Hamza kills Hind’s brothers while rescuing Khalid, Salman the Persian, and Bilal from a masked attack in Jahilia. The episode unfolds during the Festival of Ibrahim, on a night of uneasy celebration following a political triumph for Abu Simbel. Its outcome is both immediate and far-reaching: the three followers survive, but the dead attackers are Hind’s brothers, a loss for which Jahilia’s first lady will wait years to exact revenge.

Background and Forewarning

The attack follows a moment of uncertainty for Mahound’s followers. Abu Simbel has offered recognition for their faith in exchange for approval of Lat, Uzza, and Manat, and Salman the Persian warns that accepting such terms could make Mahound seem false and leave the movement weakened. Mahound’s own account of revelation rests on listening that feels as if it comes from within him; in the vision surrounding this episode, Gibreel also experiences their connection as so intimate that it becomes unclear which of them is dreaming the other. The political compromise and the uncertain source of revelation frame the night as a supposed triumph that does not bring security.

Hamza senses that the settlement has not made the danger disappear. As he walks through Jahilia, he sees what appears to be a gigantic scarlet manticore on the city battlements. It vanishes, and the people nearby seem to be revelers in costume, joking about the newly accepted gods. Hamza does not take the encounter as reassurance. He returns home and calls for his battle sword, which has remained sheathed since he converted through his nephew’s influence. The weapon’s return marks a break with the peace he had tried to maintain.

The Attack at the City Wall

It is the final night of the festival. Jahilia is given over to masquerade and revelry: after the day’s wrestling and poetry, masked performers and nighttime festivities take over the streets. Against that public celebration, Hamza searches the shadows for the lion-like apparition. The city’s many animal and mythical disguises make the distinction between spectacle and threat difficult to settle; the attackers, too, conceal their identities behind masks.

The three followers have been drinking after a period of unhappiness. Unfamiliar with alcohol, they become heavily intoxicated, abuse passers-by, and draw attention when Khalid brandishes his waterskin and boasts that water could wash filthy Jahilia away for a new beginning. Lion-masked men pursue them. The three are eventually cornered, and the account describes their fear as the intoxication wears off. Hamza finds them during the attack, carrying the sword he has taken up again.

Gibreel watches from above as Hamza intervenes. The fight ends quickly once he reaches the scene: two masked attackers flee and two are killed. Khalid, Salman, and Bilal have been wounded, though their injuries are not severe. The decisive discovery comes when Hamza identifies the dead men as Hind’s brothers. The masks that concealed their identities have turned a rescue into a direct connection between the followers’ survival and a powerful household’s bereavement.

Aftermath and Significance

The episode’s immediate result is not simply victory. Hamza has prevented the attackers from killing the three followers, but the identities of the dead make retaliation foreseeable. The narration places the murders within a night of what it calls the businessman’s desolating triumph and signals that Hind, Jahilia’s first lady, will wait years before taking her revenge. The political settlement has therefore not resolved the conflict; it has become the setting for another grievance.

Afterward, the wounded men gather enough courage to go to Abu Simbel’s palace and tell Hind that Hamza has killed her brothers. They arrive too late to find Mahound there: he is already heading once more toward Mount Cone. That separation matters to the scene’s shape. The rescue and its consequence unfold while the central figure is absent, leaving the injured followers to carry the news into the household whose loss may turn into future vengeance.

The episode also makes the city’s masks more than festival decoration. Hamza first sees a manticore that disappears, then encounters masked attackers whose concealed identities prove lethal. The scene never fully separates visionary imagery from human action: Gibreel’s dreamlike vantage gives the fight a mythic aspect, while its consequences are concrete—three followers wounded, two attackers dead, and Hind’s brothers identified among them. The revelation does not undo the rescue; it changes what the rescue means for the conflict to come.