In this version of England, the upper class are magicians who get their power by enslaving djinni (genies) and other magical creatures. Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Book I of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. See also Book 2: The Golem's Eye, and Book 3: Ptolemy's Gate