City of Veils (57 page)

miswak
—twigs or roots from the Arak tree used for natural tooth cleansing

misyar
—a marriage institution in Islam whereby a man can have a wife without financial responsibility

mubeen
—purity

mujahideen
—freedom fighters

mutawwa
(plural
mutaween
)  —religious policemen from the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia

Najd
—the central region of Saudi Arabia

na-mehram
—unfamiliar

qasama
—to divide

qismah
—fate or kismet

rakat
—a verse of prayer

Ramadan
—the yearly month of fasting in Islamic religious tradition

Salaam alaikum
—a greeting, literally “peace be with you”

Sall
llahu’ alayhi wa sallam
—“peace be upon Him,” said when mentioning the name of the prophet Mohammed

Shahada
—the recitation of the phrase “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet,” which is required in order to become a Muslim

shawarma
—a sandwich of slices of shaved rotisserie meat, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and sauce folded together in a pita bread

sharwaya
—“shepherd”

shaytin
—a kind of evil genie

shumagh
—a red-and-white-checkered headscarf worn by men

souq
—an outdoor market, any commercial marketplace

sura
—a chapter of the Quran

tisbah al-khayr
—“good night”

zabiba
—a raisin-shaped bump or callus on the forehead that develops after a lifetime of touching one’s forehead to the ground during prayer

zina
—a type of crime in Islamic law involving extramarital sex

Z
OË
F
ERRARIS
moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then husband and his extended family of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin. She has an MFA from Columbia University and is the author of one previous novel,
Finding Nouf
. She now lives in San Francisco and Lexington, Kentucky.