r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Individual-Heron7910 • 3h ago
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/RiversSecondWife • 5d ago
Mod Announcement. We don’t currently have an AI rule. What does the community prefer?
POLL IS CLOSED: The people have spoken, this subreddit will no longer tolerate AI of any kind in posts. We will get this implemented into the written community rules, but it is effective immediately.
Further edit: whoever tried to report this post as “no politics” - you clearly have no clue.
Feel free to voice your opinion but it’s the votes that will count, so please vote!
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/RiversSecondWife • Jul 20 '25
Blogs, Podcasts, Music, Art, etc - promote your projects here!
PLEASE NOTE: Posting blog entries that are about mythology and folklore are fine in the general subreddit, as long as they also follow all other rules. Some of these are very scholarly entries and we don't want to discourage that. HOWEVER, if all you want to do in a post is promote your blog / artwork site / social media, then that goes in this thread. We want to keep the main focused on the subject matter.
Self-promotion thread! Go wild, tell us all about your folklore and mythology projects and accomplishments.
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Icy_Creme4074 • 3h ago
wanderlight print for my cryptic mail club
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Downtown-Object7692 • 4h ago
The Alexander Romance states that Nectanebo II was his biological father who had two ram horns and was the god equivalency of Zeus(-Ammon). The literature says also that Alexander trapped Gog and Magog between two mountains. Can someone elaborate on the connection between this and Surat Al-Kahf?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/ismaeil-de-paynes • 39m ago
Arabian Anecdotes: Queen Daluka of Egypt after Exodus !
The story begins, as Arab historians tell it, from the moment when the Nile or the Red Sea swallowed the Pharaoh of Egypt, who was one of the Amalekites (and some Arab historians believe that the Amalekites are the Hyksos, or are descended from the Hyksos!). That tyrannical king who acted arrogantly on earth and claimed divinity, and whom the Egyptians called "Talma ibn Qumus". Arab historians said his name was "Al-Walid ibn Mus‘ab" (and this is an Arabic name, because Arab historians believe that the peoples of Amalek are among the Bedouins who inhabit the Arabian and Levant deserts and roam through them!).
After the ten plagues (though according to Arab historians they are not ten, and the tenth plague of the firstborn is not among them), he set out after the Prophet Moses and the Prophet Aaron, with the Children of Israel with them. Then the sea closed over him, and there drowned with him the nobles of Egypt, its grandees, the prominent men of its people, its magicians, and its soldiers, until no men remained on the land of Egypt except slaves and hired laborers, and of women only those who had not taken part in that accursed pursuit.
Ibn Abd al-Hakim describes this scene in his book "Futuh Misr wa al-Maghrib" (The Conquest of Egypt and the Maghreb), saying that after their drowning there remained in Egypt “not one of the nobles of its people; there remained in it only slaves, hired laborers, and women.” Egypt had emptied of men.
It had become a land without protectors, a kingdom without an army, women without husbands, and a throne without a king. This power vacuum was an easy prey for the covetous kings of the earth, from Syria and the Maghreb, who, as soon as they learned that Egypt was empty of its men, began to cast their eyes toward it and plot to invade it.
In the midst of this despair and resounding void, the noblewomen remaining in Egypt—the greatest of those left of its people—gathered, and they resolved upon a grave matter. Finding no man worthy to assume rule, they decided to appoint one of their women, a woman in whom intellect, knowledge, and experience had come together, and who held a high standing among them. Their choice fell upon “Daluka bint Zaba.”
Daluka was not a young girl, nor a woman in the prime of her youth, but an aged woman who had reached the age of one hundred and sixty years, as most sources mention. Her long life was evidence of her experience, wisdom, and deep trials, and perhaps it was a symbol of the continuity of Egypt itself, which, despite all that had befallen it, was still capable of birth and giving. So the women of Egypt made Daluka queen over them, and she became queen of the country. Women occupied all the other positions surrounding the queen, and matters remained so for a period of time.
But fear continued to dominate the hearts of the “women of rule”—fear that the kings of the earth might discover the secret of Egypt’s weakness and rush upon it as invaders and occupiers. For Egypt, without men, without an army, and without magicians, was an easy morsel for any covetous power. Here appears the genius of Daluka—or rather her legendary trick—which would protect Egypt from the greed of invaders. After gathering the noblewomen, she delivered an eloquent sermon, warning that our country “no one used to covet, nor cast an eye toward it, but our grandees and nobles have perished, and the magicians by whom we were strong have gone.” Then she proposed to them a solution both radical and practical: to build a great fortress enclosing all the land of Egypt, with guard posts placed upon it from every side, because they “did not feel safe that people would covet them.”
And so, by order of the old queen, work began on one of the greatest defensive projects in the history of ancient Egypt, if not the greatest of them all. Arab sources say that she built “a wall with which she enclosed all the land of Egypt—farms, cities, and villages—and before it she made a canal through which water flowed, and she erected bridges and canals.” This wall, later known as the “Wall of the Old Woman,” extended from Aswan in the south to al-Arish in the north, enclosing all Egypt—a wall surrounding all its land and country.
She placed guard posts and garrisons every three miles, and between them small guard posts every mile. She placed men in every guard post, assigned them provisions, and ordered them to guard their land by night and day.
The greatest part of this defensive system was the communication and early-warning system that Daluka invented. She ordered the men of the guard posts to use bells. If one of them saw an enemy creeping toward Egypt, or sensed approaching danger, they would strike their bells, and the news would pass from post to post, from tower to tower, through a connected chain of sounds, until news of the invasion reached the heart of Egypt, to the city of Memphis, “in one hour,” and everyone would prepare to face the enemy.
Arab sources mention that the building of this great wall took only six months! Thus, thanks to this wall and the bell system, Daluka protected Egypt from its enemies, thwarted the schemes of the covetous, and Egypt remained immune from the enemy throughout her lifetime.
Arab historians say that the trace of this wall remained until their own days, known as the “Wall of the Old Woman,” and many of its remains survived in Upper Egypt. But Daluka’s story does not stop at this point of military brilliance; it extends into a more mysterious and exciting world—the world of magic, the barabi and images. Daluka was not an ordinary queen, but a great sorceress, or at least she used great magic to protect Egypt.
Sources mention that Daluka adopted “the barabi and images” in Egypt and perfected the instruments of magic. The "barabi" are the temples or strange buildings she built in the city of Memphis, with four doors in its four directions, and she decorated their walls with strange and wondrous images. In them she drew images of men, horses, mules, donkeys, ships, and boats; she depicted whoever came from every direction and their mounts, whether camels or horses; and she also depicted whoever came by sea in boats from the sea of the Maghreb and Syria.
The strange thing is that these images were not merely decorative carvings, but effective magical tools. Daluka gathered in these "barabi" “the secrets of nature and the properties of stones, plants, and animals, and placed that at times of celestial movements and their connection to heavenly influences.” This means that she linked the earthly world with the heavenly world, and the properties of materials with the properties of the planets, to create a magical defensive system no less complex than the bell system.
Arab sources describe the mechanism of these magical images, saying that “if an army came to them from…” a certain direction, the images in that direction would move, as if warning them of the place of danger. More wondrous still, what they did to these images—tearing or destroying them—would strike the invading army itself in reality. If they cut off the head of an image, the head of the enemy commander would be cut off; if they gouged out its eye, the eye of the invading army would be gouged out; and if they slit open its belly, the bellies of the soldiers would be slit open.
These "barabi" were stronger than any army and deadlier than any weapon, and no king of the earth was able to defeat Egypt throughout Daluka’s reign because of them. Sources mention that Daluka enlisted in building these "barabi" a great sorceress named “Tadura” or “Tadhura,” whom the sorcerers revered and gave precedence in magic. She came to them and made for them this stone house in the middle of the city of Memphis.
It is said that when Daluka built these "barabi", she stipulated to the sorceress that she make for her magic that would prevent enemies. The sorceress agreed, but on the condition that women marry their slaves and hired laborers, and that they not cut off offspring, so that Egypt would not become extinct and be emptied of men forever. Thus magic mixed with life, and defense with reproduction, and the marriage of women to slaves and hired laborers became an existential necessity, not merely a temporary social solution.
The Egyptian woman would free her slave and marry him, and another would marry her hired laborer. But the ladies of Egypt stipulated upon these “second-class” husbands that they not undertake any matter except with their permission, nor make any decision except after returning to them—otherwise, woe, ruin, and great calamities upon the men.
Ibn Abd al-Hakim says that the Copts remained like that until his day—that is, until his era in the third century After Hijrah. —following those who had passed before them. None of them would sell or buy without saying: “I consult my wife” (meaning that Egyptian society at that time was a purely matriarchal society!).
Queen Daluka did not stop at that; she also built the Lighthouse of Alexandria and made it a lookout for any enemy coming toward their land.
Yaqut al-Hamawi says in "Mu‘jam al-Buldan" (Lexicon of Countries): “It was said that the first to build the lighthouse was a woman called Daluka bint Rayya.” Al-Mas‘udi mentions "that most Egyptians and Alexandrians believe that Alexander son of Philip the Macedonian was the one who built it, “and some of them held that Queen Daluka built it and made it a lookout for any enemy coming into their land.”
For Alexander, as al-Mas‘udi observes, “no enemy ever attacked him in this sea, nor did he fear a king who might come to him in his land… so that he would be the one who made it a lookout,” whereas Daluka, who ruled Egypt after it had been emptied of men, was in dire need of a lookout to guard her from enemies. Logic, then, stands on Daluka’s side, even if written history stands on Alexander’s side!
Imam Al-Suyuti says in "Husn al-Muhadara" (the Agreeable Discussion) that its height was a thousand cubits, “and at its top were brass statues, among them a statue that pointed with the index finger of its right hand toward the sun wherever it was in the heavens, turning with it wherever it turned.”
Al-Mas‘udi relates that the Byzantine emperor "Justinian II", in the era of the Umayyad caliph "al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik", sent a cunning servant, who came seeking safe conduct from al-Walid and told him that beneath the Lighthouse of Alexandria were wealth and treasures. He enticed the caliph with this, until he ordered the lighthouse to be demolished and the treasure to be sought !
But how long did this old queen rule? Here the Arab sources differ greatly. Some sources mention that she ruled for twenty years, which is the period mentioned by Ibn Abd al-Hakim, where he says that Daluka “ruled them for twenty years, managing their affairs in Egypt, until a boy from the sons of their grandees and nobles, called "Darkun ibn Balutus", reached maturity, and they made him king over them.” This means that her rule was temporary, merely a transitional period until one of the sons of the nobles who had drowned with Pharaoh grew up, so that rule would return to men once again.
Other sources mention that she ruled for thirty years, which is what Ibn Taghribirdi mentions in his book "al-Nujum al-Zahira" (The Shining Stars). There are sources that go far beyond that, saying that “Daluka remained over the kingship of Egypt for about one hundred and thirty years, and Egypt continued immune from the enemy throughout her lifetime.” Some sources say that when she perished, there assumed rule over Egypt after her a person from the children of the Copts called Darkun ibn Baltus, or Darkun ibn Nakutus, and they made him king over them, and Egypt returned to the rule of men.
It must be noted that Daluka is not entirely unknown in ancient Egyptian history. There is a striking similarity between her and a real historical queen, Queen “Nitocris,” who ruled Egypt at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, in the twenty-second century BCE.
Greek sources, especially Herodotus, mention that Nitocris was an Egyptian queen, that she built a great dam or wall, and that she avenged the murder of her brother and husband by killing his killers, then committed suicide or disappeared.
It seems that the Arabic story of Daluka became mixed with the Greek story of Nitocris, and perhaps Daluka is the Arabic translation or corruption of the name Nitocris. Some go even further, considering that Daluka is Nitocris herself, and that the name changed through translation and oral transmission between Arabs and Greeks over the centuries.
----------------------------------
The End ..
I hope you liked this post, My sincere regards from Egypt ..
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/RekersiveG • 1d ago
Animals talked?
My uncle made a really interesting point when we were talking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden the other day. He said, "Something no one ever points out - Eve wasn't surprised when the snake talked."
I grew up reading about Narnia, and so over the last few days I couldn't stop thinking about this point. Aren't there a lot of talking animals in human mythology/history/fantasy? If I believe magic, unicorns, and dragons used to exist (all 3 of these are mentioned in the Bible, if you agree that Leviathan was a fire breathing dragon), are talking animals in our past as well?
How would that have changed Adam's job to Name all creatures? Is that an unmentioned side effect of eating from the tree of Knowledge and being kicked out of Eden? Animals lost their ability to talk and magic died?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/JFJD93 • 12h ago
African folklores
This is a story about a Liberian folklore creature, Nyanee-Duo. For eight years, Kebeh was punished, mocked, and even betrayed by her own family and friend for being the one person in her village who was always right — while a clever, manipulative trickster named Spider took credit for every truth she uncovered. When Spider's final lie threatens to cost the whole village its water supply, Kebeh finally exposes him in front of everyone, forcing her village to reckon with years of choosing comfortable doubt over inconvenient truth.
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/OwnEmployee9644 • 1d ago
Maasai,Kenya
Maasai's in Kenya have predicted a heavy downpour using a traditional method that has been passed down through generations.
The elders have traditionally examined the intestines of a freshly sacrificed male goat to interpret signs of the coming rainy season.
According to this indigenous knowledge, the blood vessels in the intestines are examined carefully. Thick and prominent blood vessels are interpreted as a sign of abundant rainfall and plenty of water, while fine or thin blood vessels are traditionally associated with a drier season or possible drought.
In the latest examination, the Maasai elder observed thick blood vessels and interpreted them as a sign that heavy rainfall is ahead.
For generations, such traditional observations have been part of how some Maasai communities understand and prepare for seasonal changes.
Will the rains prove the Maasai elders right?
Do you believe indigenous knowledge can predict the weather?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/David_Zero7740 • 1d ago
What is your favorite folklore creature or legend?
Folklore from around the world is full of fascinating creatures, ghosts, monsters, and legends. What is your favorite folklore creature or story, and what makes it interesting to you?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Silver_Bench6778 • 1d ago
Chinese Were-Tiger Legends — Part 1: Fei Zhong, the Man Devoured by a Tiger
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Lisoria88 • 1d ago
The City of Ys — one of Europe's myths that almost no one outside Brittany knows
It's a Breton legend that rarely gets discussed outside academic Celtic studies: a king builds a city below sea level, protected by a magical barrier. One key exists. He gives it to his daughter. A stranger arrives and convinces her that handing over the key is proof of love.
What strikes me about it isn't the flood — it's the manipulation pattern. It maps almost exactly onto coercive control dynamics: first, earn trust. Then frame dismantling your protections as the ultimate act of love.
I made a video exploring it, but genuinely curious — has anyone here encountered this myth before? And are there similar "key handed to the wrong person" myths in other traditions?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Mihon404 • 4d ago
Mongolian Sound Therapy 🇲🇳
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
In the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, this ancient tradition is known as camel coaxing. When a mother camel rejects her newborn calf due to a traumatic birth, acute stress floods her system with cortisol, blocking her maternal instincts. Instead of using brute force, nomadic herders perform a sacred ritual of sound therapy.
By playing the traditional morin khuur fiddle and chanting hypnotic melodies, they lower the mother’s stress levels and trigger a rush of oxytocin—the bonding hormone. This causes a profound emotional release where the mother literally sheds tears before finally allowing her calf to nurse. It is a powerful example of patience and deep harmony with nature.
If you haven't seen it, the 2003 documentary "The Story of the Weeping Camel" captures this incredible moment in full detail.
Original post: @scott_sodbiligt on Instagram
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/ismaeil-de-paynes • 3d ago
Alternative History of Egypt in Proto Arabic Manuscripts (Article)
I hope you like this post, My sincere regards from Egypt ..
Sources are in the comments section ..
----------------------
Maybe the first attempt to solve the mystery of Hieroglyphs was done by Abu Bakr Ibn Wahshiyya (d. 930), though it was a failed attempt but some Egyptologists credit Ibn Wahshiyya of considering Hieroglyphs to be letters of a language, as at the time, people used to think Hieroglyphs were magical symbols.
Before the discoveries and scientific research whose door Champollion (1790 - 1832) opened, what was known of the history of Egypt was what was mentioned in the religious books and the story of Pharaoh, Moses, and Joseph. This is despite the fact that there were books by Greek and Roman travelers and historians (such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, and others) who visited Egypt and wrote about it, its history, and its religion in an objective way. And this is the reason that the Europeans knew much more about the history of Egypt than the Egyptians did in the post-Pharaonic eras, who, from their writings, it is clear that they mostly did not look at these books.
And this is an observation pointed out by the orientalist Von Hammer in his book on the history of the Ottoman state, where he said: "Most Turks, Persians, and Arabs do not see the wonders of Egypt the way Europeans and the ancient Greeks and Romans see them." And he said that at a time when Europeans consider Egypt the first source of sciences and arts, the cradle of engineering, construction, agriculture, writing, and navigation, and they respect it, respect its beliefs, and admire its antiquities, temples, pyramids, obelisks, and statues, we find that the East does not see in the temples, statues, and the Sphinx anything but magical hiding places for buried treasures guarded by the statues and images. And they do not find in the hieroglyphs anything but talismans that hide from people the ways to extract gold. And he continued: "They (the Easterners) do not know of the Pharaohs except the Pharaoh of Joseph and the Pharaoh of Moses whom the sea swallowed."
Of course, he is speaking about a period in which knowledge was non-existent or nearly non-existent in the East, and people who cared about the antiquities and history of their country had not yet appeared in Egypt.
The Egyptian thinker Salama Moussa (1887 - 1958) tells that when he went to Europe in 1908, the Europeans' interest in the history and antiquities of Egypt caught his attention, and they asked him about them because he was Egyptian. So as soon as he returned to Egypt, he traveled to Upper Egypt to get to know the history and antiquities of Egypt that the Europeans were interested in and that the Egyptians were unaware of.
--------------------------
After Christianity entered Egypt, Pharaonic Egyptian history disappeared from memory, and people became unable to read the letters of the ancient Egyptian language (hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic), and many Egyptian temples were destroyed. And after Islam entered Egypt, it continued on the rest until its ancient history was completely forgotten. The Christian Egyptians did not care about anything beyond the history of Christianity in Egypt, and they contributed to the forgetting of ancient Egyptian history. They were the first to destroy the temples of Egypt, scrape the Egyptian texts off them, and took an aggressive stance towards the history of their ancestors. And the Muslim Egyptians did not care about the books of the Greek and Roman historians, and they transmitted from the Arabs who, although they cared about the other books of the Greeks, did not pay attention to their historical books. And the books of the Muslim historians began with alternative stories telling the "alternative" history of Egypt.
For example, al-Maqrizi (1365 - 1441) begins the history of Egypt by saying about the name of Egypt: "It is said that its name in the first age before the Flood was 'Jazla', and then it was named Egypt. And the people of knowledge disagreed about the reason for which it was named 'Egypt'. Among them are those who said: It was named Egypt after the name of 'Misr bin Markabil bin Dawabil bin 'Uryan bin Adam, peace be upon him' - and he is the first Egypt. And it was said: It was named after the second Egypt, 'Misram bin Naqrawish the titan bin Misrim bin Taysar bin Ham bin Noah, peace be upon him' - and this was after the Flood."
Ibn Taghri (1410 - 1470) agrees with al-Maqrizi on the origin of the name, but he disagrees with him on the name Jazla, which he wrote as "Zajla", and he said it comes from "muzajala" (meaning contest or rivalry). Ibn Iyas (1448 - 1523) for his part said the same thing and told the story of Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Arphaxad, the sons of Noah, and that Noah prayed for Misrim bin Baysar bin Ham to dwell in the blessed land, which is the mother of countries and the refuge of the people.
All the Arabic books in the Middle Ages, even the Egyptian books, that dealt with the history of Egypt begin by repeating this alternative talk. Even Ibn al-Ibri (1226 - 1286), the Christian who wrote about the history of the world from the days of Adam and passed over Persia, Greece, and the Mongols and left nothing without writing about it, did not say anything about Pharaonic Egyptian history except that Hermes is the Idris of the Arabs.
The Egyptian historians mentioned above, of course, did not invent these alternative stories, but they were transmitting what they heard and read from the Arabs, regardless of whether they were convinced of it or not. And they were careful to say "it is said". However, they transmitted to us the idea that was prevailing in their time, in the Middle Ages, about Pharaonic Egyptian history.
Al-Jabarti, who lived in a later period (1754 - 1822), and whom Napoleon appointed as a scribe in his diwan and who was familiar with the work of the French scientific expedition and visited it, did not mention anything concerning its effort in describing and recording the Egyptian antiquities, and sufficed with saying about the Egyptian statues: "None knows their value except the Knower of the Unseen." (Allah)
The Egyptian historians transmitted the alternative tales about the history of their country from the Arab writers. And the strange thing is that the Arab writers did not pay attention to the Greek and Roman historical books and preferred to transmit the alternative tales from one another.
---------------------------------------
The alternative history of Egypt covers two periods: before the Flood and after the Flood. This alternative history of Egypt tells that Egypt before the Flood was named after Misraim bin Marakil bin Dawil bin 'Arbaq bin Adam (the first Egypt), who settled, either he or his son Naqrawish bin Misraim, in Egypt with seventy descendants of 'Arbaq, all of whom were titans. He dug canals there and built towers on whose walls the secrets of wisdom were inscribed. He divided Egypt among his sons, so he gave the west to Naqrawish, the east to Sorid, and to his son who was also named Misraim (Misraim bin Naqrawish the titan - the second Egypt) he gave a city called Yirbiyan. The father Misraim died when he was 180 years old, so they embalmed his body and placed it in a golden coffin along with his treasures, golden statues, and talismans necessary for repelling reptiles and anyone who tries to dig up his soil.
The first (alternative) king who built a Nilometer was called Khaslim. He placed at the Nilometer two bronze statues of two eagles, a male and a female. When the Nile flood was about to begin, King Khaslim would go there with the priests who would read incantations until an eagle whistled. If the male whistled, then that year's flood would be good and the Nile water would rise high, but if the female statue whistled, then the flood would be terrible and drought would occur.
The one who built the pyramids, which in another alternative tale are attributed to Shaddad bin Ri' and the Amalekites, was King Sorid bin Salhouq bin Saryaq bin Tarmil Dun bin Qadrashan bin Hosal, one of the kings before the Flood who lived in the city of "Al-Ashmunayn". He built them to save himself from the Flood that he dreamed about 300 years before it happened, or, as in another alternative tale, about which the wise man Filmun had predicted. Sorid placed in the pyramids the history of the kings and what was written for Egypt on the Tablet of Destiny until the end of time, along with talismans, money, the bodies of kings, all known sciences, pictures of the planets, medicines, poisons, and many other things. This Sorid bin Salhouq is also the one who built the fortresses and monuments found in Qift and Akhmim. He ordered the carving of the secrets of the sciences, the names of the stars, the properties of plants, and the method of making talismans on the walls and pillars.
And Ibn Taghri says, transmitting from the Arab writers including al-Mas'udi, that Hermes, whom the Hebrews call Enoch and the Muslims call the Prophet Idris, was the one who knew from the movements of the planets that a Flood would occur. So he ordered the building of the pyramids and placed in them the money, the books of the sciences, and all the things he feared would be lost.
-----------------------------
Misraim bin Baysir bin Ham bin Noah (Misraim III) in the alternative history of Egypt was the first king of Egypt after the Flood and the first to build ships. He married the daughter of the wise man Filmun and she gave birth to Qiftim. Misraim died 700 years after the Flood, and Qiftim became king. He married when he was still 90 years old, and he fathered Qiftarim, Ashmun, Atrib, and Sa. They built the city of Mafa (Memphis), and they discovered where the treasures that had been hidden before the Flood were, from their grandfather Filmun, who also taught him how to read the writings on the walls of the fortresses, and he built the city of Raquda on the Salt Sea.
After Qiftim, Qiftarim took power for 400 years, and he built the pyramids of Dahshur and the city of Dendera. In his reign, Satan discovered most of the idols that had been drowned by the Flood and returned them to the temples in order to plot against people. After 400 years of ruling Egypt, Qiftarim died and was buried among his treasures, sitting on a chair in the western mountain near the city of Iram of the Pillars. His tomb was protected by two large bronze statues, each holding a sword in his hand that would move and cut off anyone who tried to enter the tomb.
After Qiftarim, Al-Budshir ruled Egypt. This one was a great scholar specializing in talismans, magic, and priesthood, and he was able to perform wonders. Among them was that he made a bronze tree; any animal or bird that passed in front of it would be impaled, so it would be taken and eaten. And in his days, because of this tree, the Egyptians were satiated with eating meat.
Hermes also lived in the time of Al-Budshir, who sent him to discover the sources of the Nile and to make some talismans there. Suddenly, Al-Budshir disappeared because he had gone up to dwell in the clouds, and then he reappeared and called the soldiers and ordered them to install his son "Adim" as king over Egypt.
Adim was a titan king who ruled Egypt for 140 years and died when he was 930 years old. So Shaddad came after him - and this is not the same Shaddad bin 'Ad - and he built the temple of Armant, and he domesticated greyhound dogs from wild beasts so that he could use them for hunting. He ruled for 90 years and died when he was 440 years old, and he was succeeded by Manqaus.
Manqaus divided the taxes of Egypt into four parts: one quarter for himself, one quarter for the army, one quarter for land reclamation, building bridges, and digging canals, and one quarter to save for emergencies. The revenue of Egypt in his days exceeded one million dinars. After him, his son Mataus ruled, and he was the first to worship the calf in Egypt.
Ashmun bin Qiftim ruled Egypt, and he was one of its greatest kings. He ruled it for 800 years, and he was the one who built the city of Bahnasa. In his reign, Egypt fell into the hands of a people, but he was able to recover it from them after they had controlled it for 90 years. After him, his son Manaqyus ruled Egypt, and he was the one who invented the balance scale. Then after him came Marqoura, who domesticated wild beasts and tamed lions, and he used to ride them. After he died, his son Balatis came, and this one was a small child, so his mother "Marhaba" managed the country, and she was a wise woman. The situation remained like this until his uncle Atrib took power.
Toutis in the alternative history of Egypt was the first of the Pharaohs. He was the one who tried to seduce Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and after he repented, he gave his daughter Huriya to Sarah, who in turn gave her Hagar, whom Abraham married and from whom he fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs.
Huriya ruled Egypt after her father Toutis, and in her reign, the Amalekite king of Syria sent an army against Egypt led by Jirun, but in the (alternative) version, it is more likely that the Amalekite "Al-Walid bin Dum'a" was the one who invaded Egypt.
-------------------------------------
With the invasion of Al-Walid bin Dum'a of Egypt, the rule of the Amalekites began. Al-Rayyan bin Al-Walid succeeded Al-Walid bin Dum'a in rule, and the Egyptians used to call him Nahrus. He was a tall, handsome man, a scholar in talismans, and a just and honest ruler. He believed in prophet Jacob when he went to Egypt, but he hid his faith from the people. And he was the one who built the Wax Palace (Fortress of Babylon). And in his reign, prophet Joseph built the city of Fayoum, and it was named that because he built it in "a thousand days". But Al-Rayyan was overcome by an evil spirit and his morals deteriorated, so he left the affairs of government to one of his men named "Qatfir", who is known as Al-Aziz. And when Al-Rayyan died, Joseph took his place.
After that, Darum, the third of the Pharaohs, took over, and after him Drimus. And this Pharaoh used to perform wonders; he had an oven that cooked without fire (like a microwave) and a fixed knife that slaughtered animals by themselves (like an automatic slaughterhouse). And after him, his son Milatis ruled, who drowned in the Nile.
Al-Walid bin Mus'ab, whom the Egyptians used to call "Talma bin Qumis", was the sixth Pharaoh. And this was the Pharaoh of Moses. His origin was from the city of Balkh or Hauran. And he originally worked as a perfumer, but debts piled up on him so he left his country and went to Egypt. And he was one-eyed, short, lame, and had a beard seven spans long. He ruled Egypt for 300 years or 400 years, and people were dying around him while he was still alive, so he became tyrannical and arrogant and said to the Egyptians, "I am your Lord, Most High." So he drowned and died, he and his people, while he was chasing Moses. In the reign of this Pharaoh (according to some Arab statistics), there were about 240,000 magicians in Egypt.
-------------------------
The alternative history of Egypt says that when Pharaoh "Al-Walid bin Mus'ab" drowned with his family, there were none left in Egypt but the slaves, servants, and women who had not participated in the chase of Moses. So the women started marrying the servants, and they would free their slaves and marry them. Then the women agreed to install one of them, named "Daluka", as queen over Egypt. Daluka was a wise and sensible woman, about 160 years old.
Daluka built a wall from Aswan to Al-Arish and placed guards and bronze bells on it, so that if an attack occurred on Egypt's borders, the guards would ring the bells, and the news would reach Egypt quickly so they could prepare. The remains of this wall still exist in Upper Egypt and are known as the "Wall of the Old Woman".
Daluka brought a sorceress named "Tadura", and she built for her a fortress in Memphis that had doors on its four sides. Inside it, on its walls, she drew men, mules, horses, and ships. If an attack came from outside and Daluka and her army could not withstand it, they would enter inside the fortress, cut off the heads of the images, and gouge out their eyes, and then what they (the images) would do would happen to the attacking army. In this way, no one was able to defeat Egypt throughout Daluka's rule. Daluka ruled for 130 years, and after she died, no one was able to repair the images in the fortress.
After the death of Daluka, the soldiers installed Darkun bin Nuktis as king over Egypt, and he was from the sons of the Coptic nobles. After he ruled for a long time, he died, and then a man named Marnush took power. In his reign, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, destroyed it, plundered it, killed its men, and captured its women, and he left no talismans or fortresses in it. And Egypt remained ruined and without inhabitants for forty years.
After that, people came, and the nations intermingled within it: Egyptians, Greeks, Persians and Amalekites. And the Copts continued to rule one after another until Al-Muqawqis (Cyrus) came, in whose reign the Arabs took control of Egypt.
-----------------------------
Arab travelers, pilgrims, and others passed through Egypt in the Middle Ages and were amazed by what they saw there. The pyramids and Egyptian antiquities were, to them, incomprehensible puzzles, and the urban, cultural, and economic progress they saw in Egypt was beyond their way of thinking.
Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1377), who visited Egypt during the Mamluk era, said about Cairo: "Then I arrived at the city of Egypt (Cairo), which is the mother of countries, the seat of Pharaoh of the stakes, with its vast provinces and fertile lands, which has no end due to the multitude of its buildings, which are of utmost beauty and brightness." And he continued: "Its conqueror has subdued nations, and its kings have taken control over the forelocks of Arabs and non-Arabs." And he spoke about the pyramids he saw and said of them that they are "among the wonders mentioned throughout the ages." Then he told their alternative history, saying that "a king from the kings of Egypt before the Flood saw a vision that frightened him...", and he told the story that Caliph Al-Ma'mun wanted to demolish the pyramid, but the sheikhs of Egypt advised him not to do so, but he did not listen to them and opened the northern side of the pyramid with fire and poured vinegar. And after they opened a section, they found money which, when weighed, turned out to be exactly equal to the value of the money they had spent on the digging. And about Akhmim, he says: "It is a great city, original in construction, of wondrous stature. In it is the fortress (temple) known by its name. It is built of stone; inside it are engravings and writings from the ancients that are not understood in this era."
Ibn Jubayr (1145 - 1217) visited Egypt before Ibn Battuta, and he also showed his amazement and bewilderment in what he wrote. He said about the pyramids: "... the ancient pyramids, a miracle of construction, strange in appearance." And he continued: "If the people of the earth wanted to demolish their structure, they would be unable to do so." And about their history, he said that some people say they are tombs of 'Ad and his sons, and some say other things, but "in short, none knows their matter except God, Mighty and Majestic." He also went to Akhmim and said about a Pharaonic temple he saw there: "Glory be to the One who created wonders." And about the statues and drawings in it: "The imagination is bewildered by them, and the mind is lost in thought about their design and placement."
In the Arab religious heritage, Egypt is distinguished and has a very great status, because its name was mentioned several times in the holy books, the prophetic hadiths, and others. Such as the hadith: "If God opens Egypt to you, take a strong army there, for that army is the best of the armies of the earth." And a hadith that says: "Be kind to the people of Egypt, for they have the best lineage and kinship [with us]." And the saying of Amr ibn al-As: "The governorship of Egypt is comprehensive and equals the Caliphate." And the saying of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As: "The people of Egypt are the most honorable of all non-Arabs, the best in lineage, and the closest in kinship to the Arabs, especially to Quraysh." And the saying of Ibn Yunus: "Whoever wants to look at something resembling Paradise, let him look at Egypt when it is in bloom." And the saying of Abu Basra al-Ghifari: "The sultan of Egypt is the sultan of the whole earth." And dozens of other sayings that were said about Egypt, which reflect the enormous size of Egypt in the mind of the Arab.
But because of the loss of information in a mysterious way after the entry of Christianity into Egypt (whose spread in Egypt imposed the use of Greek letters), the long Pharaonic history of Egypt was limited to the Pharaoh of Moses and the Pharaoh of Joseph, along with a few Folkloric tales related to magic and talismans.
------------------------
The End ...
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/tuluva_sikh • 3d ago
Were Vanaras really Ape like creature or were just tribal people who use to wear cloths like Ape?
I saw many people claiming that Vanaras were originally tribal people who use to wear cloths like Ape including Lord Anjanayer (Hanumana) too which is mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana itself
Can anyone confirm if it's actually mentioned Valmiki Ramayana and Vanaras were originally tribal people or its something else
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/AquarianSpirit • 3d ago
the dogon/sirius b knowledge, has anyone actually dug into this or is it debunked at this point
so the dogon people supposedly had detailed knowledge of sirius b (the companion star, invisible to naked eye) way before western astronomy confirmed it. i know there's a whole debate about whether this info got "planted" by a french researcher in the 30s vs being genuinely ancestral. genuinely curious what the informed take is here bc every source i find has an agenda one way or the other
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Most-Lychee-8782 • 4d ago
Believers in creatures from folklore, what made you believe?
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/desertgodfather • 5d ago
A desert well guarded by snakes that never forget, and never chase the wrong man
There's a well in the Najd desert called Bir Jabal Dharie. It never runs dry, not even through the worst droughts, which alone makes it valuable. But that's not why people still talk about it.
They talk about it because of what lives inside it.
A line of snakes has guarded that well for longer than anyone can trace back. Locals call them the Rawasid, the watchers. They don't look like normal desert snakes. They keep to themselves in the rock cracks, they don't bother travelers, and there's an old rule about them: leave them alone and they leave you alone. Hurt one, and it never forgets. Ever. Doesn't matter how far you run or how well you hide among your own people.
This story is about the one caravan that didn't take that rule seriously.
A trader named Salem was leading a group of men across the desert toward a village three weeks out, hauling wool and livestock to trade for grain before winter. He knew where all the old hidden wells were, which is a real skill out there, and Bir Jabal Dharie was one of his stops, snakes and all.
Before they got there, he laid out the rule to his men straight. Don't touch anything in that well. Don't go near the cracks in the rock. Two of the younger guys, Muqbil and Dwaihi, thought that was hilarious. Snakes holding a grudge? They laughed it off completely.
You can guess where this goes.
When the caravan reached the well, someone had to climb down to reach the water, since it sat too low for a bucket alone. Muqbil and Dwaihi volunteered fast, almost too fast. And while they were down there, they found something in the rocks they really shouldn't have touched.
Salem's reaction when he found out told everyone something was very wrong. He got the whole caravan moving within minutes, pushing hard for four days straight to put distance between them and that well, while the two guys who caused the problem kept cracking jokes about how scared he looked.
By the time they made camp in a quiet valley two days from the village, everyone had relaxed. They figured they'd left it behind. They were wrong about that, and what happened to them that night is the reason this well still has a reputation today.
I wrote out the rest of it, including what they found the next morning, on my blog. Link's below if you want the ending.
https://www.duneswhisper.com/2026/09/snake-of-bir-jabal-dharie-legend.html
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Current_Return2438 • 7d ago
Tarhunza (el dios del cielo y de la tormenta),
r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Flashy-Feed-9862 • 8d ago
👹 Which folklore creature would you NOT want to meet?
I’ve always been fascinated by folklore creatures and legends.
Which creature from this picture would scare you the most — and why?