Abu al-Misk Kafur

Abu al-Misk Kafur al-Ikhshidi was one of the most remarkable figures in medieval Islamic history — an Abyssinian-born slave who, through extraordinary intelligence, loyalty, and political genius, rose to become the effective ruler of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria for more than two decades. Born around 905 AD in the kingdom of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia), he was sold into slavery as a child and eventually purchased by Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty of Egypt, around 923 AD. His kunya, Abu al-Misk (Father of Musk), alludes to the rich dark color and perfumed presence associated with the finest musk, while his name Kafur (Camphor) — a brilliant white substance — was given perhaps in poetic contrast to his dark complexion, a naming convention not uncommon in the medieval Islamic world. From the moment of his arrival in the Ikhshidid court he distinguished himself, rising swiftly through the ranks of the royal household to become its most indispensable member. He ruled Egypt not merely as an administrator but as a visionary statesman, a generous patron of Arabic poetry and the arts, and a ruler whose wisdom was celebrated even by those who mocked his origins.

Kafur's historical importance operates on multiple levels that make his story uniquely compelling in the long sweep of Islamic civilization. First and most fundamentally, he is the supreme example in medieval Islamic history of a slave who genuinely governed — not merely as a figurehead or palace favorite, but as an effective, wise, and respected ruler who maintained the stability and prosperity of Egypt and Syria for over two decades. His ascent from Abyssinian slave child to the ruler of one of the Islamic world's wealthiest states is an extraordinary testament to the meritocratic possibilities that existed within medieval Islamic courts, where talent could overcome even the lowest of social origins. Second, Kafur is inseparable from the history of Arabic literature: his patronage of the great poet al-Mutanabbi (915–965 AD) produced some of the finest panegyric poetry in the Arabic language, poems that are still studied and memorized across the Arab world today. The subsequent falling-out between Kafur and al-Mutanabbi — and the devastating satirical poems the latter wrote — created one of the most famous literary feuds in Islamic cultural history. Third, Kafur's reign represents the final flowering of Ikhshidid Egypt before the Fatimid conquest of 969 AD, making him the last significant ruler of a transitional era that bridged the Abbasid-aligned dynasties of the 9th century and the revolutionary Shia Fatimid caliphate that would transform Egypt forever.

Kafur was born free in Abyssinia (the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia), the son of parents whose identities are not recorded in the historical sources. Enslaved and sold into the trade networks that connected Sub-Saharan Africa to the Islamic world, he was purchased and subsequently resold until he came into the possession of Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid — the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty — around 923 AD. Muhammad ibn Tughj (882–946 AD) was himself of Turkic Ferghanid origin, a military commander who had been appointed governor of Egypt by the Abbasid caliph in 935 AD and had established a hereditary dynasty with considerable de facto independence. Kafur's relationship with Muhammad ibn Tughj was that of an exceptionally trusted slave and ustadh (master-teacher), evolving over the years into something closer to a partnership of equals in all but formal title. Muhammad recognized Kafur's exceptional gifts and elevated him to positions of command in the military and administration, a trust that Kafur repaid with absolute loyalty throughout his master's lifetime. Kafur never claimed royal blood and never sought to found a dynasty of his own; when asked about his origins, medieval sources record that he answered with dignified directness. He was a eunuch — castrated before his sale into slavery — which meant he could never father children or establish a dynasty, and perhaps precisely for this reason he was trusted with unlimited power. His legacy passed not through blood but through the profound cultural and political mark he left on Egypt during the twenty-two years he governed it.

Kafur was a devout adherent of Sunni Islam, following the Hanafi school of jurisprudence that was dominant among the Turkic military elite of the Abbasid era and that the Ikhshidid dynasty had inherited from its Abbasid patrons. Unlike the later Fatimid rulers who would overthrow the Ikhshidids and impose Ismaili Shia Islam on Egypt, Kafur governed within the established Sunni framework, maintaining the religious institutions, mosque networks, and scholarly establishments that had developed in Egypt over the previous century. He was notably generous to the ulama (Islamic scholars) and regularly donated to religious endowments, maintaining his reputation as a pious and observant ruler despite the extravagance of his court. His religious policy was characterized by pragmatic tolerance toward Egypt's diverse population: the Coptic Christian community continued to be employed in key administrative and fiscal roles, as had been the custom in Egypt since the Arab conquest of 641 AD, and the substantial Jewish community of Fustat — one of the most important Jewish communities in the medieval Mediterranean world — flourished under his reign. The Cairo Geniza, a remarkable collection of medieval Jewish documents discovered in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, dates partly from the Ikhshidid era and provides vivid evidence of the thriving Jewish intellectual and commercial life that Kafur's tolerant governance permitted. His court in Fustat welcomed scholars of all backgrounds, and the multicultural intellectual atmosphere he cultivated made Egypt's capital a remarkable center of learning and culture in the 10th century.

Among Kafur's most celebrated personal creations was his magnificent garden in Fustat, which became one of the most famous pleasure gardens of 10th-century Islamic Egypt and earned an immortal place in Arabic literature through the poems that al-Mutanabbi composed in its setting. The garden, known simply as Bustan Kafur (Kafur's Garden), was a large pleasure park designed in the tradition of the Islamic paradise garden, featuring fragrant trees, flowering plants, water channels, and shaded walkways where poets, musicians, and scholars gathered under Kafur's patronage. Al-Mutanabbi composed his celebrated panegyric odes in this garden setting, describing it in glowing terms as a place where beauty and intellectual refinement combined in perfect harmony — a vision of paradise made real through the power and generosity of its creator. The garden served not only as a personal retreat but as a cultural salon, a physical space where the literary and intellectual life of Kafur's court played out in the most aesthetically refined surroundings. Beyond this garden, Kafur invested in the maintenance and improvement of Fustat's infrastructure, including its canals, markets, and public buildings, ensuring that the city remained one of the great urban centers of the Islamic world. His patronage of poets, scholars, and artists created a cultural efflorescence in Egypt that would not be matched until the great Fatimid court of the following century, and it established a model of Egyptian court culture that influenced the region for generations afterward.

Kafur died on April 23, 968 AD in Fustat (Old Cairo), following a period of illness. Unlike the violent ends that claimed many medieval Islamic rulers, Kafur's death appears to have been from natural causes — a reflection, perhaps, of the relatively stable and well-ordered court he had maintained throughout his long regency. He was approximately sixty-three years old at the time of his death, having served Egypt's rulers and then Egypt itself for nearly half a century. He was buried in Fustat, in a tomb that medieval sources indicate was located near the palatial complex and gardens associated with his reign. Unlike the pharaonic rulers of ancient Egypt, medieval Islamic rulers did not build monumental funerary architecture, and the specific location of Kafur's tomb has not been definitively identified by modern archaeology or scholarly consensus. His death triggered an immediate political crisis: with no designated heir and no capable adult Ikhshidid prince available, the dynasty's power rapidly disintegrated. Within just one year of his death, in 969 AD, the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli entered Egypt at the head of a vast army from the west, ending the Ikhshidid dynasty without significant resistance. The Fatimid general then founded the new city of al-Qahira (Cairo) just north of Fustat as the capital of the new Fatimid Caliphate — a city whose very existence is bound up with the political void that Kafur's death created.

Kafur governed Egypt from Fustat, the historic capital of Islamic Egypt founded by the Arab commander Amr ibn al-As following the conquest of Egypt in 641 AD. By the 10th century, Fustat had grown into one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the Mediterranean world, with a dense urban fabric of residential neighborhoods, markets, mosques, bathhouses, workshops, and warehouses that supported a population of several hundred thousand people. The Ikhshidid palace complex in Fustat served as the center of Kafur's administration and court life, and he significantly maintained and enriched it during his long regency. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As — the oldest mosque in Africa, located in Fustat — was regularly maintained and expanded during the Ikhshidid era, and Kafur was associated with its upkeep as part of his pious duties as ruler. Beyond the palace, Kafur invested in the city's commercial infrastructure: the markets (suqs) of Fustat were celebrated by contemporary geographers as among the finest in the Islamic world, dealing in goods that ranged from Nile-grown grain and linen to imported spices, precious metals, and textiles from every corner of the known world. The celebrated Cairo Geniza — the archive of medieval Jewish documents preserved in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat — dates its earliest layers partly from the Ikhshidid period and gives a remarkable picture of the commercial and intellectual vitality of the city Kafur governed. Although virtually nothing of the specific Ikhshidid palatial architecture survives above ground today, literary sources describe a court of considerable splendor and sophistication.

Kafur's most enduring and unambiguous legacy is his role as a patron of Arabic literature and the arts, which places him among the greatest cultural patrons in the entire history of medieval Islamic civilization. His court attracted poets, scholars, musicians, and intellectuals from across the Islamic world, drawn by his legendary generosity and by the prestige of composing in the service of so remarkable a ruler. The centerpiece of this cultural achievement was his relationship with Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (915–965 AD), who is universally regarded as the greatest classical Arab poet and who composed some of his finest work during his residence at Kafur's court. The panegyric odes al-Mutanabbi wrote in Kafur's honor — before the fateful falling-out — celebrate the regent's wisdom, justice, generosity, and military valor in language of exceptional beauty and technical complexity, and they are still studied in Arab schools and universities as foundational texts of the Arabic literary tradition. Other important poets of the era also visited Kafur's court, adding to the remarkable literary culture he cultivated. The Ikhshidid court also patronized musicians and singers, maintaining the tradition of refined courtly entertainment that had developed under the Abbasids and the Tulunids. Gold dinars minted during Kafur's regency and rule, stamped with his name and titles, survive in museum collections and represent the high quality of Ikhshidid numismatic art. His court also produced fine tiraz textiles — woven silk fabrics bearing the ruler's name in gold thread — that served as luxury gifts and ceremonial garments for courtiers and foreign dignitaries.

Kafur managed Egypt's complex position in the 10th-century Islamic world with considerable diplomatic skill, maintaining the Ikhshidid state's nominal loyalty to the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad while exercising genuine independence in all practical matters of governance, taxation, and military affairs. His diplomatic correspondence extended to the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, with which Egypt had regular commercial and sometimes political contacts, and to the various Islamic dynasties of Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula. His most pressing geopolitical challenge came from the Hamdanid dynasty of northern Syria and Iraq, whose ruler Sayf al-Dawla (the great patron of al-Mutanabbi before Kafur) was an ambitious and militarily aggressive neighbor who repeatedly contested Ikhshidid control of Syria. Kafur successfully defended Ikhshidid Syria against Hamdanid encroachment, maintaining control over Palestine and the Syrian cities that were crucial to Egypt's commercial and strategic interests. He also managed Egypt's relationship with the Carmathian (Qarmatian) state of eastern Arabia, a radical Ismaili Shia movement that periodically threatened the stability of the Hejaz and the safety of the annual pilgrimage caravans from Egypt to Mecca, coordinating with other powers to contain this threat. Trade relations under his governance were maintained at a high level: Egyptian linen, grain, glassware, and papyrus (though the latter was increasingly being displaced by paper) flowed to markets across the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean world, sustaining the commercial prosperity that funded Kafur's court and patronage.

Kafur's single most historically significant and unique contribution to Islamic civilization is the living demonstration he provided that talent, loyalty, and intelligence could overcome any social barrier — including the most extreme possible, that of enslaved status. In a world defined by hereditary dynasties, tribal genealogies, and the prestige of Arab lineage, Kafur rose from the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy — an enslaved, non-Arab, dark-skinned eunuch — to govern one of the Islamic world's most important states for over two decades. This achievement was not merely symbolic: he governed well, maintained stability, patronized culture, defended Egypt's borders, and managed its commercial prosperity with recognized skill. His example profoundly influenced the Islamic political tradition, reinforcing the already-established principle that slaves of exceptional ability could and should be entrusted with power — a principle that would find its fullest expression in the Mamluk system that eventually governed Egypt from 1250 to 1517 AD. The irony of his position — mocked by al-Mutanabbi for his slave origins, yet ruling the land where al-Mutanabbi himself sought patronage — was not lost on medieval observers, who noted that Kafur's power and dignity exceeded that of many freeborn kings. His story also illustrates the extraordinary social mobility that the institution of military slavery (ghulam) could create in medieval Islamic societies, where the most trusted warriors and administrators of great rulers were very often their own slaves and freedmen, bound by ties of personal loyalty that transcended conventional social categories.

Kafur's military career began under the direct service of his master Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, whom he served as a military commander and cavalry officer from the early years of his time in the Ikhshidid court. He participated in the military campaigns that established and consolidated Ikhshidid authority over Egypt, Palestine, and Syria during the 930s and 940s, gaining invaluable experience in logistics, field command, and the management of the diverse Turkic, Arab, and slave-soldier troops that composed the Ikhshidid army. After assuming the regency in 946 AD, Kafur faced the persistent military challenge posed by the Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo, whose ruler Sayf al-Dawla repeatedly attempted to expand southward into Ikhshidid-controlled Syria. Kafur successfully organized and directed multiple military campaigns to defend the Ikhshidid position in Syria, maintaining control of Damascus and the key cities of the Levant against Hamdanid pressure. He also had to manage internal security challenges within Egypt itself, suppressing tribal disturbances and maintaining the loyalty of the army — a complex task given that the Ikhshidid military was composed of diverse ethnic groups with competing loyalties. Despite the image of a court-bound patron of poetry, Kafur remained a capable military organizer throughout his rule, and the Ikhshidid state suffered no significant military defeats during his tenure. The military weakness that allowed the Fatimid conquest of 969 AD emerged only after his death, when the absence of capable leadership demoralized and disorganized the army he had maintained.

Kafur inherited the Ikhshidid state's well-developed fiscal system, which drew upon the extraordinary agricultural wealth of the Nile Valley — still governed by the ancient system of flood-basin irrigation that had sustained Egyptian civilization for millennia — as well as the revenues from Egypt's position as the nexus of Mediterranean and Red Sea trade. Egyptian linen (kattan) was among the most prized textiles in the medieval world, commanding premium prices in markets from Baghdad to Constantinople, and its production and export provided a major source of fiscal income. The customs revenues from Alexandria and the Red Sea ports of Qulzum and Aydhab were also substantial, as merchants from across the Islamic world and from Byzantine, Italian, and North African trading communities used Egypt's geography to transit goods between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Kafur managed these revenues with recognized competence: contemporary sources do not record the kind of fiscal crisis caused by extravagant personal spending that characterized rulers like Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun, and Egypt's general prosperity was maintained throughout his regency. His cultural patronage — while expensive — was understood as an investment in the prestige and political legitimacy of the court, rather than pure personal extravagance. He also maintained the practice of employing Coptic Christian administrators in key fiscal roles, ensuring continuity of expertise in the complex business of taxing and administering Egypt's agricultural economy. The annual tribute sent to the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad was maintained, preserving the formal political relationship that gave the Ikhshidid state its legitimacy within the Sunni Islamic world.

Kafur's administrative genius was his most practically important quality, and it is what distinguished his governance from the more colorful but ultimately ruinous reigns of rulers like Khumarawayh before him. As regent for the young Ikhshidid princes Unujur (946–960) and then Ali (960–966), he faced the inherently delicate task of wielding real power while maintaining the fiction that authority remained with the nominal princes — a balancing act that required extraordinary political sensitivity and personal authority. He managed this challenge with consummate skill, never provoking the kind of aristocratic rebellion that destroyed regencies in other Islamic states, and eventually transitioning seamlessly to formal rule in 966 AD when he assumed the throne in his own name. His administration relied on the established Ikhshidid bureaucracy, staffed by Arab secretaries, Coptic fiscal experts, and military commanders of diverse origins, all of whom Kafur managed through a combination of generous reward and firm discipline. He was known for his personal accessibility: medieval sources report that he held regular public audiences (majalis) at which petitioners from all levels of society could bring complaints and requests directly to the regent, a practice that earned him a reputation for justice and approachability unusual among rulers of his era. His governance of Syria and Palestine — maintained through appointed governors who reported to Fustat — was also generally effective, with the Ikhshidid provinces remaining stable and prosperous throughout his regency. The political crisis that followed his death in 968 AD demonstrated, by contrast, just how personally dependent the Ikhshidid state had become on his exceptional individual qualities.

The artistic heritage of Kafur's court is most powerfully expressed not in surviving physical monuments — of which very little remains — but in the Arabic literary tradition that his patronage generated and that has been transmitted continuously to the present day. The qasidas (formal odes) that al-Mutanabbi composed in Kafur's honor between 957 and 960 AD are among the most technically accomplished and emotionally resonant poems in the Arabic literary canon, and they are still memorized, analyzed, and recited across the Arab world as foundational texts of classical Arabic poetry. In these poems, Kafur is described with the full apparatus of classical Arabic panegyric — praised for his generosity, his military valor, his wisdom in governance, and his magnificence as a host and patron — and the skill with which al-Mutanabbi deploys the conventions of the genre to celebrate a former slave as the equal of any freeborn king remains one of the most remarkable achievements in Arabic literature. The subsequent satirical poems al-Mutanabbi composed after his departure — the famous Kafuriyyat satires — are equally celebrated for their bitter wit and technical virtuosity, and they gave rise to a long tradition of literary commentary exploring the paradoxes of Kafur's dual immortality. Beyond al-Mutanabbi, other poets of the era composed panegyrics for Kafur's court, contributing to a rich literary culture centered on Fustat. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As and the other religious buildings of Ikhshidid Fustat also accumulated Quranic inscriptions and decorative programs that reflected the religious and artistic sensibilities of Kafur's era, though little of this material survives intact from the specific Ikhshidid period.

Kafur's effective rule of Egypt and Syria lasted approximately twenty-two years, from his assumption of the regency in 946 AD to his death on April 23, 968 AD — a remarkably long period of stable governance for a medieval Islamic state, and one achieved by a man who was never its formal sovereign for most of that time. The duration and consistency of his rule stands in stark contrast to the rapid succession of incompetent princes that both preceded his dominance (in the later years of Muhammad ibn Tughj) and followed his death. It was precisely the length of his effective rule that allowed Kafur to cultivate the literary and cultural life of his court to such a degree: long-term patronage relationships, sustained investment in scholars and poets, and the gradual building of a reputation for justice and generosity all require time that shorter reigns cannot provide. His twenty-two years also allowed him to accumulate the kind of practical administrative experience and political authority that no short-term regent could develop. The contrast with the Ikhshidid collapse that followed his death after just one year is one of the most dramatic illustrations in Islamic history of how entirely a state's functioning can depend on a single exceptional individual. His reign bridges two great eras of Egyptian history: the Abbasid-aligned Sunni dynasties of the 9th and early 10th centuries, and the revolutionary Fatimid Shia Caliphate that would transform Egypt beginning in 969 AD — making Kafur, in a very real sense, the last great ruler of one Egypt and the unknowing herald of another.

Kafur died of natural causes on April 23, 968 AD in Fustat, reportedly following an illness of some weeks' duration. He was approximately sixty-three years old — a relatively advanced age for a medieval Islamic ruler, and a remarkable survival given the violent political environment in which he had operated for decades. Unlike many of his contemporaries who died in battle, by assassination, or through palace intrigue, Kafur's death from illness speaks to the remarkable personal security he had achieved through the loyalty and respect he commanded from his household, his military, and the population of Egypt. He was buried in Fustat in a tomb whose precise location is uncertain in the modern scholarly record, though medieval sources indicate it was within or adjacent to the palatial district of the city associated with his reign. His death was immediately recognized as a catastrophic political loss: contemporary chronicles describe the grief and disorientation of the court, which had organized itself entirely around his personality and authority for over two decades and had no succession plan capable of filling the void he left. Within months of his death, the Ikhshidid state had disintegrated into factional chaos, as competing palace officials and military commanders struggled for influence over the young and incompetent princes who nominally succeeded him. The Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli entered Egypt without serious resistance in 969 AD, just one year after Kafur's passing, recognizing that the only thing standing between Egypt and Fatimid conquest had been the person of the remarkable regent — a judgment that serves as the most powerful possible epitaph for the Musk-Scented Prince.

Kafur's historical legacy is complex, multifaceted, and in some ways uniquely paradoxical. He is simultaneously one of the most celebrated and one of the most mocked figures in the Arabic literary tradition — praised in some of the greatest poetry ever written in Arabic, and savaged in some of the most devastating satire. He is a symbol of the extraordinary possibilities of Islamic meritocracy and the dignity that talent and character can confer regardless of birth, yet he is also a figure whose story illustrates the profound limitations of personal rule: a state built around one man's exceptional gifts cannot survive that man's death. In the broader sweep of Egyptian history, Kafur represents the end of one long era — the era of Abbasid-affiliated Sunni dynasties of Turkic origin — and the threshold of another, the revolutionary Fatimid Caliphate that would transform Egypt's political, religious, and cultural identity. His patronage of al-Mutanabbi has given him an immortality in Arabic literary culture that few actual rulers can claim: the poems written in his praise and the poems written in his mockery are both read, studied, and debated in Arab classrooms fourteen centuries after his death. His story has also resonated across cultures as a powerful human narrative of transcendence — the slave who became a king, the outsider who became the custodian of one of civilization's greatest inheritances, the dark-skinned eunuch whom the greatest poet of the age could not stop writing about, whether in praise or in fury. Abu al-Misk Kafur remains one of the most vivid and human figures in all of medieval Islamic history.

The material evidence for Kafur's rule in Egypt is limited but real, and it comes from several distinct categories of historical source. The most tangible surviving artifacts are the gold dinars and silver dirhams minted during his regency and formal rule, which bear his name and titles and survive in museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, the British Museum in London, and other major institutions. These coins are important numismatic evidence not only for Kafur's reign but for the monetary system, artistic conventions, and political self-presentation of the Ikhshidid dynasty. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat — the oldest mosque in Africa, founded in 641 AD — was maintained and used throughout the Ikhshidid period and survives today (though heavily restored over the centuries) as the primary standing religious monument of the era in which Kafur governed. The Cairo Geniza, the extraordinary collection of medieval Jewish documents preserved in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, contains documents from the Ikhshidid period that provide indirect evidence of the commercial and social life of the city Kafur governed, including records of trade, legal disputes, and community organization. The great literary corpus of al-Mutanabbi's poetry, preserved in numerous medieval manuscripts and modern editions, constitutes an extraordinary textual monument to Kafur that has been continuously transmitted for over a thousand years. Finally, the works of medieval geographers and historians — including al-Maqrizi, Ibn Khallikan, and al-Kindi — preserve detailed descriptions of Fustat, the Ikhshidid court, and Kafur's administration that allow modern scholars to reconstruct the historical context of his remarkable career with considerable confidence.

Abu al-Misk Kafur holds a place of genuine importance in the history of Egypt, the Islamic world, and the global history of human societies for reasons that extend well beyond his immediate political achievements. First, he is the supreme historical example of what medieval Islamic civilization theorized and occasionally practiced: the possibility of governance based on merit rather than birth, on proven ability rather than inherited privilege. His career from slave to sovereign demonstrated in the most dramatic possible way that the Islamic world's institutions — in particular the system of military slavery and household service — could provide a pathway to real power for individuals of exceptional talent regardless of their social origins. Second, his patronage of al-Mutanabbi made him a permanent figure in the history of world literature: the poems written in his court are among the most technically accomplished works in the Arabic language, and no student of classical Arabic poetry can avoid encountering Kafur as a central character in the story of the medieval Arab literary tradition. Third, his reign represents the final chapter of pre-Fatimid Islamic Egypt — the end of a century-long era of Sunni, Abbasid-affiliated governance that had shaped Egyptian Islamic identity, and the threshold of the revolutionary Fatimid transformation that would give Egypt the great city of Cairo and make it the center of an alternative Islamic caliphate. Fourth, and perhaps most profoundly, Kafur's story resonates as a timeless human narrative: the story of an individual who, starting from conditions of absolute powerlessness, built a life of extraordinary achievement through intelligence, loyalty, and force of personality — a story that speaks to the deepest aspirations of human dignity across all cultures and all eras of history.