Realms of the Jinn

Description

Boundless imagination renders Salim Barakat’s new novel, *Realms of the Jinn* (*Aqalim al-Jinn*), a fictional chronicle unlike any other. Barakat has previously introduced fantasy to the Arabic novel with *Jurists of Darkness* (*Fuqaha’ al-Zalam*), employed symbolic trajectories in most of his other works, and adopted a mythic scope in *The Caves of Haydrahudahus* and its expansive companion novel, *Shattered Hooves in Haydrahudahus*—not to mention his peculiar narrative game involving statues with calculated missions in *Thadrimis*.

*Realms of the Jinn* is an exploration of the customs, traditions, lineage, and morality of the jinn—a work so intricate it compels one to ask: from where did the author derive his sources? He has constructed a unique world defined by its own laws, systems, customs, and social strata of jinn. While these may occasionally intersect with human systems, they never fully align—nor could they, given the fundamental differences between the two species.