Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial introduction
- 1 The tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia
- 2 The Umayyad Empire, c. A.D. 750
- 1 Background topics
- 2 Pre-Islamic poetry
- 3 Early Arabic prose
- 4 The beginnings of Arabic prose literature: the epistolary genre
- 5 The role of parallelism in Arabic prose
- 6 The Qur'ān-I
- 7 The Qur'ān–II
- 8 Qiṣaṣ elements in the Qur'ān
- 9 Aspects of the Qur'ān today
- 10 Ḥadīth literature–I: The development of the science of Ḥadīth
- 11 Ḥadīth literature-II: Collection and transmission of Ḥadīth
- 12 Shī'ī Ḥadīth
- 13 Narrative elements in the Ḥadīth literature
- 14 European criticism of Ḥadīth literature
- 15 The impact of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth on medieval Arabic literature
- 16 The Maghāzī literature
- 17 The Sīrah literature
- 18 The poetry of the Sīrah literature
- 19 Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times
- 20 Umayyad poetry
- 21 Music and verse
- 22 The Greek impact on Arabic literature
- 23 The Persian impact on Arabic literature
- 24 The Syrian impact on Arabic literature
- Appendix Bibliography of translations of the Qur'ān into European languages
- Glossary
- List of sources
- Index
19 - Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial introduction
- 1 The tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia
- 2 The Umayyad Empire, c. A.D. 750
- 1 Background topics
- 2 Pre-Islamic poetry
- 3 Early Arabic prose
- 4 The beginnings of Arabic prose literature: the epistolary genre
- 5 The role of parallelism in Arabic prose
- 6 The Qur'ān-I
- 7 The Qur'ān–II
- 8 Qiṣaṣ elements in the Qur'ān
- 9 Aspects of the Qur'ān today
- 10 Ḥadīth literature–I: The development of the science of Ḥadīth
- 11 Ḥadīth literature-II: Collection and transmission of Ḥadīth
- 12 Shī'ī Ḥadīth
- 13 Narrative elements in the Ḥadīth literature
- 14 European criticism of Ḥadīth literature
- 15 The impact of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth on medieval Arabic literature
- 16 The Maghāzī literature
- 17 The Sīrah literature
- 18 The poetry of the Sīrah literature
- 19 Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times
- 20 Umayyad poetry
- 21 Music and verse
- 22 The Greek impact on Arabic literature
- 23 The Persian impact on Arabic literature
- 24 The Syrian impact on Arabic literature
- Appendix Bibliography of translations of the Qur'ān into European languages
- Glossary
- List of sources
- Index
Summary
Introducing his translation of “The Book of Marvels” attributed to al-Mas'ūdī (d. c. 345/956), Carra de Vaux remarks: “Among Muslims there is a folklorist in every theologian, geographer and historian.” Arabic fables and legends are inseparable from Arabian thought. They reveal every fashion, involve every social class and reflect every change in the evolution of Arabic literature.
Any attempt, however, to reconstruct the earliest Arabic fables is faced with formidable obstacles. Few texts survive. Are those we possess representative? Archaeological reconstruction may be misleading, since many pre-Islamic tales may have survived on bedouin lips, while others of lesser appeal have long been forgotten.
Arabic legends first appeared in a “Heroic Age”. The Jahiliyyah had its confederations of tribes, or city–states, ruled by chiefs or kings. Assemblies were convened at pleasure or in an emergency. They were mainly advisory. There was bitter rivalry or peaceful co-operation among an aristocracy of princes, kings and chiefs. Deities were astral, anthropomorphic, arboreal or lithic. They formed loose or local pantheons. Each god or goddess had a special abode. Although the heroes, whether kings, bards, vagabonds or soothsayers, were not the offspring of divinity, they at least possessed superhuman prowess, longevity or intimacy with the supernatural conceived as jinn or metamorphosed creatures – lions, foxes or vultures, for example.
Sagas or functional tales were recited by itinerant or resident bards. Attached to courts or camps, frequenters of festival fairs, such storytellers were occasionally seers. The ritual of a shrine, a hunt, a war or some prophylactic ceremony to avert natural disaster provided motivation.
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- Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period , pp. 374 - 386Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983
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