The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

Amina’s voice takes over the narrative. She begins her story by blaming two youths from Salalah who hired her to row them out into the bay. The youths tell her to stop while they look at their map and burn jasmine. The weather begins to change, making Amina nervous. One of the youths sees sea foam coming high enough to engulf the boat and glowing reddish-yellow. The boy pulls out a piece of carnelian, but they are dragged into fog, and the foam consumes the youth with the stone. A voice hisses that they shouldn’t have come for her and promises to devour them. The foam begins to spread to the other young man.

Amina puts an iron knife to the young man’s throat and tells the creature to leave because they don’t want her. She begins to recite protective passages from the Qur’an. The creature comes into view, leaving the boys, and tries to attack Amina, who fights back with religious verses and the knife. Eventually the creature leaves.

Amina is furious with the boys, who are startled when she stands to her full height and reveals her arsenal of weapons. She makes them help her row back to shore, and when they ask who she is, she says, “Someone who knows too well the price of magic” (13), but does not reveal her name. They tell tales about her anyway, and rumors about her spread until they reach a grandmother in Aden, Salima, who needs Amina’s help.

Amina is fixing her roof, which continues to leak. Her house is hidden in the mountains but has a view of the sea. Her young daughter, Marjana, offers to help and expresses a desire to go to school. Despite knowing that school would be good for Marjana, Amina declares that it wouldn’t be safe. Her daughter doesn’t ask why. Amina can smell the sea, and it makes her sad. She wonders when she will sail again, but then she sees her daughter and the sadness lessens. When unexpected visitors arrive, Amina sends Marjana upstairs. When she answers the door, she sees men carrying a palanquin with an extremely well-dressed older woman who asks Amina to give her water and let her bearers rest in the courtyard. The woman, Salima, is from the city of Aden. The two women start speaking frankly.

Salima says that her son, who was once a member of Amina’s crew, wrote all about Amina as he sailed with her. She also states that if Amina kills her, letters will be sent to Amina’s enemies, telling them where she is. Salima wants to hire Amina to find her kidnapped grandchild, Dunya. She relates that a Frankish (European) man who was known for fighting on both sides of the Crusades once came to Salima’s house seeking magical treasures for which her family is famous. His name is Falco Palamenestra, and Salima sent him away, believing that he was not of sound mind. Because there has been no ransom demand for Dunya at any point since the girl’s disappearance, Amina suggests that the 16-year-old might have run away. Salima denies this and says she is sure that Dunya is still alive. Amina continues to resist Salima’s demand for help until Salima finally offers her a million dinars. With this amount of money, she, Marjana, and Marjana’s children would never need to worry about finances again. When Salima tells her that Dunya’s father is named Asif al-Hilli, Amina is shaken, for before his death, Asif never told her that he had a child. Salima gives Amina some of Asif’s letters as proof. Amina agrees to look for Dunya for four months and accepts a minimum payment of 100,000 dinars, no matter the outcome. If Amina returns with Dunya, she will receive the balance of the million dinars.

This chapter is a report from a scholar who was sailing from Cambay, and whose vessel is attacked by pirates on the second day of the journey. The pirates are violent “sinners” of every sort. Some attempt to stay true to their religion, but many rationalize their poor behavior away. The man and the crew realize that the captain taking over his ship is a woman. The revelation that this captain, al-Sirafi, was female made many of the men on the ship declare that they would rather die than surrender to a woman. However, after being threatened with violence, they quickly surrendered and were relieved of most of their cargo and weapons. Two elderly ladies on board were left alone by the pirates, and they seemed so impressed by al-Sirafi that their chaperone confined them to their room for the rest of the journey.

Amina is packing to go. She knows that she must be discreet with this mission, so she leaves her usual flashy, pirate clothing behind, carrying only important weapons, like the dagger from her famous pirate grandfather, who was known as the “Sea Leopard” and whose stories inspired Amina. Now, her mother bursts in and asks her if she has lost her mind. They argue about why Amina is undertaking this latest voyage. Ultimately, Amina says they need the money, but her mother says the last time Amina came back from pirating, she was broken, and not just from the ordeal of child-bearing. Amina wants to tell her mother what happened then, and she longs to voice her fears for Marjana, but she cannot. Instead, she promises her mother that if things go bad, she will walk away from the job.

Marjana asks Amina about her job and worries, saying that she has a bad feeling. Amina is sobered by this declaration, because Marjana isn’t a normal child. Her father would often help to mystically direct Amina toward prosperity because “he had a feeling” (53). Now, Amina refuses to believe that Marjana has inherited his talents and promises her daughter that she will return in four months. The next morning, she gets up to say her prayers, admitting that she lapsed several times. Still, she keeps trying to connect with her faith despite feeling unworthy after Asif’s death and Marjana’s birth. Reminding herself of the waiting prize of a million dinars, she kisses Marjana and goes downstairs. Her mother gives Amina lots of prepared food and hugs her, saying that no amount of money is worth losing her. As Amina leaves, she resolves to find the most dangerous person she knows in order to stay safe.