Twelve-year-old Amira and her younger brother Hamza are spirited out of an Islamic Society of Ancient Astronomy exhibit of ancient artifacts and off to the fantastic world of Qaf on a night of a rare blue moon.
Hamza picks an artifact, Al-Biruni's Box of the Moon, out of a display case, convinced he can solve it. It's a puzzle box of sorts, and Amira knows he shouldn't touch it and admonishes him to put it back. But as they wrestle, it drops and opens. It puts everyone except Amira and Hamza to sleep.
A gold throne descends from the moon with two jinn of the Emperor of Qaf's army looking for Amira and Hamza. Maqbool and Vizier Abdul Rahman reveal it's the kids' destiny, as Chosen One (or Ones, pay attention to that, hint, hint), to help defend the Earth from Ifrit and his coming onslaught of devs and ghuls who will, shortly, break free of their imprisonment on the moon.
Qaf is not at all what the kids expect, and the tasks they must complete to get the gifts they'll need to fight with -- retrieving a chest from the Arena of Suleiman -- are near-impossible. Amira's budding knowledge of scientific principles, specifically of magnetic properties of lodestone, enables them to get inside and get the "gifts" they need -- a dagger, a quiver of emerald-tipped arrows, and a cummerbund (yes, the kind worn with tuxedos).
From there they head to the Obsidian Wall, which surrounds Qaf, and Amira figures out how to breach it again using her knowledge of scientific principles, this time of oobleck, a colloid or mixture of solid particles in a liquid that has properties of both, also referred to as a non-Newtonian fluid. But once through, Hamza's rash decisions alert Ifrit and the whole jinn realm of their advance into Qaf.
I won't spoil what happens next, but you've been warned: nothing in Qaf is as it seems.
Enjoy this wonderfully diverse, Muslim-based middle grade fantasy that employs scientific principles in a fun, innovative way!
