This article is about the modern-day terrorist "nation" sometimes known as ISIS. For the mythological goddess, see Isis.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognized quasi-state. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Sharia, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.
After a protracted and intense conflict with American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, IS lost control of all its Middle Eastern territories by 2019. It subsequently reverted to insurgency tactics, operating from remote hideouts while continuing its propaganda efforts. These efforts have garnered it a significant following in northern and Sahelian Africa.
Note on Name[]
The Islamic State is known by a number of names. ISIS is the one Harry Turtledove uses.
ISIS in "Interlibrary Loan"[]
In 2017, ISIS arranged to secure a copy of the Necronomicon from the Special Collections of the library of Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts.[1] ISIS took advantage of the interlibrary loan system, coercing one Professor Gamal al-Zubi of Al-Azhar University in Cairo to request Miskatonic's copy.[2] Then, the Iraqi-born, Hafez ibn Abd-al-Rahim traveled to Arkham on a fake Egyptian passport with documents signed by the professor.[3]
Haffez brought the copy ar-Raqqah, Syria, where he delivered it to two men, Khalid and Ibrahim.[4] They invited him to stay and watch while they cast a spell to attack the United States. While the two took precautions by creating a pentagram and several circles on the floor,[5] during the course of the enchantment, each mistranslated the Arabic, using the wrong verb tense. Immediately, some invisible hand erased part of each circle. Slime and tentacles soon overwhelmed and killed the three men,[6] and whatever they'd unleashed destroyed the heart of ar-Raqqah. The world was left to puzzle how this came to be, and attempt to descipher ISIS's claims of glowing eyes and suction disks.[7]
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