Jamila ad-Dar - Laura

Player: Laura
Faction: Islamic States, Ayyubid
Email: jamila_ad_dar@crusade.chaosdeathfish.com

The best physician in the Ayyubid Empire, with the worst personality in the Ayyubid Empire.

Hit Me Harder

Extracts from “A History of the Islamic Medical Corp” by Nasawi Al-Razi, Damascus Library Research Publications (1876).

[…] its roots in the wars conventional and supernatural of the late 12th Century. It was Jamila ad-Dar, already a noted doctor at the hospital at Damascus, who first gathered together healers, medics, witches and herbalist of every sort from the Ayyubid territories to tend to those injured first in the attacks upon Damascus, then Mecca and finally against the rising tide of every evil which marched upon Jerusalem.

Relative peace followed those terrible events but Jamila ad-Dar, noted as one of the most irascible women of her generation, had little faith that war had ended forever. In truth minor conflicts had already broken out to the south and east within a few years and wherever the clash of swords was heard the Ayyubid Medical Corp would appear to treat the wounds of both sides impartially and with skill and dedication.

Only the most honourless and unwise of enemies would attack the medical tents, for though the doctors did not lack for magic they would not intervene unless forced […]

[…] Jamila continued to train a large number of alchemists and surgeons at the hospital of Damascus which rose to become the foremost medical academy in the world for some centuries. Rulers across the world sought out Damascus trained medics to act as their personal physicians, confident that they would then receive the best care possible.

It is surprising to note just how many had humble beginnings. The Damascus-trained medical alchemist of King Henry III of England had begun her life as a beggar and prostitute, one of the numerous waifs and strays taken in by Jamila. It was these who became her students and underwent a harsh and rigorous education. There are many tear stained diaries in the library of Damascus filled with sad accounts of the harsh criticism doled out by Jamila and her denial of even the most basic of kindness.

It would be supposed from this that Jamila might have been an excellent doctor but far from an exemplary human being, but the frequent grateful letters she received from her previous students and the occasional sharp-tongued reply they received seems to belie this evidence […]

[…] by the end of the 14th Century a series of treaties across the Islamic world and with the neighbouring Christians and others guaranteed the safe passage of the doctors and healers of the Islamic Medical Corp, as it had then become, across any route whether in a war zone or not. Penalties were severe against those who might think to kill a doctor or steal medical supplies. The Corp had already operated for some decades under a white flag with red crescent and by the 16th Century this was formally a symbol of the Corp.

Extracts from “Treating the Mind” a medical treatise by Niha Kanasani, a doctor trained by Jamila ad-Dar.

[…] though her body recovered swiftly from the wounds inflicted by Raymond de Forcalquier, may Allah give him the judgement he deserves, the damage to her mind was even greater. Broken so that she parroted the holy book of the Christians without understanding or shame, and so clearly was it the work of brutality and wickedness that the imams agreed that she could not be named apostate for she had not the will to make such an error […]

[…] treated with kindness and allowed to wander the gardens of Damascus so that the gentle environment should soothe her troubled mind. And she was given the chance to keep busy besides in playing musical instruments and handicrafts to occupy her mind so she did not dwell on her previous suffering. I commend such treatment as the first step when dealing […]

[…] many alchemical routes to recovery were tested and discarded by Jamila until she was satisfied that she had discovered the most efficacious and so she journeyed to the fortress of Mont St George in the petty kingdoms the infidels have established by Jerusalem and she was received in better courtesy by its new master Abelard than Fadia was by Raymond. There she found the instruments of torture and took them and Coerced from them the pain they had caused and created a potion which would draw like from like. When Fadia drank it she expelled from her heart and mind the memories that had caused her so much pain and she wept for she could feel the world and Allah's love again and I say this is amongst the best if not the most wonderous of deeds that was performed by the great doctor Jamila ad-Dar.

And with her mind restored Jamila trained Fadia and she used her own unhappy experience to become a finer doctor of mind and spirit than even her tutor […]

[…] but there are many things that seem mad to the unwise and that may spring from madness and yet are not it. And so it was that Jamila broke her own legs, which had given her much pain for many years, and she cried out so loudly that all in the immense hospital of Damascus came running to see what the matter might be. And she bade us bathe her smashed limbs in the Water of Life which she had prepared and slowly she recovered. For many months she lectured upon crutches and I have a small scar still from where she would strike if the answer were too slow or not to her liking but in the end she was healed and the pain gone.

Excerpts from “Hiding in the Light: Conspiracies and Cabals” by William Tiptree, Express Press (1973).

[…] taught at last the secret of the alchemical stone that grants life eternal by the mysterious Azmudal Garba. Amongst his other suspected apprentices it seems that Jamila was infamous for having simply worn the patience of an immortal down through persistence.

Jamila spent a further decade teaching at the hospital of Damascus and acting as advisor to the great Sultan al-Afdal before her “death” in 1224. Some dozen years later a new alchemical adviser was welcomed into the court of Sultan of Egypt and Syria, claiming to be a distant relation of the great Jamila ad-Dar. So it went for decades, a series of female doctors and alchemists, all fierce in temper acting as advisors to the son and grandson of al-Afdal and always seeing to the status and funding of the Ayyubid Medical Corp.

[…] has continued to take an interest in medicine, training doctors and learning and reading. A secret conspiracy within the hospitals of the world dedicated to the defeat of disease and perhaps eventually a cure for death itself. How else to explain how no cure can be kept secret or to explain the amazing progress of medical science, so much swifter than any other field? […]