Tales of Hossein Ali Qomi
Inman MacMoore
"Somebody that I don't know if anyone really remembers... His name was Hossein Ali Qomi. Hossein was basically my chamberlain for two reigns. He had a Middle Eastern persona. He is one of the Fallen Stars of Ansteorra. He was never a Peer, but he had this monstrous bass voice, and he could protect it. He made an outstanding Herald - he heralded many of my courts. I asked him before we went to Pennsic 20, "Man, all these Crowns give all these gifts, and I think it's trite and tacky, and I don't want to do it. Because - number one, we're all broke down here. We don't have the money to put together baskets of gifts for every Crown that's there. I said, "Since you were around, when the first Pennsic started - he was part of the East Kingdom then (He was a college history professor and he had taught many different places) - why don't you put together a story, or something?" He was good friends with the guy who actually started the Pennsic war - Duke Cariadoc of the Bow. Cariadoc literally was King of the Midrealm at the time, declared war on the East, then went and became king of the East, and then lost the War as King of the East. So he declared war on himself and lost. And Hossein thought this was wonderful. He wrote this magnificent poem about the 20 years of the Pennsic War and instead of giving out gifts to all the other Crowns, we decided we would gift everybody that was there in the Great Hall during Great Court. He went up and read it in this great booming voice, and he was perfect. I think he's one of those people who ... He also helped me a great deal during the negotiations for the first Gulf War. He wrote a lot of the agreement, basically. He had a great way with words. He helped us write the agreement that all the Crowns then signed which led us to have the war. I always thought he should have been a Pelican, but it just never happened that way."
Uriah Wolfstar
During Michael of Monmouthshire's reign, he had a sign - basically, it meant "help!" - for when he was talking to someone and couldn't get away. I would come and tell him the Queen was looking for him, and Hossein would engage the person in conversation. He was a journalist and college professor - basically, he was the smartest person I knew. I've missed him over these years.
Cairenn of CuRuadha Keep
I knew him very well, and in fact, I did a lot of costuming for him. I can still remember the first time he came to a Steppes event. He had some sort of small gift and approached them. He bowed fully; I remember his head actually touching the ground as would have been proper for a Middle Eastern persona. He converted to the Shia Muslim faith some time after college, and in fact, after he had a year in Catholic seminary - so he was fabulous to talk to about religion. He told me a lot about Islam and their beliefs, and Middle Eastern and Central Asian history. He spoke five or six languages including Farsi and several of the Central Eastern dialects. This was at a time that most people didn't even know where Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was. One of the interesting things I can remember about our Steppes meeting, was Hossein and Ty having a 30 minute conversation entirely in Latin. I don't know what it was about, but he was also fluent in it. He was quite a special person and we are all made less by his loss.
Trivia
- He was a member of the College of Heralds for many years. - Lorraine Deerslayer
- He wrote a few booklets on how time was kept in medieval times. - Lorraine Deerslayer
