"Why not?" Eric said with a teasing smile. "If they're willing, why not let them have their fun?"
"Shansi is the King!" the old man in the black robe protested. "The Mahdi named him!"
The madness of Baalbek had begun just like this.
The town had been a home for foxes and birds until its religious leader, the Sheikh (master) of all Sufi Practitioners, the head of the Haram Sufi Monastery, Master Musa Shadi, crossed the hills and came here.
The Master had been driven from the Haram Sufi Monastery, located in the deepest part of the Beqaa Valley, after an attack by Turkic Warlords from the north.
He came to Baalbek and established the new Mosque that Eric was now about to enter.
The Master saw the Mahdi in a dream, and the Mahdi told him that Shansi was the future King of Syria and Palestine.
Today, everyone in the Beqaa Valley was a Shiite Believer, and they all knew of the Mahdi.
