Band of Forty

The Band of Forty is a hunter organization from the Middle East.

Overview

We Arabs are social creatures. We love speaking and recounting tales, haggling, debating and interacting with our peers. There is community in our interactions, religion, artwork and even in out worship. We pray together, in public and without shame, and part of our supplication is to shake hands with the person seated next to us. We are of the ummah, a universal community of Muslims. Out unity lies in the words of Allah and the holy language Arabic. This was not always so, however.

Once, the spoken word provided the root of culture and transmission of the Koran. By the 20th Century, the Middle East consisted of scattered island nations isolated by colonial rivalries between the English, Turks and French. European languages acted as tongues of states. Regional Arabic dialects were nearly incomprehensible to their very neighbors. Our sole commonality was Islam. Radio and newspaper breached the colonial borders better than any army could by transmitting the language of the Koran, Arabic, so that all listeners would understand the news. Arabic became the common voice of the Middle East, with remnants of European argot and regional dialects helping paint an odd linguistic mosaic. The result was Arab people united through language, religion (somewhat) and a common history born of Islam's Golden Age and colonial domination.

This legacy of experiences shared through faith and language unties Arabs and brings us closer together. We have a common imperative to belong to something greater than ourselves, whether it is family, community or religion. The same applies to kiswah all of whom have a mutual experience through al-Ghariyyan, but who lack a common history to fuel their purpose or to impart pride. We therefore seek to create a common heritage that brings us together: The Band of Forty.

It is tradition here that any number verging on "many" becomes forty. The flood that lasted forty days and nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the band of forty who took Riyadh from the Rashidi governor. All these tales mean to say "plentiful" or "too many to bother counting." We kiswah therefore gather within what we call the Band of Forty. That number signifies a sense of history and legacy, connecting us to countless ancestors and predecessors we have yet to uncover and know. It speaks of all the allies and friends who will join us in our future journeys and those we've lost along the way. It signifies that we hold no specific nationalities, colors or experiences within out gathering of confederates, just a loyalty to one another and the commitment to work toward a common goal.

The Band of Forty is our best hope for a unity that has yet to exist among us, a day when all kiswah will belong to a single body. Know that any foreigners or women who encounter the Band of Forty have nothing to fear from our membership. We allow all to participate on the basis of our common struggle. Joining our community also entails that you leave old rivalries, political enmities and even misconceptions behind. Within the Band of Forty, there are no women, Jaws, Arabs, Filipinos or Westerners. There are only kiswah.

References

HTR: Hunter: Holy War, p. 81-82

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