The Jasad Heir

The Jasad Heir features many cultural influences from Sara Hashem’s Egyptian heritage. Born and largely raised in Orange County, California, Hashem moved with her family to Egypt for two years, but the family returned to the US in the aftermath of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Hashem asked her father if Americans would be aware of the massive political overhaul occurring in Egypt; her father answered, “They will know even the movements of the ants in Egypt” (Shukla, Nils. “Interview with Sara Hashem (The Jasad Heir).” The Fantasy Hive, 12 July 2023). However, Hashem soon realized her father was mistaken, noting, “…when I returned to the US and found out that actually, absolutely no one knew anything about what had happened, I was shaken. Not by their lack of knowledge, but by how certain my own had been” (Shukla). This was a formative experience for Hashem, which inspired her to explore the “amorphous” nature of truth during periods of intense political strife (Shukla). For example, Arin and the other people of Nizahl believe the destruction of Jasad was both necessary and justified, while Sylvia and the other Jasadis cannot sanction the decimation of their kingdom, regardless of any flaws or corruption within the Jasadi monarchy. The complexity of the truth plays a critical role in The Jasad Heir, and Hashem’s lived experience as a resident of both Egypt and America underscores its importance. Hashem’s binational identity also informs the development of Sylvia’s characterization. Like Hashem, Sylvia is a citizen of two nations, as her father Emre is Omalian, and her mother Niphran is Jasadi. Sylvia clings to her Jasadi identity, as her grandparents assassinated her father and stripped her of her right to the throne of Omal. Throughout the novel, however, Sylvia begins to reconsider her Omalian heritage and the implications of belonging to two nations at war.

There are numerous other Egyptian touchstones present throughout the novel. Arabic culture, and specifically Egyptian culture, shape the world in which Sylvia lives. Sylvia encounters numerous creatures during the second trial of the Alcalah, including a nisnas. One English translation for nisnas, Hashem notes, is monkey (Shukla). However, it can also mean a monstrous creature with one arm, one leg, and half a head. The nisnas appears in the collection of Middle Eastern folktales One Thousand and One Nights and the centuries-old Turkish illustrated manuscript “The Wonders of Creation,” an encyclopedia of natural phenomena, celestial bodies, and mythical creatures. (“Walters Ms. W.659, Turkish Version of the Wonders of Creation.” The Digital Walters). She drinks sugarcane juice, or asab, which is a staple in Egyptian street food cuisine, at the festival before the second trail in Omal. Originating in the 700s AD when the Arabs introduced sugarcane to the region after the Islamic conquest of Egypt, asab remains a popular beverage across Egypt in the contemporary era (Kampen, Willem H. “Sugarcane History.” LSU AgCenter, Louisiana State University College of Agriculture, 12 Oct. 2015). In Mahair, Sylvia eats aish baladi, an Egyptian wheat-based flatbread. Like asab, aish baladi has a rich cultural history that dates to ancient Egypt: “In present-day Egypt, the essential bread that the preponderance of Egyptians eat is a modern version of the bread that their ancient progenitors ate thousands of years ago and was similarly made from whole wheat called Eish Baladi (Egyptian Arabic: عيش بلدي)” (Halawa, Abdelhadi. “Influence of the Traditional Food Culture of Ancient Egypt on the Transition of Cuisine and Food Culture of Contemporary Egypt.” Journal of Ethnic Foods, 1 May 2023). Aish baladi is a piece of culinary history that links contemporary Egypt to its past, and Hashem’s use of Egyptian cuisine and mythology in her worldbuilding demonstrates the importance of her cultural patrimony to her development of The Jasad Heir.