The Emperor is very obviously coded as the Shah of Iran. I’m not sure how much Herbert differentiated Persian from Arabic culture —I don’t think he would confl

The Emperor is very obviously coded as the Shah of Iran. 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.