My Name is Red: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

It is snowing hard as Shekure walks home from the House of the Hanged Jew. She believes that Black truly loves her, but she is dismayed by his haste to have sex. When she gets home, she notices that Hayrire and the boys still haven’t returned from the market. She hears the front door squeak and walks into a room that is in shambles; she then sees Enishte lying on the floor. She screams, hugs Enishte, and begs Allah to return the life to his body. Once she stops crying, she locks Enishte’s body in another room and begins to mop up the blood. When the children return with Hayrire, Shekure tells them that Enishte is ill and is sleeping. The boys try to go into the room where Enishte’s body lies, and she tells them that a jinn came to visit Enishte and that they must stay out or they’ll die.

Having locked the boys in their room, Shekure goes downstairs and tells Hayrire that Enishte is dead. Hayrire shrieks and insists on going to see the body. Shekure confesses that she was with Black at the time of the murder. She insists that they act as if everything is normal. That night, she tells the boys a love story about a prince and princess in order to help them go to sleep. Later, Shekure and Hayrire recite a chapter from the Koran, wash Enishte’s body and change his clothes. Hayrire asks if she may put her mattress in Shekure’s room that night, but Shekure refuses.