The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (2023) is a work of historical fantasy and adventure and the first of a planned trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty; a prior trilogy comprising The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold secured Chakraborty's place among the best-known contemporary women writers of speculative fiction. The newer series focuses on a middle-aged female pirate who embarks on one last quest in the medieval Indian Ocean to recover a kidnapped teenager from a brutal Frankish (Western European) sorcerer named Falco. Amina must fight both human and magical elements, including her demonic husband, to save the kidnapped teenager, her crew, and herself so that she can return home safely to the child she loves.

This study guide refers to the 2023 Harper Voyager Edition.

A Note on Wording: The source text includes an AFAB (assigned female at birth) character who is universally believed to identify as female (and is absent for the majority of the text). Upon appearing in the text, the character is discovered to prefer not to identify as female. Accordingly, this guide uses female pronouns to refer to the character up until the declaration of identity is made. After this point, the guide utilizes gender-neutral pronouns in accordance with the character’s actual identity.

Plot Summary

A scribe announces their intention to let Amina al-Sirafi speak in her own voice, as there are many incorrect ideas about women who have adventures.

Amina’s narrative voice then takes over as she begins telling a story about saving two young men from a monster that they summoned from the water. Once saved, the young men spread stories about Amina, which reach a woman named Salima in the city of Aden. Salima seeks Amina out and offers her money to save her grandchild, Dunya, from a treasure-hunting Frankish kidnapper named Falco. To force Amina's hand, Salima reminds her that Salima’s son, Asif, died on Amina’s ship and that the kidnapped teenager is his child.

Amina agrees to save Dunya and finds her friend Dalila, who is known as the Mistress of Poisons. Together, they find Amina’s ship, the Marawati, which is being looked after by another friend named Tinbu. Amina and Dalila arrive in time to save Tinbu and the crew from being crucified for piracy: The two women drug the prison guards, free the crew, and sneak aboard the Marawati before ramming their way out of the harbor. It transpires that Tinbu met a man named Layth who worked for Falco, and when Amina questions Layth, he chokes to death, indicating Falco’s magical hold over him.

In a subsequent visit to Salima’s home, Amina gains information from Dunya’s library that convinces her that she needs to find Majed, her old navigator. She also learns that Falco is searching for many magical objects, one of which is the legendary Moon of Saba. Upon finding Majed, Amina learns that he has given up piracy and has a family, but his wife convinces him to go with Amina anyway.

Now that Amina’s crew is assembled, Majed directs them to a pirate stronghold island called Socotra. Upon arrival, they see wreckage from Falco’s ship, so Amina, Dalila, and Tinbu go ashore and discover that the villagers are either gone or dead. Amina feels a presence that turns out to be her fourth husband, Raksh, whom Amina calls a demon. Raksh once sailed with Amina and used his magic to offer Salima’s son, Asif, power in exchange for his soul. Amina is angry about Raksh’s role in Asif's death, and Raksh is angry that he can no longer make strong deals with humans since his marriage to Amina.

Raksh has recently been sailing with Falco and informing the sorcerer about the Marawati’s crew, but he has now escaped. Amina therefore forces Raksh to show her how to get into Falco’s camp to rescue Dunya. He leads her and her crew through a secret back entrance to a magic cave, where Amina finds a room with many butchered corpses of the villagers. Her crew rescues the few remaining people, but Amina remains behind to distract Falco’s men, who soon capture her.

Falco forces Amina to drink a magic potion and is about to throw her into a pit of scorpions when her crew rescues her. They sail off and find Dunya, who has escaped and is now passed out from exposure on a small boat.

When Dunya regains consciousness, she admits that she ran away to avoid an arranged marriage and declares that she doesn’t identify as a woman. Amina is torn about taking Dunya back but decides that she has no choice. Then a sea monster called a marid, which is controlled by Falco, traps and holds the Marawati while Falco boards. He and Amina fight until Dunya intervenes, promising to help Falco find the Moon of Saba if he lets the crew live. Falco agrees but then stabs Amina and throws her overboard, saying that she is not part of the crew.

Amina drifts in the sea for days until she finally washes up on a magic island. When she drinks water that flows from a tree, she is suddenly able to see the magical creatures and landscape around her. Raksh finds her, and she is furious that he abandoned the Marawati when the marid was attacking. He explains that if Falco gets the Moon of Saba, he will control the moon spirit that dwells within it, and elements of discord like Raksh will become power sources that will burn until Falco dies.

Hearing this, Amina is frightened by the idea that Marjana, their daughter, will also be destroyed, as she carries Raksh’s demonic heritage. Raksh offers to help Amina petition the island's inhabitants to allow her to leave. These inhabitants, called peris, are winged creatures who work to keep balance between the human and magical worlds and have decreed that any human who enters their realm must die. Raksh, however, tells the court that Amina can help them find and eliminate magical objects like the Moon of Saba. Amina agrees to search for and destroy five magical objects, including the Moon of Saba, and is granted the supernatural ability to detect such objects.

A peri drops Amina and Raksh off at a pirate town on Socotra, where an Egyptian nakhuda, or captain, named Magnun offers to help Amina and gives her a magical knife that can sever the magical bonds that Falco forges between himself and his followers and monsters. Magnun’s ship attacks Falco’s beachside stronghold as Amina and some of her crew attack from the land. Amina and her team defeat Falco’s henchmen, and Amina uses her knife to free the marid, who forms a mental connection with her.

Having overcome Falco’s men, Amina enters the cave at the heart of his stronghold—which also houses the Moon of Saba. She suddenly finds herself on a boat with Asif pleading with her. When she realizes that he is an illusion, a parasitic magical creature that is sucking her blood, she kills him. She then runs through a room of monsters, finally finding Falco watching Dunya, who is floating in midair and writing a spell on a stone column. The column explodes, and Dunya is knocked unconscious, but Falco now has the Moon of Saba.

Amina revives Dunya, who tells Amina that the spell will cause the moon spirit to possess Falco rather than the other way around. Amina’s psychic connection with the marid allows her to call the monster for help, and the marid knocks a hole in the cave wall, allowing moonlight to enter the cave and the moon spirit, Al-Dabaran, to escape the basin. The cave collapses on Falco, and Amina stabs him in the heart when she sees that he is not yet dead.

Amina and her crew return home. Dunya becomes Jamal and sends a message to Salima, telling her what happened. Salima promises not to hurt Amina’s family because Amina has saved Jamal’s life; however, Salima states that she and Amina are still enemies. Amina returns home to Marjana and her mother, but she still has four more artifacts to find for the peri. Later, when Marjana is on the Marawati and asks if certain stories are true, Jamal offers to write them down.