A Dead Djinn in Cairo

Abstract

The novelette “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” follows protagonist Fatma el-Sha’arawi, an investigator for the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The story is set in an alternate Cairo in 1912, in a city that is the home of many otherworldly beings, from angels and djinns to ghuls. In this timeline, the Khedivate of Egypt is over and there is a king and a constitution. Fatma is investigating the death of a djinn who suffered a mysterious death, with the first lead pointing to the possible involvement of an angel. The angel, called Maker, is developing a clock-like machine that seems to deal with the relation between space and time, a contraption that is called the Clock of Worlds. The Cairo of this world is at the forefront of the technological developments of the age thanks to the presence of these inhuman inhabitants of the city. Through Fatma’s perspective, it is possible to find boilerplate eunuchs, aerial trams, gliders, and the newly-installed gas lights, among many other steam-run machines that populate the background of the city.