This book takes place in what is the modern-day Middle East in addition to India and some parts of China. The way that S.A. Chakraborty builds the world is directly based on her studies of Middle Eastern history and her time studying in Cairo, Egypt. When Nahri lives in the human world in Cairo, she references the fact that the French have taken control of Cairo from the Ottoman Turks and goes on to say, “Indeed, when the Franks and Turks weren’t fighting over Egypt, the only thing they seemed to agree on was that the Egyptians couldn’t govern it themselves” (1). This historical context provides the reader with a tight time period, as the French campaign in Egypt took place between 1798 and 1801. This time period was the beginning of extensive Western colonization of this area. Nahri’s statement also proposes ideas surrounding colonization, global politics, and ethics that are explored through the fictional societies in the novel, since she criticizes the denial of self-determination.

Chakraborty also uses King Suleiman (known in the Western world as King Solomon) as a temporal anchor. About 3,000 years before the story’s present day, Suleiman’s rise to power established the world of djinn as they know it.