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A genie is out of his lamp and he and his companions live among other mortals undetected. But this genie’s love affair with a mortal woman threatens to unleash the truth about their secret existence — a secret they have protected for many centuries. Will fraternity or love prevail in “The Vital Sacrifice?”
Buy your copy at one of these venues by clicking here now!
The Vital Sacrifice
Hey fans! This weekend, I’m running a promotion on Amazon for a chance to win a free Kindle copy of my Alpha male paranormal romance novel, The Vital Sacrifice. If you want to enter to win, follow this link:
Buy your copy at one of these venues by clicking here now!
Images courtesy of Dreamstime and Shutterstock
There is secret fraternal order that exists for the sole purpose of indulging in the greatest pleasures of life.
Chi Khan, Anwar Mamluk and Ali Rahman have traded in their humdrum past lives to join the Order of Legions of Solomon’s Temple. Formed in the 12th century, men who become members of this fraternal order have the best of everything at their disposal including money, power and women galore. The pretentiousness and braggadocio of these alpha males is over the top but it is justified because they are a superior group of men.
With such a lavish life guaranteed by membership to this secret society, why would one of its top members risk his power and prestige all because of his obsession with the famous singer, Teresa McMillan? This relationship – which is forbidden in the first place – could unveil their secret existence and potentially leave them open to all out war with all of the military establishments of the world.
A fraternal order, hundreds of years in the making, is in jeopardy of crumbling at the foundation because of one member’s failure to maintain protocol in order to protect the egocentric desires of the entire brotherhood.
The Vital Sacrifice, an Alpha male paranormal romance
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Zanj, Public Domain Image {{PD-1923}} – published anywhere before 1923 and public domain in the U.S.
‘Written’ by Ali Rahman, Blog Contributor
If you have already read The Vital Sacrifice, then you already know a bit about my lineage. My mother, Fatimah, was Arab and my father, Malik, was a Zanj both of whom resided in Egypt. As you may have read, my father, who was a statesman heavily involved in the politics of his day, taught me a lot when I was a youth; but, one thing that he did not discuss with me is our Zanj ancestry. I later found out that it was because it was a part of his past that he wanted to forget because his people weren’t esteemed in East African or middle-eastern societies. After the Zanj rebellion in Iraq and their diaspora throughout nearby lands, nations that they settled in often regarded them as second-class citizens. Thus, this inferiority complex plagued my father and may have been why he kept this part of my past from me. Therefore, I decided to learn more about this part of my ancestry for myself and share what I found with you.
For many centuries, this land now known as Iraq was referred to as Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers. This area of the world has been known for many great civilizations that have arisen here including the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Persians. This region is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because it is believed that this is where the original garden of Eden was and where agriculture and writing flourished. By the 7th century, Arabs defeated the Persians and established their rule under the Abbasid empire. Their empire spread far and wide usually taking over by force or simply by conversion to the Islamic faith.
As this empire spread, it left much slave labor in its wake. There were many nationalities of slaves taken under the Abbasid rule but one group of slaves in particular that were enslaved in the area now known as Iraq was Bantu-speaking people from East Africa which became known as the Zanj. The Zanj were taken from various parts of East Africa to Iraq primarily to work in the salt mines but also performed many other roles which included growing cotton, ‘working’ in harems, and being for forcefully changed into eunuchs to protect harems. Apparently this slave labor became too much for the Zanj people so they staged a series of rebellions in the region with the last one resulting in long-term success — a little over a decade — through the use of guerrilla warfare. Ali ibn Muhammad, led the insurrection but he was eventually killed and the rebellion was eventually put down. This rebellion crippled not only crippled the economy of the region but also was the beginning of the end for the Abbasid empire who became entrenched in civil war and infighting from that point on.
I’m not certain what happened to the enslaved after the insurrection because not much was recorded about the rebellion or its aftermath; but, at some point, my father’s people eventually made their way back to East Africa – Egypt to be precise. Apparently my father felt like a second-class citizen due to his lineage and sought to pull himself up in Egyptian society by acquiring education and working as a top adviser for the Sultan. Fortunately, he and his bloodline were able to move away from Iraq and make a new life for themselves in other nearby regions. For those that remain in Iraq today, I can’t say the same. There are many decedents of Zanj who reside there that are disgruntled with the discrimination in Iraq – the same type of discrimination that my father fought so hard to protect me from.
More links to this topic
Will Iraqi Blacks Win Justice?
Black Iraqis claim discrimination
Black Iraqis In Basra Face Racism
Are you familiar with the plight of former Zanj and present-day Black Iraqis in the region? Join the conversation by leaving a reply below or join the private discussion by becoming a member on LE Blog’s Facebook group.
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Disclaimer: These blog articles are attributed to characters found in the novel, The Vital Sacrifice, and this blog is a fictitious representation of the characters in the book speaking on what interests them based on their role in the novel. These blog articles are post-publication characterizations and are meant to entertain niche audiences who may be interested in purchasing or have already purchased this novel.
Image courtesy of Dreamstime
“Written” by Chi Khan
If you have already read The Vital Sacrifice, then you already know that it mentions the concept of Dim Mak. But you may be wondering “what is Dim Mak?” Well here, I will explain it to the best of my ability.
So a long, long, long time ago, in lands now known to us as Asia, masters created martial arts. You have to keep in mind that mankind didn’t have a lot of protections against the forces of nature in the way that we do now, so fighting off a wild animal or even your neighbor who was trying to steal from you or kill you was a real threat, daily. Of course there were rudimentary weapons and possibly even remarkable swords at the time but no one was always ready for sneak attacks. Therefore, hand-to-hand combat was a real skill that could ward off an attacker at a moment’s notice. This type of combat most certainly arose out of necessity but as time went on, like with all things, humans went on to perfect it into an art form.
Today, there are many forms of martial arts designed to kick your opponents ass at a moment’s notice. I have witnessed many types and have even performed many of them myself over the years. But many practitioners aren’t just concerned with the self-defense of martial arts. Many, including myself, love to delve deeply into the spiritual essence of fighting that goes beyond the physical.
Some might disagree with me when I say that fighting goes beyond our physical interpretation and extends inwardly into our life force flowing within often known as Chi. This word — which is my first name by the way — describes the energy that flows within. You are not just a walking, living, breathing meat-suit. There are two dimensions of the self and it is that inward energy that is often neglected even among us fighters. The physical is slow, it is cumbersome; chi is quick, it is effortless. Imagine the duality of the inner and the outer working together in harmony. I tell you, you will witness an almost indestructible fighter.
I say all of this to lay the foundation for explaining Dim Mak. It is described as a “touch of death” in which the fighter delivers a series of seemingly effortless blows to specific regions of the opponent’s body which are meant to kill. You may have witnessed such a technique in the popular film Kill Bill 2. They refer to it as the five point palm exploding heart technique in which is believed to be what legends are made of. This Hollywood interpretation of the technique is over the top, but a simple explanation of Dim Mak is as follows:
“Dim Mak was developed from eastern medicine that is thought to heal the body, or specifically the organs, through manipulating acupoints along meridians on the body. The thought is, if manipulating these acupoints in a specific order can heal an organ, then doing the reverse order will harm the organ. That’s it, it was supposedly developed out of a theory that was never truly tested successfully.”
In essence, Dim Mak is the opposite of the healing technique of acupressure and in theory a combination of touch points will lead to death of the opponent.
I will admit that it is quite laughable to believe that poking people in certain areas of the body will kill them, but I will leave this for debate among the skeptics and the believers. But chi or life force flowing through the body is a real thing and if you think its not, restrict any part of the body using a rubber band, something tight, or even laying improperly on a body part for a few hours and you will sense a numbing sensation and in some instances, that portion of the body may start turning blue or black. This is an interruption of energy, or chi, in the body and whenever the flow of energy stops or is restricted, it will ultimately result in pain or even death.
So, Dim Mak may not cause instant death in the way that we see it portrayed in Hollywood films; but, there are pressure points that if hit with enough force can knock a person out for sure. Keep in mind that just as a concussion can lead to death, it shouldn’t be to hard to believe that there is a martial arts technique that could possibly deliver a lethal blow to opponents. The good thing is that knowledge such as this is kept in the hands of a few or else people would run around killing each other on a regular basis. This is part of the reason why the elders of our fraternity remained secretive about what we know because all chaos broke out when people freely had access to our books. If you have read The Vital Sacrifice, then you know that these books are guarded by members of our Order and some of the knowledge contained within these books has only been passed down by word of mouth among us because written word can be deadly in the wrong hands. Some knowledge is only known to me, Anwar, and Ali because even sharing sharing certain things among members of our fraternity is dangerous.
So is Dim Mak a real phenomenon? I am a believer but some things are best left alone. If you want to know more about this concept, this video below that I discovered online is a good start. Join the conversation on Facebook and don’t forget to follow my Pinterest page.
Leave a reply below or join the private discussion by becoming a member on LE Blog’s Facebook group.
Click here, to follow Chi Khan on Pinterest.
Disclaimer: These blog articles are attributed to characters found in the novel, The Vital Sacrifice, and this blog is a fictitious representation of the characters in the book speaking on what interests them based on their role in the novel. These blog articles are post-publication characterizations and are meant to entertain niche audiences who may be interested in purchasing or have already purchased this novel.
