Literature / A Dead Djinn in Cairo

“Djinn. Ghuls. Sorcerers. Never had to worry about this in my grandfather’s day. Thank you, al-Jahiz.”
Art by Kevin Hong

"A dead djinn and a dead angel? That’s not coincidence. There’s some connection.”

—Agent Fatma el-Sh'arawi, hot on the case

A short story written by P. Djèlí Clark in 2016, A Dead Djinn in Cairo takes place in an Alternate History Myth Punk version of 1912 Egypt where supernatural beings walk the streets and a sinister plot is afoot.

There was once a time that mythical creatures were just that— mythical. And then the wandering mystic al-Jahiz bore a hole through reality to the other-realm of Djinn and those apocryphal creatures poured into the world of mankind, irrevocably changing the tide of destiny as they involved themselves and their magics in politics, warfare, and civil society.

All that was decades ago. Nowadays, those beings live openly alongside the mortal denizens of the modern metropolis of Cairo. Fatma el-Sha'arawi is a Special Investigator for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — a taskforce that handles crime and law enforcement as it pertains to Egypt's otherworldly citizens. When she sets out to investigate the apparent suicide of a powerful Djinn, she's swept up in a whirlwind of a case that will test every ounce of her considerable cunning. Trawling the city's underbelly for clues, Fatma will have to fight off rampaging Ghuls, tangle with a saucy assassin, and contend with a passel of inscrutable clockwork creatures that may or may not be Angels. As she races against the clock to piece together a mystery that stubbornly eludes her grasp, she discovers the outline of a scheme that could tear down the already-fragile barriers between the world of men and the world of old magic — and who knows what waits on the other side?

Author Clark has since expanded the canon with another short story titled The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, a novella titled The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and a full-length novel titled A Master of Djinn.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo is available in its entirety on publisher Tor's website.

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Tropes Found in A Dead Djinn in Cairo:

• All Myths Are True: Forty years before the start of the narration, a wandering mystic named al-Jahiz opened a gateway to the realm of Djinn and other mythical creatures. Since then, spirits and magical beings previously relegated to the realm of myth have begun to appear in the human world, living openly amongst mortals. "Angels," Djinn, and other supernatural entities are a part of every day life.
  How else to remember al-Jahiz, the famed Soudanese mystic and inventor? Some named him as one and the same with the medieval thinker of Basra, reborn or traveled through time. Sufis claimed he was a herald of the Mahdi; Coptics a harbinger of the apocalypse. Whether genius, saint, or madman, no one could deny that he had shaken the world.
  It was al-Jahiz who, through mysticism and machines, bore a hole to the Kaf, the other-realm of the djinn. His purpose for doing so—curiosity, mischief, or malice—remained unknown. He later disappeared, taking his incredible machines with him. Some said even now he traveled the many worlds, sowing chaos wherever he went.
  That had been a little more than forty years past. Fatma was born into the world al-Jahiz left behind: a world transformed by magic and the supernatural. The djinn, especially, took to the age, their penchant for building yielding more wonders than could be counted. Egypt now sat as one of the great powers, and Cairo was its beating heart.
• Alternate History: In the world of A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, the sudden widespread manifestation of Djinn and other magical creatures and paranormal powers allowed Egyptian forces to resist British colonial rule in the late 1800's, establishing an independent state far earlier than in real life (where the independent Kingdom of Egypt was established in 1922, but continued to exist under a state of British occupation until 1956). Djinn, "Angels", and various other mythical creatures are now part of everyday life throughout the Kingdom of Egypt and beyond — institutions like Oxford and Harvard have even set up departments dedicated to the study of the paranormal. Embracing the Magitek/ Steampunk creations of the Djinn has made Egypt a leading cultural and economic power, with Cairo being compared to London and Paris in terms of influence and importance on the world stage.
• Benevolent Genie: Zig-Zagged — the Magitek of the Djinn has made Egypt into a modern, independent nation, but not all individuals are so benevolent:
  • Sennar the Marid was involved in a plot to bring the Old Gods of the Djinn to the realm of man, well aware of the fact that these old gods would wipe out all mortal life on Earth. He willingly gave his life to power the ritual that would open a portal into their plane of existence, under the belief that the Old Gods would bring him back from the dead.
  • The unnamed Jann (or elemental Djinn) of the Cult of Hathor openly shares the old Djinn prophecy of "The Rising" with Fatma, giving her the clues she needs to figure out that Maker's great work is the Clock of the Worlds.
• Bifauxnen: Agent Fatma has short hair, "boyish" features, and she dresses in men's English-style suits — despite the immaculate tailoring, she's often mistaken for a "pretty boy."
  The half-blind old man had called her “pretty, for a young man, so brave to take on a half-djinn.” She hadn’t corrected him.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: The story opens with Fatma and Inspector Aasim investigating the corpse of a dead Djinn. The corpse is twice as tall as a man and happens to be stark naked. Aasim can't help but point out the size of the Djinn's endowments, which he finds impressive. We later learn that the Djinn's human lover also was very satisfied with him, to judge by the frequent pleasurable screaming that came from his apartment.
  He sat unclothed between tasseled cushions of lavender and burgundy, his muscular arms and legs spread wide and leaving nothing to the imagination.
  “Now that’s impressive,” a voice came. Fatma glanced back at the figure hovering just over her shoulder... He jutted a shaved round chin at the dead djinn’s naked penis: a midnight-blue thing that hung near to the knee. “I’ve seen full-grown cobras that were smaller. A man can’t help but feel jealous, with that staring him in the face.”
• Blood Magic: Maker's clock uses Sennar's blood, drained in the exsanguination ritual suicide Sennar had performed earlier in the evening, as a component in the opening of a portal to the realm of the Djinn's dark gods.
• Cane Fu: Fatma dresses to the nines in English-style suits and completes the outfit with a walking cane. She notes that the cane is a useful weapon when she can't grab her pistol or janbiya:
  With a determined grunt, Fatma went on the attack, wielding her cane as a weapon—feigning, cutting, jabbing, thrusting. The damned thing wasn’t just for show! Her opponent parried with those claws, throwing off fresh sparks each time they met the metal cane. Despite the risk, Fatma kept the fight close, looking for an opening to deliver a well-placed jab.
• Celestial Deadline: Overlaps with Race Against the Clock — Fatma and Siti have until sunrise to stop Maker's clock.
  The jann had made it clear. The Clock of Worlds had to be opened in time to the rising sun. And that couldn’t be allowed to happen.
• Clockworks Area: Maker's workshop and the completed Clock of the Worlds — Fatma has to run, jump, and climb all over the sprawling apparatus in order to dodge the tendrils of the Dark Gods figure out how to knock the gears out of alignment.

• Doomsday Device: Maker's Clock of the Worlds is intended to open a portal to the realm of the Djinn's dark gods. Once their realm is opened, the dark gods will swarm over the Earth and extinguish all life from the surface.
• Elite Man–Courtesan Romance: Zig-Zagged — Sennar, the Djinn whose death Fatma investigates in the opening scene of the story, became enthralled with his Greek "courtesan" Rika. When Fatma finally gets a chance to interview Rika, Rika tells Fatma how Sennar had found her as a common brothel worker and eventually asked to be her only customer. Then he'd told Rika that the world would soon be consumed by the old gods of the Djinn, and that he would keep Rika by his side as a pet when the rest of humanity was wiped out. Rika did not reciprocate these feelings, and when she discovered Sennar's dead body she realized that he had set in motion "The Rising" of the old gods. She immediately went to a priestess of Hathor to enlist the cult's aid in stopping the emergence of the old gods.
• Extremely Short Timespan: From the time Fatma investigates the titular dead Djinn to the time when she and Siti stop Maker's clock, the story takes place over the course of a single night. It ends as the sun rises.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities.
• Human Pet: Discussed — Sennar's infatuation with Rika led him to tell her about The Rising. His reassurances that he'd keep her around to amuse him when all other humans had been wiped out directly resulted in Rika planting the angel feather where Fatma would find it and turning to the Cult of Hathor for help.
• Insistent Terminology: "They're not really angels."
• Magitek: The advanced technology that makes Cairo a prosperous metropolis is Steampunk on the surface, but run by magical circuitry programmed into it by the Djinns who created the systems.

• Occult Detective: Fatma's job as a Special Investigator for The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities sees her solving crimes that involve supernatural entities or magical elements.
• One-Steve Limit: Djinn don't share their true names with humans or mortal governments, instead going by the names of towns or natural landmarks. The titular dead Djinn Fatma investigates at the opening of the book is called "Sennar."
  “Soudanese?” she asked in surprise, looking up from the passport.
  “Seems so. We’ve cabled Khartoum. For all the good that’ll do. Probably a hundred djinn named Sennar.”
  Probably, Fatma agreed silently. Sennar was a town, a set of mountains, and, alternately, an old sultanate in South Soudan. Djinn never gave their true names, using places instead—towns, hills, mountains, rivers. It didn’t seem to matter how many of them shared it. Somehow, they managed to tell each other apart.
• Our Angels Are Different: The "Angels" of the story are mysterious, otherworldly beings that claim to serve a single god, though the various religious authorities of man have their doubts as to whether the self-proclaimed "Angels" are actually divine messengers. Their bodies are insubstantial, needing complex clockwork exoskeletons to house their forms. The self-proclaimed Angel named Maker crafts those bodies for his brethren.
  They had appeared after the djinn, suddenly and without warning. Considerable debate was expended on affirming their identity. The Coptic Church argued that they could not be angels, for all such divinities resided in heaven with God. The Ulama similarly asserted that true angels had no free will, and could not have simply come here of their own volition. Both issued cautious statements naming them, at the least, “otherworldly entities.” The self-proclaimed angels were silent on the matter—validating no particulars of either faith, and remaining enigmatic regarding their motives.
  Unlike djinn, their bodies were almost ephemeral, like light become flesh, and required frames to house them. This one towered at least twelve feet, his body a complex construction of iron, steel, and gears that mimicked muscles and bone. Four mechanical arms extended from his bronze armored shoulders, while brilliant platinum wings tinged in traces of crimson and gold lay flat upon his back.
• Our Genies Are Different: Djinn are magical, nigh immortal beings capable of performing magic. Since their world was breeched by al-Jahiz, they've chosen to live openly amongst mortals. There are various types of Djinn, like the powerful Marids, the volatile Ifrits, and the elementally aligned Jann.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Of the Not Using the "Z" Word variety — the "Ghuls" of Cairo are magically raised undead who attack and feast on the flesh of the living. They can be put down by a shot to the head, though limbs and pieces that are removed "turn to black ash."
  “Another damned ghul attack!” Aasim exclaimed. He sat opposite her, reading over several cables. “That’s odd. They didn’t kill anyone—they took them. Snatched them and ran right off.”
  Fatma looked up. That was odd. Ghuls fed on the living. Their victims were usually found half-devoured. They weren’t in the habit of stealing people.

• Race Against the Clock: Overlaps with Celestial Deadline. Maker's plot to open a portal to the realm of the Old Gods of the Djinn is set to go into effect at sunrise. With the horizon already growing lighter, Fatma and Siti race across town to confront him and put a stop to his ritual.
• Restart the World: Overlaps with Utopia Justifies the Means. Maker's plan, and by extension Sennar and Harvester's. Maker became convinced that his god could not have had a hand in creating the imperfect race of man. He plotted to wipe out all mortal life so that he and his god could remake the world without the corruption of mankind's pride or disobedience.
  “Look upon your world. So despoiled, so wanting. You are disobedient. Arrogant. You squabble. You war. This is not what He wanted. This is not what He created. He is perfect, and could not have made such imperfection. This is your doing. Your corruption.
  I dwelled long on this, until I understood my place in His plan. I am Maker. It is my essence. I am in that way like Him. What I create is also perfect.” He gestured to the mechanical tree, with its two human automatons standing beneath. “This world can be remade, perfect again. Your kind can be remade. And I will help Him do so. But to fix an imperfection, the first creation must be cast aside. These dark gods of the djinn will do that. They will cleanse this world so that He and I can begin anew.”
• Ritual Magic: Maker's Clock of the Worlds is only part of the plan to open a portal for the Old Gods of the Djinn. The prophecy required the willing sacrifice of three individuals — the Ram, the Reaper, and the Builder — to power it. The clock's purpose was to identify the "space" and "time" where it could connect to the realm of the Old Gods, but Sennar's blood and the angel flesh of Harvester and Maker are what imbued magic and intent into the process.
• See-Thru Specs: Spectral Goggles, specialized eyewear that allow mortal ministry agents to perceive the supernatural.
• Steampunk: Overlaps with Magitek — the "technology" that powers Cairo is largely based on functional magic, but it presents like a typical steampunk setting with airships and electric trams alongside gaslamps and clockwork automata.
  Fatma sat back in a red-cushioned seat as the automated wheeled carriage plowed along the narrow streets. Most of Cairo slept, except for the glow of a gaslight market or the pinprick lights of towering mooring masts where airships came and went by the hour. Her fingers played with her cane’s lion-headed pommel, watching aerial trams that moved high above the city, crackling electricity illuminating the night along their lines. Their carriage passed a lone man in a rickety donkey cart. He drove his beast at a slow trot, as if in defiance of the modernity that surrounded him.
• Targeted Human Sacrifice: Zig-Zagged — The ritual of "The Rising" requires the willing sacrifice of three archetypical individuals to power it, but none are humans. Sennar the djinn filled the role of the Ram, "old and powerful" (and having an impressive set of horns on his head). Harvester was an angel who practiced necromancy, fulfilling the role of the Reaper. Maker, an angel who took such pride in his constructs, fulfilled the role of the Builder.
• Third-Person Person: Downplayed — the "Angel" Maker typically refers to himself by name rather than using "I" or "me," but when referring to his possessions or creations he designate them as "my" or "mine." He does answer with a first person "I" when asked a direct question about his work.
  “Welcome to my home, children,” the angel pronounced, his voice a melodic rumble. A translucent alabaster mask hid his face, with lips fixed into a permanent faint smirk—meant, perhaps, to put others at ease. Brilliance poured from behind oval openings that stood as eyes, as if holding back a star. “May you be found in peace and know His glory. You have come to see Maker. Reveal yourselves and your wants and Maker will aid you as he can.”
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Overlaps with Restart the World. This is Maker's justification for opening a portal to the realm of the Djinn's Old Gods and trying to wipe away all mortal life on Earth. Convinced that his perfect god could not have meant to create something as imperfect as mankind, Maker sought to wipe the slate clean and create a utopia peopled by a remade version of humanity that lacks the flaws of the first draft — namely things like pride and free will. In his mind this justifies the indiscriminate slaughter of millions of humans across the globe, since they're all flawed and unsalvageable.
• The Watchmaker: Fatma's father is a watchmaker, and she was raised with an appreciation for the craft. It's what allows her to determine the purpose of Maker's device at a glace and figure out how to stop the contraption once she realizes the danger it poses.
  Reaching into her breast pocket, she pulled out a golden pocket watch fashioned like an old asturlab [sic]. “My father is a watchsmith. He gave me this when I left home. Said Cairo was so fast I’d need it to keep time. He came here once when he was younger, and used to tell us endless stories of the mechanical wonders of the djinn.”
• Wolverine Claws: Siti, aka the mysterious attacker who steals Fatma's pocket watch, uses a pair of silvery claws in combat.
• Zeppelins from Another World: Although they're only mentioned briefly at the beginning of the story, the "towering mooring masts where airships came and went by the hour" help to lay out the decidedly Steampunk tone of the setting. Near the end of the story, Siti pilots a smaller two-seater glider that carries her and Fatma from the headquarters of the cult of Hathor in the Khan el-Khalili market to Maker's home in the al-Gezira neighborhood. The glider's power source is never mentioned.

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