Masoud (slave)

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According to legend, Masoud was an infamous slave belonging to the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah[citation needed]. He was said to be a large black man used by Hakim to carry out a bizarre punishment[citation needed]. Al-Hakim was said to have occasionally wandered the streets of Cairo looking for deceptive merchants. When he discovered one, he would immediately have Masoud publicly sodomize the man[citation needed].

This folk tale has inspired a phrase which has survived into modern times, in which citizens of Cairo threaten to "bring Masoud" to another person.

Al-Hakim is worshipped by the Druze, a sect considered heretic by nearly all Muslims. According to the Encyclopedia of the Orient:

The theology of Druze religion is called hikma and its main theme is that God incarnated himself in the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim.[1]

There are a number of tales of questionable historicity portraying Al-Hakim as deranged. Ismailis claim that anti-Ismaili historians concocted derogatory stories about him.[2]. Among these is the legend of Masoud.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Encyclopedia of the Orient, entry for Druze[1]
  2. ^ The Origin of the Druzes, Ismaili.net[2]

[edit] Sources

Desmond Stewart, Great Cairo: Mother of the World (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 1981, 73-74

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