Hannibal was the son of Hamilqar Barqa the king of Carthage,

This story will neither dispute nor agree with commonly accepted historic events, but will shed light on the events which were happening behind the scenes which historians could not capture and document.

Carthage was a tawheedic culture. Not much is known about this people and culture, and historians seem to disagree on a few things.  Some believed that they sacrificed children and some dispute that and find no evidence.

I remember watching a video about it. It showed something that I haven’t been able to find on the net: a symbol that was sighted in a number of places in the ruins of Carthage, consisting of a circle with a horizontal line touching it at the bottom, and an equilateral triangle dropping from that point, so the symbol looks like a small girl wearing a dress and spreading her arms out. It’s funny,

Historians could not make any sense of it. To me it hints to the basic geometry of the creation: first the circle, then the surface of the water in which the circle was reflected, then the triangle by which that image spread in the water.

But anyway, Hamilqar, like all the kings of Carthage, had consultants who were wise people of high religious stature. Sometimes good prophets were amongst his consultants. And Hamilqar was an incarnation of Abraham.

His wife was the founder of Carthage in earlier times, according to a legend which is fairly true.

Carthage was under constant threat from the Roman Empire, which controlled the trade routes and was the imperialist bully of that time,

Carthagians felt they could be wiped out any time by this super power, which was pagan and barbaric in their view.

Hamilqar was a popular king, down to earth, loved his people, mingled with them.  He used to have burgundy long cape, made of camel’s wool, which he wore only when he wanted to be addressed and treated as a king, to issue commands and so on.

His palace was open for everyone to come and dine and see him and he used to know many of his subjects.

Coloured clothes in those days were inaccessible to ordinary people, they were the stuff of kings and aristocracy and a sign of affluence.  Dyes and colours and ink were mostly imported from china which mastered the chemistry of making them, because they were important in their culture.

 One evening, there were celebrations for some occasion, and many people had gathered to a huge feast in the open, and dancing and music and so on …

Hamilqar noticed a most beautiful young woman in her teens, and could not take his eyes off her. And she noticed his interest and knew exactly how to feed it, her feminine skills were excellent, and his masculine weakness at his middle age … were a perfect combination of emotional interaction …

So that night, Hamilqar could not get that girl off his mind. He was already suffering from insomnia and anxiety, and was worried about the future of his kingdom,

And this is probably the only point where I disagree with historians. Historians say that Hannibal was his eldest son. I couldn’t find any evidence as to how they came to this conclusion. Perhaps because Hannibal was the commander of his army, they concluded that he would’ve had to be the eldest of his sons,

The way I see it, Hannibal as we shall see later was the youngest, and he was put in command of the army not because of his seniority but because of his unique talent.

So Hamilqar at middle age was concerned about the future of his kingdom, and could not see that any of his sons were fit to take this responsibility, while the threat of Rome was not going to go at all …

Plus, his wife was now a middle-aged woman too and was unable to satisfy the desires of husband who had the passions of a teen-age boy.

How many nights did he spend thinking to himself:

“God created us with desires and passions for the world to continue its regeneration; we do not have the power to stop this.

“But what would happen if I had an encounter with that girl? I would be shamed by  the elders and the wise men of my kingdom, and my wife of a lifetime would resent me …

“My Lord, give me the power to face this dilemma. I feel that if I do not experience the joy of loving this girl my life cannot be fulfilled, and I will die with an unsatisfied desire …”

So one day, he called his closest advisor and told him about his plight,

He was close friends with this one, to whom he used to confide all his secrets and issues which worried him.

So his advisor said to him:

“You can never foresee the consequences of giving in to your desires. This could bring more problems for you, and you have enough as it is. This is time for you to try to curb your desires and put them to rest”.

But those words could not put out the fire that was burning inside Hamilqar’s chest.

So, in secret, he called his assistant, who used to do the “dirty work” for him and told him to arrange for him to spend a night with that girl,

The girl was of a poor background, and she and her family found that this was an opportunity to be elevated to the wealthy caste of the town,

And she knew exactly that she could ask for anything in return, because she could feel by her feminine instinct how badly she was wanted.

So Hamilqar spent a night with that girl, a night during which he felt he that he had lived all his life to live those moments,

At the end of which the call of reason came to him:

“What have I done? That’s all it is. It just went now, and I do not have that fire anymore. Did I have to do that to come back to my senses?

“My Lord, you created us with such weaknesses. I ask your forgiveness if I have done any wrong.

“But I was unable to resist my desire. It is this secret, my Lord, which you put in us, which we can never understand.”

But soon after Hamilqar’s fire was subdued it was reignited by memory and imagination …

So a few more encounters between the two had to happened, during which he was able to throw the worries of his kingdom and the responsibilities of life behind his back, to listen to the soothing nonsense of a naïve teenage girl, and entertain his eyes by the mystery of physical beauty and the charm of the spontaneity of the movements of the feminine body,

Until, one evening, his assistant came to him with the news of the girl being pregnant,

And this was a moment of serious thinking for him,

What was he going to do? Would he tell his wife, or would he keep the matter secret? Would he bring the child to his palace to have it living alongside its half-siblings, or would he just pretend that it was not his problem, and keep supporting the girl financially??

So he had to consult his advisor again, who said to him:

“You will not be able to deny that this is your child. And even if it is not, after all the intimacy that happened between you two, you are responsible for supporting her, and the best thing that you can do is to bring her to the palace so she can be looked after, while looking after the child.”

But this was not an easy option for Hamilqar, so he upon thinking a lot about it, he decided to take the child from the girl to have it brought up by his wife, and he planned for nurses to breast feed the child, which was a common practice among Semitic people,

But his advisor said to him that he had no right to deprive the girl from nursing her child, and had no right of depriving her from mothering it,

So upon thinking, he decided that he would allow the girl to visit the child frequently, and that he would continue lavishing her with clothes, perfumes and things, and that he would build for her and her family a house in the upper end of town,

And I probably forgot to tell you, that she was not a Semitic girl, but of North African origin, of a darker coloured skin than the Semites, and her people were considered a low caste by the Semitic Carthagians.

So the baby was born, and it was a boy who was named Hannibal by his father, of a darkish coloured skin, with a natural frown on his face that looked cute and peculiar,

And Hamilqar’s wife was upset but was doing her best to keep her husband happy,

As for the mother, she had mixed feelings about her child who was taken from her, without her full consent. At times she felt depressed and angry, and at other times … the new life she was now living, and the clothes, the jewellery and the perfumes that she now possessed … were too good to be looked at by sad eyes,  or worn by unhappiness.

And the child continued to grow up, under the now loving wings of Hamilqar’s wife, and the distant eyes of his siblings, and the frequent visits of his natural mother.

At a young age of around ten, Hannibal was still struggling to learn anything. Although very lovable and charming, he was seen by everyone as a little savage who could not be civilised:  eating was for him a pleasure that could only be enjoyed without the worry of table manners, he was very unruly, and had a fiery anger that could burst out over the smallest of things …

But something in him got everyone’s attention: his love of his country, and the hate that he was building up inside him for Rome,

And when angry or agitated, his natural frown would be so emphasized to the point of being frightening, and he knew how to use that to get whatever he wanted … he had a lot of power over people, and the only person who was able to subdue him and rein him was his father,

But as he got to his teen years, even his father started feeling too weak before his powerful soul,

So one night Hamilqar discussed this matter with his advisor, who knew Hannibal very well, by being a frequent visitor to the palace, and had noticed the big soul inside this child,

The advisor told Hamilqar that the best place for him would be the army, where he would learn discipline and would have to control his anger,

So the boy joined the army willingly and enjoyed the training in fighting skills, and deep inside his mind he knew that one day he was going to lead the army of Carthage.

And soon, his fighting skills became of a highest level … and wait … that’s not the end of it … in his late teens he was able to overcome his trainers and older brothers, and went on to develop new techniques in using weapons and so on … stunning, and indeed frightening everyone around him,

But not so his father, who could see the potentials that he had. So although Hamilqar loved his sons and did not want to upset them, he was able to see that it was Hannibal who was most fit to command the army of Carthage in the future, and the affair that he had with that girl started to seem to him now as a destiny that was written for Carthage, to produce a great leader for its army.

 Whether it was a conspiracy or done with a good intent, Hannibal’s elder brother Hasdrubal arranged a safari trip to the heart of Africa for Hannibal, and Hannibal was only too keen to go, accompanied by close friends from the army and other people,

Although serious most of the time, he loved his fun, and once started partying he could not stop, and his love of play and leisure was enormous, and the safari trip was too tempting to refuse,

The group went with the intent of hunting, to bring back animal skin and tusks and things, as proof of their hunting skills,

But once he faced wild life Hannibal had other thoughts. He looked at wild animals with great respect and loved their beauty and power, so he faced them without weapons, for the purpose of befriending them,

His peers were anxious about him and kept warning him of the dangers, but Hannibal ridiculed them and went on doing what he wanted to do …

So at the end, he came back home with live wild animals that he was able to tame and subdue: big cats and other animals … but most importantly, he was riding a female elephant,

Unlike the Asian elephants, those African elephants are so big and so wild and were not domesticated,

But Hannibal had them under his control … with the noises that he made with his mouth and throat, the bodily gestures, the stick that he used just to wave but not to hit for the purpose of causing pain … and all this was done for the fun of it …

His fearlessness of those beasts helped him be their master and thus he gained their full submission.

Hannibal spent a lot of time in solitude in the open, staring in the horizon. His inner visions were clear and he believed them. He was able to see his past existences, and he knew that he was a man of a mission and of great power,

He often gives himself a mandate to “correct” things, and he sees visions which he interprets as signs from heaven,

Al-Munfarid names him Simon the Luminous (sham3oon al-munir), mentioned amongst the opposites, yet al-munfarid hastens to say about him: maa ablasa wa laa bashara, which is wrongly written as: maa ablasa wa laa basara, which makes no sense,

My reading of it translates in English to: neither a demon and nor a human,

Hinting that he is not a demon, yet he is not an angel,

He achieves great things, but is soon distracted by glory and fame, and without the guidance of the good prophets he can get lost, and often in his lives, when amongst dark prophets, he is driven to disastrous ends,

Some of his incarnations: Jacob the son of Isaac, Horem Heb the son of Amen Hotep III, Simon Peter the brother of Andrew, Constantine,  Imam Hussein the son of Ali, Abu Mansur Nizar al-Aziz the ruler of the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt, Genghis Khan, Machiavelli, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, and don’t be surprised: Frederique Chopin and recently Edward Elgar.

The difference between a good military strategist and a bad one, is that the good one knows quite a bit about the laws of nature and of human nature … and this enables him to imagine things which have not materialised. So he runs his ideas through his knowledge in his mind, thus his imagination displays to him the natural flow of events, so he can fine tune his ideas …

And a bad one just goes by numbers and measures, and by probabilities and statistics, and often fails miserably, and needs tons of good luck to win any battle,

And a good one is always prepared for surprises and sudden changes and can turn them to his advantage, while a bad one panics and starts to act irrationally.

This is how Hannibal was indisputably the best military strategist. He sat down for hours in his solitudes, and visioned a grand plan to attack Rome from where Rome would never have imagined it could be attacked,

And one evening, he went to his father, with frightening determination and confidence, and said to him in the tone of voice and the self-assuredness of a high commander: “I am the commander of the army of Carthage”. And he did not want to hear any response, or even an approval from his father, who had already appointed Hasdrubal to that position,

So Hamilqar quickly called everyone to an emergency meeting, and told Hasdrubal to be in charge of a regiment which had a degree of autonomy, and told everyone that Hannibal was now the commander of the army,

And Hannibal wasted no time … with his physique, facial expressions, skills as a soldier, self-confidence, public speaking skills … he asserted to everyone that he was now the boss, at the highest level.

 At that point he had not told anyone about the full extent of his plan, he knew it wouldn’t be taken seriously and he thought it would probably be seen as the dreams of a madman.

But he was not hesitant to any degree. He knew he needed an army much bigger than what he had, and a fleet of ships much bigger than what he had … and most importantly, he had to bring those elephants from Africa  … and this was going to take a long time and a lot of hard work, but he was young, and his anger of Rome was too strong, if he didn’t express it in such ideas and actions, it would’ve driven him crazy or killed him of some illness.

So he went himself to those tribes and villages around and within Carthage, and with his dark north African features he was able to find a quick way to the hearts of those people, and with his speaking skills he was able to ignite in their chests the fire of nationalism, and the enthusiasm to defend their country from the threat of the ruthless barbarians.

So the new recruits were now in the thousands. And he oversaw their training, and he would mingle with them and play and party with them … and they loved him.

He was able also to have the farmers produce more and give it to the army; he knew he had to feed those soldiers very well …

The trips that he had to do to inner Africa were a distraction, but he did them a few times. There was now a big park full of elephants which also needed to be fed and looked after.

This campaign of preparation took Hannibal around or over ten years, during which he was maturing, and working relentlessly, to the amazement of everyone, especially his half-brothers who were becoming very envious of him …

Hamilqar was watching everything from a distance. Now an old man, he was just watching impatiently Hannibal’s every move … and an army that had grown to a size he could never have imagined …

But what was the plan exactly, no one knew at that point. Perhaps Hannibal thought the news of his plan could reach Rome, and that would’ve spoilt it completely. What was seen on the surface was this big military build up, with a new animal now introduced, which would be used for carrying food and stuff for the soldiers, and there was nothing unusual about that …

But it was a scene from legends, of miraculous proportions, when he paraded his army with the elephants and new equipment and the well armoured and organised soldiers, to the sounds of drums of different sizes, designed by him to mimic the sound of the earth and the sound of thunder .. . at least this is how he heard it,

And the horns, which would blow after a build up of drumming sequences, all arranged by him, to sound like fire igniting and flaring everywhere …  which made everyone’s hair stand on its ends, and filled the hearts of those soldiers with the fire of war and sacrifice … they were ready now to throw themselves in the perils of the battlefield, mindless of what could happen to them … and sometimes the elephants participated in playing that war music by blowing their own trumpets, and everything looked harmoniously coordinated.

At that point I can’t but take a minute to compare the military leaders of old times to today’s, although the comparison is a big insult to the old ones ha ha ha …

I used to think that Gaddafi and Idi Amin Dada were the only military leaders who awarded themselves the highest ranks and insignia  … because it looked good on the front pages of the press and TV screens,

And I used to think that their Western counterparts earned those things by their skill and expertise,

Until I heard about the “shock and awe” back in the early nineties, which was a … strategy … or I don’t know what to call it … which Western media were pumping as the best military theory of the time,

But all these guys or guy who came up with this idea had to do was to watch kids playing strategy games on their computer, to find out that it was every beginner’s plan,

Of course, if you have technological superiority, and you out number your enemy by a hundred fold, and you have so many war planes to fill their skies, and an abundance of explosives to throw wherever you want … the first thing that crosses your mind is to “bomb the hell out of their cities” … to prepare for a ground assault …

But who would you be “shocking and awing”? Mainly the civilians who live in those cities …

And the ground assault took a lot longer to materialise, despite the technological superiority … and guess what, over ten years have passed, and the “invaders” still do not have the upper hand, and they are still seen by the people as invaders and still live in constant fear from the guerrilla war which they can never win,

And how many times did Western officials, while giving press conferences in Baghdad to show that they were victorious, had to duck and even run away, when bombs went off close to the venue … making a mockery of their show …

History will be looking at these events from a different perspective in the future, when the politics of the world today will not be seen through the lenses of Western propaganda.

And the reason I put quotations around “bomb the hell out their cities” is because it was perhaps the exact words that John Pilger used, when he asked that American general who led the “Desert Storm”, when the latter gave his first press conference after the start of the war …

He said to him, something along the lines of: “so you go and bomb the hell of their cities and you expect them to welcome you …”

He turned out to be right, and the awards and praise that that general took from all sources turned out to be unwarranted …

This was a distraction that I felt was necessary, to highlight the difference between military leaders of the past who designed and made everything  …  and envisaged things … and were driven by more than just fame and power and a fat bank account … and trained their soldiers themselves  … and got their hands dirty and put themselves at the frontline …

And those of today, who rely on the destructive power of technology, and set their plans over a glass of whisky … followed by vitamin pills and headache tablets … ha ha ha ...

I guess the rest of Hannibal’s story is known and a lot has been written about it, so I’ll leave it here.

The next story will be that of Joseph, which will be a major change. Joseph was not a military man, but a Realisation of Truth …