Muhammad Avdol

Avdol is an Egyptian of better-than-average height and a solid, heavier build. He drapes himself in a long robe or overcoat worn over a scarf, trading his wider sleeves for shorter ones as the journey wears on. A pair of matching scars runs down both cheeks, and he binds his forehead with a wrapped cloth, keeping his hair in knotted coils topped by a lengthy ponytail.

Chains of linked medallions hang at his ears like a necklace, the largest carved with an ankh and trailing a tassel onto his chest, while thick metal bands ring his wrists. From his clash with Cameo onward he switches to a shirt and trousers and carries fresh scars on his brow and upper back.

Composed, dutiful, and principled, Avdol works hard to project the image of a mature and responsible man, a point he insists on during his fight with Mariah. A powerful sense of loyalty defines him, and as one of the crusade's founding members he is fully committed to bringing DIO down; the needless slaughter of bystanders by Tower of Gray leaves him seething. He will lay down his life for the others, twice throwing himself into fatal danger to shield Jean Pierre Polnareff and Iggy, and he honors Polnareff's chivalry by returning the Frenchman's courtesies mid-duel.

As the group's strategist and second to Joseph, he preaches caution and mulls over their next steps, though his admittedly emotional nature undercuts the calm he strives for, leaving him prone to sudden panic when things go sideways. Beneath the stern surface sits a warmer, sometimes boisterous man who laughs loudly and clowns around in high spirits, and who takes obvious pride in Magician's Red, punctuating a good move with a rotating thumbs-up and his trademark boast.

Born already carrying his humanoid Stand, Magician's Red, Avdol spent a lifetime mastering its precisely controlled flames and made his living reading fortunes at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Cairo. Four months before the main events, he crossed paths with the newly revived DIO and barely kept his life and mind after Joseph Joestar warned him of the danger; around the same time he managed to subdue the Stand-using dog Iggy.

He enters the story alongside Joseph to size up the imprisoned Jotaro Kujo, giving Jotaro's Stand the name Star Platinum. The crusaders soon reach Hong Kong, where Avdol bests a mind-controlled Polnareff and welcomes him aboard once the flesh bud is destroyed. An ambush by Hol Horse and J. Geil leaves Avdol stabbed and shot, yet a twist of the head turns a killing bullet into a mere graze; the group hides his survival, and he even poses as his own father before dramatically resurfacing to save Polnareff from Cameo.

After Midler's High Priestess wrecks his submarine, he sends for Iggy, then survives a brush with the blind assassin N'Doul and later crushes Mariah alongside Joseph. At DIO's mansion he detects danger too late for himself: spotting Vanilla Ice's Cream, he shoves Polnareff and Iggy clear and takes the erasing blow head-on, dying instantly. His spirit later rises into the heavens beside Iggy's.