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The Fart That Killed 10,000 People, and Other Weird Moments From History

Khalid Elhassan July 18, 2020 34 min

Wheel - Panjandrum — The Great Panjandrum. War History Online

33. The Fart That Became a Date

A medieval Arab market. Mother of Religion

Disguised as a dervish, Abu Hassan wandered around his hometown for a week, eavesdropping on people on the chance he might hear any mention of his name. Finally, sitting near the door of a hut, he overheard a young girl ask her mother: “When was I born? One of my friends needs the date so she can cast my fortune“.

The mother replied: “Dear, you were born on the night Abu Hassan farted“. A disappointed Abu Hassan rose, and immediately fled his hometown once more, this time for good. As he put it: “My fart has become a date – it will be remembered forever“. He eventually made his way back to India, where he remained in self-exile for the rest of his life.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.