“The Cairo Trilogy” by Nobel Prize novelist Naguib Mahfouz: “She knew far more about the jinn than mankind…She frequently heard their whispers”

This 1313-page family saga, spanning the years from WWI to WWII, begins by introducing the servile matriarch of this extremely patriarchal family.

“She had married before she turned fourteen and had soon found herself the mistress of the big house, following the deaths of her husband’s parents…She had been terrified of the night when she first lived in this house. She knew far more about the world of the jinn than that of mankind…She frequently heard their whispers…When she was left alone, her only defense was reciting the opening prayer of the Qur’an…Over the course of time as she gained more experience living with the spirits, her fears diminished a good deal. She was calm enough to jest with them without being frightened…But her mind was never completely at rest until her husband returned…She had no regrets at all about reconciling herself to a type of security based on surrender” (1, pp. 7-8).

I have just started this novel and don’t know whether the jinn will even be mentioned again. But for this woman, in whose culture the jinn could conceivably possess a person (2), and who “frequently heard their whispers,” has a cultural belief given form to alternate personalities?

1. Naguib Mahfouz. The Cairo Trilogy [1956-7]. Translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan. Introduction by Sabry Hafez. New York, Everyman’s Library/Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

2. Wikipedia. “Jinn.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinn