Introduction

Rules

Characters

Inspiration

Arabian Nights: Ramadan takes place in the city of Baghdad, in what is today Iraq. It is about 800 A.D., during the reign of the semi-legendary Caliph Haroun al-Raschid -- the time of the tales of the Arabian Nights, considered (rather inaccurately) by tale-tellers to be the Arabic Golden Age. Our setting will owe more to legend than history and geography, but you may consider history and geography to be useful tools in understanding our chronicle.

It is, in the Nasrani (Christian) calendar, around the year 800 A.D. -- some 168 years since the death of the blessed Prophet Mohammed, only 150 years after the formalization of the Kitab al-Koran. It is considered a Golden Age by the heathen Frankish Ferengi (foreigners) of the Holy Roman Empire being founded by Charlemagne, but moreso a Golden Age by the People of Allah in the Holy Land.

Wherever Arabic, Persian, and other cultural elements are used erroneously, this is the fault of your Host's imperfect understanding of these subjects; history and geography, too, may be considered subject to the Host's failings. We will use standard Anglicized spellings of Arabic and other words, such as Caliph (vs. other possibilities, such as Khalif).

In the Baghdad of Haroun al-Raschid, you might meet anyone. It is an amazingly cosmopolitan state, wherein foreigners from Cathay (China), the Frankish Lands (Carolingian Europeans and others), Hindustan (India), Nubia (sub-Saharan Africa) or anywhere else might be encountered. Male and female equality is not, however, a social norm (though a well-married first wife with a tractable husband might wield considerable power by proxy). While social historians inform us that pre-Islamic Arabic culture did indeed have a very limited practice of polyandry as well as polygamy (some few wealthy women had multiple husbands and male slave-consorts in an institution known as the selam), our story is not set in that more equally unenlightened period of history and only the harem survives the coming of the True Faith. (Male quarters are still referred to as the selam, however.)

In our slightly fanciful version of feudal Middle Eastern culture, the enlightened Caliph is tolerant of Christians and Jews (so long as both mind their place) and even more exotic faiths (such as the strange Hindus and Buddhists and Zoroastrians). Special quarters of the city are set aside for these outlander infidels. Baghdad sees the flowering of many wisdoms, including mathematics, medicine, architecture, astronomy/astrology, engineering, alchemy and poetry. Almost anything you might wish to purchase can be found here.

Islam is the religion of the state, but Jews and Christians are tolerated, and other ferengi (foreigners) simply never try to explain their outlandish religions. The Crusades and El Cid are generations away, though perhaps not conflicts between the West and the Middle East (as the Chanson de Roland would tell us).

Taboos, of course, remain absolute: thieves' right hands are severed after trial before a kadi, no one may create an image of Mohammed or of Allah upon pain of death, the harem is forbidden to any but its rightful husband/master, one dines with one's right hand, etc. Of course, there are always exceptions: a good Muslim will never partake of alcohol, but many do; while sex between men and boys is strictly forbidden it nevertheless happens with great frequency; while good Muslims are enjoined from doing business with Jews and Armenians for their usurious practices, most nevertheless do. Muslims do not understand or perceive any difference between Christians of the Catholic, Orthodox or Armenian sects and will not assist in their mutual persecutions -- except to persecute them all!

Religion and the state are inseparable; the title of Caliph refers to the religious leadership of the head of state. The law is that of the Shari'a, set forth in the Kitab al-Koran (The Koran), and everyone knows that harsh punishments await wrongdoers. However, it is also well-known that Haroun al-Raschid is the wisest and most just ruler in the world -- evil does not long escape justice, and good folk are seldom made to suffer by the errors of men. Baghdad is a center of commerce, learning and the arts; if it has rivals anywhere in the world (apart from long-time rival city Basra), they would be cities held by Charlemagne, the Italians, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Byzantine Greeks.

SOME BASIC CUSTOMS OF THE NEAR EAST:

• One dines with one's right hand, only
• One addresses one's social betters with much flattery and prostration, if one knows what is best for one
• Corporal punishment, capital punishment, torture and slavery are normal and expected in society
• One has an extended family of rather considerable size -- your uncles, aunts, cousins and so forth are all very important to you (think of them as like a Celtic clan for how close-knit and protective they are), and you to them
• Whatever price you were offered by a merchant, they expect you to haggle -- they always start with the high price (and everyone is expected to bitch and moan about how they were had)
• Slaves have certain rights, but these rights are often abrogated by their masters
• Beware of the Evil Eye and women with red hair. They're bad luck.
• A woman with a guardian and her face-veil are acceptable for a single man to talk with about very proper subjects; otherwise, if she is of good family, the man may be courting death at the hands of her male kinfolk. If she has no family to protect her, a woman will likely be seen as of low morals and easy prey for any man.

RACIAL AND SEXUAL ELEMENTS OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT
The Arabian Nights Entertainments are the transcriptions of folktales from earlier and less enlightened times. You can no more expect them to have the even-handed social democracy of our ideals than you can expect Caesar's commentary on the Gallic Wars to not call outlanders "barbarians." Fortunately, we don't live in that era but instead choose to roleplay in it - so racial and sexual relations in the game are more intelligent and civilized than in the historical setting (and possibly moreso than in our daily lives).

This is not to specify the feudal-era Middle East as being more discriminatory than any other part of the world; however, attention comes to it because it is much more cosmopolitan than the relatively homogeneous European nations in terms of ethnic groups - and it is a great deal easier to point out the inequities of women's station when they wear a veil and stay in prescribed quarters than it is to notice them in European nations with equally limiting social customs of a different sort. (Such customs are often romanticized in western legendry, and seem acceptable.)

MYTHICAL BAGHDAD VS. HISTORICAL BAGHDAD
While an effort has been made to model our Baghdad upon the historical site, it should be borne in mind that the Baghdad of the Thousand and One Nights' Entertainments is a fanciful fiction. The player is encouraged to be a little blind to the many historical, cultural and other gaffes which will be presented in this LARP game.

With the exception of Haroun al-Raschid himself, no historical (or semi-historical) figures of the period are prescribed (or, for that matter, proscribed) for this game.

That Haroun al-Raschid (or, if you prefer, Harun al-Rashid) existed and is actually an historical figure is beyond doubt. The preponderance of evidence suggests that he was an actual Caliph (or Kalif, Khalif or Qaliph) of Baghdad during the years which legend suggests. The statement that his reign was a Golden Age, or the Golden Age, of Baghdad is a matter of some debate (assuming you credit anyone's claim of any period being a "Golden Age").

POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF BAGHDAD
Baghdad is a walled medieval Arabic city with tents, huts and buildings spilling over into the land outside the city. Thousands are crammed into its narrow, winding streets which have no numbers or street signs -- finding your way after dark (there is no street lighting) is very, very hard even for locals. The city has a Caliph, which is more or less (forgive the ridiculous inaccuracy) equivalent to a Bishop. The Caliph is both the religious and secular leader of the city, and maintains a court of advisors and courtiers known as a divan.

The divan includes the city's Grand Vizier, lesser Viziers of various aspects of civic government, kadis (judges), and members of the hereditary nobility -- a mob of titles including muftis, princes, deys, beys, amirs, emirs and other such wealthy and powerful sorts. Important factions in the divan include wealthy merchants and nobles, military generals, and leaders in the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam.

BAGHDAD IS NOT A SEAPORT!
This is very important! For anyone who loves the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, note that the nearest place in Iraq that he can anchor his dhow is the seaport near Baghdad's rival city, Basra. Baghdad itself is utterly landlocked and is a center of overland trade through its caravanserais (caravan inns).

OMAR KHAYYAM
A Persian poet from a much later era, with a decidedly hedonistic and non-Islamic perspective (or should we say, "bad Islamic," since he espouses wine, women and song and has a despairing cosmology that doesn't seem to include Heaven and Hell), he hasn't a thing to do with our setting. But hey, nobody is better to quote from in the Arabian Nights than Khayyam (except maybe the Koran itself)!

ARABIC SAYINGS, DUBIOUS AND PROFOUND

• "At the narrow passage there will be no brother, no friend."
• "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
• "A goat for need, a girl for pleasure, a boy for ecstasy."
• "A man may have many wives, but he has only one mother"
• "Trust in Allah, but tie your camel tightly."

UTILITIES
Since ancient times, ice had been preserved in special pits, thus allowing sherbet (sweetened shaved ice). Water heated in copper boilers gushes in through wall spigots. Aqueducts and carrier pigeons are not unknown.

PUNISHMENTS
Punishments for drunkenness range from the bastinado to drinking molten lead; only top-ranking criminals are given spikes for severed heads (what an honor!), others are set below in wall-niches. Deaf-mute slaves (tongues slit, eardrums pierced) used to execute and imprison sultan's rivals and enemies (strangling with silken bowstrings an honor for men of high rank). A tyrant executes anyone crossing his path, and uses subjects for target practice.

ALL ABOUT EUNUCHS AND THE HAREM
Eunuchs are used to guard the harem because they are mostly sexually inactive - in reality, it is known that many eunuchs (particularly those not castrated as a boy) are still able to perform sexually (often with prodigious duration due to a general desensitization).

As the Koran does not permit castration, castration takes place outside the city walls and is administered in various fashions, including dragging and crushing to cause injury to the testes. A man castrated before puberty will grow to a flabby giant with pale hairless skin and falsetto voice; a man castrated after puberty may be similarly grotesque - or he may be indistinguishable to the outward eye from a normal male. Muslims perform castration in the more practical Western fashion (Chinese eunuchs are also deprived of the male member; a more thorough and traumatic operation from which many candidates do not survive). Eunuchs are checked regularly by physicians to ensure their castration was thorough. Eunuchs are always given flower-names in their "new life."

Guards with intact genitalia wear blinders to be kept from seeing the harem, and may only enter it upon the orders of the master of the harem. Once a woman passes as a slave or bride through the Gate of Felicity to enter the Harem (also known as the Zenana or Seraglio), she will never leave it again except upon the death of its lord. She may look upon the outside world through screens or from behind veils, but otherwise she may gaze upon it only from afar (a parapet or tower). A harem girl is prepared for her new life by shaving all body hair, oil/riceflour mudpack cleansing, henna-dyeing fingernails, using henna to prevent perspiration, perfuming and pomading, and painting her eyelids with kohl (lemon and plumbago burnt in a brazier). She will be kept away from men, discouraged from affairs with eunuchs and other women, and kept from any phallic object. When their master died, the inmates of the harem would be sent to the Palace of Tears and the new Sultan would get a new harem. Harem intrigues (favorite vs. mother, etc.) are commonplace and to be expected among women so bored.

WHAT BAGHDAD IS LIKE
It is a bustling metropolis of the Near East - whitewashed stone and brick buildings lean upon one another, and colorful striped awnings overhang packed-clay streets with open sewers. The occasional cypress, palm or cedar tree provides shade; and here and there one finds lemon trees and rosebushes and night-blooming jasmine. As ever in the feudal era, it is a world lit only by fire and moonlight when the sun sets.

The streets are crowded and hot, full of swaggering blue-eyed Bedouins wearing frankincense and golden coins, bazaars with coppersmiths and water-vendors crying their wares, dusty caravans trudging through the gates, foreigners of a thousand lands (some unknown to we modern folk) jostling with you, and over all the call of muezzin to prayer.

You might rise from your humble sleeping carpet or luxurious mattress to breakfast: tea, bread, foul mudammas (a bean dish pronounced "fool moo-dah-muss"). You might find yourself slowed by enormous royal processions (Chief Cook, Master of the Ostrich Plume, Overseers of the Royal Perfumes, etc.) or street performers. Business is never so pressing that there is no time for a cup of strong tea or coffee and a few relaxed words with the old fellow sitting under the tree - unless perhaps a thief has robbed someone, or assassins leap from the shadows to slay one and terrify all.

And because this is an age of wonders, yours is a life in a land of wonders: Strange signs in the sky, weird fabulous beasts, strange people with one eye or a single giant foot, sorcerers and cults - none of this is unknown to you.

THE JUDGMENT OF HAROUN AL-RASCHID
Haroun al-Raschid, if he demands to hear your tale for his Righteous Judgment, must immediately be given your character printout. He will read this and he will listen to your story - tell it as you would really tell it, regardless. (In other words, pretend your character doesn't know that the Caliph knows all.) While everyone in the Eastern world knows that the Caliph is shrewd and wise enough to know a man's heart merely by listening to him, all liars believe they can fool the wisest man. He will make the decision which he feels is the most just and good, though it may not necessarily be the happiest solution for everyone. Those who wish to avoid this Righteous Judgment would do well to steer clear of the Caliph's suspicion or ill will.

WHAT IS RAMADAN?
All Muslim holidays are "floating dates" because of the Islamic lunar calendar, but Ramadan generally occurs in the winter months around the vicinity of Christmas and Chanukkah. It is much like Lent, in that a month-long period of fasting and purification is undertaken - travelers, soldiers, the infirm, infants and pregnant women are exempted, but they must make up for the lost fasting time later. At the end of each day, the muezzins send up a great noise (in later centuries, a cannon shot) to signal the end of a day of fasting and the beginning of a simple, penitent meal. However, the three-day feast at the end of Ramadan is known as Little Bairam, and is a time of joyous celebration. Favorite dishes, bright and beautiful clothing, pageantry and entertainment are all hallmarks of Ramadan. True believers greet one another with the joyous call: "Eid mubarak!" ("Blessed holiday!") and "Peace unto you, my brother/sister!" A hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) completed during Ramadan is of the holiest sort, and many folk will take the opportunity to give gifts and tokens of their love and esteem for one another at this festive time.