Daevabad

* Zaydi al Qahtani, Shaddad the Blessed, the al Qahtani descendants, Ghassan al Qahtani (1400-present day/KOC)
* Manizheh e-Nahid (six months/EOG)
* Council Members (EOG/ROS+)

### Language

Djinnistani, Divasti, Geziriyya, and more

## Location on map

The city of Daevabad is the capital of the Djinn world, from which the al Qahtani kings rule. Originally built by Anahid as a home for her people and led by the Nahid Council for centuries, the city has grown over the years as a hodgepodge of human-inspired architecture by djinn travelers and settlers.

## Description

Hidden by a threshold/veil that can only be crossed by djinn/daeva and those with magical blood, and a second veil that hides the city itself, Daevabad is a center for commerce and the royal family and nobles. It is also a place where by law shafit must be taken to live out their lives. A massive place, Daevabad is filled with the highest riches of the djinn world, as well as the poorest.

## History

Originally a sacred lake to the marid as it is Tiamat's birthplace, it was enchanted so the marid could pay homage to her from any water. After the daevas/djinn were freed from Suleiman's punishment, Anahid and her followers took control of the lake and enslaved the marid there through the power of Suleiman's Ring, which the prophet had gifted her with. She did so as retribution for the marid's role in the prior ifrit/marid war that killed a lot of humans. (However, unlike the daevas who were only enslaved by Suleiman for one hundred years and built a temple, the marid were never properly freed and instead had to wait centuries for the Nahid magic to weaken before those who were still alive could escape and thus cursed the lake to tear apart anyone who entered it)

With Suleiman's Ring, Anahid formed a massive island in the center of the lake, and with the marid's aid built the city of Daevabad. They also came to an agreement with Anahid to allow djinn to sail across the lake unimpeded.

First ruled by Anahid and her descendants which later formed the Nahid Council, they were overthrown a millennia later by Zaydi al Qahtani and his allies during his rebellion due to their cruel treatment & mass-murdering of the shafit. The Qahtani family continued to rule Daevabad as a monarchy in the 1400 years since, until Manizheh e-Nahid's coup against Ghassan al Qahtani in *The Kingdom of Copper*. She ruled for a brief and increasingly chaotic six months until a massive battle broke out in the form of an invading armada filled with djinn from all over the world and led by Alizayd al Qahtani and his allies, as well as internal rebellion from Manizheh's own relatives: Nahri e-Nahid, Jamshid e-Pramukh, and her war general Darayavahoush e-Afshin, who eventually killed her.

After Nahri made a deal with the Peri (by conning them) to restore the djinn's magic, the veil to hide Daevabad from humans, and an unfinished thought about the marid and the island Daevabad sits on, they agreed but it also made them a future enemy. Using a boost of power granted from the peris' ice dagger fusing with Suleiman's ring which had moved into her heart, Nahri: restored magic to the djinn in Daevabad and abroad, restored the land which had been rotting under Manizheh's rule, and dragged Daevabad and its island away from the lake and separated with taller mountains and land, thus giving the lake back to the marid. Additionally, a new river under Alizayd's protection rose up to surround Daevabad and act as a border between the djinn city and the marid's lake.

At the end of the trilogy, both Alizayd and Nahri refused to take the throne, and instead work towards building a new type of government with delegates from all of the djinn tribes and including the shafit. The shedu throne was moved to the Daeva's Grand Temple, and as seen in *The River of Silver,* the brass walls surrounding Daevabad have begun to be dismantled.

## Location

Located beyond the Gozan river in the vast sand dunes, there is a threshold that magically hides Daevabad. Only the djinn/daeva who share the blood of those cursed/blessed by the Prophet Suleiman can enter. Surrounded by mountains covered in hardwood forests to the south and sheer cliffs to the north, Daevabad rests on an island in the center of a massive, marid-cursed lake. Once upon the lake, there is another veil to cross, one that hides the island itself from view.

### The Lake

Once a sacred place to the Marid, it was taken over by Anahid, who used Suleiman's seal to create an island in the center of the lake and built up the city and its brass walls. In the early years, the Nahid were able to use the lake to transport themselves to other bodies of water in their hunt for the ifrit. But rumor is, at some point there was a falling out between them and the marid, and lake became cursed, shredding anything that fell into the waters. The water itself is murky and still, no ripples or whitecaps break its surface. The only way to cross the lake is by ferry.

### Outer Wall

Built upon the rocky island, Daevabad is surrounded by massive brass walls that dwarf the Giza pyramids, and imbued with magic that makes it impossible to scale, fly over, or tunnel under them. The walls themselves are carved with dozens of statues; Nahid men and women dressed in an ancient style and wearing flat caps over their curly hair; some standing and pointing, holding unfurled scrolls or weighted scales, or sitting with their palms open with a serene look on their veiled faces. These statues are also imbued with magic -- anyone who attempts to deface or remove them suffers a most terrible fate: boils instantly breaking out across their skin and brass erupting through the wounds until they are reduced to a puddle of cooling metal and ashy bone. Because of this, the statues remained even after Zaydi al Qahtani's conquest.

As tall as the walls are, there are some buildings that peek over it and can be seen from the outside: sandblasted glass minarets, delicate floating stupas, mud-brick ziggurats, brightly tiled temples, and the stark crenellated tower of the Citadel.

### The Docks

The docks are the only entrance into the city, and have been in an increasing state of disrepair for years. Crumbling statues of Nahid and Afshin warriors are scattered about, and along the brass wall are enormous iron doors, flanked by Shedu statues. There are also Royal Guard soldiers that watch the entrance and check any visitors.

Once inside, there is a caravanserai by the city gate, and the Grand Bazaar.

## Inner Areas

In addition to the Grand Bazaar that is open to all tribes, the city is divided into six main quarters, one for each of the djinn tribes. They are connected through the Midan, a large open area in the center of the city.

### The Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar is a massive and crowded marketplace. Located at the entrance of the city, it is on a wide stone street lined with dozens of market stalls and unevenly stacked buildings. A dizzying maze of covered alleys snake off the main avenue that are also packed with heaped garbage and stacked crates. There are narrow canals cut into the road to drain away rain, and patrols are done by the Royal Guard.

Items being sold range from the magical to mundane, and include food, bolts of fabric (or giant folded rose petals), jewlery, potions, and live animals. The shoppers as well are incredibly varied: from pureblooded djinn wearing incredible attires to low-class shafit, to travelers new to the city and con-artists hoping to scam them.

Even in the early hours, the Bazaar is busy with merchants undoing the curses which protected their wares during the night, apothecaries brewing potions to energize their first customers, children carrying messages made of burnt glass that shattered upon revealing their message, and the bodies of barely-conscious addicts wasted on smuggled human intoxicants.

### The Midan

A large central plaza in the heart of Daevabad, the midan is enclosed by a copper wall gone green with age, and broken up by seven evenly spaced gates. Each gate leads to one of the six djinn tribe quarters, with the seventh gate leading to the Grand Bazaar. In the center of the midan is a simple fountain made of black and white marble blocks.

* **Sahrayn Gate:** black-and-white-tiled pillars wrapped in grapevines heavy with purple fruit.
* **Ayaanle Gate:** two narrow, studded pyramids crowned with a scroll and a salt tablet.
* **Geziri Gate:** a perfectly cut plain stone archway.
* **Agnivanshi Gate:** rose-colored sandstone sculpted into dozens of dancing figures, their delicate hands holding flickering oil lamps so small they resemble stars.
* **Tukharistani Gate:** a screen of polished jade, carved in an impossibly intricate pattern.
* **Daeva Gate:** enormous paneled doors painted pale blue and embedded with white and gold sandstone disks set in a triangular pattern. The doors were held open by two massive brass shedu statues.
* **Grand Bazaar Gate:** a tall ornamental gate.

### Tukharistani Quarter

* There is a Qui-zi memorial monument located by the main road in the heart of the Tukharistani Quarter. It is twice Ali's height and built of worn sandstone roughly shaped like an elongated bowl, almost like a boat placed on its stern, with the names of the slain victims listed inside in Tukharistani script. The top of the monument has begun to crumble, but incense and flowers are placed by the base, and an oil lamp burns inside to illuminate the names.

## Culture

### Language

As the home to djinn from all six tribes, Daevabad is home to a myriad of languages.

* **Divasti:** the language of the Daeva tribe. Described by Nahri as sounding similar to Hebrew, though Yaqub adamantly disagreed. When discussing with fans about writing some Divasti dialogue, the author wrote, "there was an embarrassing amount of time spent with proto-indo-european roots"
* **Djinnistani:** Daevabad's most commonly spoken tongue; a merchant creole djinn and shafit use to speak with those outside their tribe. It is described by Nahri as a "raucous mismatch of every language she had ever heard in the bazaars."
* **Geziriyya:** the language of the Geziri tribe, which only members of their tribe can speak and understand. It cannot be learned by foreign tribesmen, and even some mixed-tribe Geziri like Zaynab do not have the gift for it. Although the history has not been published in a story yet, it is due to the origin of the Geziri magic and their connection with Bilqis/the Queen of Sheba. Nahri describes the language as "sounding oddly familiar yet completely incomprehensible," while Nisreen more directly compares it to Arabic.
* **Ntaran:** the language of the Ayaanle tribe.

As Daevabad is also the home to the shafit, a number of human languages are also in use. Arabic in particular is one of the Geziri's liturgical languages.

### Cuisine

The djinn cuisine is often inspired by the human cultures the tribes are based on or live near, then improvised with magic.

## Politics

### Religion

In Daevabad, everyone is able to worship however they choose, though there are tensions between the groups. Conversions and intermarriage are especially tenuous. However, Daevabad's law provides absolute protection to converts; under no circumstances can their families harass or detain them for their choice.

The two main religions are the Daeva faith, which involves a fire altar, and the Djinn faith, which is adapted from the human Muslim faith. Despite differences, they are united in some ways: they both announce the rising and setting of the sun; the Grand Temple with its drum beats, and the muezzins with their Arabic calls to prayer.

### Regarding shafit

During King Ghassan's reign, if not set long before then, any acts that would preserve the lives of shafit were forbidden. Therefore it was illegal for them to carry weapons, or receive medical care. However, Banu Nahri and Prince Alizayd were allowed to restore the Nahid hospital so it would be open it to all, including shafit, to help bring peace between the tribes.

## Military

During the time of the Nahid Council, the Afshin would have been the enforcers of the Nahid laws.

After Zaydi al Qahtani took control of Daevabad, the Citadel was built and the Royal Guards became the enforcers of the King's laws. The commander of the Army is the Qaid.

## Notable Figures

* Anahid
* Zaydi al Qahtani
* Ghassan al Qahtani
* Manizheh e-Nahid

## Trivia

* "The circular shape is a nod to Baghdad's original core (a design taken from earlier Sasanian cities) and the buildings are full of little historical Easter eggs."
* "I very much viewed the world of the djinn in the novel as one inspired by our own. I like the idea of them as these unseen, long-lived observers passing through the human world as our civilizations rise and fall, taking ideas here and there and adding a magical twist."
* "So the cityscape would be this wild mix of architecture from all over time and space."

## References

1. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 5, pg. 92
2. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 7, pg 145
3. ↑ The Empire of Gold, ch. pg
4. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 27, pg 432
5. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 27, pg 433
6. ↑ The Empire of Gold
7. ↑ The Empire of Gold, ch. 44, pg 683-684
8. ↑ The Empire of Gold, ch. Epilogue, pg 751
9. ↑ The Empire of Gold, ch. Epilogue, pg. 750
10. ↑ The River of Silver, ch. 15
11. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 3, pg. 55
12. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 13, pg. 229-230
13. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 13, pg. 235
14. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 7, pg. 128
15. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 13, pg. 236
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 8, pg. 151
17. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 15, pg. 255
18. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 15, pg. 256
19. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 8, pg. 152
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 The City of Brass, ch. 15, pg 257-258
21. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 8, pg 153
22. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 4, pg 58
23. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 4, pg. 64
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 The City of Brass, ch. 15, pg. 260
25. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 4, pg. 65
26. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 12, pg. 219
27. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 1, pg 17
28. ↑ [1] Shannon Chakraborty on Twitter - April 30, 2020 - "there was an embarrassing amount of time spent with proto-indo-european roots"
29. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 13, pg. 231
30. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 25, pg. 445
31. ↑ [2] - Shannon Chakraborty on Twitter - April 30, 2020 - "There's a whole story involving the Geziris, Bilqis, why their language has the power it does, and how the Qahtanis got their name I had to put on the back burner for now because it didn't really affect this particular plot. But maybe I'll be able to return to it one day."
32. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 13, pg. 234
33. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 18, pg 324: When Nahri says "Insha'Allah," Nisreen scolds "Don't speak that Geziriyya-sounding human tongue in here."
34. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 16, pg. 283
35. ↑ [3] - Reddit AMA with Shannon Chakraborty, January 31, 2019
36. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 14, pg. 240
37. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 3, pg. 70
38. ↑ The City of Brass, ch. 12, pg. 223
39. ↑ The Kingdom of Copper, ch. 17, pg. 283
40. ↑ Shannon/S.A. Chakraborty on Twitter - October 17, 2018
41. ↑ Shannon/S.A. Chakraborty on Twitter - October 17, 2018
42. ↑ Shannon/S.A. Chakraborty on Twitter - October 17, 2018