The Djinn's Apple

This is a historical novel set in Baghdad in a period that many young readers may know little about: the Abbasid Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid 786-809 CE. Others may recognise it as the time of the beginning of the Golden Age of Islam, in which scholars of many faiths flocked to Baghdad not only to share their knowledge but to seek to put it into practice, particularly in the arts of medicine and healing. As well as a time characterised by the search for enlightenment, it was, nevertheless, a time of ruthless jockeying for power and Djamila Morani’s novel cleverly weaves these strands together. The tale begins as twelve-year-old Nardeen escapes as her parents and her brothers and sisters are slaughtered in their home. She does not understand why this fate has befallen the family, although she believes she knows who is responsible and that it has to do with a manuscript her father has been studying. When she returns to the scene of the carnage, she is beaten within an inch of her life to persuade her to reveal where the document is, although she has no idea of its whereabouts. After her beating, she comes under the protection of a professor of medicinal herbs in the Baramistan (or teaching hospital) where she has been taken to be treated. He recognises her thirst for knowledge and her talent as a healer and supports her ambition to be a doctor as her father was, although this is usually seen as a man’s profession. She finds love in the Baramistan and her skills take her a long way, even into the private quarters of the ailing Zubeida, Harun Al Rashid’s wife. Her reputation also brings into her care the man she believes to be her family’s murderer. Author Djamila Morani, looking through Nardeen’s eyes, brings a cool, thoughtful approach to the story, and ends it with a wicked twist. It is translated into English from the original Arabic by Sawad Hussein, whose translation has been recognised with an English Pen Award. There are useful historical notes and a short glossary of possibly unfamiliar terms at the end of the book.