Muad'Dib
Introduction
to a Child's History of Muad'Dib
There is a legend that the instant the Duke Leto Atreides died a meteor
streaked across the skies above his ancestral palace on Caladan.
The Princess Irulan: "Introduction to a Child's History of Muad'Dib"
Dune 175
A Child's History of Muad'Dib
You have read that Muad'Dib had no playmates his own age on Caladan. The
dangers were too great. But Muad'Dib did have wonderful companion-teachers.
There was Gurney Halleck, the troubador-warrior. You will sing some of
Gurney's songs as you read along in this book. There was Thufir Hawat, the
old Mentat Master of Assassins, who struck fear even into the heart of the
Padishah Emperor. There were Duncan Idaho, the swordmaster of the Ginaz;
Dr. Wellington Yueh, a name black in treachery but bright in knowledge; the
Lady Jessica, who guided her son in the Bene Gesserit Way, and -- of course
-- the Duke Leto, whose qualities as a father have long been overlooked.
from "A Child's History of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 28
"Yueh! Yueh! Yueh!" goes the refrain. "A million deaths were not enough for
Yueh!"
from "A Child's History of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 57
At the age of fifteen, he had already learned silence.
from "A Child's History of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 241
There was a man so wise,
He jumped into
A sandy place
And burnt out both his eyes!
And when he knew his eyes were gone,
He offered no complaint.
He summoned up a vision
And made himself a saint.
Children's Verse
from History of Muad'Dib
Dune Messiah 299
Manual of Muad'Dib
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances
are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your
study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in
his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And
take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the
planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan
and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune,
is forever his place.
from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 3
To attempt an understanding of Muad'Dib without understanding his mortal
enemies, the Harkonnens is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing
Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It
cannot be.
from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 13
Over the exit of the Arrakeen landing field, crudely carved as though with
a poor instrument, there was an inscription that Muad'Dib was to repeat
many times. He saw it that first night on Arrakis, having been brought to
the ducal command post to participate in his father's first full staff
conference. The words of the inscription were a plea to those leaving
Arrakis, but they fell with dark import on the eyes of a boy who had just
escaped a close brush with death. They said: "O you who know what we suffer
here, do not forget us in your prayers."
from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 82
On that first day when Muad'Dib robe through the streets of Arrakeen with
his family, some of the people along the way recalled the legends and the
prophecy and they ventured to shout: "Mahdi!" But their shout was more a
question than a statement, for as yet they could only hope he was the one
foretold as the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World. Their
attention was focused, too, on the mother, because they had heard she was a
Bene Gesserit and it was obvious to them that she was like the other Lisan
al-Gaib.
from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 97
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 230
The hands move, the lips move --
Ideas gush from his words,
And his eyes devour!
He is an island of Selfdom.
description from "A Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 348
Dictionary of Muad'Dib
YUEH (yu'e), Wellington (weling-tun), Stdrd 10,082-10,191; medical doctor
of the Suk School (grd Stdrd 10,112); md: Wanna Marcus, B.G. (std
10,092-10,186?); chiefly noted as betrayer of Duke Leto Atreides. (Cf:
Bibliography, Appendix VII [Imperial Conditioning] and Betrayal, The.)
from "Dictionary of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 37
Songs of Muad'Dib
Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles.
Victim of your folly.
Dirge for Jamis on the Funeral Plain,
from "Songs of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 158
O Seas of Caladan,
O people of Duke Leto --
Citadel of Leto fallen,
Fallen forever. . .
from "Songs of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 187
He has gone from Alia,
The womb of heaven!
Holy, holy, holy!
Fire-sand leagues
Confront our Lord.
He can see
Without eyes!
A demon upon him!
Holy, holy, holy
Equation:
He solved for
Martyrdom!
The Moon Falls Down
The Songs of Muad'Dib
Dune Messiah 245
Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib
"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one
in which you discover your father is a man -- with human flesh."
from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 102
Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in
part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who
experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must
reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the
sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions.
The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this
quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.
from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 126
"There is no escape -- we pay for the violence of our ancestors."
from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 146
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and
oppression to develop psychic muscles.
from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 162
Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife -- chopping off what's incomplete
and saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here."
from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 172
The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from
the terrors of the future.
from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 321
Deep in the unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that
makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
from "The Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 373
There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has
symmetry, elegance, and grace -- those qualities you find always in that
which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the
seasons, in the way the sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters
of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these
patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the
forms that comfort. Yet it is possible to see the peril in the finding of
ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own
fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.
from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 380
How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is
telling him.
"The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 424
Words of Muad'Dib
Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation.
It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by
vague ritual.
"Words of Muad'Dib" by Princess Irulan
Dune Messiah 67
The Wisdom of Muad'Dib
The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called
"spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a
thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.
from "The Wisdom of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 288
God created Arrakis to train the faithful
from "The Wisdom of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 309
Conversations with Muad'Dib
My father once told me that respect for the truth comes close to being the
basis for all morality. "Something cannot emerge from nothing," he said.
This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable "the truth" can
be.
from "Conversations with Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 207
We came from Caladan -- a paradise world for our form of life. There
existed no need on Caladan to build a physical paradise or a paradise of
the mind -- we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid
was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life --
we went soft, we lost our edge.
from "Muad'Dib: Conversations" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 255
Muad'Dib: Family Commentaries
Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the
seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin
goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her
youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the
place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning
and resourcefulness.
from "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 22
How do we approach the study of Muad'Dib's father? A man of surpassing
warmth and surprising coldness was the Duke Leto Atreides. Yet, many facts
open the way to this Duke: his abiding love for his Bene Gesserit lady; the
dreams he held for his son; the devotion with which men served him. You see
him there -- a man snared by Destiny, a lonely figure with his light dimmed
behind the glory of his son. Still, one must ask: What is the son but an
extension of the father?
from "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 41
What had the Lady Jessica to sustain her in the time of trial? Think you
carefully on this Bene Gesserit proverb and perhaps you will see: "Any road
followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain
just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the
mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
from "Muad'Dib: Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 69
It is said that the Duke Leto blinded himself to the perils of Arrakis,
that he walked heedlessly into the pit. Would it not be more likely to
suggest he had lived so long in the presence of extreme danger he misjudged
a change in its intensity? Or is it possible he deliberately sacrificed
himself that his son might find a better life? All evidence indicates the
Duke was a man not easily hoodwinked.
from "Muad'Dib: Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 77
The Humanity of Muad'Dib
Many have marked the speed with which Muad'dib learned the necessities of
Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For
the others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first
training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic
trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not
believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.
Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.
from "The Humanity of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 66
Muad'Dib: The Religious Issues
You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion.
This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of
the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a
community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb
to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk
sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.
from "Muad'Dib: The Religious Issues" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 401
Private Reflections on Muad'Dib
Prophecy and prescience -- How can they be put to the test in the face of
the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the
"wave form" (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the
prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics
inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he
see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words
or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife?
"Private Reflections on Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan
Dune 277
Muad'Dib, the Man
Muad'Dib tells us in "A Time of Reflection" that his first collisions with
Arrakeen necessities were the true beginnings of his education. He learned
then how to pole the sand for its weather, learned the language of the
wind's needles stinging his skin, learned how the nose can buzz with
sand-itch and how to gather his body's precious moisture around him to
guard it and preserve it. As his eyes assumed the blue of the Ibad, he
learned the Chakobsa way.
Stilgar's preface to "Muad'Dib, the Man" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 340
Muad'Dib: The Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe
When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully
conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an
individual.
from "Muad'Dib: The Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe" by Princess Irulan
Dune 408
Arrakis Awakening
Muad'Dib could indeed, see the Future, but you must understand the limits
of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light.
If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley.
Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious
terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps
the choice of one work over another, could change the entire aspect of the
future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through
it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to
choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into
stagnation."
from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 218
This Fremen religious adaptation, then, is the source of what we now
recognize as "The Pillars of the Universe," whose Qizara Tafwid are among
us all with signs and proofs and prophecy. They bring us the Arrakeen
mystical fusion whose profound beauty is typified by the stirring music
built on the old forms, but stamped with the new awakening. Who has not
heard and been deeply moved by "The Old Man's Hymn"?
I drove my feet though a desert
Whose mirage fluttered like a host.
Voracious for glory, greedy for danger,
I roamed the horizons of al-Kulab,
Watching time level mountains
In its search and its hunger for me.
And I saw the sparrows swiftly approach,
Bolder than the onrushing wolf.
They spread in the tree of my youth.
I heard the flock in my branches
And was caught on their beaks and claws!
from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 218
"Control the coinage and the courts -- let the rabble have the rest." Thus
the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: "If you want profits,
you must rule." There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: "Who are
the rabble and who are the ruled?"
Muad'Dib's Secret Message to the Landsraad from "Arrakis Awakening" by the
Princess Irulan
Dune 391
And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the
wheel poised to spin.
from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 447
And Muad'Dib stood before them, and he said: "Though we deem the captive
dead, yet does she live. For her seed is my seed and her voice is my voice.
And she sees unto the farthest reaches of possibility. Yea, unto the vale
of the unknowable does she see because of me."
from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 456
He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent,
chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man. There is no
measuring Muad'Dib's motives by ordinary standards. In the moment of his
triumph, he saw the death prepared for him, yet he accepted the treachery.
Can you say e did this out of a sense of justice? Whose justice, then?
Remember, we speak now of the Muad'Dib who ordered battle drums made from
his enemies' skins, the Muad'Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal
past with a wave of his hand, saying merely: "I am the Kwisatz Haderach.
That is reason enough."
from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 466
Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis
With the Lady Jessica and Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit system of sowing
implant-legends through the Missionaria Protectiva came to its fruition.
The wisdom of seeding the known universe with a prophecy pattern for the
protection of B.G. personnel has long been appreciated, but never have we
seen a condition-ut-extremis with more ideal mating of person and
preparation. The prophetic legends had taken on Arrakis even to the extent
of adopted labels (including Reverend Mother, canto and respondu,and most
of the Shari-a panoplia propheticus). And it is generally accepted now that
the Lady Jessica's latent abilities were grossly underestimated.
from "Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis" by the Princess Irulan
[private circulation: B.G. file number AR-81088587]
Dune 47
Collected Legends of Arrakis
And it came to pass in the third year of the Desert War that Paul-Muad'Dib
lay alone in the Cave of Birds beneath the kiswa hangings of an inner cell.
And he lay as one dead, caught up in the revelation of the Water of Life,
his being translated beyond the boundaries of time by the poison that gives
life. Thus was the prophecy made true that the Lisan al-Gaib might be both
dead and alive.
"Collected Legends of Arrakis" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 437
In My Father's House
My father, the Padishah Emperor, took me by the hand one day and I sensed
in the ways my mother had taught me that he was disturbed. He led my down
the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides. I
marked the strong resemblance between them -- my father and this man in the
portrait -- both with thin, elegant faces and sharp features dominated by
cold eyes. "Princess-daughter," my father had said, I would that you'd been
older when it came time for this man to choose a woman." My father was 71
at the time and looking no older than the man in the portrait, and I was
but 14, yet I remember deducing in that instant that my father secretly
wished the Duke had been his son, and disliked the political necessities
that made them enemies.
"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 105
When my father, the Padishah Emperor, heard of Duke Leto's death and the
manner of it, he went into such a rage as we had never before seen. He
blamed my mother and the compact forced on him to place a Bene Gesserit on
the throne. He blamed the Guild and the evil old Baron. He blamed everyone
in sight, not excepting even me, for he said I was a witch like all the
others. And when I sought to comfort him, saying it was done according to
an older law of self-preservation to which even the most ancient rulers
gave allegiance, he sneered at me and asked if I thought him a weakling. I
saw then that he had been aroused to this passion not by concern over the
dead Duke but by what that death implied for all royalty. As I look back on
it, I think there may have been some prescience in my father, too, for it
is certain that his line and Muad'Dib's shared common ancestry.
"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 203
Family life of the Royal Creche is difficult for many people to understand,
but I shall try to give you a capsule view of it. My father had only one
read friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring, the genetic-eunuch
and one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium. The Count, a dapper and
ugly little man, brought a new slave-concubine to my father one day and I
was dispatched by my mother to spy on the proceedings. One of the
slave-concubines permitted my father under the Bene Gesserit-Guild
agreement could not, of course, bear a Royal Successor, but the intrigues
were constant and oppressive in their similarity. We became adept, my
mother and sisters and I, at avoiding subtly instruments of death. It may
seem a dreadful thing to say, but I'm not at all sure my father was
innocent in all these attempts. Royal Family is not like other families.
Here was a new slave-concubine, then, red-haired like my father, willowy
and graceful. She had a dancer's muscles, and her training obviously had
included neuro-enticement. My father looked at her for a long time as she
postured unclothed before him. Finally he said: "She is too beautiful. We
will save her as a gift." You have no idea how much consternation this
restraint created in the Royal Creche. Subtlety and self-control were,
after all, the most deadly threats to us all.
"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 261
My father, the Padishah Emperor, was 72 yet he looked no more than 35 the
year he encompassed his death of Duke Leto and gave Arrakis back to the
Harkonnens. He seldom appeared in public wearing other than a Sardaukar
uniform and a Burseg's black helmet with the Imperial lion in gold upon its
crest. The uniform was an open reminder of where his power lay. he was not
always that blatant, though. When he wanted, he could radiate charm and
sincerity
"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 296
Count Fenring: A Profile
No woman, no man, no child ever was deeply intimate with my father. The
closest anyone ever came to casual camaraderie with the Padishah Emperor
was the relationship offered by Count Hasimir Fenring, a companion from
childhood. The measure of Count Fenring's friendship may be seen first in a
positive thing: he allayed the Landsraad's suspicions after the Arrakis
Affair. It cost more than a billion solaris in spice bribes, so my mother
said, and there were other gifts as well: slave women, royal honors, and
tokens of rank. The second major evidence of the Count's friendship was
negative. He refused to kill a man even though it was within his
capabilities and my father commanded it. I will relate this presently.
"Count Fenring: A Profile" by the Princess Irulan
Dune 365
Miscellaneous
In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to
gain and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to
priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be
conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the
symbolized system with the tangible universe. In the maintenance of such a
power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of common
understanding -- symbols such as those dealing with economic manipulation
or those which define the local interpretation of sanity. Symbol-secrecy of
this form leads to the development of fragmented sub-languages, each being
a signal that its users are accumulating some form of power. With this
insight into a power process, our Imperial Security Force must be ever
alert to the formation of sub-languages.
Lecture to the Arrakeen War College by The Princess Irulan
Children of Dune 201
"ONCE MORE THE DRAMA BEGINS"
The Emperor Paul Muad'Dib on his ascension to the Lion Throne
DM 85
