Haroun El Poussah (also called Haroun El Plassid in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

or Harun El Pullah in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

) is the

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

in the ''

Iznogoud ''Iznogoud'' (pronounced "he's/is no good" with a French (language), French Accent (dialect), accent) is a French comics series featuring an eponymous character, created by the comic book creator, comics writer René Goscinny and comics artist Je ...

'' comics series, created by

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

and

Jean Tabary Jean Tabary (5 March 1930 – 18 August 2011) was a French comics artist. Biography Tabary was born in Stockholm and made his comics debut with ''Richard et Charlie'' published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Vaillant'' on 5 November ...

Character

Haroun El Poussah is a middle-aged, corpulent man whose main characteristic is his extremely docile nature. He can be seen as the embodiment of a benevolent and benign ruler. He has never been shown to have any conflict with any of his subjects. Because of this, he is extremely popular and loved among his people. Haroun El Poussah's name is a pun on the historical Caliph,

Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...

.
Poussah
is a word of Sanskrit origin (

Bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

) derived via Chinese (púsà) and historically used in French to describe a fat man, in connection with the image of

Budai Budai ( zh, c=布袋, p=Bùdài; ko, 포대, Podae; ja, 布袋, Hotei; vi, Bố Đại) was a Chinese monk who is often identified with and venerated as Maitreya Buddha in Chan Buddhism. With the spread of Chan Buddhism, he also came to b ...

. His English name of Haroun El Plassid is a pun on his

placid Placid is a masculine given name, and may refer to: * John Placid Adelham (17th century), English Protestant minister * Saint Placid (6th century), Italian Christian monk * Placid J. Podipara (20th century), Indian Catholic priest See also * Plac ...

nature. The character's Finnish name of Harun El Pullah is a pun on the Finnish word ''pulla'', which refers to a sweet bun. All Haroun El Poussah cares about is eating, sleeping and having lazy fun. He spends most of his time asleep, waking only when it's time to eat, when some servant shows him a fancy western object or when his

Grand Vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

Iznogoud (the real protagonist) appears to invite him to some sort of new activity, which invariably turns out to be a trap of the plot to get rid of him and get Iznogoud elected as the new caliph. The plots never work, and Haroun El Poussah remains completely oblivious of them, confident that Iznogoud loves him and wants only the best for him, often calling him ''"My good Iznogoud"''. It is shown that everyone in Baghdad, except the caliph, knows that Iznogoud is up to no good toward Haroun. Haroun El Poussah's

caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

is actually an electoral monarchy, with elections for the new caliph held every ten years. However, because only the current caliph has the right to vote, every election always has the same result. Haroun El Poussah has three brothers: Deuroun El Poussah, Troiroun El Poussah and Quatroun El Poussah (each of the syllables before the "roun" is a French number going from two to four), of which Iznogoud confronted in the album ''"Enfin Calife!"'' ("Caliph at last!").

Publication history

The character first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Record'' on January 15, 1962. After four years, the strip shifted to Goscinny's ''

Pilote Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0 ''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...

'' magazine in 1968. Initially, the ''Iznogoud'' series was named ''Les aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah'', but it was eventually decided that Haroun El Poussah was too weak a character to be the focal character of the comic strip. The title was then passed on to Iznogoud, despite that he is the villain.

Sources

''Le calife Haroun el Poussah'' and ''Iznogoud'' publications in ''Record''
an

;Footnotes Comics characters introduced in 1962 Fictional emperors and empresses Fictional Arabs Male characters in comics {{Comics-char-stub Fictional caliphs