Summary

Rushdie introduces the mythical creatures jinn and describes that they live in a higher world, visiting the human world to do both good and evil. They take many shapes and personalities and live for a long time. This novel tells the story of the Lightning Princess, a jinn who bore mortal descendants, and the time of the strangenesses. The strangenesses lasted two years, eight months, and 28 nights or in other words 1001 nights.

The story moves to Spain in 1195, where Ibn Rushd, a philosopher and physician had moved to a Jewish village whose inhabitants were forced to convert to Islam. He had been forced to move from his home because his liberal ideas became unacceptable to the ruling Berbers. Ibn Rushd continued to write on his philosophy, based in reason, science, and logic. One day a 16-year-old girl knocked on his...