Exactly 700 years ago, a child was born from a nomadic family wandering through the fierce deserts of Arabia. This child would live for hundreds of years, literally plaguing humanity because of his secret activities for generations.
He would carry out all the things he had done or would do for the sake of the ideology he believed in, and he would never question them. The only thing that mattered was that the work done with tremendous discipline was duly carried out.
Although his real name was never known, everyone would recognize him as Ra’s Al Ghul – and learn the depth of his story thanks to Batman.
The Teenage Years and the Search for Revenge
Ra’s Al Ghul, which means the head of the devil in Arabic, has a story set in the regions of ancient Egypt. At the same time, although some narratives take place in the Far East, the most accepted region is ancient Egypt, and our friend comes from a nomadic tribe.
Even as a young man, Ra’s would be famous for being one of the smartest men of his tribe, and his curiosity about science and science would make him different from many people. However, Ra’s;s responsibility and duties towards his tribe keep him away from such affairs, so he has to leave at some point.
Moving to the city for his dreams and development, Ra’s soon becomes a successful physician. These are the best days of Ra’s. It was during this time that he married the love of his life, a woman named Sora. He loves his wife very much. Everything is proceeding smoothly as desired.
It is precisely at this moment that the sadistic and egotistical prince of the country falls ill with a deadly disease.
The egoistic prince in question falls into the Lazarus pit by an accident while trying to be treated by Ra’s and his team. The waters of this pit, filled with ancient and mystical secrets, heal the dying Prince. But the pit has side effects that drive damaged minds crazy. The sadistic prince recovers but loses his sanity completely at the end of the day.
After a while, he develops an obsession with Sora, Ra’s’s only love, and soon kills her. Of course, this brutal murder will be covered up.
As a matter of fact, since the murderer is a prince and this prince is sick, the crime will go unpunished and this incident will be treated as if it never happened.
As if all this were not enough, there is also the King. that is, he begins to think that the mad prince’s father, Ra’s Al Ghul, has assassinated his own son. According to the king, the mad prince was poisoned, for example, by Ra’s, and was made this way thanks to endless tortures.
Then the king shows his other side and puts Ra’s in the same dungeon as his deceased wife, sentencing him to a life sentence that is full of suffering from top to bottom.
After days of suffering, Ra’s Al Ghul somehow frees himself from this dungeon. But what he has seen makes a great contribution to leaving a permanent, traumatic mark on his mind. Ra;s is destroyed.
His beloved wife, his dreams and even his profession disappeared in an instant.
The saddest thing is that nothing will ever be the same anymore, and only one thing is on his mind…
Revenge!
When Ra;s, who returns to his tribe after the events, arrives, he makes a big offer to his uncle, who is in the management team. ‘The king must die!’ he says. Luckily, his uncle agrees with his nephew, and at some point the foundations of the assassination formation, which was later called the Union of Shadows, were laid.
In short, Ra;s and his uncle prepare for a great war.
However, the king is both outnumbered and has a huge army. There can be no question of a kingdom and a tribe entering into war. Therefore, it is necessary to find another method. Something needs to be done so that Ra;s and those around him can get what they want.
Since his birth, thanks to his curiosity in science, Ra;s has achieved very successful works and has learned a lot about the germ theory in diseases. Therefore, instead of fighting hand-to-hand with a kingdom that is superior in numbers, he will choose the path of reason and defeat his enemy through knowledge and science. Eventually, a kind of biological war begins. Ra;s infects the fabrics prepared for delivery to the prince with the aforementioned microbes. Then the mad prince becomes ill, and no matter how many doctors, healers, sorcerers, and so on there are in the country, none of them can cure the relentless disease that the mad prince has contracted. Ra;s’s masterful plan works like a click.
Soon the desperate King is forced to come with his son to the feet of Ra;s Al Ghul. He asks him for help and even begs him, but Ra;s says that he will never show mercy because of what has happened to him, and he kills the King and his son on the spot. And if this is not enough, the barbarian king unleashes his tribe on them to kill the people who serve his sadistic son and the palace household.
This is where the turning point in Ra;s Al Ghul’s life takes place.
It seems that from now on he became the head of a formation that cleansed civilizations that were about to decay. His tribe is known as the ancestor of the union of shadows, and he himself is known as the head of the devil.
Meeting Batman
The Lazarus pit, which drove the prince insane, ensured Ra;s;s survival for centuries. In fact, after all this time, he re-enters the affairs of the heart and has two daughters from an affair with a Chinese woman. The first is Talia Al Ghul, who is also Batman’s lover. The second is Nyssa Al Ghul, but he never had a son who embraced his ideals and bequeathed his ideas. He wanted the person to do this to be Batman, whom he always admired, or as he called it, a detective.
But Batman’s ideals never coincide with Ra;s. Ra;s’s philosophy of life is the elimination of criminals, even a large part of humanity, for a more just world. In this way, he will bring ecological balance to the world he lives in, which will make him an international terrorist. It is to kill discipline. Therefore, he does not feel responsible for any assassination attempt. But the dark knight has never been such a person. Although Batman is a character that criminals think about once again before committing crimes, killing is not his job. He would rather bring the criminal he caught to justice than kill him. This issue was even covered in Batman Begins in the Christopher Nolan series.
These two wolves, who are completely separated from each other, have a sweet-hard relationship that has lasted more than 40 years. Ra;s has also become Batman’s father-in-law thanks to his daughter Talia and is one of the few people who knows Batman’s true identity.
A Life of Experience and Grief
Ra;s, who is thought to have lived an average of 600 to 700 years, witnessed many historical events during his life, saw wars and even took part in or directed them. Also in Batman Begins, it is described that Rome was plundered, merchant ships were filled with plague rats, London was burned completely. In short, whenever humanity begins to stink, the unity of shadows has come to the surface in order to achieve justice and balance in their own way. In summary, Ra;s Al Ghul, as the leader of the world’s most marginal terrorist organization, rivals Batman in intelligence, analysis and tactical thinking. He has been a traveller, learner and accumulater throughout his long life. But the pit of lazarus, which drove the prince crazy centuries ago, has also had an impact on Ra;s Al Ghul over all this time. He is no longer a person who thinks as healthily as before, and he comes across as someone who loses his decision-making mechanism.
On top of all this, even though Ra;s is such a powerful leader, he will be tragically ended by his own daughter. Of course, according to the scenario, we are talking about a person who dies and rises many times. There are quite alternative stories on many platforms, but we can say that this is the summary of the most accepted story.
Finale
In short, Ra;s Al Ghul, who has appeared in many places such as comic books, cartoons, games and the like, is undoubtedly one of the darkest enemies of the dark knight. Batman has always had a great place in the universe and has managed to attract attention thanks to the mysterious organization he has established. Let’s say that as long as Batman continues, Ra;s’s story will continue and let’s end our article here.
Thanks for reading to the end.
You can also watch this article as a video below (and of course you can subscribe to Emir;in’s channel for this and similar exquisite content – Eser)
Resources
tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%27s_Al_Ghul
batman.fandom.com/wiki/Ra%27s_al_Ghul
kahramanbaykus.com/kimin-nesi-ras-al-ghul/
ortadunya.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22617&i=1
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