Ikhwan al-Safa
Ikhwan Al-Safa, literally “Brothers of Purity”, is a Muslim witch-hunter order.
Overview
Much like the Society of Leopold, the Ikhwan Al-Safa is an order that is committed on fighting the demons of the night in Allah’s name. Members are also called Sayyad al- Ghulan, the “faithful hunters of monsters”. Created during the 12th century, the Ikhwan al-Safa maintains its vigil over the faithful and battling the undead horrors of the night. Unlike the Inquisition, the Sayyadin were very careful in avoiding the public and tried to minimize the harm of their hunt on the innocents.
With the coming of the Imbued, many of Muslim origin threw their lot with the Ikhwan Al-Safa.
History
In the Middle East, the foremost group of hunters is the Muslim religious society known as Ikhwan al-Safa, or the Brotherhood of Purity. They safeguard traditional Islamic strongholds, including Baghdad, Tehran, and Mecca. Ikhwan al-Safa is one of the oldest hunter brotherhoods, and they have compiled libraries filled with generations of research regarding vampires and other supernatural creatures. The society’s primary haven and core headquarters is within the sacred city of Mecca, where the city’s dense aura of faith shelters them from their enemies.
It is known that a small family of like-minded tribesmen was the first true Islamic hunters. Striking out against monsters in the night, these brave individuals made little headway, but became known as the sayyadin. Driven by a consuming need for vengeance, these early hunters were as likely to commit suicide on a vampire’s fangs as they were to successfully root out the monsters. Yet they continued, and their struggle was noticed by a powerful Sultan named Mehmet.
From there, the society’s history moves to the Sipahis; elite horsemen and soldiers of the Ottoman Empire. The original Sipahis were almost exclusively Islamic, as demanded by Sultan Mehmet II in his treatise entitled Kanun Nameh-e-Sipahi (“Law Book of the Sipahis”). Their rivals were the Janissaries, a group of primarily Christian soldiers (typically peasants and slaves), whose ranks contained Vlad Tepes and his half-brother Radu during their time as political hostages of the Ottomans. After he discovered what became of Vlad Tepes, Sultan Mehmet sheltered and took in the sayyadin tribesmen, promising them all they would need to find vengeance against their enemy. He further chose the strongest and most skilled of the Sipahi and caused the two groups to swear a powerful oath to one another. The tribesmen shared all they knew of vampires; the Sipahi shared all they knew of combat. Together, they became the Ikhwan al-Safa.
The scholarly elite among the order date their origins back even further, to a group of philosophical mystics in Basra, Iraq during the 10th century; a society known as the Brethren of Sincerity. Their esoteric teachings and philosophy have been preserved in a treatise known as the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’, a giant compendium of 52 epistles. Mehmet II, they say, took most of his knowledge about vampires and the supernatural from these epistles. He removed that information from the epistles for the sake of the common man, and used it as a basis to write the Kanun Nameh-e-Safa, or “Law Book of the Pure.” It is this text, updated over the ages, which educates and instructs the soldiers of the Ikhwan al-Safa. It may be the foremost compilation of anti-vampiric combat and strategy in the world.
The Djinn
It is known that the Ikhwan al-Safa have claimed to command the jinn. In truth, the Ikhwan al-Safa are allied with a faction of Persian mages known as the Taftâni, who use ancient rotes to bind true Djinn – incredibly powerful spirits – in order to force them to serve mortal man. This practice is extremely dangerous, and there is a high death rate among those who seek to learn this magic.
The Taftâni believe that all other mages have tied themselves to Druj, a concept meaning “the Great Lie.” Taftâni insist that that only through spreading Truth can the world be made free. The Taftâni among the Ikhwan al-Safa use their magic to combat evil, seeing the vampiric state as just another part of Druj; a spiritual lie replicating the soul that once inhabited the vampiric body. They believe that to right the world, these creatures must be destroyed.
Recent Development
As the Middle East undergoes significant political upheaval, the hunters in that region have been pushed to the brink on many occasions. In 2007, this situation exploded into a brief but bloody three-sided war, and many hunters abandoned their higher calling in order to engage in sectarian battles. The groups gathered to sign a treaty signed at the beginning of 2008, and that has prevented the situation from worsening, but deep grudges remain, and the wounds are still fresh. Indeed, the Ikhwan al-Safa have reported that some violent young sayyadin have left their group, and plan to continue fighting against the Knights of St. George and the Judges wherever they find agents of those groups in the Middle East.
References
- VTM: The Inquisition, p. 40
- V20: The Hunters Hunted II, p. 152, 153