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AussieMuslims.com - Home of Australian Muslims - Islamic History http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/ If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. en Sun, 26 May 2013 05:38:30 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/images/aria/misc/rss.png AussieMuslims.com - Home of Australian Muslims - Islamic History http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/ Muslim Coins Found in NT 1000 Years Old http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54941-Muslim-Coins-Found-in-NT-1000-Years-Old&goto=newpost Sun, 19 May 2013 12:16:41 GMT *Ancient discovery set to rewrite Australian history* Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an ‘‘X’’ might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia’s history. Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, plans an... Ancient discovery set to rewrite Australian history

Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an ‘‘X’’ might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia’s history.

Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, plans an expedition in July that has stirred up the archaeological community.

The scientist wants to revisit the location where five coins were found in the Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1000 years old, opening up the possibility that seafarers from distant countries might have landed in Australia much earlier than what is currently believed.

Back in 1944 during World War II, after Japanese bombers had attacked Darwin two years earlier, the Wessel Islands - an uninhabited group of islands off Australia’s north coast - had become a strategic position to help protect the mainland.

Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg was stationed on one of the islands to man a radar station and spent his spare time fishing on the idyllic beaches.
While sitting in the sand with his fishing-rod, he discovered a handful of coins in the sand.

He didn’t have a clue where they could come from but pocketed them anyway and later placed them in a tin.

In 1979 he rediscovered his ‘‘treasure’’ and decided to send the coins to a museum to get them identified.

The coins proved to be 1000 years old.Still not fully realising what treasure he held in his hands, he marked an old colleague’s map with an ‘‘X’’ to remember where he had found them.

The discovery was apparently forgotten again until anthropologist McIntosh got the ball rolling a few months ago.

The coins raise many important questions:How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach on an island off the northern coast of Australia?

Did explorers from distant lands arrive on Australian shores way before the James Cook declared it ‘‘terra nullius’’ and claimed it for the British throne in 1770?

We do know already that Captain Cook wasn’t the first white seafarer to step on Australia’s shores.

In 1606 a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon reached the Cape York peninsula in Queensland, closely followed a few years late by another Dutch seafarer Dirk Hartog...

McIntosh and his team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers say that the five coins date back to the 900s to 1300s.

They are African coins from the former Kilwa sultanate, now a World Heritage ruin on an island off Tanzania.

Kilwa once was a flourishing trade port with links to India in the 13th to 16th century.

The trade with gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian stone ware, Persian ceramics and Chinese porcelain made the city one of the most influential towns in East Africa at the time.

The copper coins were the first coins ever produced in sub-Saharan Africa and according to McIntosh have only twice been found outside Africa: once in Oman and Isenberg’s find in 1944.

The old coins might not be of monetary value, but for archaeologists they are priceless, says McIntosh.

Archaeologists have long suspected that there may have been early maritime trading routes that linked East Africa, Arabia, India and the Spice Islands even 1,000 years ago.

Or the coins could’ve washed ashore after a shipwreck.

When Isenberg discovered the copper coins he also found four coins that originated from the Dutch East India Company - with one dating back to 1690 raising memories of those early Dutch seafarers that stepped on Australian shores well before Cook.

McIntosh wants to answer some of these mysteries during his planned expedition to the Wessel Islands in July.

And it’s not only about revisiting the beach that was marked with an ‘‘X’’ on Isenberg’s map.

He will also be looking for a secret cave Aboriginal legends talk about.

This cave is supposed to be close to the beach where Isenberg once found the coins and is said to be filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era.

Should McIntosh and his team find what they are looking for, the find might not only be priceless treasure, but relics that could rewrite Australian history.

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/a...519-2juck.html ]]> Islamic History falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54941-Muslim-Coins-Found-in-NT-1000-Years-Old Native American Islam before Columbus http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54920-Native-American-Islam-before-Columbus&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 12:24:17 GMT Shaykh Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah details historical precedent for Islam being among Native Americans before European explorers reached America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDpksYeQ7Xs Shaykh Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah details historical precedent for Islam being among Native Americans before European explorers reached America

]]> Islamic History Tay_ http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54920-Native-American-Islam-before-Columbus <![CDATA[Who's who in Pakistan's Politics?]]> http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54881-Who-s-who-in-Pakistan-s-Politics&goto=newpost Tue, 07 May 2013 12:29:48 GMT A detailed look at Pakistan's politics from a HT perspective
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Who's who in Pakistan's Politics?
Saturday, 04 May 2013 00:00 Adnan Khan

With election fever gripping the nation this would be an appropriate time to asses Pakistan's political system and the different players that make up the country's political medium. Pakistan's political system of parliamentary democracy is now seen as functioning simply because for the first in the countries history a government has completed its full term and will be transferring power over to a new government. Whilst many elements that make up Pakistan's political system will partake in the upcoming elections, it is important to remember that Pakistan's political system is more than just elections.

It should also be borne in mind that no matter who is elected to succeed on May 11 2013, Pakistan's political system has never really changed. Pakistan's current system is a continuation of the British Raj occupation that abolished Islamic rule in the Indian Subcontinent. Even though the Muslims shed their pure blood to establish Pakistan in the name of Islam, it was the British Parliament that created Pakistan's initial legislation under its Indian Independence Act of 1947. Even though Pakistan produced its first constitution in 1956, this and every subsequent constitution, including the present 1973 constitution, has been framed around secular British law.

Foreign interference has been a virus that has infected every part of Pakistan's political system – it was a system created by the departing British Empire only to be eventually dominated by the US. Elections, Presidents and Prime ministers are largely transitional and do not change the fundamental direction of a country. Pakistan's political history has been dominated by the potential threat of India after partition, then the Soviet expansion into the region in the 1980's and today, America's continued attempts to dominate the region. Successive regimes in the country merely implemented different policies in line with these regional developments.

In summary and in no particular order, Pakistan political medium is composed of the following participants:

Military - Pakistan's military is the most important institution of the country. It manages the countries security, foreign policy and the countries strategic assets. This power is the reason why it has ruled the country for over half of Pakistan's history. During this period various leaders of the army took over the civilian apparatus which impacted not just the country's political system but the country as a whole. The most dramatic of these was during the era of General Zia-ul-Haq when the Islamic sentiments within the army were used to support America's proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union.

When Pervez Musharraf became the Chief of Army staff (COAS) he was forced to contend such sentiments, but after the events of 9/11 General Musharraf was given an ultimatum to join America's 'war on terror' and in line with America's reversal of Islamifying the army, Musharraf began the process of clamping down on those who espoused Islam. Musharraf hounded the Islamic minded offices. He sought early retirement of some, he deployed others to far afield posts and a few were court martialled.

General Ashfaq Kayani continued with this agenda, he however removed army personnel from civilian roles, which was a legacy of the Musharraf era and aggressively pursued America's war on terror into the tribal areas. Under Kayani's leadership the countries strategic doctrine and posture was altered in January 2013, the India centric doctrine was revised and now defines internal threats as the greatest risk to the countries security. India is no longer seen as a threat to Pakistan's security and America's war on terror is the primary focus for the military.

Bhutto Family - As is common in the Indian subcontinent Pakistan's political system has also been dominated by dynastic families who have ruled for long periods. The Bhutto family is the equivalent of the Kennedy family in the US and has always been a large landowning family from Sindh. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), established in 1967 and has ever since been dominated by the Bhutto Family who own over 10,000 acres of land in the Sindh province. Sindh today remains the support base for the Bhutto family.

Since its inception, the Pakistan's Peoples Party (PPP) was headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the ruler of Pakistan from 1970 until a military coup removed him from power in 1977. His subsequent hanging in 1979 led to his daughter Benazir Bhutto, taking the leadership of the PPP. She took power twice in Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996. During both her terms in office Benazir proved she was an incompetent ruler and corruption was the centre piece of her governments. On both occasions her governments were dismissed, failing to even complete their terms. She went into exile from 1998 spending the next decade shuttling between Dubai and the UK working to reverse her flagging fortunes. When General Musharraf's position began to weaken talks ensued in 2006 between US officials and British officials to bring Benazir back to power. Whatever the rhetoric at the time her return was a deal between the US and Britain that was highlighted in some detail by the Washington Post in December 2007: "For Benazir Bhutto, the decision to return to Pakistan was sealed during a telephone call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the call culminated more than a year of secret diplomacy and came only when it became clear that the heir to Pakistan's most powerful political dynasty was the only one who could bail out Washington's key ally in the battle against terrorism."

Asif Ali Zardari emerged as the ruler on a wave of optimism due to the death of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari had however been long groomed by the US. Prior to becoming President of Pakistan, Zardari was groomed by Zalmay Khalilzad (Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN) to play a role in the post-Musharraf era. The New York Times reported their relationship in much detail in 2008: "Mr. Khalilzad had spoken by telephone with Mr. Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party, several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorized contacts, a senior United States official said. A senior Pakistani official said that the relationship between Mr. Khalilzad and Mr. Zardari went back several years, and that the men developed a friendship while Mr. Zardari was spending time in New York with Ms. Bhutto. Mr. Khalilzad, being a political animal, understood the value of reaching out to Pakistan's political leadership long before the bureaucrats at the State Department realised this would be useful at a future date," the official said. The ambassador "did not make policy or change policy, he just became an alternate channel." After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari manipulated Benazir's will and assumed co-chairmanship of the PPP with his son Bilawal. In effect Zardari became the leader of the PPP. Zardari then scrupulously sidelined all those elements of the PPP that could potentially undermine his authority.

As the next general election inches closer the PPP has been badly discredited through numerous corruption scandals, sheer incompetence and nepotism. The plummeting popularity of Zardari has hurt the chances and ability of the PPP to mount an effective campaign for the general elections. This is why they rolled out Bilawal Bhutto to reconnect traditional PPP values with the disgruntled PPP voter base.

Nawaz Sharif – The Sharif family form the second dynastic family in Pakistan's political system. Nawaz Sharif has been in power twice from 1990-93 and then 1997-99, until he was overthrown in a coup by General Musharraf. Nawaz Sharif himself is a business magnate from an industrial family that dominates Pakistan's commercial landscape. As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading steel mill conglomerate, he is one of the country's wealthiest industrialists. In 2005, Daily Pakistan reported that the Sharif family is the fourth wealthiest family in the country and second wealthiest political leader with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.

Like the Bhutto family when Nawaz Sharif has been in power his governments have been littered with scandal, corruption and incompetence. Nawaz Sharif on the two occasions he led the government he virtually bankrupted the nation.

Nawaz Sharif when he has been in power, he has served the American agenda for the region. He confirmed his pro-American position in a wikileaks cable where he stated to the then ambassador Anne Patterson "that he was 'pro-American'. However publicly, he sometimes criticises US policies." He then went on further in the leak that "he was grateful to the US for selecting' General Kayani as the Pakistan Army chief. This explains the widely held belief among Pakistani politicians that US help is crucial in seeking top official jobs in Pakistan."

Mohajir's (Migrants) – Upon the partition of India in 1947 many Muslims found themselves on the Indian side of the border and thus migrated to what became Pakistan to the tune of 8 million Muslims. The Mohajir's sacrificed much to come to the new nation created in the name of Islam. Their demands like all of the Muslim that migrated was to be recognised, provided with security, honour and employment. However successive governments failed them again and again. By the time the 1970's came to an end the Mohajir's gathered together on the basis of ethnicity as the system had failed them.

In 1978 a young student leader by the name of Altaf Hussain established the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organisation (APMSO) and campaigned for the right of Mohajirs at Karachi University. Then in 1984 the Muhajir Quami Movement (MQM) was officially launched with the aim of securing rights for Mohajirs and recognition as the fifth nationality in Pakistan. The MQM message resonated amongst the Mohajirs of Sindh's largest cities Karachi and Hyderabad. What launched them as the third political party in the country was the patronage provided by General Zia-ul-Haq. In order to halt the rise of the PPP through their Sindh support base the MQM would be funded and armed as a counterweight. By the time the 1990's came around the MQM was at war with the government and the army was called in to maintain law and order on the streets of Karachi. This continued with both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif when they were in power.

Each community in Pakistan is aligned to certain political parties. The MQM was set up initially as a Mohajir party but now tries to portray itself as a party for all Pakistanis hence changing its name from Mohajir Qaumi Movement to Muttahida (united) Qaumi Movement. The Awami National Party (ANP) is a party the Pashtun community support. Each party is vying for control of Karachi and to attain its own interests, not much different from the other political parties in Pakistan. The Punjab province has historically dominated the other provinces whether in civil, political or military life. All of this is seen negatively by the other provinces as they have been largely ignored and has led them to make use of violence to protect their interests.

Mohajirs are considered to comprise around 21% of Karachi's population. As Pakistan's largest city with a population exceeding 20 million and Pakistan's economic and trading hub, controlling the provincial assembly of Sindh will give any political party a significant say on the national level.

Clerics – In Pakistan corrupt clerics have hijacked Islam for their own political objectives. They have used the sincere emotions that the people have for Islam to gain political influence and have misled them and other sincere scholars along the way. These individuals who have attempted to project an image that they are the ones who are looking after the interests of Islam are in fact no different to the 'secular' politicians who inhabit the same political system. These clerics use Islam to get to power yet abandon it once they have gained their positions, choosing to participate in the failed secular system as every other politician.

Their biggest failure is the fact that they have never presented Islam as a system for governance for Pakistan and have focussed on individual aspects of Islam. Whilst there are sincere elements amongst the clerics they are drowned out by the opportunists amongst them which has strengthened corrupt politics in the country. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which was coalition of Islamic parties that included the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami, formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2002 and lead the coalition government in Baluchistan. These provinces were the key staging grounds for America's war in Afghanistan which spread to the tribal areas. Aside from some anti-US rhetoric, in terms of actions rather than solving Pakistan's many problems through Islamic policies they are also part of the problem now.

Judiciary – The judiciary in Pakistan has historically been manipulated by successive governments, military dictators and outside powers. Whilst there are lists of decisions going back decades that raise numerous questions marks over the judiciary's independence, the judiciary's manipulation has been a consistent feature in Pakistan's political landscape. This is fundamentally due to the lack of both political and ideological awareness amongst the judiciary who consistently cite constitutional articles to justify their positions. The laws in the country are concocted by the politicians and effectively executed by the judiciary. Whilst the recent history of the judiciary has been one of assertiveness and apparent independence, it is but the latest episode in their manipulation. As an example the Supreme Court in 2001 ruled in General Musharraf's favour regarding his coup and the abolishment of the constitution, in its judgement, the Supreme Court said the military coup was a necessity and in the national interest! It recognised the pre-coup situation was one which could not have been solved by constitutional means.

General Musharraf's constant abuse of power and attempts to hold elections under emergency powers led to a clash with the judiciary. Musharraf misjudged the judiciary's response and the political opposition to the sacking of the chief justice and also did not anticipate mass movement in its aftermath. The lawyer's movement was ceased upon by the PPP which gave it a political edge and once again the judiciary was manipulated by the political objectives of others.

Imran Khan – Former Cricketer turned politician Imran Khan is the only new face in Pakistan's political system. Interestingly he has been involved in Pakistan's politics since 1996, when he established Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). However in reality Imran Khan's party is not really a political party as it does not have any strong roots in society or support base. For most of its short history it did not have any notable politician amongst its ranks and today is still a one man show. Since 1996, the PTI has only ever had one seat in the parliament, from 2002 – 2005, which was occupied by Imran Khan himself.

As a result of this Imran Khan he was forced to turn to established politicians who were dripping with corruption. He had to reach out to other politicians and asked them to join him to strengthen PTI, and thereby give the party a strong chance of performing well in the upcoming elections. Many notable politicians and technocrats from the Musharraf era, such as Khurshid Kasuri, who was central to America's war on terror as well as infamous politicians from PPP and PML-N joined PTI. All of this had a detrimental effect on his message as many wondered how independent he was after allowing many politicians into his party that previously the PTI campaigned against. By the middle of 2012, a number of these politicians began to leave PTI as the party's chances of gaining a large number of seats were fast evaporating. The march to Waziristan was a desperate attempt to reconnect with the masses.

Imran's Khan's rise, after almost two decades of struggling to make any mark on Pakistan's political scene has another element to it. In early December 2011 the news international confirmed that at a PTI core committee meeting, the PTI's Punjab president confirmed the existence of a secret committee functioning to probe the background of its new entrants which include a former ISI official, a retired major general and some Intelligence Bureau staff – i.e. the army. This would indicate the army is for the moment backing Imran Khan. US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, when asked by the BBC regarding the possibility of an anti-US government in Pakistan in case Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan get elected in 2013 elections, said that he has met both the leaders who have assured a pro-US government.

Pervez Musharraf – Musharraf dominated Pakistan's political medium from his coup in 1998 until his demise in 2008. During this period he was effectively the most important man in the world as Pakistan's was central to America's flagging fortunes in the Afghan war. Musharraf has recently admitted he personally signed off on CIA drone strikes in the country. It is important to remember it was not Pervez Musharraf that became a constituent of Pakistan's political medium but the role of the head of the army. At the last elections in 2008 Pervez Musharraf's party the PML(Q) lost miserably, 22 of the federal ministers which constituted the bulk of Musharraf's cabinet all lost their seats. Corruption, incompetence and sheer nepotism dominated the whole government. Musharraf's attempts to constantly empower his role of Presidency, through constitutional changes and then a state of emergency lost him much credibility. The Lal masjid massacre and his arrogance in the face of the lawyer's movement as well as the escalation of war in the northern areas all made him and him and his cronies deeply unpopular.

Musharraf is currently running in his personal capacity, as he is no longer the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and clearly without his uniform he has virtually no support. The New York Times reported: "Musharraf obviously overestimated his popularity. He was delusional in thinking he could ride out the storm, and he underestimated the resolve of the judges.There are certainly people in urban Pakistan who think that things were better during his tenure, but the majority do not find him a credible leader. He ruled on the strength of his uniform. Now that uniform is gone, and Pakistan has changed."

USA – Whilst the USA is not part of Pakistan's political medium it does have influence over its participants. America showered Pakistan with aid and arms during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and similarly has once again through military aid and economic aid beholden the nation's political medium to its interests in the region. Through the US ambassador in Pakistan and the CIA presence in the country as well as the envoy to the region and the various US officials that constantly make trips to Pakistan the US has been able to gain influence over Pakistan and dominate its institutions and political medium. The US was able through its presence in Afghanistan to reorient the military in Pakistan to focus on the tribal areas instead of India. The US has even bypassed Pakistan's troika set up i.e. the Presidency, Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff and deal directly with those in charge of different institutions in Pakistan. The negotiations that were taking place in the UK to bring Benazir Bhutto back into the political medium clearly shows it is Washington rather than Islamabad that determines what happens in Pakistan.

Conclusions

It is accurate to state that Pakistan is not an independent nation, but rather a nation subordinate to a foreign power i.e. the US. The political system in Pakistan is dominated by dynastic families, feudal landlords and opportunist groups, individuals and politicians. Their sole aim is to get to power and enrich themselves irrespective of the consequences. When in power they legislate in a way to protect and maintain their own interests. Elections is the life support to this subordinate system and this is the reason why even a sincere individual will be unable to bring change through such a political medium dominated by the US on the one hand and then opportunists on the other hand.

The Clearest example of American dominance of Pakistan's political medium is what took place with regards to Raymond Davies, the US defence contractor who murdered Pakistani citizens in broad daylight in Lahore in January 2011. The New York Times outlined in a detailed report the role different elements of Pakistan political medium played when the US was exposed of planting an army of secret agents to sow chaos and violence as part America's war in Pakistan. The State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon all had separate channels to request visas for their personnel, and all of them led to the desk of Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's pro-American ambassador in Washington. Haqqani had orders from Islamabad to be lenient in approving the visas. As street protests increased due to the possibility of the Pakistan Government cutting a deal over Raymond Davis with the US, the US ambassador in Pakistan approached both the ISI chief Ahmed Shuja pasha and General Kayani on getting Davis out of Pakistan. General Pasha ordered ISI operatives in Lahore to meet the families of the men killed and impose a settlement on them in the form of blood money. On March 16 2012, the court hearing for Raymond Davis took place and the NYT outlined what took place: "the judge ordered the courtroom cleared, and General Pasha's secret plan unfolded. Through a side entrance, 18 relatives of the victims walked into the room, and the judge announced that the civil court had switched to a Shari'ah court. Each of the family members approached Davis, some of them with tears in their eyes or sobbing outright, and announced that he or she forgave him." ISI operatives whisked Davis out of the courthouse through a back entrance and pushed him into a waiting car that sped to Lahore airport. The government of Pakistan colluded with the US through America's ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, the ISI imposed America's solution upon the families who lost their husbands, brothers and sons and the judiciary was influenced by the countries institutions and was manipulated once again. This is the political medium in Pakistan, established by the departing British, dominated today by the US and used by opportunists to enrich themselves. This system has broken the back of the people and what Pakistan needs now is a new politics.

Source ]]> Islamic History http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54881-Who-s-who-in-Pakistan-s-Politics How the Muslims Killed Dracula http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54699-How-the-Muslims-Killed-Dracula&goto=newpost Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:11:13 GMT Born in the Ottoman Principality of Wallachia, Romania in 1435 AD, he was known as Radu al III-lea cel Frumos to his Romanian countrymen, Yakışıklı Radu Bey to the Turks, Radu al-Wasim to the Arabs, and Radu the Handsome in English. This ally and childhood friend of Sultan Mehmet II was instrumental in the conquest of Constantinople for Islam. Radu’s participation in that conquest ensured that Mehmet II would go down in history as “Fatih,” or “Conqueror.” Radu was the Ottomans’ secret weapon against the Safavids to the East and the Serbs, Romanians and Hungarians to the West. The Muslim world owes much to this hero of Islam, yet they recorded little other than cursory references to him, perhaps for fear of taking away from Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s limelight. The Byzantines recorded Radu as a reviled despot due to their hatred for his conversion to Islam and instrumental role in ending the Byzantine Empire.

Yet, this Ottoman general had a greater war, a war against darkness. He hunted the very progenitor of the vampire legend who impaled his enemies and drank their blood – Vlad al III-lea Ţepeş, also known as Vlad Drăculea, who would go down in infamy as, simply, Dracula. The character of Professor Abraham Van Helsing was no more than a figment of Bram Stoker’s terrifying imagination, but Sultan Mehmet II and Radu cel Frumos were perhaps the first and only true vampire hunters in history.

The Blood Brothers

Looking back, Radu’s devotion to Islam and to Sultan Mehmet II could be traced to the political alliance of their respective fathers before them. Vlad II from the House ofDrăculeşti (“House of the Dragon”) was an ally and vassal of Sultan Mehmet’s father, Sultan Murad II. Vlad II had 4 sons: Mircea II, Vlad IV Călugărul (“The Monk”), Vlad III who would come to be known as Dracula, and Radu III cel Frumos (“The Handsome”). As a gesture of unity with the Sultan, Vlad II offered his sons, Dracula and Radu, to serve the Ottoman Sultan. Under the Janissaries they studied the Qur’an, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence, and, coveted above all, Turkish military strategy and tactics of war.

The Ottoman special forces who held a higher status both militarily as well as socially than the rank and file were the Janissaries and the Sipahis. The Janissaries were the elite infantry of the Ottoman military as well as the personal bodyguards of the Sultan and his family. The Sipahis were the elite cavalry who surrounded the Sultan in battle and would be sent to deal with the most stubborn of adversaries. They were the commandos and special forces of their day. Though the Sipahis were almost exclusively Turkic in origin as demanded by Sultan Mehmet II himself in his treatise of law entitled Kanun Nameh-e-Sipahi (“Law Book of the Sipahis”), the Janissaries, within whose ranks Dracula and Radu found themselves, were conversely converts to Islam.

The young Dracula continually abused and rebelled against his hosts earning himself imprisonment and castigation. Due to the heavy handedness of the Turks in response to his insolence, he developed a compounded and complex series of grudges. He hated his father for allying with the Turks, which he saw as a betrayal of the Order of the Dragon to which his father had sworn an oath. The Order of the Dragon was a Christian fraternity whose sole aim was to wipe out Islam from the Balkans forever. Dracula hated Radu for his successes and the favor the Turks bestowed upon him. He was filled with jealousy for the then young Mehmet II who, like him, was a prince, but, very unlike him, lived in splendor. He was also jealous of his brothers Mircea and Vlad the Monk due to what he perceived as his father’s preference for them. His sentiments for Mircea however, would teeter between jealousy and awe. It is from him that the young Dracula learned the terror tactic of impaling thousands to create forests of the dead.

Radu remained faithful to Islam and the Sultan and spent his entire life in battle on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, vanquishing the most difficult adversaries of the Empire. His natural knack for battle was unparalleled even amongst the Janissaries and elite Sipahis of the Ottoman military, and he would be called upon frequently to subdue any foe that seemed insurmountable. It is reported that he turned the very course of Near Eastern history when he stopped the mighty Ak Koyunlu from overrunning the Ottomans, an event that, if not stopped, would have definitely changed the faces of both the Middle East and Europe today. For this very reason, he was called upon to face the threat from his homeland of Wallachia that neither the elite Janissaries nor the Sipahis could route.

The Conquest of Constantinople

“On the third day after the fall of our city, the Sultan celebrated his victory with a great, joyful triumph. He issued a proclamation: the citizens of all ages who had managed to escape detection were to leave their hiding places throughout the city and come out into the open, as they were to remain free and no question would be asked. He further declared the restoration of houses and property to those who had abandoned our city before the siege, if they returned home, they would be treated according to their rank and religion, as if nothing had changed.” (George Sphrantzes, 1401-1478, Byzantine Christian chronicler and witness of the fall of Constantinople)

It was a time of relief and rejoicing. It was a relief for the inhabitants of Constantinople who expected a prompt culling following the fall of their city. It was a time of celebration for the entire Muslim world for this historical conquest of a city that has remained, to this very day, the capital of the Turks. Yet as Sultan Mehmet II rode into the city victorious, a glance over to his childhood friend and chief of the Janissaries, Radu cel Frumos, son of Vlad II Duke of Wallachia, may have served as a sobering reminder that to the North, beyond the spoils of Byzantium, their fiercest enemies lay in wait. Among those enemies was the most feared of them all, Dracula, who just so happened to be Radu’s own brother.

The Rise of Dracula

Opportunistic betrayal was the way of Wallachia’s rulers and in one such brief betrayal, Vlad II silently allowed his older sons, Mircea and Vlad IV, to launch an insurrection after which Mircea impaled all his prisoners upon stakes. The young Dracula loved the sight of this and later joined Mircea in further insurrections against the Ottomans as well as the rival Dăneşti clan supported by the Hungarian warlord, John Hunyadi. Ultimately, Hunyadi overran Dracula’s father, slew him in the marshes of Bălteni and blinded and buried Mircea alive at Târgovişte. Hunyadi installed a Dăneşti prince, Vladislav II, over Wallachia. In his ambition and lust for power, Dracula put aside any vengeful sentiments for his slaughtered father and brother and allied with Hunyadi and served him as an adviser. As John Hunyadi went to face the Turks at Belgrade in modern day Serbia, Dracula attacked and slew Vladislav and took the throne for himself. As fortune would have it, a plague broke out amongst Hunyadi’s camp, infecting him which lead to his death. Sultan Mehmet was severely wounded in the battle. These events left Dracula to rule Wallachia uninterrupted for 6 years. It was the only time he ruled his home for so long.

The Impaler

“I have killed men and women, old and young… We killed 23,884 Turks and Bulgarians without counting those whom we burned in their homes or whose heads were not cut by our soldiers.” (Dracula, in a letter to Matthias Corvinus bragging of his tyranny)

As Sultan Mehmet approached what appeared to be a fetid balding forest of rotting trees in the distance he soon realized the horror of what he approached. They were so close to their destination – the Wallachian capital of Târgoviște -that he was in no mood for this puzzling sight. But the figures became more clear as the steeds in the cavalry grew unruly and the infantry felt ill. Before him stood 20,000 impaled bodies of innocent men, women and children, all victims of Dracula in that winter of 1462.

Dracula’s Muslim upbringing, albeit abandoned in deference to opportunity, and fluency in Turkish enabled him to move about the Ottomans’ most secured camps freely as a Turk without being noticed. This had deadly consequences for the Muslims. Dracula had entered Serbia with his men all dressed as Turkish Sipahis and slaughtered all the Muslim villagers, and those non-Muslims friendly to them that they could find. The intent was to leave a horrifying memento for Sultan Mehmet whom they knew to be soon taking their capital city. They erected this unholy monument in a bid to alarm the Sultan and terrorize his troops in hopes that they might turn around and retreat home.

What is remarkable is that there are no records of mass desertion of Ottoman troops after witnessing this. They pressed on unflinchingly. However, some historians have suggested that Sultan Mehmet II lost his taste for hunting down the ‘vampire’ following this invasion of Wallachia and left the task up to the only one who was capable of hunting down Dracula and killing him. After taking the Wallachian capital of Târgoviște, Mehmet returned home, leaving the hunt to Radu. After all, it would take someone who knew the mind of Dracula to defeat him, and none fit this bill better than his own brother.

This event earned Dracula the name of Vlad Ţepeş, the Romanian word “Ţepeş” meaning “Impaler”. Legend has it that if you look closely at the word you can see Dracula’s fangs dangling beneath as a hidden warning to the vampire’s terrible lust for blood.

Radu vs. Dracula: Brothers in Blood

As Târgoviște was taken, Dracula fled towards Transylvania in hopes of finding refuge with John Hunyadi’s son Matthias Corvinus. As was typical of Dracula’s opportunism and lack of reverence for religion, he offered to become Catholic in order to win Corvinus’ favor. He scorched the earth and slaughtered all the living in his path leaving a wake of desolation and writhing impaled bodies. He would not give up his homeland to the Muslims that easily. He began a beleaguering campaign of guerilla warfare that the elite Ottoman Sipahis could not endure. It is said he slaughtered 15,000 of the Ottoman soldiers in one single night. Still, as the mightiest of the Ottomans fled, Radu was undeterred seemingly driven by what can only be interpreted as an austere piety, to end the bloody reign of his haplessly misguided brother. None remained to fight Dracula save Radu and his fellow Romanian Muslim Janissaries.

The brothers fought lingering battles for the throne of Wallachia and Radu’s control of the region increased staggeringly with Dracula receiving less and less support from Matthias Corvinus in Hungary. In a strange twist of fate, Corvinus, the one to whom Dracula retreated, had him imprisoned for 12 years on charges of high treason. The people of Wallachia and their Christian nobles had enough of Dracula’s terror and put their support behind Radu who was pronounced Voivod, Prince and Ruler of Wallachia in 1462. Radu ruled the land prosperously for 11 years until his death while Dracula wasted away in a Budapest prison patiently waiting to rise again from the darkness.

Dracula’s Release and Final Battle

After Radu’s death in 1473, Dracula was released from prison. He immediately assembled an army and invaded Bosnia, slaughtering its Muslim population and impaling 8,000 on stakes in a forest of human bodies. Once again, Dracula had arisen from the darkness with the objective of eliminating Islam from the Balkans forever. He finally acquired the throne of Wallachia after his departed brother, but only for a month. Sultan Mehmet invaded Wallachia to remove this profanity from the throne his dear friend Radu had vacated in death. In 1476 the forces of Sultan Mehmet faced the forces of Dracula in Bucharest, Romania. Dracula’s army was overrun in a blitz and all were killed, including Dracula himself. The vampire had been slain. News of this did not suffice. His head was cut off and preserved in a jar of honey and sent to Constantinople. There, in a fitting end, Dracula’s head was impaled upon a stake in the center of Constantinople for all to see. There was to be no doubt or mystery.

The Muslims had finally, at last, killed Dracula.
References

Dracula: Essays on the Life and Times of Vlad Ţepeş, Kurt W. Treptow
Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, Kurt W. Treptow
The Complete Dracula, Radu Florescu, Raymond T. McNally
Vlad Ţepeş, Prince of Walachia, Nicolae Stoicescu
Tarikh al-Dawlah al-`Uthmaniyyah fi-l `Usur al-Wusta (Arabic), Dr. Mahmud al-Huwayri
Al-`Uthmaniyin fi-l Tarikh wal-Hadharah (Arabic), Dr. Muhammad Harb
Tarikh al-Dawlah al-`Uthmaniyyah (Arabic), Dr. Ali Hassoun
Al-Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih (Arabic), Dr. Sayyid Ridwan `Ali

http://www.1stethical.com/2010/12/07...illed-dracula/ ]]> Islamic History http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54699-How-the-Muslims-Killed-Dracula <![CDATA[Muslims Invented Computers & Robots?]]> http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54542-Muslims-Invented-Computers-amp-Robots&goto=newpost Sat, 16 Mar 2013 05:53:02 GMT Was looking up something about computers when I came across this:

Quote:

...Around the end of the 10th century, the French monk Gerbert d'Aurillac brought back from Spain the drawings of a machine invented by the Moors that answered either Yes or No to the questions it was asked.[9] Again in the 13th century, the monks Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon built talking androids without any further development (Albertus Magnus complained that he had wasted forty years of his life when Thomas Aquinas, terrified by his machine, destroyed it)...

...^ Felt, Dorr E. (1916). Mechanical arithmetic, or The history of the counting machine. Chicago: Washington Institute. p. 8. Dorr E. Felt
^ "Speaking machines". The parlour review, Philadelphia 1 (3). 20 January 1838. Retrieved 11 October 2010...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

[Roger Bacon studied Arabic Andulusian scientific manuscripts which he used as a basis for his later scientific 'dsicoveries', Thomas Aquinas was a Christian fanatic] ]]> Islamic History falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54542-Muslims-Invented-Computers-amp-Robots