Editing Abdul ibn Farouk (section)

===Background:===
Gender: Male<BR>
Age: 17 years<BR>
Height: 5’10”<BR>
Weight: 155 lbs.

''Appearance'': Abdul is a somewhat attractive, but otherwise unremarkable looking young man. He is trying to grow a beard, but it is still somewhat scruffy. He tries to dress the way he imagines a dashing adventurer would: dark, “mysterious” clothes, a black cloak, and a few pieces of jewelry stolen from tombs.

''Character History'': Abdul ibn Faroukh is the nephew of a famous storyteller, Hakim ibn Mandhur, who is in demand to perform his art in many parts of Cairo, including among the movers and shakers. The old man took the boy on as an apprentice and taught him many of his stories, hoping Abdul would follow in his footsteps. Abdul could be a good storyteller if he applied himself, but he doesn’t and Haikim now despairs of Abdul doing anything productive with his life. Abdul is a good-natured boy but is rather exactly lazy and lacks good sense. He has perhaps taken his uncle’s stories too seriously. Rather than wanting to tell stories, Abdul wants to be in stories that others will tell by becoming a swashbuckling adventurer. One of Abdul’s childhood friends, Jamal, a street urchin who has grown up to be a skilled thief, has taught Abdul some of the tricks of his trade. Abdul has proven to have a natural talent for all things related to larceny. However, Abdul manages to remain oblivious to the shadier aspects of what Jamal does, unable to think badly of someone he has been friends with for as long as he can remember. Rather than using his skills to steal from the living, Abdul has used them to do what he thinks a great adventurer might do--break into ancient tombs and explore them, taking precious items from them. He uses his connections in Cairo’s shadier neighborhoods to fence various items he steals from the tombs, but then usually spends all the money, whether on drink for himself or to help out poor people in his neighborhood in need. Abdul has often approached one of his uncle’s friends, the historian Nasir ibn Sadiq, with questions about what he has seen. From Nasir, Abdul has learned a great deal of history, both Egyptian and world, including how to decipher ancient Eyptian hieroglyphics. Nasir is also a Sufi mystic and an occultist, interested in the magical traditions of the ancient world and part of a Sufi order devoted to protecting them from falling into the wrong hands. He has passed some of this knowledge onto Abdul, as well as training him in Sufi mysticism and ethics. Nasir has no notion of Abdul’s adventures among the tombs and thinks that he is cultivating a potential young scholar and Sufi, not a would-be adventurer. He does, however, recognize that the boy often lacks good sense and so the occult knowledge he has given him is all theoretical, nothing that would let Abdul easily work magic.

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