We’ve heard of Dracula the vampire, and the increasing number of books on vampires has renewed people’s interest. Little do we know the part Muslims played in bringing this man to account:
The originator of the vampire legend who impaled his enemies and drank their blood was Vlad III, known as Dracula. He was the son of Vlad II from the House of Draculesti (House of the Dragon), an ally of Sultan Murad II. Vlad II had 4 sons among whom was Vlad III (Dracula) and Radu III, who converted to Islam and later hunted Dracula down. Vlad II offered his sons Dracula and Radu, to serve the Sultan.
Dracula rebelled against his hosts and hated his father for allying with the Turks, which he saw as a betrayal of the Order of the Dragon, a Christian fraternity formed to wipe out Islam from the Balkans. Radu remained faithful to Islam and spent his life in battle against its enemies.
Dracula carried out insurrections against the Turks. To frighten Sultan Mehmet II, Dracula killed 23,884 Muslim men, women and children and impaled their bodies iin 1462. Radu pursued Dracula, who killed over 15,000 Ottoman soldiers. Radu and his Romanian Muslim soldiers continued fighting until he conquered Wallachia and Dracula was imprisoned by a Christian ruler.
After Radu’s death in 1473, Dracula was released. He invaded Bosnia, slaughtering its Muslim population and impaling 8,000 on stakes. Sultan Mehmet II invaded Wallachia and in 1476 his forces destroyed Dracula’s forces in Bucharest, Romania.
All were killed including Dracula. The vampire had been slain. His head was cut off and impaled on a stake in Istanbul. The Muslims had finally killed Dracula.
Adapted from article by Shibli Zaman
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