A Master of Djinn

The theme of Racial Supremacy and Power Structures manifests heavily in the police riot and its fallout. It is only due to Fatma’s insistence that the small army of police arrives without carrying deadly weapons. The trigger for the riot, moreover, is simply a shoe: “a sandal thrown by unseen hands […] [that] couldn’t cause real injury” (139). This scene in particular emphasizes an element of gray to Fatma’s character. She is a representative of a government agency, working in tandem with the police. Despite her disgust with social injustice, she is part of the forces that work to maintain the status quo, as the impostor eloquently points out. To the people in the crowd, most of whom have dark skin (as the jazz musicians observed in previous chapters), the police are in their home prepared to act as oppressors.

The fact that the arrest attempt fails spectacularly reflects the novel’s general empathy toward those subjugated by society. In arriving in a slum with a small army of police, intending to disrupt a speech on social injustice by arresting the speaker, Fatma is adopting the approach of the oppressors. She attempts to steal victory, in a sense, without having earned it. As a result, as much as the Egyptian police force outclasses the slums residents, the al-Jahiz impostor outclasses the novel’s protagonists.

The Power of Faith is also developed further in this section. The impostor promises social miracles and a willingness to use violence to achieve those miracles, yet his actions bring no change—only further discord. This illusion is juxtaposed with two legitimate miracles. Siti has a miraculous recovery, and Ahmad’s transformation has advanced. It is further juxtaposed with Hadia’s response to Fatma attempting to make excuses for lying to her about a nonexistent rule. Hadia emphasizes that she has earned the right to be present, part of which is possible “because there is no end to God’s Barakah upon me” (157). Unlike the impostor, who makes big claims and delivers nothing, Hadia does grueling work with grace and quiet dedication. The impostor is just that, an impostor, lacking faith in anything but the lie of racial supremacy. Hadia has a much more developed faith, and permeates her entire approach to life.

The Role of Illusions and Expectations in Society also manifests as Hadia calls Fatma out on her prejudices. Hadia is aware of the connotations of young women wearing the hijab, and she grasps that Fatma’s lie to keep her away from the arrest was a result of those prejudices. Fatma tries to protest that Siti was allowed to come because Siti is “different,” but Hadia astutely counters: “Not some sheltered hijabi, you mean? Concerned with etiquette and propriety? Who frets at missing salah?” (156). That Fatma yields, acknowledging her mistake and apologizing much as Hadia did in an earlier chapter, again foreshadows her ultimate ability to see through Abigail’s charade and illusions.