When young Vlad knelt again and again, on calloused knees, he became a human compass aligned with the magnetism of those also in devotion; when the youth scored the holy script into his recall again and again, he would often, most often, fixate on a wall in the Mosque, where embossed into stone, was a circular dragon eating its tail.
When his body cried from the violations he had endured, and the shame that he inwardly hurt with, thoughts of revenge, and the ultimate might of the Holy one, soothed his upset and reinforced his rage's righteousness.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
When his body cried from the violations he had endured, and the shame that he inwardly hurt with, thoughts of revenge, and the ultimate might of the Holy one, soothed his upset and reinforced his rage's righteousness.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
In his Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ («Tales of the Prophets»), al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035), describes the Kaʿba in Mecca, the central sanctuary of the Islamic world, as a divine throne that is circumscribed by a serpent:
ReplyDeleteThen Allāh surrounded it by a serpent. … this serpent wound itself around the throne and the latter reaches to half the height of the serpent which is winding itself around it.
In the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad, al-Ḥalabī similarly relates how the serpent that dwells in the pit of the Kaʿba to guard the treasures there, would… leave its dwelling place and appear glittering; and often it wound itself on the wall so that its tail approached its head.
"In 1436, Vlad II Dracul [the father of Vlad in our story] ascended to the throne of Wallachia. He was ousted in 1442 by rival factions in league with Hungary, but secured Ottoman support for his return by agreeing to pay tribute to the Sultan and also send his two legitimate sons, Vlad III and Radu, to the Ottoman court, to serve as hostages of his loyalty.
ReplyDelete"The boys were taken to the various garrisons at Edirne. Radu eventually became a friend of Murad II's son, Mehmed II. While at the Ottoman court as boys, Vlad and Radu were educated in logic, the Quran and the Turkish and Persian language and literature. The boys' father, Vlad II Dracul, with the support of the Ottomans, returned to Wallachia and took back his throne from Basarab II.
"Vlad III was eventually released to take his place on the Wallachian throne in 1448.."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radu_the_Handsome