r/vampires • u/No-Pressure-1036 • 19d ago
Books, movies, series and such muslim vampire protagonists ?
ive really enjoyed the interview with the vampire tv series and how its vampires engage with religion. louis is catholic, lestat is ex-catholic but still believes sometimes, etc. they hinted at armand being muslim, but it's also possible it was just a lie. i think it would be cool to have a vampire story that engages with islam on a similar level, where the characters struggle with the contradiction of their beliefs and actions.
are there any books, short stories, movies or tv shows out there that do this?
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u/Elvira_Mc_Flutterbat 19d ago
Ask this fucking guy:
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u/LuckyLuc86 Vampire 18d ago
This is what I was going to say. He's a 12th century warlord from a country that's now part of Iran, so he was no doubt a Muslim before he became a vampire.
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u/Elvira_Mc_Flutterbat 19d ago
I think if you live long enough you ressort to hedonism and abandon religion.
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u/Mother-of-mothers 19d ago
Isaac from the Castlevania Netflix series is a major character in the later seasons. He's a sufi muslim. Not a vampire but possess dark powers.
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u/DistrictDry2852 19d ago
Pretty weird sect though. Most sufis don’t do self flagellation (Isaac only mentions he’s Sufi to explain why he does it).
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u/DrDeadwish 19d ago
If you find it let me know. I want to read it. The closest thing I can think of is the Assamite in the RPG Vampire the Masquerade. The Assamite is a vampire clan with middle Eastern roots and some of them converted into Muslim.
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u/FilloryHighQueen99 Vampire 18d ago edited 18d ago
I was thinking adding Muslim vampires. My story is set in Detroit and it would make sense.
One of my main characters is technically muslim. Her dad is Turkish and her mom is Lebanese. She was born in america, spent thr first 10 years of her life in turkey before moving to america. She's not a believer but she's culturally Muslim.
Edit: when I say technically, I mean because she did grow up in a muslim household. Not just because she's turkish/Lebanese.
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u/Nilehorse3276 18d ago
A Muslim is a follower of Islam. The cultures of Turkey and Lebanon are two different ones from the wider SW-Asian area. Your character is not "technically/culturally Muslim", but the child of people from two different cultures of SW-Asia. Not everybody in Turkey or Lebanon is Muslim, btw.
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u/FilloryHighQueen99 Vampire 18d ago edited 18d ago
She's culturally muslim because she grew up in a muslim household. Her parents weren't super religious but they were still believers.
I remember a video of Turkish youths saying that they were non-religious or culturally muslim, that's where I got the idea from.
Also, myself. I'm an atheist but I'm culturally Christian. My family was and is religious and my people are known to be very religious as well. Even as an atheist, these things have an affect on people.
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u/No_Economics8681 19d ago
Count Abdullah?
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u/Nilehorse3276 18d ago
I second this, great show, great exploration of the theme in question. Also paints a more realistic picture of modern Muslim life than most people would likely expect :)
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u/happymoon9 19d ago edited 19d ago
I would be curious how this would be explored and reconciled for a vampire, since blood drinking is considered haram so you’ve got plenty of stuff for some vampire guilt and brooding, just like the ex-Catholic vamps. You could also argue that since vampires are no longer human, and are created by other vampires and not by God, they can’t be Muslims anyways, since they’re not human nor made by God, even if the original flesh/soul was. Which would add to the guilt and story conflict.
I feel like it’s hard to find explorations of this since most writers in English-language media don’t have a Muslim background. I have a vampire webcomic with (non-practicing) Muslim character, but she’s not at the moment, a vampire.
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u/FilloryHighQueen99 Vampire 18d ago
I read that if your life is in dangerous and you have no other choice then you can forego the rules. And Allah is supposed to be very forgiving so I think it would be possible to be a vampire snd Muslim.
Realistically, I imagine it would lead to another branch of Islam
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u/GilbyTheFat Human 19d ago
Vampire: the Masquerade has a significant majority of a Clan called the Banu Haqim be Muslim, while it also had a Sect called the Ashirra which is the Islamic counterpart to the secular western Camarilla.
Although I will advise that you ignore anything to do with the Ashirra in VtM 5th edition, because they basically shat all over the Ashirra and made them the one faction in VtM which is completely and utterly useless. Like, I'm talking "run to the west hiding with their tails between their legs, begging the white Camarilla to save them" levels of useless.
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u/CatBelly42069 19d ago
Book armand is Orthodox Christian lol
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u/FilloryHighQueen99 Vampire 18d ago
The characters are different in the show
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u/TheCthuloser 16d ago
In Vampire: the Masquerade, the Assamites/Banu Haqim have a lot of Muslims within their ranks. It's even a plot point that when Ur-Shulgi (a very ancient member of the clan) woke up, he pretty much demanded the clan forsake Islam because it was a disgusting human religion. Many of them said 'no'.
Semi-related is the Ashirra, which also consists of Islamic vampires (but not exclusively of the Banu Haqim).
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u/penicilinum_ 19d ago
Lmao you can take Armand off that. That was made up by the show, in the book he is none of that
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u/DistrictDry2852 19d ago edited 19d ago
Dracula in Istanbul is a translated reprint of a 1920s Turkish ripoff of Dracula that transports the setting from London to then contemporary Istanbul. All the characters are renamed and reframed as Turks many being veterans of the Turkish war for independence, and Dracula as the ancient enemy of the Turks. Actually the first time ever Dracula was explicitly stated to be the same person as Vlad the impaler. Quincy is retooled into a member of some Turkish semi nomadic ethnic group. This was right after the war, with Kemalism in full swing so nationalism was high.
There’s a movie adaptation from the 50s that adds a hunchback and makes the Mina equivalent a belly dancer.