THE NIBELUNGENLIED

This painting shows an episode from the German poem the Nibelungenlied: King Etzel enters the city of Vienna on horseback.

The Nibelungenlied (Song of the Nibelungs) is the great story of the Burgundian people, who had settled in the city of Worms in the 5th century, and of their tragic fate. By the start of the 13th century, this tale has been immortalized as an epic poem, popular throughout the courts of Germany.

THE MARRIAGES OF SIEGFRIED AND GUNTHER

Siegfried, a knight from the city of Xanten on the lower Rhine, hears of the great beauty of Kriemhild, sister of the Burgundian king, Gunther, and decides to woo her. Upon his arrival in Worms, only Hagen, Gunther’s most powerful vassal, recognizes him, and relates his heroic deeds: Siegfried firstly won a great treasure from the Nibelungs (two princes and brothers named Schilbung and Nibelung), by slaying them. After taking the Tarnkappe (a cloak of darkness) from Alberich, the dwarven treasurer of the Nibelungs, he rose to become ruler of Nibelungland. Hagen also tells of how Siegfried had killed the dragon Fafnir and bathed in its blood, after which his body became invulnerable. (In fact he had only one vulnerable spot, between his shoulder blades, where a large leaf had rested on his skin as he was soaked in the dragon’s blood.)

King Gunther allows Siegfried to marry Kriemhild, on the condition that he helps him to gain the hand of Brünhild, the legendarily strong queen of Iceland. Siegfried agrees, and upon their arrival in Iceland, Brünhild is most disappointed that it is Gunther, instead of Siegfried, who has come to woo her. Nevertheless, she agrees to marry Gunther if he can best her in three contests of strength. With the use of the Tarnkappe, Siegfried manages to substitute himself for Gunther in the contest, and deceive Brünhild into thinking that Gunther has bested her. Returning to Worms, a double marriage is arranged: Gunther with Brünhild and Siegfried with Kriemhild. Of these four, only Brünhild is unhappy, since she is in love with Siegfried instead. Gunther’s marriage immediately hits difficulties, as his new wife overpowers him on their wedding night and hangs him up on the wall. Siegfried again helps Gunther, and takes his place in the bedchamber, overpowering and restraining Brünhild, so that Gunther can deflower her. Brünhild loses her great strength, which relied on her maidenhood. However Siegfried also takes Brünhild’s ring and girdle, and gifts them to Kriemhild. He returns home with his new wife, where he becomes king of the Nether Lands, and they live happily for ten years.

THE DEATH OF SIEGFRIED

In Worms, Brünhild remains unhappy in her marriage to Gunther, still unaware of how he cheated to gain her hand. Siegfried and Kriemhild return for a festival, at which Gunther treats him as an equal. Brünhild, however, thinks that Siegfried is a vassal of Gunther, and treats Kriemhild as her inferior, leading to a quarrel between the two queens. Kriemhild claims that Siegfried is braver and stronger than her brother Gunther, which she proves by revealing that it was Siegfried who had overpowered her in her bedchamber. She claims (wrongly) that it was Siegfried who had claimed her virginity, and reveals the belt and girdle. Brünhild is mortally embarrassed and Gunther has no choice but to confront Siegfried. Siegfried swears that he never claimed to be Brünhild’s first man, which Gunther accepts.

Brünhild’s humiliation lingers, and she conspires with Hagen (who is jealous of Siegfried’s wealth and prowess) to kill Siegfried. Hagen persuades Gunther, with reluctance, to agree. He then deceives Kriemhild and manages to learn of Siegfried’s sole weakness. Hagen goes on a hunt with Siegfried in the Odenwald, and challenges him to a race. As Siegfried quenches his thirst at a spring, Hagen seizes his javelin and thrusts it between Siegfried’s shoulder blades, his only weak spot, and slays him. Kriemhild is inconsolable at the death of her husband. At his funeral, as Hagen and Gunther move around the bier, Siegfried’s wounds run anew, revealing the traitors.

THE TREASURE OF THE NIBELUNGS

Kriemhild stays at Worms, and after three years she is eventually reconciled with her brother Gunther. He persuades her to bring the Nibelung treasure to Burgundy, to which she has a right, as Siegfried’s widow. Thus Kriemhild becomes fabulously wealthy, but her acts of generosity do not sit well with Hagen. Hagen also fears that she will use this money to raise an army to attack him. He therefore steals the treasure, and prevents Kriemhild from regaining it by sinking it in the Rhine. Gunther does not punish Hagen for this; apart from Hagen, he and his brothers are the only ones who know of where the hoard is sunk.

KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE

Some years later, Etzel (Attila), king of the Huns, decides to seek the hand of Kriemhild, who is still the most beautiful woman in the world. She is initially reluctant to marry a heathen, and she still mourns for Siegfried, yet she sees that the marriage will finally allow her to take revenge on Hagen. Etzel and Kriemhild marry in Vienna and travel to Etzelnburg, Etzel’s capital in Hungary. After winning the trust of her new husband’s vassals, she invites her brothers to a midsummer festival in Hungary, knowing that Hagen will also attend. Hagen however persuades Gunther to take an escort of a thousand armed men. In crossing the River Danube, Hagen encounters water sprites who warn him to turn back, foretelling that they are all doomed to die, bar one (a priest). Hagen tries to disprove the prophecy by murdering this priest, but he fails and the churchman escapes. Gunther and Hagen arrive at Etzel’s court but are given a cold reception by Kriemhild. After a day, fighting breaks out, and many Huns are killed. Gunther allows Kriemhild and Etzel, with his vassal Dietrich of Bern, to leave the hall.

Hagen foolishly taunts Etzel, and the battle is renewed. Dietrich manages to overpower and capture Gunther and Hagen, but honorably offers to return them safely to their home. Kriemhild, however, confronts the imprisoned Hagen, demanding the return of Siegfried’s treasure, in return for freedom to return to Burgundy. Hagen responds with mockery, so Kriemhild has Gunther beheaded, and brings his head to Hagen. Kriemhild again demands that he tell her the location of the treasure; when he refuses, she takes up Balmung (Siegfried’s sword) and decapitates him. Upon discovering the bodies of Gunther and Hagen, Hildebrand (Dietrich’s man-at-arms) retaliates by killing the queen. Thus the tale ends in tragedy with the death of all the leading participants, and the treasure of the Nibelungs remains lost.

Cian (Kian, Cian mac Cainte) Irish hero.

Balor

When BALOR, king of the FOMORIANS, was told that he would be killed by his grandson, he thought he could outwit the prophecy because his only daughter EITHNE was still a virgin. So he locked her in a high tower, where she would never meet a man and therefore never bear a child.

Balor proved his own undoing, for he coveted the magically abundant COW, the GLAS GHAIBHLEANN, which was in the keeping of Cian, a man from the mainland. Some tales say that Cian was the cow’s owner, while others say that he was merely the cowherd, the owner being a magical SMITH. Sailing over from his home on Tory Island, off the northwest coast of Ireland, Balor stole the cow and brought her back to his distant home. Unwilling to lose such a splendid beast, Cian went secretly across the waters, where he found a greater prize: the fair Eithne. Helped by a DRUID woman, BIRÓG, he decked himself in women’s clothes and took up residence in the tower, where he seduced Eithne. She gave birth to three sons, two of whom were drowned by their grandfather; the surviving child was the hero LUGH. In variants of the story, Cian is called Kian or MacInelly; he is also said to have impregnated Eithne’s other 12 handmaids, all of whom gave birth to SEALS.

In some stories, Cian is described as a son of the physician god, DIAN CÉCHT, which would make him one of the TUATHA DÉ DANANN, the people of the goddess DANU. He died when three brothers, the SONS OF TUIREANN, ambushed him because of enmity between Cian and their father. To his humiliation, he attempted to avoid the encounter with the armed warriors, turning himself into a PIG and pretending to scour the forest floor for acorns, but the brothers saw through the SHAPE-SHIFTING and turned themselves into DOGS to bring Cian down, only permitting him to return to human form just before death. The great earthwork called the Black Pig’s Dyke is said to be his petrified body or to have been dug by him while in pig form.

THE LOST MINES OF THE GODS

The claim by Sitchin that the area of Lake Titicaca was set up as a major metallurgy center is quite an extraordinary piece of detective work and the supporting evidence is astounding. Again the conclusion that the entire complex was set up as part of a major control center to deal with matters of travel and supply is further hinted at by the depiction on the Mayan stele of the figure bearing the ‘Star of David’ symbol on his ear-ring.

The Star of David symbol is extraordinarily similar to an earlier Sumerian emblem which is quite likely the original precursor to the Jewish symbol. The Sumerian symbol, which signifies a ‘Supreme Place of the Four Regions’, has also been found at many ancient trade centers in the Persian Gulf area such as the ancient Sumerian city of Ur.Shulim, (the modern Jerusalem,) at Uruk (the Biblical Erech) and at other places that are all thought to have been vital control centers of the Sumerians that dealt with matters of travel and supplies. Plus there further evidence to support the conclusion that the site was indeed used for the refining of metals.

The mountain on which Tiahuanaco is situated is itself also extremely rich in tin bearing ores. Tin of course is not a naturally accessible metal like gold and must be smelted and extracted by various chemical processes and then mixed with a required percentage of copper to produce bronze, it’s not just a straightforward and simple procedure. The ancient bronze clamps that are still evident on many stone slabs are intriguing because only minimal supplies of copper with which they could have been made are available anywhere near the location of Cuzco. In startling contrast to this lack of a local copper source, many of the river rocks on the shore of Lake Titicaca, especially near the remains of ancient docks and port facilities at Puma Punka, are stained a deep bluish green.

What causes rocks to turn a bluish green?

The only thing that can cause such a reaction is prolonged exposure to copper – end of list. It’s similar to the way rocks rich in iron turn red as the iron oxidizes with the water, rocks rich in copper turn a bluish green. Yet the rocks at Lake Titicaca contain no copper! It therefore stands to reason that there was once a good deal of copper brought into Cuzco via the Puma Punka port facility. Then of course we need to ask why would all this copper have been brought in if not to mix with the abundant source of tin that already existed there in order to make bronze? It would certainly seem more reasonable than taking the ore bearing tin to the source of the copper. The manufacture of bronze at the site is further confirmed from the presence of the bronze clamps.

When considering this shoreline of greenish rocks on Lake Titicaca high in the Andes and the possibilities of an ancient metallurgy facility founded by the Gods and the descendents of Cain, there are also some comments made in an enigmatic passage in the Bible to consider in which such distant and remote mines and even the forgotten descendents of Cain seem to be suggested. The passage occurs when Job is talking to Yahweh complaining about all of the trials and tribulations heaped upon him and Yahweh says to Job:

Surely, there is a source for silver

A place where gold is refined

Where copper is obtained from ores

And iron is smelted out of stones

To darkness He puts an end

The usefulness he researches

Of stones in depths and obscurity

He breaches the brook away from Habitation

Where the forgotten and strange men move about

There is a land from which the ingots come

Whose underground is upheavaled as with fire

A place where the blue-green stones are

That has the ores of gold

Even a vulture knows not the way thereto

And a falcons eye has not discerned it

There He set His hand to the granite

He overturned the mountains at their roots

He cut galleries through the rocks

And all that his precious eyes had seen

He damned up the sources of the streams

And that which is hidden He brought to light

These Biblical verses coupled with ancient Sumerian texts, significant geological evidence, local legends and the substantial genetic differences to be found in the races native to the Americas provides a strong case that the South American civilization was indeed established by the lost tribes of Israel and possibly even the son of Cain himself.

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF THE RUINS OF THEBES

The ancient capital Thebes, present-day Luxor, lay on the east bank of the Nile facing the necropolis on the west. This map of one of Egypt's most extensive archeological sites marks the capital and its necropolis with their Greek names: Diospolis and Memnonia, respectively. All the monuments that were known in Prisse's day are on the map, often with the name of the pharaoh who had commissioned their construction. The map is from the original published by Sir J.G.Wilkinson in 1835.

CEILING PATTERNS (Memphis &> Thebes- 18th to 30th Dynasties)

The vulture, often painted on ceilings of temple gateways, may also appear in a tomb as did the vultures in the pattern above from the tomb of Bekenrenef. Below, the pattern is a combination of vultures from two gateways in Philae: from the reigns of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II above, and Nectanebo X below. The geese center are from the New Kingdom tomb of Nebamun and Imiseba.

Nature's Silent Music: A Rucksack Naturalist's Ireland

About the Author
Dr. Philip S. Callahan is a philosopher as well as a top-grade scientist. An internationally famous entomologist and ornithologist, he has been responsible for breakthrough discoveries in both areas. He is also an explorer who has walked across mainland China and the Syrian Desert, observing the intricate ways of man and nature wherever he went.

He entered the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942, and served two years in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Hiking around the world after he war, he worked as a freelance photographer and writer. Later, he attended Fordham University and received his B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Arkansas and his Ph.D. from Kansas State University. He served as assistant professor of the Entomology Department at Louisiana State University and later joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Grain Insects Research Laboratory as Project Leader for Insect Biophysics. He was also Professor of Entomology on the graduate faculty of the University of Georgia. In 1969 he transferred to USDA Insect Attractant and Behavior Laboratory at Gainesville, Florida. Callahan served as a full professor on the graduate faculty of the University of Florida, and on the staff of The Olive W. Garvey Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning, Inc. as an infrared systems and low energy consultant.

His research involved the utilization of nonlinear far infrared radiation by biological systems and its applications to insect control and medicine. He has developed theories of insect communication based on the waveguide characteristics of insect spines and has postulated that such spines are thermoelectret-coated dielectric waveguide aerials with the ability to receive short wavelength IR and microwave frequencies. His work in biophysics might best be called studies in insect molecular bioelectronics.

He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers and numerous books, including: My Search for Traces of God; A Walk in the Sun; Nature's Silent Music; Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions; Tuning in to Nature; and, Paramagnetism.

WIZARD TOWERS OR HUMAN-MADE ANTENNAE?

An example of anomalous science, which includes a possible EM (Electromagnetism)spectrum connection, is the Celtic round towers of Ireland. These fascinating structures, the tallest measuring 34 meters, once numbered over 100 and dot the Irish landscape. The idea that the round towers were erected and used primarily as watchtowers and places of protection is strongly debated by the American scientist, Philip Callahan. In his book, Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions, Callahan discusses research which indicates that the round towers may have been designed, constructed and utilized as huge resonant systems for collecting and storing meter-long wavelengths of magnetic and electromagnetic energy coming from the earth and skies. Based on fascinating studies of the forms of insect antenna and their capacity to resonate to micrometer-long electromagnetic waves, Callahan suggests that the Irish round towers (and similarly shaped religious structures throughout the ancient world) were human-made antennae, which collected and transmitted subtle magnetic radiation from the sun and passed it on to monks meditating in the tower and plants growing around the tower’s base. The round towers were able to function in this way because of their form and also because of their materials of construction.

Of the sixty-five towers that remain as ruins, twenty-five were built of limestone, thirteen of iron-rich, red sandstone, and the rest of basalt, clay slate or granite—all of these being minerals having para-magnetic properties and can thus act as magnetic antennae and energy conductors. Callahan further states that the mysterious fact of various towers being filled with rubble for portions of their interiors was not random but rather may have been a method of “tuning” the tower antenna so that it more precisely resonated with various specific frequencies.

In another article “The Mysterious Round Towers of Ireland: Low Energy Radio in Nature” from The Explorer's Journal, Summer, 1993, Callahan gives further details of his discoveries, stating “Another strange thing about the towers is the dirt that fills the base below the high doors. Each door has a different level of dirt filling the base, as if they were “tuned” like a pipe organ. I had long postulated that the towers were powerful amplifiers of radio resonance from the atmosphere generated by lightning flashes around the world.” Upon further investigation, Callahan concluded, “The round towers proved to be powerful amplifiers in the alpha brain wave region, two to 24 Hz, in the electrical anesthesia region, 1000 to 3000 Hz, and the electronic induction heating region, 5000 Hz to 1000 KHz.... It is fascinating that just above the surface of the ground to about two to four feet up there is a null of atmospheric frequencies that get stronger and stronger until at nine to 15 feet above the surface they are extremely strong.”

Were Irish monks aware of these properties and were thus prompted to build their high doors? At every tower Callahan measured, there was a direct correlation between the height of the tower door and the strength of the waves. That the highly amplified waves occur in the meditative and electrical anesthesia portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is of utmost significance. In 1963, G. Walter researched brain EEG waves from 0.5 to 3 Hz (Delta region) and found anti-infectious effects.

CAPTAIN COOK’S SECRET SEARCH FOR THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT: 1768–1771

The routes of Captain James Cook's voyages. The first voyage is shown in red, second voyage in green, and third voyage in blue. The route of Cook's crew following his death is shown as a dashed blue line.

On 26 August 1768, James Cook (then only a lieutenant) set sail from Plymouth in the bark Endeavour on a mission that today is often compared to a voyage to outer space. Together with a small team of scientists and a crew of less than a hundred men, Cook would sail to the far side of the world and into the midst of a vast ocean of unknown limits and uncertain geography. Ostensibly his mission was to visit Tahiti where his passengers would undertake astronomical observations of the transit of Venus across the sun. But Cook had also been issued secret instructions by his masters at the Admiralty – instructions for a covert mission that would change the shape of the world and determine the course of history in the Pacific.

By the mid 18th century a number of European explorers had visited the Pacific and the seas of the Southern Ocean with one object uppermost in their minds. Learned opinion agreed that there must exist to the south a great landmass, a huge continent that would counterbalance the northern continents. It was assumed that this Terra Australis Incognito, or ‘Unknown Southern Land’, must be as rich in potential for exploitation and colonisation as the Americas had proved to be. Furthermore, it might be uninhabited, or inhabited only by the sorts of natives who had been so easily brushed aside in the New World. Whichever (necessarily European) nation could claim this territory first could reap great benefits and steal a march on its rivals. There would be untold advantages for science, mineral and agricultural wealth and trade.

Thus when a chance arose to dispatch a mission to discover, chart, explore and, if possible, claim this mystery land, the British Admiralty seized upon it. That chance was offered by a scientific expedition planned by the Royal Society. Earlier in the 18th century the astronomer Edmond Halley had predicted that Venus would transit across the face of the sun in 1761 and then again in 1769. Observing and measuring the transit from two widely spaced points on the earth’s surface would allow astronomers to calculate the distance from the earth to the sun, gaining one of the first elements of empirical evidence as to the size of the universe. An expedition to observe the transit from St Helena in 1761 had failed when low cloud obscured the sun. Now the Royal Society planned another, bolder expedition to the far side of the world. Observations garnered there could be compared to measurements taken at Greenwich, and used to calculate the earth–sun distance.

Previous such expeditions under the control of scientists had not gone well – one led by Halley himself decades earlier had nearly ended in mutiny. The admiralty insisted that this time the expedition be led by a navy man. Cook, having proved his credentials in surveys of North America’s eastern seaboard, was selected. The Royal Society put about news of the voyage, which was to be bankrolled by the king, a keen astronomer. The cover story was in place, its credibility boosted by its veracity.

On 30 July, Cook was given his commission and issued with orders to go to Tahiti.Within the orders was a sealed packet of Secret Instructions. These made very clear the nature of his true mission:

Whereas there is reason to imagine that a Continent or Land of great extent, may be found to the South … You are to proceed to the southward in order to make discovery of the Continent above-mentioned … You are to employ yourself diligently in exploring as great an Extent of the Coast as you can … to observe the Nature of the Soil, and the Products thereof; the Beasts and Fowls that inhabit or frequent it, the fishes that are to be found in the Rivers or upon the Coast and in what Plenty; and in case you find any Mines, Minerals or valuable stones you are to bring home Specimens of each, as also such Specimens of the Seeds of the Trees, Fruits and Grains as you may be able to collect … You are likewise to observe the Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives … You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the name of the King of Great Britain; or, if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for his Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors.

If he could not find the fabled Terra Australis, Cook was to explore instead lands already ‘discovered’ by Europeans, such as New Zealand and New Holland (as what little of Australia had then been sighted was known).

The voyage of the Endeavour fulfilled most of its instigators’ dreams, except of course the discovery of the Great Southern Continent. Cook came within a few hundred miles of discovering Antarctica, but the Counterweight Continent as envisaged by Europeans did not exist. Instead the doughty navigator charted the coastlines of New Zealand and eastern Australia, claiming the latter for crown and country (despite the obvious signs of habitation). The Endeavour also visited and charted numerous Pacific islands and gathered a huge wealth of biological and geological specimens and data, not to mention successfully observing the transit.

The longer-term consequences of Cook’s secret mission were profound. Australia and New Zealand became British colonies and were extensively settled by Europeans to the detriment of their indigenous inhabitants. Today they are successful, prosperous democracies. The other lands touched by Cook were also altered for better and worse, ending their isolation and incorporating them into the wider world. Disease, war, trade and colonisation killed many natives and transformed their cultures and societies. Bernard Smith, professor of History at Melbourne University, describes Cook as ‘unquestionably one of the great formative agents in the creation of the modern world. His ships, you might say, began the process of making the world a global village.’ His was a secret mission that genuinely changed the world.

KING JOHN’S JEWELS

John, King of England from 1199–1216, is remembered today for many reasons, most of them unfavourable. To children he is best known as the arch-villain in the Robin Hood story, and in history he is remembered as ‘bad king John’, who lost most of the overseas possessions of the Angevin empire, irritated the barons so much that he was forced to sign the Magna Carta, and lost his Crown Jewels in the Wash.

The royal progress

The basic story, as related by historians from the 13th century onwards, is that King John was travelling in the East of England in late 1216. On 9 October he had journeyed from Lincolnshire to Bishop’s Lynn (now King’s Lynn) in Norfolk, but when he arrived he began to feel ill. It was decided that he would return back towards Lincolnshire, which was probably thought to be safer at this time, as the French king, Louis, had recently invaded the country to the south.

Calamity in the Wash

On 12 October, John attempted to cross the Wash, the large bay that separates East Anglia from Lincolnshire. At this time it extended much further inland than it does today, and would have been a region of mudflats and marshes, traversable at low tide but dangerous to the unwary, riddled with quicksand and deeper channels and vulnerable to rapid movements of water with the tide. The king is said to have crossed over at Wisbech, where it was possible to ford the Wellstream, one of the rivers running into the Wash. Meanwhile the king’s baggage train, which supposedly included all of the royal treasures including the Crown Jewels (the regalia the monarch bore during the coronation), was also trying to cross the Wash, but was surprised by the tide and got lost amidst the rising waters and quicksand. The traditional account of this disaster is well represented by this passage from Charles Dickens’ A Child’s History of England:

looking back from the shore when he was safe, he [the king] saw the roaring water sweep down in a torrent, overturn the wagons, horses, and men, that carried his treasure, and engulf them in a raging whirlpool from which nothing could be delivered.

Undone by this tremendous stroke of ill fortune, John was taken to the monastery at Swineshead Abbey in Lincolnshire where he was greeted with ‘quantities of pears, and peaches, and new cider’. He was taken ill again, with dysentery, and moved a few more times, eventually dying on the 18 October at Newark.

HAROUN AL-RASHID

While hidden powers sometimes rule in secret, acknowledged rulers sometimes choose to hide their power and go undercover. Known instances of this are rare, but there are two from widely different cultures that stand out. Haroun al-Rashid (c763–809 CE) was the greatest of the Abbasid caliphs. He ruled an Islamic empire that stretched from Persia to Egypt and from Yemen to the Black Sea, and the fabulous splendour of his court and of his capital, Baghdad, is immortalised in The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, in which he features frequently. Haroun, whose title translates into the rather less romantic sounding ‘Aaron the Upright’, became caliph at the young age of 21 but was shrewd enough to appoint good ministers. One of the most notable features of his enlightened reign was the effort he made to improve the quality of life in Baghdad. Numerous hospitals, amounting to a sort of medieval health system, were set up, as were temples, schools and a postal system. Security was improved with a kind of municipal police force. Legal reforms were instituted to ensure just treatment for all citizens (although slavery was also a major feature of life).

Nevertheless, Haroun’s life of luxury and splendour in his fabulous palace was still very far removed from the difficult daily lot of his subjects. Perhaps he realised this, because his concern for their welfare drove him to take the unusual step of going among them. At night he would disguise himself, slip out of the palace and wander the streets and bazaars, listening to conversations and talking to ordinary people. In this way he could discover grievances, find out what was unpopular and learn whether his administration was dealing justly with the common people.

How much impact Haroun’s incognito adventures had is impossible to say, but he was a very successful ruler. In international terms his influence was felt from China to Europe, where he made alliance with Charlemagne against their common foe, the Byzantines. More relevantly, in domestic terms Haroun’s rule encouraged a secure and tolerant culture in which arts, learning, science and the trade and industry that made Baghdad and his court so fabulously wealthy could flourish.