Masoud (slave)

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 sodomise 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.

References

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

Sources

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

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