My Name is Red: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

The murderer quickly sketches a picture of an opium addict, which is part of a book he commissioned by a traveling Armenian. He has completed many of these books in order to earn a little money, and finds them boring. A week has passed since the murder, and the murderer does not feel able to suppress the jinns (spirits) within him. At night, he walks through the city to an abandoned, semi-collapsed dervish house which he visits frequently. The murderer notes that he does not fear earthly punishments, only the judgment of Allah. He is familiar with the punishments that murderers will suffer in Hell, although he adds that Elegant was not a real believer and that he had good reasons for killing Elegant. If he hadn’t killed Elegant, the Erzurumis would have condemned the miniaturists and destroyed the royal workshop. Before Elegant’s death, he had been insulting Enishte and the work he was doing on the book.

Enishte kept the final illustration of the book secret, even from the miniaturists who were helping him to complete the other illustrations. The murderer wonders if this last illustration proves that Elegant’s prejudices were actually well-founded. The murderer passes Enishte’s house and sees Black leaving; he realizes that Black will complete the book and marry Shekure, and that Elegant had been right and was thus killed for nothing. The murderer follows Black down the street, intending to kill him. He watches the way Black walks, hating him for his sense of entitlement. The murderer is also in love with Shekure, and as he follows Black through the city streets he feels as though he is “imitating him.”