.
• Boyish Short Hair: Fatma and Siti both have short hair, while they're skilled women warriors along with being lesbian lovers.
• Buried Alive: Fatma is trapped under rubble along with Abigail and Siti near the end, though not for long since people hear them underneath, digging everyone out.
• Butch Lesbian: Fatma likes to wear bowler hats, very nice suits and has a cane. She also wears her hair short and she works as a detective, being among the few women doing this. Due to this, she also gets mistaken for a handsome young man repeatedly, indicating her style makes her look bifauxnen. She's secretly lovers with Nubian woman Siti.
• Child by Rape: Siti says her mother was less than fifteen when her father, a djinn, seduced her, using his magic for this and impregnating her.
• Clockwork Creature: The "boilerplate eunuchs" that serve drinks. There are also the angels, massive Eldritch Abominations inhabiting custom-built clockwork frames.
• Closet Gay: Fatma and Siti, two women, both keep the fact they're lovers a secret as same-sex love is taboo in Egypt, with only a few people in the know.
• Collective Identity: "Al-Jahiz" is actually five people using illusion magic to Masquerade as the Unseen, led by Abigail Worthington.
• Compelling Voice: The false Al-Jahiz does this, powerful enough even to make a djinn attack other people or shut his mouth, when usually they can't be affected by humans' spells.
• The Dandy: Fatma refers to herself as this in her internal thoughts, a Gender Flipped version of course but it fits since she's basically the female counterpart to a Sharp-Dressed Man, loving to wear very nice Western men's suits along with a bowler hat and a sword cane. Even when she tries to dress down Fatma acknowledges that it's a failure given her suits remain quite colorful and flamboyant. She enjoys flaunting her clothing for others.
• Death of Personality: Abigail's fate, after a djinn erases her memory.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The book does not shy from showing naked racism by not only Western visitors but also many Egyptians toward people with darker skin (especially Nubians, a black African group who make up a minority there).
• Disappeared Dad: Siti's father was a djinn who only paid attention to her mother long enough for their tryst and then left her pregnant. Mention of him is a sore spot, understandably, before she tells Fatma why.
• Eager Rookie: Haida, Fatma's new partner. Fatma initially tries to keep her away from dangerous assignments, but quickly finds that she's very capable.
• Eldritch Abomination: The angels. Though they may or may not be actual angels, they're certainly powerful beyond human comprehension. The Nine Ifrit Kings are also an example, being massive fire djinn that ruled in ancient times.
• Everyone Has Standards: Portendorf, though “racialist” too, thinks Dalton's theory of ancient Egyptian rulers having been Caucasian is still absurd.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The title of the book is one honorific Al-Jahiz had, as he could control the djinn. As the false Al-Jahiz also can.
• Foreshadowing: The ornery Marid that Fatma convinces to return to his bottle at the beginning of the book is astonished to discover that after a thousand years a slumber, there are Djinn openly living alongside mortals, working with them, and "mating with" them. This foreshadows Siti reveal that she's part-Djinn on her father's side.
• Frame-Up: Abigail framed her brother Alexander, implicating him for the different crimes she committed, though it's discovered by Fatma.
• Funny Foreigner: The Worthington family and their associates from England, with their complete lack of knowledge about the local customs. Abigail Worthington tries to speak Arabic but mangles it beyond comprehension. Subverted with all but Alexander when they turn out to be the murderers, disguised as Al-Jahiz. Not only do they know enough about Egyptian society to get many locals on their side, they speak Arabic fluently.
• Geas: The false Al-Jahiz is capable of casting spells which control djinn, hence the book's title. Under the spell, they can be forced to attack people at his order and later keep silent on what happened, letting them take the fall.
• Genie in a Bottle: One appears at the beginning of the book, but the only wish he grants the humans who woke him up is to choose how they will die.
• Girly Bruiser: Siti loves to wear beautiful dresses, fighting while in them too with her silver claws.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, the Egyptian agency in charge of dealing with all things magic.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Siti is half-human and half-djinn. She has a human mother and djinn father. She can shift between both forms at will. It turns out to be the source of her magic as well.
• Healing Factor:
  • Siti is stabbed in the side but heals within days completely, even lacking a scar. It turns out to be because she's half djinn, giving her increased strength.
  • Siwa regrows his tongue within minutes after having been forced into cutting it off repeatedly.
• Horned Humanoid: Djinn often look like this, with a generally humanoid body but also large horns. Siti does too in her djinn form.
• How Would You Like to Die?: A Jackass Genie offers the teens who release it one "wish" — to choose how they will die. On their behalf, Agent Fatma chooses old age, in bed, at the end of their natural lives, which even the djinn grudgingly respects. Fatma only hopes that it won't become a Cruel Mercy, since it will prevent them from dying of illness or injury, however debilitating.
• Interspecies Romance: Fatma, who's human, learns her lover Siti is really half djinn.
• I Work Alone: Fatma prefers to work alone, which is why she's unpleasantly surprised to learn the Ministry has assigned her Hadia as a partner.
• Jackass Genie: The Marid introduced at the beginning of the book. After two humans wake him up and ask for wishes, the Marid tells them to decide how they will die. Fatma outsmarts him by asking for them to die from old age at the end of their natural lives. When she wakes him up again later, asking him to remove the spell making her and Hadia forget Sulayman's ring, he grudgingly does what she asks. But he makes the process excruciatingly painful, just because Fatma didn't tell him not to make it painful.
• Keystone Army: Abigail controls her army of djinn with the ring she wears, so once her hand wearing this is bitten off, the spell which controls them is broken and they break free, no longer working to fulfill her plan.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Fatma gets mistaken for male more than once due to her gaunt face and rather masculine clothing, since she frequently wears Western men's suits. She's grown used to it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: It turns out there's a spell on knowledge of the ring the false Al-Jahiz uses which makes them quickly forget about this afterward. However, it has gaps which let some find out even so. Fatma and Haida are forced to continually remind themselves via notes they carry about it.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Siti likes to wear dresses, especially beautiful ones and looks great wearing them, but still has short hair while she's a fierce fighter as well, so she's more chapstick. It is soon revealed she's secretly lovers with female protagonist Fatma.
• Long-Lived: Djinn can easily live around a millennium.
• Magic Fire: Agent Fatma is familiar with all kinds of magical fire, but she is initially stumped by a murder scene at the Worthington Mansion where the victims burned alive but their clothes were untouched. It turns out to be the fire of an ifrit.
• Magic Knight: Siti is skilled at combat with her claws, while she also has magic that makes her stronger and faster to enhance this.
• Magic Pants: Siti reveals that djinn changing their clothes to fit as they transform is a very basic ability they have, so they're not left in tatters every time.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Fatma likes to wear really nice Western men's suits with a bowler hat and cane, eschewing traditional women's clothing of Egypt, including hijab, while having a job too that's conventionally male as a detective. On the other hand, her lover Siti is more feminine, though she does have short hair, wearing beautiful, elegant and expensive dresses with a casually graceful air.
• Master of Illusion:
  • A djinn called Siwa makes his small home look like a palace using illusion. The illusion djinn in general create utterly realistic illusions, which even fool large groups simultaneously. Reputedly, the most powerful could create whole illusionary cities.
  • Abigail Worthington is also one, using illusion to appear as Al-Jahiz.
• Mind-Control Device: The Ring of Sulayman, a ring that can control all djinn.
• Motive Rant: Abigail explains why she had committed all her misdeeds aftr being discovered as the main imposter, laying things out at length.
• No Man Should Have This Power: After the events of the book, Fatma recommends to the Ministry to destroy the Clock of Worlds. She also gives the Ring of Sulayman to Ahmad to hide where no one can find it, even herself.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Zagros turns out be half djinn, half daeva (a similar species living in the east, but more tempestuous).
• Note to Self: Fatma and Haida write notes to themselves telling them to remember Sulayman's ring, which has a spell making it very difficult for humans to remember.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Fatma meets some expatriate African-American musicians in Cairo, and they comment on how while they're treated well as foreigners, local dark-skinned Egyptians (including the Nubians, black people like them) definitely aren't. Haida later notes this too after Siti (a Nubian) faces gross racism by a rich Arab Egyptian woman, along with Fatma (whom she thinks has some Nubian ancestry as well), having previously lived in the US.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Abigail Worthington acts like a hysterical, somewhat airheaded woman. However, she is actually the mastermind behind the murders, and almost succeeds in her plan of world domination.
• One Head Taller: Fatma's lover Siti is described to tower over her.
• One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Siti was conceived as the result of one tryst her djinn father had with her human mother.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Siti's legal name turns out to be Abla, but Fatma only uses this when visiting her family. Otherwise she's only called or thought of as Siti.
• Only the Pure of Heart: The Ring of Sulayman only reveals its true form to someone who has pure motives.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After being forced to strangle Fatma by the false Al-Jahiz's spell, Siti is distraught, plaintively asking if she's all right when they see each other again, with her having clearly been crying. This is quite the contrast with her usual energetic, teasing attitude. She's usually wholly fearless as well, but expresses profound terror at how he controlled her.
• Opposites Attract: Fatma is fairly reserved and more reticent with her emotions, while having a very masculine clothing style (she likes wearing fine Western men's suits). Siti, her girlfriend, loves to wear beautiful dresses, with a playful, much more emotive personality (often teasing Fatma about things). The pair are both skilled fighters, but Fatma does this only when necessary whereas Siti is eager for fighting. Fatma is a Muslim, while Siti worships the ancient Egyptian god Hathor/Sekhmet.
• Queer Establishing Moment: Fatma going home to find Siti in her apartment, then them kissing before having sex off page, shows that they're lovers and both queer women.
• Quirky Curls: Fatma's hair is very curly, and she keeps it short, fitting with her gender nonconformity as she has a masculine style, wearing fine Western men's suits with a bowler.
• The Reveal: It turns out Siti is really half djinn, but she's mostly in the form of a full human.
• Ring of Power: The false Al-Jahiz it turns out has a ring which can control djinn, thus using their power for his benefit.
• Running Gag:
  • Haida's seemingly inexhaustible supply of cousins, all of whom work for an industry that proves to be important or know a piece of information that turns out to be crucial. She's even able to get Siwa to open up about his gambling addiction because she claims a cousin of hers suffers from the same affliction.
  • Ahmad has a habit of stalking out of the shadows whenever he wants to hold a conversation with Agent Fatma, not realizing his crocodilian features make his appearance more of a Jump Scare than a Stealth Hi/Bye. When he apologizes, he asks if he's being creepy and always gets an affirmative.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Fatma agrees to keep the fact that Mahmoud the doorkeeper is actually both him and his brother (they're twins, and completely identical) secret so the owner of her building won't find out (they get double the usual pay given how efficient this makes them).
  • A few people are aware of Fatma and Siti being lovers, which they keep private.
• Secret Relationship: Fatma is secretly lovers with Siti, another women, as same-sex relationships remain taboo in Egypt. Siti sneaks in and out of Fatma's apartment by the window so the building's doorkeeper, a notorious gossip, doesn't spot her going inside. A few people know and are fine with the fact, keeping their secret.
• Self-Duplication: The Al-Jahiz imposter can double himself, with ghuls who look just like him springing up to attack people who face him.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Fatma and Siti are moving toward sex early in the book when the scene ends, then shows them sitting together after this.
• Sharp Dressed Woman: Fatma always wears expensive suits, complete with a cane and bowler hat.
• Sword Cane: Fatma has one, which serves as her personal weapon. It fits with her personal style of wearing a bowler hat and fine Western men's suit.
• Teen Pregnancy: Siti relates that her mother was less than fifteen when she got pregnant with her.
• Title Drop: The book title is mentioned as being one of many honorifics which Al-Jahiz had.
• Tongue-Tied: A spell on all djinn prevents them from talking about the Ring of Sulayman. One djinn, Siwa, actually cuts out his tongue when Fatma and Hadia question him, thanks to a spell by Abigail — his magic results in the tongue growing back, and he's forced to repeat the process dozens of times.
• Tongue Trauma: The djinn Siwa is forced to repeatedly cut off his own tongue when he gets asked any question about Al-Jahiz, so he can't answer it (but gets around this by other means).
• Transparent Closet: It turns out that Siti's aunt Aziza and Haida are both well aware Fatma is lovers with Siti, but they don't care. Both even give them advice on their relationship.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: At the end, Ahmad calls himself “Lord Sobek, Masters of the Waters, the Rager, Lord of Faiyum, Defender of the Land, General of the Royal Armies” in his letter to Fatma.
• Verbal Tic: "Fascinating!" Fatma witnessed the angel named Maker commit ritualistic suicide in A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and is shocked to see an identical angel on the angelic council, not realizing that this is Maker's replacement. Fatma mistakes the replacement for the original before the replacement has the chance to introduce herself. Maker's replacement (also called Maker) is excited to learn more about humans, and often ends her sentences with "Fascinating!" when describing their behavior.
• Villain Respect: Abigail tells Fatma she admires her after being buried alive together in rubble, after Abigail's been revealed to be the main villain. Fatma does not reciprocate.
• Visionary Villain: It turns out Abigail's motive in murdering her father and the rest with the ring wasn't anything petty like greed or revenge. No, she wants to ultimately restore the falling British Empire using it, perhaps even becoming queen.

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