Here is a rich background (and foreground) for the Dune Chronicles including scholarly bypaths and amusing sidelights Some of the contn buttons are sure to arouse controversy, based as thev are on question able sources Others round out long speculation Specialists have had their field day here with problems geological, biological astronomical and mystical, with pronounciations, major biographies histories and accounts of little-known figures The range of topics is catholic cf from games for amusement to games of life and death (Cheops or Pyramid Chess to "The Assassins' Handbook' ) The history of the Financial Synod which spawned CHOAM gets its first airing in these pages In fact, many secrets hidden in the Dune Chronicles are answered here How did Irulan first gam and then arouse the displeasure of Ghamma7 Who was Jehanne Butler and why does the Butlerian Jihad carry her name? What are the hidden origins of the Spacing Guild? Where did spice-trance navigational techniques develop? What was Leto ll's private opinion of Holy Sister Qumtimus Violet Chenoeh? Does Cheops have something in common with the three-body problem? I must confess that 1 found it fascinating to re-enter here some of the sources on which the Chronicles are built As the first Dune fan, I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold Frank Herbert Port Townsend, WA November 1983 THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA A Berkley Book/published by arrangement with the author PRINTINO HISTORY Berkley trade paperback edition/June 1984 All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 1984 by Dr. Willis E. McNelly Designed by Jeremiah B Lighter This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 ISBN 0-425-06813-7 A BERKLEY BOOK * TM 757,375 Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016. The name "BERKLEY" and the stylized "B" with design are trademarks belonging to Berkley Publishing Corporation. , HUNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTRODUCTION Snippets of poetry from the Impcnum, a Sample folk tale from the Oral History, bnef biographies of over a dozen Duncan Idahos, two differing approaches to Paul Muad'Dib himself and to his son, Leto II, Fremen recipes, Fretnen history secrets of the Bene Gessent, the songs of Gurney Halleck-these are just some of the treasures found when an earthmover fell into the God Emperor s no room at Dar-es-Balat, and are now included in The Dune Encyclopedia Dozens of scholars have rushed into print with their translations of one or more of the nduhan crystals, and the popular press on many planets has been filled with hypothesis, conjecture, and outright fabrication In the meantime literally hundreds of scholars, ranging from anthropohnguists and cultural historians to professors of every facet of science, have been laboring quietly and patiently with the incredible amount of material left hidden by Leto II nearly eighteen hundred years ago The labors of the Library Confraternity have finally brought some order to the chaotic randomness of the no-room artifacts While only a very small percentage of the extant material has been either unearthed or translated and little has received any kind of scholarly evaluation, nonetheless enough progress has been accomplished to present this initial volume of The Dune Encyclopedia This book has been the work of literally dozens of scholars who have contributed their efforts so that readers on worlds from one end of the galaxy to another may finally have a clear, coherent picture of the legendary days of Paul Muad'Dib and his son Leto Atreides, known during his 3,500-year lifetime as the "God Emperor " Readers of The Dune Encyclopedia should understand Us limitations it is not designed as a definitive study of the entire eras encompassed by the Atreides Impenum Yet the thousands of descendants of Duncan Idaho and Siona Atreides can now, after the recovery from the dcletenous effects of the Starvation and the Scattering, learn something of their ancestors and the conditions that produced the God Emperor They may also become aware of the undercurrents that resulted in his Fail However, if readers of this volume are searching for the formulae which cover the electronic intricacies of the Spacing Guild trans-light Ixian Navigational systems, they will be disappointed This type of material already exists elsewhere and need not be duplicated on these pages Rather it has been the aim of the editors and the Library Confraternity to present in this volume a broad spectrum of material concerning those events and people which shaped our present worlds In addition, we must also consider something of the eccentricities of Lord Leto who was solely responsible for accumulating, assembling, and secreting what is now known as the Rakis Hoard If Leto was interested in some topic the material was saved If he was not, its absence in the Rakis digs is obvious Furthermore if he was amused by some scrap of information, he preserved it, even though raan> contemporary scholars feel the information may well have been false or misleading in the first place. We have made 110 attempt to separate Leto's truths from his foibles or to indicate which is which. Such judgments are best left to scholars or to the general reading public at whom this book is aimed. In addition, Leto assembled much material from the centuries post-dating the Butlerian Jihad, and we present some of it in this book, including newly discovered information about the hitherto legendary Jehanne Butler who gave her name to the jihad she so nobly led. Thus some of the entries in The Dune Encyclopedia were written by people who actually lived at the time of Muad'Dib; others were prepared by contemporary scholars based upon older materials, and still other entries represent preliminary papers prepared by the many investigators at Dar-es-Balat. Selection of the final material was most arduous, but the entire governing aim is to present as well-rounded a picture of the early days of the Atreides Imperium as possible. I would like to acknowledge the specific contributions made to The Dune Encyclopedia by Gweteder Miiarz and Kriteen Gwuutan, whose labors were singularly devoted. Professors Gwilit Mignail and Zhauzaf Kluursh contributed many hours to the book. Poet Rebeth Vreeb and her husband Rebeth Farnark were instrumental in helping sort out some of the voluminous material found in the Hoard and both gave unstintingly of their time and advice. In addition my husband Zhenaweev Benotto was both patient and long-sufiFering. I owe him more than words can say. All of these people caught many errors that would otherwise have crept into the pages of The Dune Encyclopedia, but final responsibility for the text must ultimately be my own. HADI BENOTTO, Editor 15540 A CHRONOLOGY OF SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY BEFORE GUILD 19000-16500 Early civilizations on Terra. 16500 Aleksandr creates FIRST EMPIRE 16400-16000 ROMAN EMPIRE arises and conquers the known world, except for China, which resists until 14400. 15800 Imperial Seat moved to Byzantium in retreat before provincial rebellions and minor jihads. 14700-14608 THE GREAT STRUGGLE: The Century Without an Emperor. 14608 Discoveries in America allow Madrid to attain the status of the Imperial Seat, 14512 BATTLE OF ENOLICHANNEL. Seat of Empire moved from Madrid to London. 14500-14200 THE GOLDEN AGE OF INVENTION- Development of radio, television, atomics, rocketry, genetics, and the computer. ' 14255 first atomics demonstrated in an intraprovmcia! wai. Seat of Empire moved to Washington. 14100-13600 THE LITTLE DIASPORA: The solar system is colonized, and the population of Terra is eventually outnumbered by 20 to 1. 13402 Ceres gains the imperial Seat after a planetoid strikes Terra. 13402-13399 THE RESCUE OF THE TREASURES from Terra 13360 Terra re-seeded and set aside (by Imperial edict) as a natural park. 13004 SUSPENSOR-NULLIFICATION EFFECT discovered. 12200 THE EMPIRE OF TEN WORLDS. Communications becoming strained. 11200 THE EMPIRE OF A THOUSAND WORLDS (an empire in name only, because Imperial power was so diffuse as to be nonexistent). 11105 AGE OF PRETENDERS begins when Ceres is destroyed by rebellion, and the Imperial Seat ceases to exist as a single entity. 11100-7562 THE AGE OF TEN THOUSAND EMPERORS (sometimes called "The Great Dark Ages"). 7593 I.V. Holtzman born on Liesco n. 7565 Holtzman disabled and cyborged. 7562 Holtzman reveals the "wave-effect" nature of the suspensor- nullification device. 7556 Holtzman severely damaged and thrown into a cometary orbit. Communications with him are lost. 7562-5022 - THE WARS OF REUNIFICATION, consequent on the immediate communication made possible by Holtzman Effect. 5022 THE EMPIRE OF TEN THOUSAND WORLDS united under Ladislaus the Great 5022-3678 THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE. 3832 Holtzman reappears at Liesco, and presents the theory for construction of the DEFENSIVE SHIELD 3678 THE SILICON PLAGUE: the "Death of the Machines." 3678-2000 THE LITTLE DARK AGES, ending with the development of plague-resistant conductors. A CHRONOLOGY OF SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS IN HI MAN HISTORY (Conr d ) 2000-1800 THERETURN OF THE COMPUTERS (sometimes called 'The Second Reunification") 1970 Holtzman reappears, and presents his UNIFIED THEORY 1800-400 THE SECOND GOLDEN AGE Circa 700 the first anti com pttter pogroms occur 711-200 Tensions increase between programmitcs and humanity first ers, tensions which Jehanne Butler was to exploit 200-108 THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD 108 Holtzman returns and is destroyed by forces of the Jihad ca 100 Ixians,- refugees from the Jihad, led by Aurehus Venport, discover TUPILE the Sanctuary Planet(s) 88 THE BATTLE OF CORRIN 86 FOUNDATION OF HOUSE ATREIDES when Demetnos Atreides is made Baron Tantalos m reward for aiding the Corrmos 84 First MELANGE-guided journey through hyperspace, by Norma Cenva UBG- 70 A G The Reign of SAUDIR I "The Great " 10 Corpus Luminis Praenuntiantis (the future Spacing Guild) begins negotiations with the Empire 10-5 THE GREAT FINANCIAL SYNOD, on Aeranum IV, creates CHOAM 0 THE LION THRONE, THE SPACING GUILD, and CHOAM (as the arm of the Landsraad) combine to establish the form of human society for the next ten thousand years AFTER GUILD 123-184 Reign of NEGARA II 207 Thomas Atreides helps restore Elrood II, and is made Duke of Jaddua. 337 THE GREAT CONVENTION is ratified 385-388 THE LISHASH REBELLION the last significant armed re sistance to the Empire 388 Saudir m designates SALUSA SECUNDUS as PRISON PLANET 390 Wallach I begins use of Salusa Secundus as a training ground for the SARDAUKAR 1234 THE ORDER OF MEN!ATS is founded by Gilbenus Albans, originally on the planet Septimus, and moved to Tleilax a decade later 1487 The Cornnos shift the Imperial Seat to Kaitain 2800 Elrood V gives Poritrin, third planet of Epsilon Alangue, to House Marcs Sindar Charles Baron Mikarrol, planetary governor of Terra, sends two million ZENSUNNI to Pontrin, beginning the Zensunm Migration 4492 POntnn is given to House Alexm, and the Sardaukar are sent to remove the Zensunm, sending five million to BELA TEGEUSE and five million to SALUSA SECUNDUS 5122 First FACE DANCERS appear as entertainers at the Court of Comn XIV 5295 Ezhar VII releases the Zensunm on Salusa Secundus, sending them to ISH1A, second planet of Beta Tygri 6049 Zensunm on Bela Tegeuse are transported again, with the majority sent to Harmoothep, and the remainder to ROSSAK, the fifth planet of Alces Minor A CHRONOLOGY OF SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY (Cora d ) ca 6600 A.Sayyadma on Rossak discovers a planl whose mgestion unlocks the "voices within ' ca 6800 Harmonthep, a satellite of Delta Pavoms, is destroyed by unknown causes 7193 Zensunni on Rossak buy passage to ARRAKIS from the Spacing Guild By this time, all Zensunm from both Ishia and Rossak have reached Arrakts 8711 The Atreides family is awarded the Sindar Dukedom of CALADAN 9751 ELACCA drug in relatively common use 9846 Invention of HUNTER SEEKBR ca 10000 Invention of the DISTRANS on Ix 10092 Semuta extraction process discovered 10140 LETO ATREIDES (Duke Leto I) bom 10154 LADY JESSICA bom 10155-10165 GURNEY HALLECK a Harkonnen slave on Oiedi Prime 10158 DUNCAN IDAHO (the human) born 10175 PAUL ATREIDES born 10179 First successful implant of the distrans in a human 10190-91 House Atreides moves to ARRAKIS 10191 The Sardaukar attack on Arrakis tails Duke Leto, Paul and Jessica go into the desert with the Fremen ALIA ATREIDES born 10193 Paul regains control of Arrakis and its spice monopoly 10196 SHADDAM IV abdicates, Paul becomes Emperor 10196-10208 PAUL'S JIHAD 10200 FARAD'N (KENOl-A) bom to Wensicia and Count Dalak Kenola 10204 Count Dalak dies suspiciously in 'thopter accident, Farad n s last name is changed to Comno 10208 GHOLA HAYT (JJuncan-10208) is created and presented to Paul 10209 LETO II and OHANIMA born CHANI dies Paul goes into the desert, and Alia becomes regent 10210 Alia dissolves the FEDAYK1N Paul's Death-Commandos 10218 Duncan-10208 delivers Lady Jessica to House Comno 10219 LETO n ascends to the throne 10246 HARQ AL-HARBA born 10271 REVOLT OF THE FREMEN crushed, and its leader, Duncan 10235, is put to death 10941 Duncan 10895 reveals the ritual of SIAYNOQ 11745 THE ORDER OF MENTATS is suppressed by Leto II 12335 The execution of THE NINE HISTORIANS 12725 The Festival City of ONN is built according to the design of Duncan-12720 13724 The death of LETO II 14702 THE CROMPTON RUINS discovered 15525 The finding of THE RAKIS HOARD 15540 The publication of THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA Compiled by W D I and W E M ABOMINATION ABOMINATION ABOMIHATION. A Bene Gessent term de-scnbing behavior severely "out of character" for an individual, and not ethically or morally a part of the individual's norm The Sisterhood viewed severely disruptive psychotic behavior as a mystic condition involving the "possession" of tfae host psyche of a "pre-born' by the overwhelming personality of a genetic, ancestral pseudo-tife The term "pre-born" is defined in the Bene Gessent Azhar Book as "that soul resting quietly within its womb-bed whose entire life is destroyed by a pre-birth knowledge of its ancestors* personae We cause such a chaotic state if we aHow a breeder to take of the Water of Life when she is with child " The resultant possibility of Abomination tests on the Bene Gessent premise that certain individuals carry the genetic capability to bring the personalities of their ancestors to a conscious level m a living mind. The Azhar Book judges the condition thusly "It is with reason and tem-ble experience that we call die pre-born Abomination For who knows what lost and damned persona out of our evil past may possess the living flesh7 ' The Azhar Book outlines the conditions necessary to a state of possession (Mahrana IV H-K) First a pregnant Bene Gessent breeder must ingest the Water of Life, apparently an hallucinogenic chemical which varied during the history of the order This chemical, earned m her Mood to the womb, activates the fetal psychic awareness and produces a babble of sound and sensory imagery which the un-born is unable to comprehend or assimilate At birth, this "awakened1 ' baby supposedly sees with adult comprehension because of the active, intelligent, adult memories it now carries at a conscious level The child, therefore, appears to the uninitiated as extremely precocious but to the knowledgeable as a possible Abomination Only bnght Bene Gessent children were suspect, precocious lay children were safe from scrutiny In order for the pseudo life to gain access to the child's consciousness, the child must initiate active communication by "calling" individuals The more frequently the child "calls" a persona, the stronger the persona becomes, eventually being able to intrude upon the host consciousness at will At some relatively early stage, the personae can be discerned to be either benign or malignant The malignant individuals vie for dormna uon of the host, but the benign can be persuaded to form a union called a ' 'mohala-ta " Bene Gessent training and encouragement can support the formation of a mohalata which then can serve as a protective bamer between the individual malignant persona and the host If DO mohalata is formed, the host is in danger of possession The dominant malignant persona must first take control of the mind, then the nervous system, and finally the musculature At this stage the body and mind no longer function at the host's will but are forever in the control of the pseudo-life To those not of the Bene Gessent, the actions of such a possessed" person can be construed as combinations of classic psychotic behavior, pnmarily involving schizophrenia, paranoia, and manic depression The Bene Gessent and their myth-dominated subcultures, however, do not call upon psychologists or psychiatrists to aid the afflicted person Instead, ritualistic forms of ABOMINATION trial determine Possession or Abomination, a guilty verdict brings death The Bene Gessent believing the state of Abomination and Possession to be the most evil within which a person can live, give five*' 'commandments'' by which the Sisterhood hopes to avert any occurrence of this condition They are found in The Azhar Book as "Protections Against Abomination" No woman who has become one with the Water of Life may thereafter bear a child No woman may ever feel safe from the threat of possession, being more susceptible than a man No woman with cfcUd can participate in any form of die Water of Life ceremony on pain of death No child born trader the accursed conditions shall be suffered to live No adult found to be possessed, even if born outside of the condiaoo of abomination, shall be suffered to live Almost all information on Abomination comes from Bene Gessent documents Yet, even though die Sisterhood created the appellation, there ate questions which remained unanswered For example, most one be an Abomination before one can be possessed'' If so, why are all the Bene Gessents trained in precise nerve end muscle control7 The B G Basic Thttnmg Manual states in its introduction that 'only through profound prana-btodu control can we be protected against possession " Perhaps possession and abomination were terms used indiscriminately to classify violent abnormal behavior or behavior threatening to the group as a whole, allowing the Bene Gessent to avoid more expensive and time-consuming methods of diagnosis and treatment In die Bene Gessent open files in the Wallach IX library, Abomination Inquiry folios show surveillance of seven hundred suspected people between the Great Revolt and the God Emperor, five hundred and twenty of whom were executed The file on Aha Atreides indicates that the most serious cases arose after the introduction of the ftranen Water of Life into the Sisterhood's rituals This information corresponds with the recent hypothesis that die Atreides line earned a defective chromosome introduced by the Mduam line, a defect susceptible to the chemical composition of melange and the fluid of the dying ' Little Maker" of the Fremen culture Leto n acknowledges a dominant pseudo life (a 'Harum") m his recently discovered Journals but so far there is no evidence to show that Ghanima was afflicted {For an extensive discussion of the Bene Gessent view of the Alia Case, see ATREIDES, ALIA, AS ABOMINATION ) Further references AZHAR BOOK Anon The Azhar Book ed K R Barauz AS 49 (Grumman United Worlds) Pyer Bmzvair ed iumma of Ancient Belief and Prac nee (Bolchef Collegium Tamo) Sin Quadnn Static Barriers of the Cerebral Cortex (Richese U of Bailey Press) Psechhlat Manm The Correlation of Mystic States and Psychotic States m Ancient Mythos Abomination, Possession or Psychosis'* Antares Journal of Medicine 99 135-168 AGARVES, BOER. (10185-10219) One of the chief aides to Alia Atreides during her regency Buer Agarves was born at Sietch Tabr, the only son of Zagros and Nacher in a family of four daughters As a relative of Stilgar Naib of Sietch Tabr, Buer was welcome m the yah of Paul Muad'Dib and thus counted Sulgar's and Harah's sons among his playmates As a child he attended classes m language and other skills, learned the ways of the desert cm long sojourns into the sand wilderness, and enjoyed the games and activities of child hood in and around the sietch In his Diary, of which only a fragment remains, Agarves speaks nostalgically of hunting scorpions by light of a handglobe and of playing in the soft sands at the cliffbase His childhood seems uneventful except for one fateful incident Agarves notes m his Diary that, although he was only six years old at the time, he remembered vividly the upheaval in the sietch when Stilgar and his group returned with two outworlders Usul and his mother Jessica Agarves was also present at Sietch Tabr, a young man of twenty-four, when Paul Muad'Dib returned with Chain to await the birth of their children A small man, Agarves had by mis time the round-faced sensual good looks that were later to attract Alia, a characteristic nervousness of manner, and an unshakable faith in the divinity of the Atreides Agarves heard an account of the dramatic events attending the birth of the Atreides twins, including the sudden death of Scytale, the Face Dancer, from a crysknife thrown by the blind Paul This act, as Agarvcs' rapturous comments m hts Diary attest, greatly increased his fear and awe of the Atreides Following Muad'Dib's disappearance into the desert, Agarves was brought to Arrakeen by Stilgar and given a position in die Temple Commissary It did not take Agarves long to succumb to the softness of life in the city According to one anonymous observer, he took to the luxurious life of the Keep "like a worm to the sound of a thumper" In the years that followed-years that saw Agarves go to water-fat-4e held a variety of minor positions in the Office of the Minister of Finance and did a short stint in the Agriculture Experimental Center He then came to the attention of Zia, Aha's Amazon akb and commander of the Temple guards, and was brought into Alia s service Agarves' Diary does not elaborate on his relationship with Alia But apparently it was common knowledge that he soon took lavid's place ui Aha's bed and became her "little plaything " One of Agarves' first duties was to accompany land to Sietch Tabr with messages from Alia He returned to recount the appalling outcome of that fatal mission aid to cany Stilgar's "final obedience " According to the TerKple Records, Agarves reported that he had been summoned by Stilgar to behold the dead bodies of Javid and Duncan Idaho being prepared for Huanui Stilgar told him that Idaho had slam Javid and that Stilgar had killed Idaho This account, however, does not jibe with Agarves' own version of the affair as given in his Diary In his notes, Agarves recalls that he attended Javid the morning they went to Stilgar's quarters As he stood aside to allow Javid to enter, he saw Idaho turn and sink his knife into the unsuspecting Javid Although Agarves drew his own knife, he feared to challenge the fabled Duncan Idaho, he could only watch, frozen in indecision, as Idaho goaded Stilgar into a killing, mind-obhterating rage Agarves confesses that he gave the Temple Records account "the small he," as he called it, from fear of Alia's reprisal if she learned he had stood by and done nothing He feared Alia had penetrated his lie when she asked, "Was there nothing you could do?" But Agarves felt justified m the deception "For who knows,' he writes m the final entry of his fragmentary Diary ' what the Heavenly Regent wanted me to do0 Kill Idaho for killing Javid1' Or Stilgar for Idaho'' Who can know the mind of the Womb of Heaven7 ' Apparently Agarves had seen too many of Alia's rages to nsk bemg the target of one Alia did, in fact, command Agarves to kill Stilgar Although shocked by an order to slay his old Naib, Agarves energetically ap plied himself to the tdsk of finding Stilgar, who had fled into the desert With the limit ed resources Alia allowed him, however, Agarves' efforts proved fruitless His plan was further hampered by Aha's frequent messages recalling him to Arrakeen On one of his trips to Arrakeen, Alia confessed to Agarves that her initial com mand to kill Stilgar had been born of her ravaging grief She had now forgiven him and needed Stilgar to return to Sietch Tabr Having no reason to doubt Aha's sincerity, Agarves agreed to arrange a meeting with Stilgar and left for Red Chasm Sietch with no suspicion of the transmitter that Alia had secreted m the new boots she gave him as a parting gift Nurel, Stilgar's friend at Red Chasm Setch, was persuaded to send a distrans to Stilgar requesting a parley When Stilgar consented, Agarves and nine companions were taken blindfolded to the abandoned djedida where Stilgar and his party had taken refuge Although he did his duty m delivering Alia's terms of pardon to Stilgar, Agarves was by this time revolted by Aha's excesses He denounced her openly, saying She fouls me " Agarves had only a moment to revel m his new freedom, however, before Alia's forces, whom he had unwittingly led to the djedida, swarmed into the meeting room Stilgar had just enough time to bury his crysknife in Agarves' chest before he and his band were overwhelmed Further references Buei Agarves Diary Lib Conf Temp Series 377 Stilgar The Stilgar Chronicle tr Mityau Gwuiador AS 5 (Grumman United Worlds) Ojah ben Badwi al Zuqayqa Templt Records Rjkis Ref Cat 1T74 T75 AL-HARBA, HARQ. (also Aitu Cmolil Bom Yorba (Cygm Alpha 3) 10246, died Roes (Luytens-2) 10317 married Vela Cmoli 10286O, four children The "Dramatist Laureate ' of the Atreidean period In a period noted for the richness and variety of its dramatic accomplishments, Hanq al Harba was counted among the first rank of playwrights of his dav Since his death, his reputation has grown and today he is recognized as the absolute master of his time Prior to the discovery of the Rakis Hoard, his plays were the best known account of the turbulent era from 10150 to 10219 LIFE Harq al Harba was bora Aitu Cmoh (which translates into the Frejnen "Harq al-Harba") in the town of Nelopus on the planet Yorba in 10246, the son of a well-to-do tailor and his wife, a music teacher About his early life and education, nothing is known According to tradition^ he left home at twenty and spent the next ten years traveling between planets as a salesman of minumc filmbooks for the Gwent-Orlov publishing house on Yorba (The account books of the company have survived but since they list their personnel by employee identifi cation numbers, they shed no light on this part of al-Harba's life) If the tradition is correct, al-Harba's job was to depart on the circuit of planets in his territory, carrying with him the latest publications of Gwent-Orlov imprinted on shigawire On arriving at his destination, he would contact publishers and negotiate with them for the reprint rights to the Yorban works If he was successful in selling them, the works were transcribed from his mimnuc film, and he would men seek out local works, buy the reprint rights for them, have them copied onto his compact wire, and travel to the next planet U was a job that required a good deal of both independent judgment and nsk capital, because at no time were the travelers assured'of a sale, and their material-the shigawire for the minimic film-was both fragile and extremely expensive In 10276 he apparently decided that he could write as well as the authors whose works he was buying and selling, for he severed his attachment wife Gwent-Orlov, and headed for the Imperial capital on Arrakis, where he spent the next thirty seven years of h" life In 10278, he was discovered by Ghanima Atreides and Farad n Comno, who remained his patrons for thirtv years His first play, The Sandrider met with acclaim in Arrakeen in 10280 and a hand written letter from that year thanking a critic for a favorable review is preserved in the private papers of the Hoffmch family In 10281 his signature appears (with that of "L Fen Whately,' of whom nothing is known) on the authorization card for an account at the Bank of Arrakeen In the archives of the University of Aleppo on Grumman is a letter dated 13 nAvlardim 10291 to hib publisher, H H Kanadel, raising a question about royalty payments In 10295 he purchased half interest in an Arrakeen restaurant (not a tavern as is sometimes claimed), and the contract bears his signature In 10306, he gave a deposition as a witness in a plagiarism suit brought by a fellow Arrakeen playwright against an author on Salusa Secundus The original would have been taken to Salusa Secundus for the proceedings where it has apparently been lost, but the document in the Arrakeen records is a copy attested and sealed by the Court Prothonotarv This comprises the entire documentary evidence of the life of Harq al-Harba in Arrakeen All else is contained in his works themselves or in statements by contemporaries and near contemporaries Tradition has it that he frequently stated in letters (now lost) to fnends that he could work only in absolute solitude seldom Jeav mg his room, and almost never leaving his house It has been suggested (by Dauwar Gwiltan) that al-Harba became afflicted with agoraphobia from his many space journeys, and the neurosis forced him to turn to writing While this theory is attractive, and explains many personality quirks of the writer, it has no independent support In 10313 he left Arrakeen and the writing of plays, and retired to an isolated home on Fides, where he died in 10317 WORKS Al Hdiba received more public acclaim for his history plays than for any other genre but he was equally skillful in tragedy and comedy Although he seems never to have written one of the melodramas so popular in Arrakeen, his plays contain many of the elements that gave the melo- AL HARBA QUESTION AL HARBA QUESTION dramas their appeal Twenty-one plays are generally accepted as his authentic works, all but two of them included m the famous Works volume, edited by his wife Vela Cinoh, and published on Fides in 10320 In their order of composition, they ate 10280 The Santrider (History) 10281 Kmnar Divided (History) 10283 Stiaddam /V (History) 10283 The History of Duke Lao, Part I 10285 The History of Duke Leto Part 11 10288 Soak He Sou! (Comedy) 10289 Players a OK Game cf Pebbles (Comedy) 10292 The Dusty Palms (Comedy) 10296 Hasumr (Historical Tragedy) 10297 The Shumkee Progressions (Comedy) 10298 Plenty of Time for Lore (Comedy) 10299 Carthage (Tragedy) 10300' Not the Worm Oaroboros (Comedy, not incl m Works) 10302 Water for the Dead (Tragedy) 10303 Lichaa ^Historical Tragedy) 10304 Ampoltmt (Tragedy) 10304 The Arrakeen Tarat (Tragedy) 10305 Stilgar's Dream (Tragedy) 10306 Own. (Historical Tragedy! 10310 troubadour Another Melody (Comedy) 10312 Don I Drink the Water (Comedy, not mcl in Works} Most of the works were originally performed in Fremen, and may indeed have been corn posed in that language, in which al-Harba was fluent His native tongue, however, was the Yorban dialect of Oalach, and it is thought by some that the translation into' Galaeh of the Works is not a translation at all, but al-Harba's original version of the plays, which he then used as the basis for the Fremen versions Al Harba's deep insight into hu inanity, his understanding of society m its virtues and vices, and above all his profound compassion have made him a writer not of an age, but for all time WEM Further references' THE AL HARBA QUESTIQK Blugvor Evmiiz ed , The Compku Worts if Htirq at-Harta (Gfumman Tern), Shuuralz H Sbtttak, Tfo Stage History ^ai-Harfxj'jPtosdjlramann Pi,"rec)M"uita Stand Al Harba 3 Arrakeat (Gnunmaa fan), the stesdaid biography AL-HARBA QUESTION, THE If Harq, al Harba the playwright had not been such * supreme embodiment of the dramatist's art, if what we know of the biography of Harq al-Harba the mimfilm salesman had not been so little and if what we do know had not seemed at odds with the qualities we associate with genius, there probably would never have been an al Harba Question Other humble people have nsen to greatness and even less is known about some of the great Atreideans than is known about the Yorban dramatist But the interplay of these three factors was certain sooner or later to lead astra) minds with a peculiar cast of thought How, they asked, could the salesman and the poet have been the same man'' It was not until 10630, more than three hundred years after al Harba s death that anyone challenged his authorship of the plays that bore his name The controversy began with Avelarad Svif Josif a minor noble of House Rembo, who expressed doubts that a salesman could have possessed the ability to write the plays credited to him This reserva tion was expounded at length by Kurt Zhuurazh, who asserted, in his Al Ada and al Harba (10635) that Harq al Ada (Farad n Comno) was the true author of the plays Admirers of the Royal Scribe have attributed various other Atreidean works to him and the most liberal adherents of the theory cred it him with (besides al Harba's plays) Pander Oulson's St Aha Huntress of a Billion Worlds Duncan Idaho's The Ghola Speaks and The Hayt Chronicle and all the works of Pnn cess Irulan to this considerable total, Cybele Hank (The Prince/The Playwright) adds the authorized translation of the O C Bible and even Stilgar's Chronicle in Fremen Thirty years passed (10666) before an other contender was proposed J T Duub nominated Count Hasimir Fennng in Half a Dozen Harbas Duub s chief obstacle was Fennng's death in 10225, twenty one years before Harq al Harba was born but as we shall see, this proved no insuperable obstacle to Fennng s proponents A third powerful contingent entered the field in 10710, when A J Knlwan claimed (m The Man Who Was al-Harba) that the plays were actually written by the emperor LetoII COMMON ARGUMENTS All these schools of thought share certain arguments denigrating the reputed author Harq al Harba These AL-HARBA QUESTION AL HARBA QUESTION arguments received their fullest expression in Al-Ada is al Harba (10638), a handsome volume by a retired aimy officer from Kartain, Bsh Joon Futpinail He starts with the skimpi-ness of the documentary evidence for al Harba, questioning the likelihood that the foremost dramatist of the day would have left so little trace He men adds four objections, which have reappeared in all later claims 1. The Fremen Naib Guaddaf wrote m his Judgment on Arrakeen a collection of sermons, that al-Harba died of an intestinal hemorrhage following a prolonged bout of drunkenness Piitptnail asks if this behavior is consistent with the author of the lines Take m all things a Uttie less than all, For surfeit fogs the eye and dulls the brain Better a beggar crouched beside the- curb Than a splendid sot beneath it (DP IV, iv, 107-10) 'To ask one to believe that these lines came from the pen of the drunken drummer-deformity from Yorba asks one to believe in creation ex mhtlo ' (Putpinail, p 33 ) 2. The actress Karene* Ambem describes a meeting with al Harba* ' immediately on his coming inside, I knew why Harq al-Harba had never attended a single performance, or allowed the public to contact him m any way It is still hard for me to accept that such a poetic mind could be trapped inside such a hideously deformed body I had never imagined that that kind of caricature of a human being could exist" (Pntpinail, p 41, from Champagne in My Slipper the Autobiography of Karene Ambern, as told to Ruuvarz Dillar, orig pub 10324, repr Zimaona Kinat) 3. Al-Harba was a secret computer enthusiast This strange charge develops thus if, as tradition has it, al-Harba was a filmbook salesman, then his living depended on what, for his time, was high technology Pntpinail asks if a "mechanotheist" (his term) could have written Machines hard and coM as Rossak, sterile as the second Of Salusa they have gmtntd us under wheels Of iron have frozen up oat blood They stop the building letters, still the voice Creative Death to King Machine! (Aw I, i, 35 39) 4. The final argument is that al Harba s fellow playwrights considered him a brainless clod The first evidence comes from a play, Arrakeen Corners (II m, 11 19), by Tonk Shaio Elder and Staple, two of the characters, are discussing newcomers to Arrakis ELD Now our chief has come the one who wants to be The button on our cap STA You mean the rube9 The boondock traveler turned to flogging plays7 ELD The same He started out with theft, By patching up the holes in worn out plays But now his needle work s improved he thinks That every writer s suit belongs to him And when he's told this to his face he laughs The second evidence comes again from Guaddaf s Judgment What justice is there in millions paid to witless actors and their hangers on when poor starve in their sietches1' What virtue in raising up to greatness those who live by telling empty lies? What profit in prattmg stones of a cursed shapeless past that never yet gave man woman or child anything but make believe to gawk at9 " 'Cursed shapeless past' is as clear a reference as we could wish to the play Lichna and its central character of Scytale, the Tleilaxu Face Dancer" (Putpmaii, p 49) These four claims have an air of retrospection about them having determined by act of faith that X X or Z wrote the Harban plays, one then searches about for scraps with which to discredit the recognized author To the first-the drunkenness story-we may note mat Guadddf compiled Judgment on Arrakeen in 10366 Granting that he composed the sermons at various times between the beginning of his career 10335, and the publication of the volume, still, the earliest could not have been closer to al Harba's death than eighteen years Moreover, the sermons are an attack on the stage in general, with their harshest m\ecti\e reserved for actors, and al-Harba was not an actor Finally, every other event the sermons descnbe takes place on Arrakis, yet if the account of al-Harba's AL-HARBA QUESTION AL HARBA QUESTION death is true, the drinking bout would have had to be on Fides But suppose that the account is factual, what difference does it make'' History preserves the names of great, middling, and wretched writers who drank more than they ought, if the quotation from The Dusty Palms shows anything, it shows that the writer thought a drunken stupor an undesirable state, an observation that might occur to alcoholic or teetotaler alike Putpinail seems unaware that his second and fourth charges contradict each other Karene" Ambern says al-Harba was a recluse, Tonk Shaio says al-Harba was called a plagiarist to his face Moreover, if al-Harba was a traveling salesman, as arguments 3 and 4 presuppose, then he would have neces sanly appeared in public, not just on one world but on many The contentions fit together so poorly because their authors grasp at every straw that can possibly be interpreted as anti-Harban Nevertheless let us consider each separately Champagne in My Slipper was published in 10324, seven years after al-Harba's death The playwright was unable, and his wife, off on Hde$, unlikely to challenge a misstatement Also, one must consider the credibility of the book in general Apparently m an at tempt to recoup her shrinking share of the limelight, Karene" Ambem claimed in her book to have shared the bed of every important man (or woman) of the pnor sixty years, including Police Commander Bannerjee, the ghola Duncan Idaho, Harq ai-Ada, and Leto II himself Some of her stories may be true, the difficulty lies in knowing which ones No historian accepts anything stated in Ambero's book without independent corroboration, and literary historians should be no less cautious There is certainly no supporting evidence for her claim that al Harba had a ' 'hideously deformed body " Was al-Harba a secret computer enthusiast7 This charge is rather clearly more far-fetched than the others, and need not detain us long Other than a traditional belief about al-Harba's earlier occupation, no shred of evidence sup-ports the third point Until such evidence is forthcoming, mere is nothing to answer Finally, what was al-Harba's standing among the playwrights of his time1' Certainly Shaio's play preserves some literary squabble of the times, it may even refer to al-Harba Such flytmgs were plentiful and, for the most part, mere showmanship But the poet al Mashrab, an occasional playwright himself, said in his memoirs that he loved al-Harba ' for his understanding and quiet ways ' The artist and set designer Anam Strosher said of al Harba and the writer Au'Riil that "staging their plays has been the supreme joy of my life s work, but if I had to choose between knowing them and staging their plays, I would rather have known them (Both quota tions from F S Mank, Monuments of Atreidean Drama III, 454 \ 628 ) THE CLAIMANTS FARAD'N CORRINO If al Harba did not write the plays bearing his name, who did9 Rtrdd'n Comno was the first to be suggested Like the two later contenders he was of noble birth, furnishing his supporters with their first argument Wnt ing openly for the theater, they daim was beneath the dignity of a nobleman and statesman, and knowledge of his authorship would have lowered his prestige at Court This point furnishes a good example of the selective thinking so often shown in the controversy Duke Mintor, the father of Duke Leto Atreides, performed publicly many times in the bullnng and, in fact, died there, Feyd Rautha Harkonnen killed over a hundred slaves in public gladiatorial contests, many of them while he was na-Baron, and often with members of the Royal House in attendance If activities like these did not lower Atreides or Harkonnen's prestige it is hard to see why writing a play would lower Farad n s The most original evidence m support of Farad'n Comno was produced for the world in Izhnaikas Bauf s The Great Cryptogram (10647) Bauf discovered what he named the Plowing Cipher in the play Carthage and its method was elegantly simple Bauf would locate a passage m which the tirst letter of the first word was F (for Farad n) and the first letter of the last word was 0 (for Comno) Between these points, the first letter of an) word could be selected, moving alternately along the lines from left to right and from right to left (hence the term plowing ), skipping over words which did not contain the next needed letter When the end of the AL-HARBA QUESTION 8 AL-HARBA QUESTION passage was reached, Bauf proceeded back up to the top, and if necessary, back down again. Here is the passage Bauf takes from ACT III, Scene ii of Carthage, lines 235-47: As the example shows, Bauf finds the name "Farad'n Cotrino" in the passage, and adds: "One could scarcely fail to note-indeed it must seize the most casual observer-thai not only has the name been spelt out, but that three words are used twice: and that when those words are extracted from the cipher (as these hundreds of years past their author had intended that they be) they form the message 'recognize-not-our.' We cannot choose but be impressed with the clarity and force with which al-Ada speaks to us over the centuries, telling us that we will recognize that these plays are not the work of the besotted salesman" (p. 248). The Plowing Cipher is no cipher at all; with enough lines, any name can be extracted. To demonstrate, reconsider the passage. AL-HARBA QUESTION AL HARBA QUESTION Using the same method, we discover the message "Fremen cielagos too," showing that Farad'n had help from the small bats native to Arrakis HAS1M1R FbNRING Supporters of Hasimir Fenring as the hidden author accept the "loss of status ' argument of the al-Adans, but add another of their own They state that the climate of Leto II's reign made the voicing of unorthodox political opinion very risky Since many of the plays were histories, their author seeded the protection of secrecy In their version, Fennng did not die in 10225, but went underground His death was an nounced to forestall inquiries, but he lived for another eighty eight years, writing plays under the name "Harq al-Harba" When Fennng actually died in 10313, his fictitious cover identity was fictitiously moved to fides, there to die a fictitious death four years later There is some truth to the observation about the danger of expressing an unpopular opinion The best known example of that danger is, of course the burning of the nine historians, but that event occurred over two thousand years later, m 12335 Until the records of criminal proceedings of die early years of Leto's reign are uncovered, we will not know for certain if the murder of the historians represented a bloody aberration or part of a pattern throughout his occupancy of the throne According to J T Duub's Half-a-Dozen Harbas, Fennng headed a group which wrote the plays collectively with the failed Kwisatz Haderach as their head Duufa relies heavily on the reminiscences of Shishkali, one of Leto's early chamberlains, about a conversation with the emperor shortly after a rebellion led by al-Ataud in UK early years of Leto's. reign As> Dunb notes, the play Shaddam IV, with its famous deposition scene, was performed in Arrakeen on the morning of the rebellion to stir the populace to revolutionary fervor Until then, al-Ataud had been Chief of Customs for Arrakis, a post awarded him by Leto Duub describes the conversation The Emperor opened with a pensive remark, "Dear Shishkah' I am Shaddam IV, do you not know that''" To which the Chamberlain replied, "Such a wicked imagination was determined and attempted by a most ungrateful man, the most adorned creature that your Majesty ever made ' He might have meant al Ataud but the Emperor in his reply seems to have meant "al Harba' (Fennng), by saying darkly ' He that will forget God will also forget his benefactors, this tragedy was plaved openly forty times Al Ataud, of course had nothing to do with those forty productions Fennng came close here to losing his life and only the Emperor's remembrance of Fennng sparing the life of Leto s father Paul Atreides saved the Count from imprisonment or worse {Pp 80-81) Now, Duub cannot have it both ways either Fennng s pseudonym is a secret to protect him from Leto (pp 35-47), or it is no secret and Leto's knowledge protects Fennng dur ing political tight spots (the passage quoted) If the secret is not intended to protect Fennng from Leto (as Duub has already claimed), who does it protect him from"? This unap predated contradiction is typical of Duub's reasoning LETO II In 10710 A J Knlwan s book The Man Who Wap al Harba made the claim that the al-Harban plays were wntten by Leto H, a theory that has surpassed the others in populanty and permanence Essen tially it follows them in demeaning al-Harba, coming down especially heavily on the pur ported intimate political knowledge of the plays, and claiming that only one who had, so to speak, firsthand knowledge of the events portrayed could have been the author Knlwan returns to the play Carthage not for cryptograms but rather for lines that she says are meaningful only if the writer was Leto II She argues The God-Emperor must frequently think of him self as unique, entirely separate from humanity essentially an alien as he laments in Thy expected alien am I" (III i, 1) and 'Why am I singled out Ihen/For this alien role- ' (130-31) With the memories of his ancestors ever within he says, "This day, an alien awoke in me' (III n, 5), telling us of his first spice awareness Later die experience became u>rnmonpl