As promised...
The Blood of Belshazzar from
The Lord of Samarcand (Bison Books).
~Chapter 1~Bab-el-Shaitan:"the Gate of the Devil" (in Arabic). The stronghold of Skol Abdhur. It was situated in "the frowning foothills of the Taurus" (see:
http://en.wikipedia....aurus_Mountains ). "Once it was called
Eski-Hissar, the Old Castle". It was a "crumbling pile" in the days of Abu Bekr, when the Arabs rebuilt it. "Here luxury and nakedness met, the riches of degenerate civilizations and the stark savagery of utter barbarism." (p.60)
Abu Bekr: was the first Caliph of Islam, companion and father-in-law to Mohammed. He died in 634AD.
Feasts: During feasts within Bab-el-Shaitan, "trembling slaves" served wine, "joints of roasted meat and loaves of bread" to the followers and guests of Skol Abdhur. (p.60)
Skol Abdhur's Men: The
Persians were "slim, lethal". The Turks were "dangerous-eyed", clad "in mail shirts". There were "lean Arabs" and "tall ragged Kurds". Also
Lurs (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurs ) , "
Armenians in sweaty sheepskins, fiercely mustached Circassians and even a few
Georgians (see:
http://en.wikipedia....eorgia_(country) ), with hawk-faces and devilish tempers." REH called them all "tall sons of the desert and mountains". (p.61)
Cormac FitzGeoffrey:"was above six feet" in height. The "breadth and thickness of him were gigantic". His "eyes were a volcanic blue" and his "square-cut black hair (...) crowned a low, broad forehead." An "ex-Crusader", Cormac was "armed in close-meshed chain mail from head to foot." Just like Conan in "TF-GD". He bore a "heavy sword" and a kite-shaped shield with a "grinning skull wrought in the center". He was a "fierce Irish warrior". Formerly, "in his native Ireland he had sat among barbaric figures in the gatherings of chiefs and reavers in the hills". (p.61) Doesn't that last line sound a bit like a young Conan?
Kadra Muhammed:"a Lur, hairy as an ape", "with yellow fangs like a wolf". (p.62)
Nadir Tous: a suave, deadly Persian. He was "once an emir high in the favor of the Shah of Kharesmia". (p.62) His last name means "Peacock" in
Farsi, as in "Malik Tous".
Kai Shah:"a Seljuk Turk" in "silvered mail shirt, peaked helmet and jewel-hilted simitar". He "had ridden at Saladin's side in high honor once, and it was said that the scar that showed white in the angle of his jaw had been made by the sword of Richard the Lion-hearted in that great battle before the walls of Joppa." (p.62) Some have noted that Shah Amurath in "Iron Shadows" is a Turanian with "shah" (a Persian honorific, sorta like "Mister") in his name. It's been speculated that REH somehow intended his Turanians to be "Persian-like" because of that. Here we see a full-blown Seljuk Turk named "Kai Shah". The Persians exerted a heavy cultural (and genetic) influence on the Turkish peoples for thousands of years. However, any Turk (or Persian) will tell you that Turks aren't Persians.
Yussef el Mekru: A "wiry, tall, eagle-faced Arab", who "had been a great sheikh once in Yemen and had even led a revolt against the Sultan (Saladin) himself." (p.62)
Tisolino de Strozza: For "strangeness and vivid fantasy", his past exploits outshone those of any of the cutthroats present in Bab-el-Shaitan. Aforetime, he was a "trader, captain of Venice's warships, Crusader, pirate, outlaw." He "was tall and thin and saturnine in appearance". His armor "was of costly Venetian make" and he wielded a "long narrow sword". He was "hook-nosed", dark-eyed and sported a "thin mustache". (p.62) Sounds like de Strozza got around. Makes you wish that REH (or maybe Lamb or Sabatini) had chronicled some more of his strange and vivid history.
Kojar Mirza:"a brawny Kurd". (p.63) see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KurdsShalmar Khor:"a tall swaggering Circassian". (p.63)
http://en.wikipedia....iki/CircassiansJustus Zehor:"a renegade Georgian who wore half a dozen knifes in his girdle." (p.63)
Musa bin Daoud:"a lean Syrian scribe" to Skol Abdhur. (p.64)
Jacob: Skol Abdhur's majordomo. (p.64)
Cormac:"could count his friends on his fingers and his personal enemies by the scores." (p.64) At one time, he "had been cup-companion (ie,"drinking buddy") to King Richard." (p.65)
Skol Abdhur: The lord of Bab-el-Shaitan, called "the Butcher". A 'bizarre giant" and "an image of physical prowess" who "towered half a head taller than Cormac". He sported a "huge belly" and a "short, naturally black beard" that had been "stained to a bluish tint". (p.65)
Bab-el-Shaitan: According to Skol Abdhur, its "foundations were built in the long ago by Iskander Akbar - Alexander the Great. Then centuries later came the Roumi - the Romans - who added to it. Parthians, Persians, Kurds, Arabs, Turks - all have shed blood on its walls." Also according to Skol, "only when hope is dead do men ride to Bab-el-Shaitan", and "Bab-el-Shaitan is the end of the world." (p.67) I almost wonder if REH was speaking figuratively through Skol, saying that the world of men would end in a welter of maddened slaughter. Both Bab-el-Shaitan and Xuchotl were claustrophobic microcosms of decadence and savagery.
Women: according to Skol, "are food for the gods." (p.67)
Cormac: According to Skol, Cormac's life was forfeit to his people (the European Crusaders) because he slew Count Conrad Von Gonler. This datum places "Belshazzar" after
Hawks of Outremer. (p.67)
Sir Rupert de Vaile: Cormac's friend and the Seneschal of Antioch. His capture by a "Turkish chief" was what motivated Cormac to come to Bab-el-Shaitan. (p.68)
Abdullah:"the black mute" who guarded Skol Abdhur's chamber. He was a Nubian who wielded "a two-handed simitar whose five foot blade was a foot wide at the tip." (p.65, 68)
"the Blood of Belshazzar": The "ruby" was "a huge jewel that sparkled like a tiny lake of blood" and was "the most ancient and costly gem in the world." According to Skol, "Ten thousand pieces of gold could not buy it." That's at the very least a cool $1 million in "medieval money". The gem was "strangely carved". It "seemed that the ancient carver had followed some plan entirely unknown and apart from that of modern lapidary art." (p.68)
According to Skol Abdhur, "king"
Belshazzar went from his palace in Baylon and betook himself on a cruise of the "Green Sea" (the Persian Gulf) aboard his pleasure-barge. A pearl-diver, Naka, was allowed by Belshazzar to dive for pearls to give his sovereign. When Naka finally floated back to the surface, near death, he related a strange tale. Far below, he had found a city of "marble and lapis lazuli". Naka had wrested the ruby from the "taloned hand" of a "monstrous mummied king on a jade throne". Though implored by his court to cast the eldritch jewel from him, Belshazzar "was as one mad" and placed it upon his chest. (p.69)
Cyrus the Great wrested it therefrom, on the night Babylon fell. The Persians, seeing the ruby by the gory light of the burning palace, dubbed it "the Blood of Belshazzar". Blood followed the course of the uncanny jewel. Cyrus fell fighting the Massagetae on the banks of the Jaxartes River. The queen of the Scythian Massagetae, Tomyris, placed the ruby on her "naked bosom". She was robbed by a "rebel general" who was then killed by the Persians. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus (see
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Cambyses_II ) came into possession of "the Blood". He took it with him during his conquest of Egypt. Much like Skol Abdhur later, Cambyses seems to have become a drunken madman. The jewel was stolen from the Persian by a priest of Bast. Cambyses committed suicide not long after (522BC). A mercenary from Numidia (modern Morrocco) mudered the priest and stole the gem. By "devious ways" the ruby came back into the hands of the Persian
shah-in-shahs. "It gleamed on Xerxes' crown when he watched his army destroyed at Salamis." (p.69)
Alexander took "the Blood" from the corpse of Darius, and then had it set into "his breastplate". The Blood's "gleams lighted the road to India". In "a battle on the Indus", a "chance sword blow" dislodged the gem. Alexander had to turn back towards Babylon soon after. For centuries following Alexander's loss, the history of the Blood is unclear. According to Skol, the gem was "far to the east" and it "shone on a road of blood and rapine". "For it, as of old, women gave up their virtue, men their lives and kings their crowns." (p.69)
All for now...
Plus, December is the "birthday month" (see the Phoenix on the Sword thread) of Conan. Ol' Cormac F. is, inarguably, a direct progenitor of Conan.
