It took me a long time to figure out what all the regions and cities of
Zakhara paralelled, but each place does parallel a real earth place, however
vague it may be.
Qudra- Qudra is Mamluk Cairo, the second or third city of the Faithful. It
has beautiful mosques and strong fortifications. Altho no ancient
civilizations have been spoken of along the 'al-Faddi River, one of my pet
projects is to speak of ancient pyramids along the river, remnants of an
ancient and cruel Pharoanic civilization which was centered on a city which
once existed where Qudra now stands.
Liham- Liham is supposed to be an ancient city where there was an ancient
militarist civilization. Liham represents the Philistine royal cities,
either Gaza or Ascalon. They were powerful in the pagan days, but by the
time of the Crusades Gaza and Ascalon were often held by Cairo, as Qudra
sort of has its hands on Liham.
'Umara- not sure exactly which city this represents, l'm thinking it may be
Jerusalem, ruled by a tribe from the desert, as Jerusalem often was.
Obviously there is not the great religious significance Jerusalem had, but
being between Muluk and Liham, it does kind of figure.
Muluk- This is an easy one Muluk represents the Phoenician royal cities of
Tyre and Sidon, home of the royal purple dye for centuries. Tales of the
human sacrifices to the Baals would be good for its history.
Qadib- not sure of this one, possibly Beirut or Tripoli(which was another
Phoenician royal city)
Hafayah- The Syrian coastal city of Latakiyah
Utaqa- Definately the city of Antioch, with its Greek ideals, which have
still prevailed through the Muslim era. Antioch was a very independant city
in medieval times, populated by a majority of Christians, much like Utaqa is.
Since we have established that the Rom are legendary undead Romans, they
would be good encounters in this region, as Antioch was the third city of the
empire of Rome.
Hiyal- Hiyal is Damascus, the second city of the Caliphate and the makers of
fine steel. Hiyal's +1 blades are parallel to Damascus steel, which along
with the Toledo blades of Spain, were the finest in perhaps the world.
Wasat- literally meaning "middle" there was a city called Wasit, but it was
midway between Baghdad and Basra.
Huzuz- obviously both the Baghdad and the Mecca of 'al-Qadim
Halwa- possibly Mecca, without any religious significance.
Cities of the Pearl- these are the cities of the Yemen, Hadramut and Oman,
trade more than warcraft or religious fanatacism, greases their wheels.
Their ships reach the whole world. This region was the Muslim world's number
one producer of coffee and frankincense, as the Cities of Pearl do for
Zakhara.
League of the Pantheon- l am thinking they did a little of placing the
present upon the past here, but did so well. The League is definately Iran,
with its fanatical ways of the present, moralist to the extreme. Like Iran,
the League is pretty self-sufficient on manpower, not needing much in the way
of mamluks or ajami warriors.
Ruined Kingdoms- that is India-Pakistan here, the Indus river system. The
ancient past here would be Mohenjo-Daro. Well, this is one place where the
ancient past has been pretty well developed. Often in the 1001 Nights they
refer to India as an island, hence putting Afyal off the mainland.
