If they were more cuddly ISIL might be called “the history boys” of the radical extremist world, though they are nothing like the English schoolboys dolefully condemned to cramming dates, kings and battles in Alan Bennett’s fabulous play.
As Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir recently told this paper, there is a lot of charged talk in his region about ISIL establishing “Habasha”, an emirate that would be made up of present-day Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea. Habasha, of course, is a name with enormous historical significance for Muslims because of the journey to in Islam’s early days. Then there is the thuggish Sharia Youth Council in Derna, which has sworn fealty to ISIL. They have named their so-called caliphate “Barqa”, as eastern Libya was known after the 7th century Arab conquest. Last year, a map shared online by ISIL, of the areas it plans to control by 2020, boastfully recast cartography in blocs that hark back to specific periods in 1,400 years of Muslim rule of the world – Andalus, Khorasan, Qoqaz, Anathol, Orobpa.
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