• Solomon Legends in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan

    Author(s):
    Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations (view group) , Helen Blatherwick
    Editor(s):
    Michael Pregill
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations
    Subject(s):
    Islam--Study and teaching, Islam, Middles Ages, Bible, Reader-response criticism
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Islamic literature, epic literature, Prophets in Islam, bible in islam, Islamic studies, Medieval Islam, Reception of the Bible
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/ztyk-4205
    Abstract:
    Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan is a premodern popular epic set in legendary prehistory that tells the story of how the Yemenite king Sayf leads his people on an exodus to the (then unpopulated) lands of Egypt, where he diverts the river Nile and founds a proto-Islamic Egyptian kingdom, then embarks on a military campaign to conquer the realms of humans and jinn in the name of Islam. As with much Arabic popular literature, this sīrah uses intertextual reference to other stories as a device through which to convey characterization, theme, and meaning, and reference to the legends of the prophets plays a key role. Intertextual references to the prophet Solomon and his relationship with Bilqīs, the Queen of Sheba, occur throughout the text in the form of various heroic heirlooms, tales related by various characters within the sīrah, motifs, and structural and thematic material. This article explores some of the associations that audience familiarity with various Solomon pretexts brings to Sīrat Sayf. By focusing primarily on two particular episodes in which the Solomon intertext plays a key role, it discusses how the sīrah uses intertextual reference to this Islamic legend corpus as a device to inform its own plot and thematic subtext, and to what end.
    Notes:
    This is a stable archival PDF of an open-access, peer-reviewed journal article originally published at www.mizanproject.org/journal/.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Publisher:
    Mizan Project (www.mizanproject.org/journal/)
    Pub. Date:
    August 2017
    Journal:
    Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations
    Volume:
    2
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    161 - 207
    ISSN:
    2472-5919
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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