And the Padishah Emperor is called Shaddam IV.
Dune the novel, is where I learned the word "jihad" long before it was commonly known. It wasn't used in the film much, since as noted, the world has moved on.
Dune the novel, is where I learned the word "jihad" long before it was commonly known. It wasn't used in the film much, since as noted, the world has moved on.
I’m not sure how much Herbert differentiated Persian from Arabic culture —I don’t think he would conflate the two— but at the time of the Shah was seen as the most decadent ruler, independently of religion: in 1971, six years after the first book came out, he threw the biggest party ever (literally). I don’t know if Herbert approved of Salvator Dali as the Emperor in Jodorowsky’s version but that makes more sense to code him as excessive and dangerous because unpredictable (something Christopher Walken will do amazingly well; Jeff Goldblum could have been great too) than conflating him with Muslim references.
The references are beyond specific houses: Jihad is also used for the "Butlerian Jihad" which is started by the viceroy of the League of Noble, and a Harkonen ally, not something coded with the Freemen, who seemingly don’t know about it, or the Emperor who only takes over much later and at Harkonens’ expenses.
I think the studio (execs) just were afraid of having a blockbuster with a hero that promotes Jihad.
Agreed, they will use an different equivalent term such as "holy war" for the reasons given above.
The meaning of that fictional cataclysm is not casual, but the word choice in Dune the 1965 novel, using an unfamiliar middle-eastern term for it, I think was. These are separate things, and I refer you again to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinctio...
Dune has a hero? Paul is a hero?
Fun fact - a rock band from NZ named themselves "Shihad" after a member had read Dune and got the word jihad wrong. When they tried to break into the US market, they renamed themselves "Pacifier" because, well, you know, Shihad/jihad wasn't a great connotation post 9/11. And the name was appropriate because their music as Pacifier rather sucked.
It is a Persian word, but Herbert's use of it for the the Corrino emperor probably comes from its use in the Ottoman Empire.