Rashadar
From Praemal
Rashadar is the largest city in Uraq and the seat of power for the Golden Caliphate of Uraq. Second only to Tarsis, it is the second largest and most populous city in the known world.
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Rashadar the Great
Located on the northern coast of Uraq, Rashadar the Great is a major trade port between the nations bordering the Southern Sea and the Distant South beyond the Great Desert south of Rashadar.
There are famously four gates that Rashadar opens to the world, including the Mazin Gate that faces the western coast, the Dawn Gate that faces east and Rajek's Gate, which faces south into the desert. The fourth gate, the Sailor's Gate, actually connects the city to Rashadar Harbor, just outside the city walls to the north.
Called by some the City of One Thousand Minarets, Rashadar is the center for worship of the sun god Hannan, whose light burns away wickedness and exposes lies and wrong-doing, but whose wrath every Uraqi knows can cause whole nations to wither and die. Three times a day -- dawn, noon and dusk -- the muezzins call the faithful to prayer from atop their minarets, and almost the whole city shuts down, save for those few who worship another god -- mostly soldiers faithful to Mithra or foreign Grailwarden dwarf and gnome craftsmen -- native to the Prustan Peninsula -- merchants and money-lenders who worship Mocharum or The Iron God. These infidels are at times barely tolerated, and at others embraced, but they always live apart, in the Foreign Quarter and Military Quarter.
The Great Market is an enormous 24-hour marketplace in the heart of Rashadar's Traders Quarter, and by itself, it's larger than many other cities. Whole sub-sections of the market focus on specialized trades, such as the Camel Market, the Horse Market, the Gold Market, the Street of Money-Lenders, the Leather Market, the Instrument Market, the Book Market and more. It is said that anything Hannan wants man to possess can be found in the Great Market -- and more besides.
Government
Culture
Rashadari pride themselves on their city's reputation for learning, the arts and culture. In its heyday, House of Wisdom in the Palace Quarter was a legendary university and one of the greatest libraries in the world. But a quarter century ago, a fire swept through much of the library, destroying countless antiquities and killing many of the teachers, students and librarians, a blow from which the institution has never recovered. Traditional music, calligraphy and weaving are also declining in popularity, much to the chagrin of aging master craftsmen.
Slaves are not sold in Rashadar, although the ownership of them is legal and strictly regulated. Slaves cannot be claimed within the city's limits, and no one born in Rashadar, even if they are born to slave parents, will be a slave. Slaves are imported from other cities along the coast, most notably Mazin, and they are typically nomads from the Great Desert or are foreigners.
By ancient Uraqi tradition, women occupy a separate sphere from men, and participate in their own parallel society, shielded from men whom they are not related or married to. Most women wear head scarves to show modesty before Hannan, but the veils common to the nomadic Uraqis are sniffed at as backward. Although women can own property, hold religious office (as Johydee famously did) and even rule the nation, they do not run the businesses that they might own, and city Uraqi women do not deal with the public in commercial ventures, having either men or hired nomadic peasants to do that. These rules do not apply to obviously foreign women, however, although more conservative religious leaders have at times called for them to be made to comply with customs, so as not to provide a bad example. Truthfully, though, so few foreign women are seen in Rashadar that few see it as a major issue either way.
Wizardry is officially forbidden in the city, due to its association with the ancient Caliphate of of Unuul, but in practice, many astrologers, astronomers, mathematicians and doctors are also wizards. So long as they are prosperous, pious (at least officially) and keep their many feuds out of the public eye, their presence is winked at.
Uraqis who worship Hannan, Rajek the Wanderer or Mithra do not eat pork, nor drink alcohol. As with the city's prohibitions against wizardry, slavery and the woman's role in society, the rich privately flout the rule against alcohol, at times scandalizing the middle and lower classes with their drunkenness.
