The Daevabad Trilogy, #1

The City of Brass

Name: The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)
Author: S. A. Chakraborty

by S. A. Chakraborty

Genre

Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Year

2017

Pages

544

Contents

Overview

The City of Brass follows Nahri, a sharp Cairo con artist and healer whose uncanny gifts expose her to a hidden world of djinn politics, ancient bloodlines, and supernatural enemies. After a ritual goes wrong, she is swept from the streets of French-occupied Cairo by Darayavahoush e-Afshin, a dangerous daeva warrior tied to the lost Nahid family, and taken toward Daevabad, the legendary brass-walled city of the djinn.

In Daevabad, Prince Alizayd al Qahtani struggles with faith, family loyalty, and his secret sympathy for the oppressed shafit, people of mixed djinn and human heritage. As Nahri’s arrival threatens the balance between tribes, rulers, priests, rebels, and old enemies, the story explores identity, inherited violence, political compromise, prejudice, and the cost of survival in a city built on contested history.

Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers

Nahri begins as a clever healer and con artist in Cairo, using uncanny diagnostic instincts while denying that magic exists. During a zar for the troubled girl Baseema, Nahri sings in an unknown native language and hears a telepathic challenge. Soon afterward, Baseema, controlled by an ifrit, confronts her in Cairo’s cemetery. Nahri’s song has summoned Darayavahoush e-Afshin, called Dara, a daeva warrior who recognizes Nahri as something impossible. When ghouls attack, Dara saves her and carries her away on a flying carpet.

In the desert, Dara questions Nahri and concludes she is likely shafit with Nahid blood: a descendant of the famed daeva healers believed extinct. The peri Khayzur warns that ifrit are hunting her and insists Daevabad is the only safe refuge. Nahri wants to return to Cairo, but after failed escape attempts, visions from Dara’s ring, and revelations about Suleiman’s curse, the ifrit, and the Nahids, she chooses to continue. Dara explains that daevas were once fire beings reshaped into mortal bodies, while ifrit refused Suleiman’s judgment and turned to forbidden magic. Nahri’s bloodline makes her both valuable and vulnerable.

Meanwhile in Daevabad, Prince Alizayd al Qahtani secretly funds the Tanzeem, a shafit organization led by Sheikh Anas Bhatt. Ali accompanies Anas and Hanno into the Daeva Quarter and discovers a trafficking ring selling shafit children as purebloods. A Royal Guard raid forces a violent escape, Anas sacrifices himself, and Ali later watches his father, King Ghassan, execute Anas with a karkadann after nullifying magic with Suleiman’s seal. Ghassan names Ali acting Qaid, orders crackdowns on shafit, and draws him deeper into court politics. Ali’s idealism collides with his father’s ruthlessness, Kaveh e-Pramukh’s Daeva grievances, and Muntadhir’s warnings that Ali’s zeal makes him dangerous.

Nahri and Dara grow closer during their journey, but their bond is strained by Dara’s hatred of the Qahtanis and his violent past. After attacks by a rukh and ifrit, Nahri heals Dara and glimpses memories of his enslavement. At the Gozan River, ifrit led by Aeshma reveal a claim that Nahri’s mother, Manizheh, made a deal for Nahri’s safe return. Khayzur intervenes against a marid serpent and is mortally punished for breaking peri law, allowing Nahri and Dara to cross into Daevabad’s lands.

They enter Daevabad amid sectarian unrest. Dara reveals his Afshin mark and animates brass shedu statues to stop a shafit mob from storming the Daeva Quarter. Captain Jamshid e-Pramukh brings them before Ghassan, who mistakes Nahri for Manizheh. Ghassan confirms Manizheh and her brother Rustam were supposedly killed by ifrit years earlier, making Nahri’s existence politically explosive. Dara reveals himself as the legendary Afshin rebel who fought Zaydi al Qahtani. To stabilize the city, Ghassan declares Nahri Manizheh’s pureblood daughter and pardons Dara in exchange for loyalty.

Nahri begins training under Nisreen but struggles with ritual, responsibility, and the politics surrounding her. Ali is ordered by Ghassan to befriend her as part of a plan to marry her to Muntadhir. Despite mutual suspicion, Ali teaches Nahri to read and helps her access archives, where she learns to kindle fire and studies the history of slavery, Nahid healing, and marid lore. Dara returns from a failed ifrit hunt, clashes violently with Ali, and discovers the marriage plan. Nahri visits the Daeva Grand Temple, where Kartir shows her relics of slave vessels and Anahid’s first altar, but Dara wounds her by suggesting she marry Jamshid or another Daeva because he is not truly alive and cannot secure the Nahid line.

Ali’s position worsens. Hanno ambushes and gravely wounds him with an iron blade in revenge for Anas and shafit suffering. Jamshid helps hide the body to prevent reprisals, and Nahri secretly heals Ali, noticing strange water-related signs. After failing to save Sheikh Auda, Nahri becomes determined to seize control of her future. She bargains with Ghassan over marriage terms, seeking money, training, access to records, Dara’s pension, and political leverage.

The crisis breaks when Dara, enraged by the marriage plot and convinced Nahri must flee, invades her chambers and tries to take her from Daevabad. Ali arrives for healing, and Dara duels him, then binds him in iron and forces Nahri through hidden tunnels to an ancient copper boat. Ali reveals that Ghassan ordered him to win Nahri’s trust and that a Qahtani ambush waits beyond the veil. On the lake, Muntadhir and Jamshid confront Dara. Nahri offers to stay and marry Muntadhir if they let Dara go, but her desperate wish triggers Dara’s ring. Dara loses control, turns arrows back on the archers, and devastates the ship. Jamshid is struck down, Muntadhir is nearly killed, and Dara shoots Ali through the throat.

Ali falls into the cursed lake, where a marid entity tortures him with visions and demands his true name. Possessed, Ali returns bearing the power of Suleiman’s seal, nullifying magic. Dara nearly flays Muntadhir in rage, but Nahri stops him. The possessed Ali then overpowers Dara, severs the ringed hand that anchors him, and Dara crumbles to ash. Ali awakens transformed, sweating water and unable to control its movement. Ghassan reveals a hidden Qahtani secret: Zaydi saw marid, and the Ayaanle once allied with them to take Daevabad. Fearing Ali’s new nature and political danger, Ghassan strips him of rank and exiles him to Am Gezira, effectively abandoning him to possible assassination.

Nahri, shattered by Dara’s destruction, is forced before Ghassan. He denies the marid truth, threatens to expose doubts about her blood, recounts Dara’s atrocities at Qui-zi to break her faith in him, and coerces her into signing a future marriage contract with Muntadhir. She must publicly denounce Dara, but the Daeva elite respond not with rejection but with a silent bow led by Kartir, signaling their loyalty to her. In the epilogue, Kaveh finds Jamshid alive but gravely wounded and reveals that a tattoo has long hidden Jamshid’s identity and suppressed his healing. Nisreen gives Kaveh Dara’s iron emerald ring and urges him to regain Ghassan’s trust while secretly aiding the Nahids, believing Manizheh may still change everything.

Characters

Nahri

A Cairo con artist and healer whose unexplained gifts reveal her connection to the Nahid line. Her arrival in Daevabad makes her a political prize, a religious symbol for Daevas, and a target of rulers and supernatural enemies.
Darayavahoush e-Afshin

A legendary daeva warrior and Afshin who rescues Nahri and escorts her to Daevabad. His loyalty to the Nahids, history of enslavement, and violent reputation shape both Nahri’s hopes and the city’s fear of renewed conflict.
Prince Alizayd al Qahtani

Ghassan’s devout second son, trained as a warrior and torn between royal duty and sympathy for shafit suffering. His secret ties to the Tanzeem, friendship with Nahri, and transformation after the lake crisis drive the court’s central rupture.
King Ghassan al Qahtani

The ruler of Daevabad, willing to use executions, threats, marriage alliances, and concealed history to preserve his dynasty. He recognizes Nahri’s political value while fearing the unrest her Nahid identity can unleash.
Emir Muntadhir al Qahtani

Ghassan’s heir and Ali’s older brother, caught between royal obligation, fear of Nahid power, and loyalty to Jamshid. His planned marriage to Nahri becomes a tool for political stability and a source of personal conflict.
Princess Zaynab al Qahtani

Ali and Muntadhir’s sister, politically perceptive and skilled at courtly performance. She tests and needles Nahri early in her palace life and later warns Ali about the marriage negotiations.
Kaveh e-Pramukh

Daevabad’s Daeva grand wazir and Jamshid’s father, fiercely protective of his tribe’s interests. After Dara’s return and Jamshid’s wounding, he turns toward covert support for the Nahids while trying to maintain royal favor.
Jamshid e-Pramukh

A Daeva captain, Muntadhir’s bodyguard, and Kaveh’s son. He repeatedly mediates between factions, shields Muntadhir during the lake battle, and is later revealed to carry a hidden identity tied to suppressed healing.
Nisreen e-Kinshur

A former senior aide to Manizheh and Rustam who becomes Nahri’s medical mentor. She teaches Nahri the discipline of Nahid healing while privately helping preserve Daeva and Nahid hopes.
Yaqub

An elderly Jewish apothecary in Cairo and Nahri’s partner in small cons. His warnings about djinn and war establish the practical world Nahri loses when she is drawn into Daevabad.
Baseema

A troubled Cairo girl whose zar becomes the first sign that Nahri’s gifts attract djinn attention. After being controlled by an ifrit, she helps trigger Dara’s summoning and the pursuit of Nahri.
Khayzur

A peri who guides Dara and Nahri toward Daevabad and warns them of ifrit pursuit. His unlawful intervention against a marid serpent saves them at devastating personal cost.
Aeshma

An ifrit leader who pursues Nahri while claiming to honor a deal involving Manizheh. His restraint toward Nahri and hostility to Dara deepen the mystery of Nahri’s past.
Qandisha

An ifrit who helps attack Dara at the Gozan River. She taunts him over his enslavement and participates in the attempt to drown him.
Vizaresh

An ifrit allied with Aeshma and Qandisha. He mourns Sakhr after Nahri kills him and seeks vengeance despite Aeshma’s order to spare her.
Sakhr

An ifrit killed by Nahri during the ambush near Daevabad. His death reveals that Nahid blood can poison ifrit.
Sheikh Anas Bhatt

A shafit Tanzeem leader whom Ali secretly funds. His rescue work, execution, and final defiance intensify Ali’s guilt and the crown’s crackdown on shafit organizing.
Hanno

A shafit shapeshifter connected to the Tanzeem. He helps rescue trafficked children, later attacks Ali in revenge, and becomes the hidden body whose death threatens wider reprisals.
Hui Fatumai

A shafit organizer who runs an orphanage and safe house. She confronts Ali with shafit suffering and pressures him to use his position for reform.
Rashid ben Salkh

Ali’s secretary and a covert Tanzeem ally. He first stabilizes Ali’s work as acting Qaid, then challenges his compromise with royal power and is later executed.
Wajed

The veteran Qaid of the Royal Guard. His absence allows Ali to serve as acting Qaid, and his later involvement with Muntadhir’s expedition keeps pressure on Dara.
Abu Nuwas

A senior royal officer and Ali’s protective guard. He enforces harsh royal orders, including executions, and represents the discipline of Ghassan’s security apparatus.
Kartir e-Mennushur

The chief priest of the Daeva Grand Temple. He honors Nahri as Banu Nahida, shows her sacred relics, and later leads the silent public bow that signals Daeva allegiance.
Khanzada

A celebrated courtesan close to Muntadhir’s social world. Her salon becomes a stage for political humiliation, exposed desires, and escalating tension between Dara and the Qahtanis.
Turan

A Daeva slaver who sells shafit children as purebloods. His trafficking operation exposes Ali to the brutality hidden beneath Daevabad’s legal and tribal order.
Sheikh Auda

An elderly Geziri cleric and Ghassan’s teacher who suffers from a burning illness. Nahri’s failure to save him becomes a turning point in her determination to master Nahid healing.
Manizheh

Nahri’s mother and a famed Nahid whose reported death and possible dealings with ifrit haunt the plot. Her name gives Nahri legitimacy while also frightening Daevabad’s rulers.
Rustam

Manizheh’s brother and a Nahid healer said to have been killed with her by ifrit. His fate helps frame the mystery of Nahri’s survival and the loss of Nahid knowledge.
Anahid

The ancestral Nahid figure associated with healing and the sacred origins of the Daeva temple. Her legacy shapes Nahri’s role and the religious meaning attached to Nahid power.
Suleiman

The ancient figure whose curse reshaped the daevas and whose seal can nullify magic. His legacy defines djinn law, slavery, tribal history, and the power Ghassan and later Ali wield.
Zaydi al Qahtani

The historical Qahtani conqueror who overthrew the Nahid Council and seized Suleiman’s seal. His conquest underlies Daevabad’s current dynasty and the unresolved grievances between Daevas and Geziri rulers.
The marid of the lake

A powerful water entity tied to Daevabad’s cursed lake and the Qahtanis’ hidden past. It takes Ali’s true name, possesses him, and leaves him permanently changed.
Bizhan e-Oshrusan

A Daeva chosen as a scapegoat for supplies connected to the lake confrontation. His role in Kaveh’s plan shows the sacrifices involved in regaining Ghassan’s trust while protecting deeper secrets.

Themes

S. A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is a fantasy of hidden inheritance, but its deepest concerns are political: who gets to define history, who pays for peace, and what survival costs the marginalized.

Identity as power and danger. Nahri begins in Cairo as a self-made con artist, dismissing her gifts as tricks, yet the zar, her rapid healing, and Dara’s recognition of Nahid blood force her into a lineage she never chose. In Daevabad, identity becomes a weapon: Ghassan publicly names her Banu Nahida when useful, then threatens to expose her as shafit when she resists. Ali’s identity is similarly unstable—prince, zealot, reformer, possible marid vessel—showing that names and bloodlines confer both protection and peril.
History as contested memory. Nearly every faction tells a different version of the past. Dara remembers Qahtani conquest and the slaughter of Daevas; Ghassan recounts Nahid cruelty and Dara’s atrocities at Qui-zi; the hidden coffins beneath the palace reveal how rulers bury inconvenient truths. The novel treats history not as settled fact but as a battlefield where legitimacy is forged.
Oppression, reform, and complicity. Ali’s chapters expose Daevabad’s brutal hierarchy: shafit children are trafficked, orphanages languish, and public executions enforce fear. Yet Ali’s good intentions repeatedly collide with privilege and state violence. His funding of the Tanzeem, withdrawal from them, and later silence show the limits of reform from within a corrupt system.
Love entangled with politics. Nahri’s bonds with Dara and Ali are never merely personal. Dara offers belonging and Daeva pride but also secrecy, violence, and possessiveness; Ali offers education and ethical partnership while serving the dynasty that imprisons her. The proposed marriage to Muntadhir reduces intimacy to governance, making Nahri’s body and future tools of statecraft.
Survival through performance and adaptation. From Cairo scams to Ghassan’s court, Nahri survives by reading rooms, bargaining, and performing roles others impose. Her final smile before the Daeva crowd transforms coercion into leverage: she cannot yet rule her fate, but she can manipulate the script. That resilience, sharpened by grief, becomes the book’s most radical magic.