Alhazred, Abdul (655-738) - Poet and mystic of Sanna in Yemen, best know for his Kitab Al-Azif or
Necronomicon. He's said to have been a descendant of the mythical tribe of Ad, and is a legend in the Middle East. Alhazred is known for his many travels to forgotten and unholy places across the Middle East. The first of these led him to Egypt, where he studied under the wizard Yakthoob. After his master's death, he led the wizard's disciples to Memphis and then Irem, where many of them were destroyed in a freak accident. He spent some time at
the Nameless City, then rejoined his followers in
Alexandria. There, he failed to dispel the evil from the Black Mosque and was forced to leave the city. He returned to the Nameless City and from there went to the Valley of Tombs and the Black Mountain in Turkey before settling in Damascus. During a pilgrimage to Chorazin on the Sea of Galilee, Alhazred fell into a trance-like state. This lasted for eight years, and during this time he wrote the Necronomicon. He wrote about his dimensional travels in this book and probably worshiped both
Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth. Ibn Khallikan, his 12th-century biographer, tells of the mad poet being devoured in the marketplace of Damascus in broad daylight by an invisible monster. Others claim that his death was illusory and that he was borne off to the Nameless City to be tortured and killed.
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