Muad'Dib's Jihad: the holy war of Paul Atreides
Muad'Dib's Jihad was a twelve-year holy war waged from 10196 to 10208 AG by the Fremen legions of Emperor Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides. It carried the worship of the Fremen messiah across the Known Universe, killed tens of billions, and forged the Atreides Empire from thousands of conquered worlds.
Muad'Dib's Jihad, also known as Paul's Jihad, was a twelve-year holy war that devastated the Imperium following the rise of Paul Atreides as both Fremen messiah and Emperor of the Known Universe. Waged by the Fremen legions of Arrakis between 10196 and 10208 AG, it spread the worship of Muad'Dib across thousands of worlds and forged the Atreides Empire from the conquered planets of the Landsraad.
Origins of the Holy War#
Three years after the defeat of Shaddam IV and his Imperial Sardaukar on the Plains of Arrakeen, the destruction of House Harkonnen on Arrakis, and the seizure of complete control over all spice production, Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides officially ascended the Golden Lion Throne in 10196 AG. He exiled the former monarch to Salusa Secundus and married Shaddam's eldest daughter to seal his claim as the 82nd Padishah Emperor. Even so, he was powerless to stop his fanatical Fremen legions from taking the fight offworld against any Corrino loyalists who resisted their messianic ruler.
The mastery of spice gave Muad'Dib a stranglehold over the Spacing Guild, whose Navigators depended on melange to fold space. With the Guild on a short leash and controlling who entered and left every star system, the opposition was placed at a crippling disadvantage. The Holy War spread throughout the Known Universe and pillaged thousands of planets, its campaigns reaching as far as Naraj and its moons under the Fedaykin commander Farok.
Campaigns and battles#
The Jihad was carried by the Fremen legions across scores of worlds. At the Battle of Tarahell, the Fremen Jihadi Otheym fought and caught the splitting disease. During the conquest of Enfeil, Farok saw the open sea for the first time, and in the conquest of Naraj his son was blinded by a stone burner. The Battle of Molitor and the Battle of Sembou followed, the latter ended by the signing of the Sembou treaty that brought the planet into the Atreides Empire. The Zabulon Conquest stood among the final battles of the war.
The single world spared the fire of the Jihad was Caladan, the homeworld of House Atreides. Lady Jessica, the mother of Muad'Dib, refused the Fremen any access to it, including religious pilgrimage, sheltering the ancestral seat of her family from the devastation that consumed the rest of the Imperium.
Toll and aftermath#
The Jihad ended in 10208 AG after twelve years of bloodshed. By Muad'Dib's own conservative estimate, his legions caused 61 billion casualties, the sterilization of ninety planets, the demoralization of five hundred additional worlds, and the eradication of forty different religions along with their followers. Ten thousand worlds were subsumed into his new Empire, a scale of conquest lauded by his High Priest, Korba. From the carnage rose the Atreides Imperium and the entrenched religion of Muad'Dib that would shape the Known Universe for generations to come.
Frequently asked questions
- What was Muad'Dib's Jihad?
- Muad'Dib's Jihad, also known as Paul's Jihad, was a twelve-year holy war fought from 10196 to 10208 AG by the Fremen legions of Emperor Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides. It spread the worship of the Fremen messiah across the Known Universe and subsumed thousands of planets into the new Atreides Empire.
- How many people died in Muad'Dib's Jihad?
- By Muad'Dib's own conservative estimate, the Jihad caused 61 billion casualties, sterilized ninety planets, demoralized five hundred more worlds, and eradicated forty religions along with their followers.
- Which planet was spared from Muad'Dib's Jihad?
- The only world spared the fire of the Jihad was Caladan, the homeworld of House Atreides. Lady Jessica, mother of Muad'Dib, refused the Fremen any access to it, including religious pilgrimage.
- Could Paul Atreides have stopped the Jihad?
- Even after ascending the Golden Lion Throne, Paul was powerless to stop his fanatical Fremen legions from carrying the war offworld against any who resisted their messianic ruler. The holy war proceeded in his name beyond his control.
Sources
- WikiMuad'Dib's Jihad — Dune Wiki entry
- WikiBattle of Enfeil — Dune Wiki entry
- WikiBattle of Sembou — Dune Wiki entry
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Muad'Dib's Jihad: the holy war that remade the Imperium
Muad'Dib's Jihad was the twelve-year holy war waged by the Fremen legions of Emperor Paul Atreides from 10196 to 10208 AG. By his own estimate it cost sixty-one billion lives and remade the Known Universe.
Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides was the last Duke of House Atreides and the prophet Muad'Dib of the Fremen. The long-awaited Kwisatz Haderach of the Bene Gesserit, he toppled Emperor Shaddam IV, founded the Atreides Empire, and unleashed a jihad across the Known Universe before walking blind into the desert.
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Arrakis
Arrakis, known as Dune and later as Rakis, was a harsh desert world in the Canopus system and the only natural source of the spice melange. Home to the Fremen and the sandworms, it became the seat of the Atreides empire and the center of the known universe.
Caladan
Caladan was a lush oceanic world orbiting Delta Pavonis, the ancestral seat of House Atreides for more than ten thousand years. Birthplace of Duke Leto I and Paul Atreides, it was a planet of rain, orchards, and fisheries before the family was ordered to Arrakis.
Farok
Farok was a Fremen of Sietch Tabr who rose to Bashar of the Ninth Legion during Muad'Dib's Jihad, leading campaigns on distant worlds before he was killed by the Face Dancer Scytale.
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Battle of Arrakeen
The Battle of Arrakeen was the pivotal engagement of the Arrakis Revolt, fought between Muad'Dib Paul Atreides's Fremen and the Sardaukar of Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. The Fremen routed the Imperial forces, and in the surrender that followed Paul won control of the known universe.
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Bijaz was a Tleilaxu dwarf, prescient and immune to the prescience of others, who spoke in riddles and rhymes. A tool of the conspiracy against Emperor Muad'Dib, he carried the names of the plotters and planted a hidden command in the Hayt ghola to kill the Emperor in his grief.
Desert War: the fall of the Corrino Empire
The Desert War, also called the Harkonnen war or the Arrakis Affair, was the conflict that destroyed House Harkonnen, ended the Corrino Empire, and raised Paul Atreides to the Golden Lion Throne. It began as a War of Assassins in 10191 AG and concluded with the abdication of Shaddam Corrino IV.
Fedaykin
The Fedaykin were Fremen fighters of Arrakis, first the guerrillas of the Arrakis Revolt and then the personal death commandos of Paul Muad'Dib. By the time of his children they had become the elite of the Jihad army, before Alia Atreides dissolved them and the word returned to its old meaning.
Muad'Dib's Jihad: the holy war that remade the Imperium
Muad'Dib's Jihad was the twelve-year holy war waged by the Fremen legions of Emperor Paul Atreides from 10196 to 10208 AG. By his own estimate it cost sixty-one billion lives and remade the Known Universe.
Otheym
Otheym was a renowned Fremen fighter and one of the first Fedaykin of Muad'Dib, a trainer in the Weirding Way who later served as a senior commander of the Jihad and revealed a conspiracy against the Atreides Emperor before his death.
Scytale
Scytale was a Face Dancer of the Bene Tleilax who took a central part in the conspiracy against Paul Atreides, offering the ghola Hayt as a trap. Reborn as the last Tleilaxu Master, he survived into the age of the Honored Matres carrying the genetic patterns of his people within his own flesh.
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