Talk:Muntab
Muntab mentioned in Wyrd Sisters Someone might want to include something from Wyrd Sisters, "The calender of the Theocracy of Muntab counts down, not up. No-one knows why, but it might not be a good idea to hang around and find out." Source: http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/wyrd-sisters.html Sorry I don't have time to write copy myself ;) -torb
- Did you read it all the way through? --Old Dickens 00:05, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Muntab currentlty
I'll check into this but if someone has it on the top of their minds:
In one of the later books (early in the book), could be The Fifth Elephant could be Going Postal there is an exchange between Vetinari and someone during a discussion of current foreign affairs:
Vetinari: -... and there is also the Muntab question.
Someone: - Where is Muntab?
Vetinari: - Exactly
Iron Hippo 16:27, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
- Nanny Ogg asks Verence the Muntab Question in Carpe Jugulum; being a trained Fool he doesn't seem to know the joke. --Old Dickens 17:53, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
- You just saved my evening. This got stuck in my head and I browsing everything with Vetinari in it. At least I got books organized on the bokoshelf (after a year and a half in this appartment) Iron Hippo 18:23, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
I remember the exchange with Vetinari, too but I can't find it. (It has to be there, that's the joke - Nanny and Verence just mess it up because we're supposed to remember it from the previous mention.) --Old Dickens 18:42, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
- On wikipedia it's mentioned as the question which side the developed nations will choose in a war between Borogravia and Muntab. --Sanity 13:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
- Does this idea come from a game? WP gives no reference, despite their rules. Muntab isn't very nearby Borogravia, either. --Old Dickens 01:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
OK I found it. The Truth, first time Vetinari visits the printing shed and "appoints" William de Worde as responsible, the conversation goes:
Vetinari -On the whole, I wish to avoid any low-level difficulties at this time, what with the unsettled situation in Übervald and the whole Muntab question.
WdWorde -Where's Muntab?
Vetinari -Exactly. Iron Hippo 22:36, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
- Likely the annotator didn't read this, or get the joke. --Old Dickens 21:44, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
Link to the Ottoman Empire?
The mention of the word Pasha in the annotations got me thinking and researching.
A wider comparison to the Ottoman empire seems quite possible in my mind. For one thing, it was once quite large, covering parts of Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, Egypt, Arabia, Israel... the list goes on and on. This presents the possibility it stretched all the way up to Überwald and Borogravia. Given how Vlad the Impaler fought against the Ottoman Empire on Roundworld it makes one wonder if the same happened on the Disc - which would certainly help explain the foot hold of the Vampires in Uberwald. The uniform of the military in Borogravia is also similar to that used by the British forces during the Crimean War - which in part was due to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and conflict over the lands it once occupied.
In fact, might "the Muntab Question" actually refer to the "Eastern Question" - which was ultimately to do with the power struggle between European powers who had interests in the crumbling Ottoman Empire? It would explain their continued significance and why the Muntab Question continues to bother the politicians of the Disc.
This might also fit in with the joke over "Where is Muntab" - "Exactly" - as the Empire dwindles.
Geographically, Muntab - if it stretched up to Borogravia - might have also included the large body of water on the The Discworld Mapp rimwards of Borogravia - much like how the Ottoman Empire at one point surrounded the Black Sea, while the mountains of Klatchistan going hubwards might be akin to the Balkans and Carpathians.
I'm now finding a map forming in my head of the Disc of Old, in an age when they were yet to grow out of the idea of Empires and so the Disc was divided up between a few big powers... Ankh-Morpork, Muntab, Uberwald, The "Evil Empire", Klatch...