The Kingdom of Copper

Name: The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)
Author: S. A. Chakraborty

by S. A. Chakraborty

Genre

Fantasy

Pages

542

Contents

Overview

The Kingdom of Copper follows Nahri, Ali, and Dara as Daevabad struggles under the weight of old wars, tribal rivalries, and royal control. Nahri is now bound to the Qahtani court through marriage, trying to survive palace politics while reclaiming her identity as a Nahid healer. Exiled Prince Alizayd has built a new life in Am Gezira, but strange water-born powers and family obligations pull him back toward the city that rejected him.

At the same time, Darayavahoush e-Afshin returns transformed and allied with Banu Manizheh, whose dream of restoring Nahid power threatens to ignite Daevabad’s buried conflicts. The novel centers on questions of justice, loyalty, inheritance, and reform: whether a wounded city can be healed through compromise, or whether its past will demand another reckoning.

Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers

Years after the upheaval that left Daevabad shaken, Alizayd al Qahtani survives betrayal in the desert and discovers that the marid’s influence has left him with unnatural ties to water. Taken in by Geziri raiders Lubayd and Aqisa, he helps transform Bir Nabat through springs he uncovers, but his peace is fragile. In Daevabad, Nahri endures her political marriage to Emir Muntadhir, who treats her with flashes of kindness but remains loyal to King Ghassan. Elsewhere, Banu Manizheh resurrects Darayavahoush e-Afshin free of Suleiman’s curse and begins preparing him to retake the city for the Daevas and Nahids.

Nahri, confined by Ghassan’s rule, finds renewed purpose when she discovers a ruined Nahid hospital hidden near the Citadel. There she meets Razu, Ustadh Issa, and Elashia, freed former ifrit slaves who remember the hospital’s older life. Learning that the site was destroyed during Zaydi al Qahtani’s conquest deepens her anger at Daevabad’s layered violence, but it also gives her a goal: rebuild the hospital as a true place of healing. Her ambition soon expands when she discovers clandestine shafit physicians, including Doctor Subhashini Sen, whose skill and distrust force Nahri to confront the Nahids’ own history of cruelty.

Ali is drawn back to Daevabad when Musa, an Ayaanle cousin, manipulates him into escorting a valuable salt caravan. His return exposes the city’s decay, including the open exploitation of shafit people. Ghassan compels Ali to stay until Navasatem, while Muntadhir greets him with bitterness. Ali tries to repair small injustices, but every intervention threatens royal order. Queen Hatset learns the extent of Ali’s marid scars and realizes his survival is unprecedented and dangerous. Nahri, after saving Ali from a silver poisoning at a royal feast, also sees the physical proof of what happened to him and begins using his debt to advance the hospital project.

Nahri and Ali form an uneasy alliance. With Hatset, Zaynab, and limited royal approval, they push the hospital forward despite opposition from Muntadhir, Kaveh e-Pramukh, and Daeva priests. Nahri publicly asserts her authority before the Temple and eventually agrees to lead the Navasatem procession in exchange for priestly support. She also recruits Jamshid as her first student, helping him recover from old injuries. Yet reform makes enemies. Kaveh and Manizheh accelerate their plans from outside the city, and Jamshid secretly poisons Ali, an act tied to his loyalty to Muntadhir and to the hidden politics surrounding the Pramukhs.

Dara trains Manizheh’s followers and secures terrifying allies. At Lake Ossounes, he coerces the marid into helping Manizheh’s forces enter Daevabad and topple the Citadel’s protections. Manizheh unveils a copper vapor designed to kill Geziri relic-bearers, accepting that it may cause mass casualties. Dara recoils at the scale of her vengeance but remains trapped by loyalty, guilt, and Manizheh’s revelation that Jamshid is secretly her son. Meanwhile, the hospital nears completion, but Daevabad’s tensions explode when a Daeva murder is blamed on shafit and a retaliatory raid destroys part of the shafit camp. Nahri openly heals shafit survivors, breaking a Nahid taboo and forcing Ghassan to allow the hospital to continue while isolating her and exiling Hatset.

Navasatem begins with celebration and fear. At the hospital opening, Ali reveals that Ghassan plans to send him back to Am Gezira and strip his titles; Nahri urges him to live rather than rebel. But events move beyond caution. During the Daeva procession, shafit attackers use muskets and Rumi fire, killing many and targeting Nahri. She summons a vast sandstorm that saves the city and heals Jamshid, but Nisreen is shot with iron and dies despite Nahri’s efforts. Grief gives way to crisis when Ghassan orders brutal reprisals against shafit neighborhoods. Ali refuses, seizes command at the Citadel, and redirects the Guard toward peacekeeping, openly defying his father.

As Ali consolidates the Citadel, Manizheh’s assault begins. The Gozan rises as a colossal water serpent and smashes the Citadel, while Daeva warriors, ghouls, and ifrit strike the city and palace. Ali survives, unleashing his own water magic to destroy attackers and protect survivors, but an ifrit kills Lubayd and drags Ali to the palace. There Dara, commanding the invaders, captures him. Dara nearly kills Ali, furious over his own death and the losses at the beach, but rejects Vizaresh’s attempt to enslave Ali’s soul with an ifrit ring.

Inside the palace, Ghassan detains Nahri and Kaveh and reveals multiple secrets: Kaveh helped stage violence, Jamshid is a hidden Nahid and Nahri’s brother, and Ghassan intends to force Nahri to lure Ali into surrender. Kaveh instead releases Manizheh’s copper vapor, killing Ghassan. The poison spreads toward Muntadhir because it targets Geziri relics, and Nahri saves him. With Zaynab and Aqisa setting out to warn the Geziris and find Ali, Nahri and Muntadhir seek Suleiman’s seal, which Muntadhir reveals is a ring hidden in the king’s heart and cannot leave Daevabad.

Nahri and Muntadhir find Ali captive and Dara restored as a daeva allied with Manizheh. Dara attacks Ali, but Muntadhir steps between them and takes a poisoned zulfiqar wound. Nahri brings the palace ceiling down on Dara and flees with Ali while Muntadhir stays behind to buy time. Dara survives, captures the wounded Muntadhir, and tries to learn the seal’s location. Meanwhile, Nahri and Ali reach Ghassan’s corpse, where Nahri cuts out and burns his heart to recover the seal.

Manizheh confronts them and reveals that she is Nahri’s mother and that Nahri is shafit, meaning the seal could kill her. She maims and controls Ali to force Nahri’s surrender. Nahri deceives her with a false ring, secretly places the true seal on Ali, and leaps with him into the lake. At once Daevabad’s magic collapses: wards fail, conjured works vanish, the sky seems to shatter, and Muntadhir’s poison is cured. Manizheh loses her Nahid power, and Dara realizes the city’s magic is gone. Nahri and Ali awaken far away in the human world, injured and stranded beside the Nile in Cairo, while Daevabad’s fate remains unresolved.

Characters

Banu Nahri e-Nahid

Nahri is the Nahid healer trapped in Daevabad’s royal court through her marriage to Muntadhir. Her effort to rebuild the Nahid hospital and treat shafit as well as djinn becomes the book’s central reform project, even as revelations about Manizheh, Jamshid, and her own identity upend her place in the city.
Alizayd al Qahtani

Ali is the exiled Qahtani prince whose marid-touched water powers make him both dangerous and politically essential. His return to Daevabad pulls him into shafit reform, conflict with Ghassan and Muntadhir, and the final struggle over Suleiman’s seal.
Darayavahoush e-Afshin

Dara is resurrected by Manizheh as a daeva free of Suleiman’s curse and becomes the commander of her campaign to retake Daevabad. His loyalty to the Nahids and love for Nahri are tested by Manizheh’s willingness to use terror and mass death.
Banu Manizheh

Manizheh is Nahri’s mother and the exiled Nahid leader who resurrects Dara and plans the conquest of Daevabad. She seeks to restore Nahid power and avenge Daeva suffering, but her methods include marid bargains, ifrit alliances, and lethal poison.
King Ghassan al Qahtani

Ghassan is Daevabad’s king, bearer of Suleiman’s seal, and the ruler whose ruthless efforts to preserve order deepen tribal hatred. His manipulation of Nahri, Ali, and the Pramukhs drives much of the political crisis.
Emir Muntadhir al Qahtani

Muntadhir is Ghassan’s heir and Nahri’s husband, caught between royal duty, love for Jamshid, resentment toward Ali, and fear of instability. His knowledge of Suleiman’s seal becomes crucial during the palace coup.
Princess Zaynab al Qahtani

Zaynab is Ali and Muntadhir’s sister, a politically skilled princess who supports the hospital and tries to keep her fractured family from destroying itself. During the coup, she works with Aqisa to warn Geziris and seek help.
Queen Hatset

Hatset is Ali’s mother and a sharp political actor who protects him after learning the truth of his marid scars. She supports the hospital and shelters shafit, prompting Ghassan to punish her with exile.
Jamshid e-Pramukh

Jamshid is a Daeva noble, Muntadhir’s longtime lover, and Nahri’s first medical student. He is revealed to be Manizheh’s hidden son and Nahri’s brother, making him a secret Nahid whose suppressed powers surface during the crisis.
Kaveh e-Pramukh

Kaveh is Jamshid’s father and Daevabad’s grand wazir, outwardly a Daeva political leader and secretly Manizheh’s collaborator. His staged provocations and use of copper poison help trigger Ghassan’s death and the palace coup.
Nisreen

Nisreen is Nahri’s mentor in the infirmary, protective and often secretive about Nahid history and palace danger. Her death during the Navasatem attack devastates Nahri and marks the collapse of any illusion that healing alone can shield the city.
Doctor Subhashini Sen

Subha is a skilled shafit physician who runs a hidden clinic and becomes Nahri’s uneasy partner in the hospital project. Her distrust of Nahid authority keeps the reform effort grounded in the realities of shafit persecution.
Razu Qaraqashi

Razu is an ancient freed former ifrit slave living in the ruined Nahid hospital. She recognizes Nahri, helps preserve the hospital’s memory, and supports its restoration.
Ustadh Issa

Issa is a reclusive Ayaanle scholar and freed former ifrit slave connected to the hospital. He provides Ali and Hatset with frightening lore about marid blood pacts and acolytes.
Elashia

Elashia is a freed Sahrayn former ifrit slave who lives in the hospital with Razu and Issa. Her quiet presence and trauma show the long aftermath of enslavement by ifrit.
Lubayd

Lubayd is Ali’s closest friend from Bir Nabat, loyal through Ali’s return to Daevabad and his confrontation with royal power. He dies when an ifrit abducts Ali during Manizheh’s assault.
Aqisa

Aqisa is a Geziri warrior from Bir Nabat who accompanies Ali to Daevabad and repeatedly protects him and Nahri. Her decisiveness helps cover Ali’s marid episodes and later aids Zaynab during the coup.
Wajed al Sabi

Wajed is the qaid of the Royal Guard, initially warm toward Ali but ultimately an enforcer of Ghassan’s orders. He seizes Nahri and Jamshid during the post-attack crisis, showing the Guard’s role in royal coercion.
Kartir

Kartir is a senior Daeva priest who guards Nahid tradition and challenges Nahri’s plan to include shafit healers. His negotiations with Nahri tie the hospital’s approval to her public role in Navasatem.
Aeshma

Aeshma is an ifrit ally of Manizheh who guides Dara toward exploiting the marid blood debt. His presence underscores the dangerous bargain behind the attempted reconquest.
Vizaresh

Vizaresh is an ifrit working with Manizheh’s forces and coordinating ghouls during the invasion. He tempts Dara to enslave Ali’s soul, forcing Dara to reject one of the ifrits’ cruelest methods.
Abu Sayf

Abu Sayf is a captured Geziri scout whose conversations with Dara challenge Daeva claims to Daevabad. His failed attempt to kill Manizheh leads to Mardoniye’s death and Manizheh’s demonstration of the copper vapor.
Mardoniye

Mardoniye is a young Daeva recruit loyal to Dara and Manizheh. His death protecting Manizheh intensifies Dara’s fury and helps push the camp closer to vengeance.
Sister Fatumai

Sister Fatumai is a former Tanzeem leader who brings Ali revelations about Ghassan’s atrocities against fleeing shafit and the hospital’s own dark past. Her warning about a Navasatem attack adds urgency before the festival disaster.
Tariq al Ubari

Tariq is a Geziri noble and Muntadhir’s cousin who profits from shafit trafficking disguised as family reunification. Ali’s public confrontation with him deepens the rift between the brothers.
Musa

Musa is Ali’s Ayaanle cousin who manipulates events in Bir Nabat to force Ali’s return to Daevabad. His sabotage of the cistern leaves Ali responsible for escorting the salt caravan.
Daoud

Daoud is a Royal Guard officer from Hegra who supports Ali during the Citadel crisis. His backing helps Ali redirect the Guard away from Ghassan’s retaliatory purge.
Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas is a Geziri officer assigned to enforce Ghassan’s orders over Ali. Ali strikes him down when refusing the king’s command to raze a shafit neighborhood.
Parimal

Parimal is Subha Sen’s husband and assistant in the hidden shafit clinic. His cautious support and protective pistol reflect both the promise and danger of shafit medical work.
Manka

Manka is the doorman who protects Subha’s clandestine clinic. His anxiety about palace visitors shows how precarious the shafit doctors’ work is.
Mariam

Mariam is a shafit woman whose family is protected by Hatset after Ali tries to free them from an exploitative sale. Her rescue demonstrates both Ali’s impulsive justice and Hatset’s quiet intervention.
Ashok

Ashok is Mariam’s husband and a shafit cook given work in the palace under Hatset’s protection. His family’s fate shows how royal power can either endanger or shelter shafit lives.
Manat

Manat is the shafit child nearly separated from her family before Ali intervenes. Her safety under Hatset’s protection becomes an early sign of the reforms Ali wants to pursue.
Anahita

Anahita appears in Ali’s marid vision as the ancient Nahid figure who subdues the marid and raises Daevabad’s island. The vision reframes the city’s magical foundations as the product of coercion and old conflict.
The marid

The marid are water beings tied to Ali’s survival, Daevabad’s lake, and Manizheh’s invasion plan. Their grudging involvement enables the assault and ultimately carries Nahri and Ali out of Daevabad.

Themes

Power, legitimacy, and the cost of rule dominate The Kingdom of Copper. Nearly every faction claims to act for stability or justice, yet Chakraborty repeatedly shows how authority curdles when it depends on secrecy and coercion. Ghassan’s rule is preserved through arrests, manipulated histories, forced exile, and the threat of collective punishment, while Manizheh’s liberation movement mirrors the same brutality in its copper poison and willingness to slaughter Geziris. The novel’s central political tragedy is that oppressed people can inherit the methods of their oppressors.

Healing versus vengeance forms the book’s moral counterpoint. Nahri’s dream of rebuilding the old Nahid hospital becomes more than a medical project: it is an alternative vision for Daevabad. By inviting shafit physicians like Subha, treating the wounded regardless of blood, and challenging priestly taboos, Nahri imagines repair as civic transformation. This makes the attack on the hospital camp and Nisreen’s death especially devastating; violence keeps trying to drag healing back into tribal grievance.

Identity as inheritance and choice also runs through all three major perspectives. Ali’s marid-touched powers make him frightening even to himself, forcing him to ask whether blood, faith, or action defines him. Nahri learns that her lineage is more fractured than she knew—Nahid, shafit, daughter, sister—and must decide what that legacy will mean. Dara, remade and uncursed, remains haunted by slavery, war, and loyalty, discovering that freedom of body does not automatically free the soul.

The burden of history is everywhere: ruined hospitals, desecrated mosques, Dara’s shrine, suppressed massacres, and conflicting accounts of old wars. Characters repeatedly uncover that official memory is partial or false. Yet the novel refuses easy innocence; Daevas, Geziris, Nahids, shafit, marid, and ifrit all carry grievances and crimes.

Finally, the book explores fragile alliances across distrust. Nahri and Ali’s partnership is wounded by betrayal, but their hospital work proves that cooperation is possible before it is comfortable. The ending—magic collapsing, Daevabad imperiled, and Nahri and Ali stranded in Cairo—turns the fantasy of return into a question: what kind of world can be rebuilt when every old certainty has broken?