- Dreams in Islam, Zenobia of Palmyra, Medieval Arabic Historiography, Arabic Historiography (History), Islamic Historiography, Folk and Fairy Tales, and 40 moreArabian Peninsula in Antiquity, Medieval Islamic History, Medieval Islam, Islamic History, Abbasid History, Wine, Structuralism, Sulaymān al-Bustānī, Arabic Literature, Islamic Studies, Early Islam, Tabari, Late Antiquity, Quran, Greek Epic Cycle, Trojan War, Trojan Horse, Qur'anic Studies, Ancient Near East, Folktales, Comparative mythology, History of Pre-Islamic Arabia, Early Islamic History, Quranic Studies, Mythology And Folklore, New Testament Studies, Dionysos, Classics, Comparative Literature, Homer, Odyssey, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Helen of Troy, Book of Judith, Aeschylus Oresteia, Odysseus, Arabic Studies, Arabic Folklore, and Arabic popular epicsedit
A number of modern Arab thinkers have compared the Story of al-Zīr, a little-known Arabic folk epic, with accounts of the Trojan War and the Oresteia. After dealing with the pitfalls of comparing stories from different cultures, I argue... more
A number of modern Arab thinkers have compared the Story of al-Zīr, a little-known Arabic folk epic, with accounts of the Trojan War and the Oresteia. After dealing with the pitfalls of comparing stories from different cultures, I argue for criteria to distinguish between weak and strong parallels, and then analyse the similarities between the story of
Jalīla, that constitutes the first part of the Story of al-Zīr, and the Graeco-Roman stories of Helen’s abduction and Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. Such a comparative approach, based on the method of folktale studies, sheds new light on a number of much-discussed elements from the story of Clytemnestra, such as “blameless Aegisthus” (Odyssey 1.29), Agamemnon’s minstrel, and the purple fabric and “bathtub” that figure as stage props in the Oresteia.
Jalīla, that constitutes the first part of the Story of al-Zīr, and the Graeco-Roman stories of Helen’s abduction and Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. Such a comparative approach, based on the method of folktale studies, sheds new light on a number of much-discussed elements from the story of Clytemnestra, such as “blameless Aegisthus” (Odyssey 1.29), Agamemnon’s minstrel, and the purple fabric and “bathtub” that figure as stage props in the Oresteia.
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Comparative Literature, Classics, Homer, Arabic Literature, and 14 moreAeschylus, Comparative mythology, Zenobia of Palmyra, Folk and Fairy Tales, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Helen of Troy, Book of Judith, Odysseus, Arabic Studies, Trojan War, Trojan Horse, Arabic Folklore, and Arabic popular epics
The remarkable parallels between the biblical story of Joseph and a myth about viticulture from Islamic Persian poetry raise the question: Was the Joseph story read as an allegory of wine production, in which Joseph symbolizes the wine... more
The remarkable parallels between the biblical story of Joseph and a myth about viticulture from Islamic Persian poetry raise the question: Was the Joseph story read as an allegory of wine production, in which Joseph symbolizes the wine that ripens during his imprisonment in Pharaoh's cistern?
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Comparative Literature, Classics, Jewish Studies, Women's Studies, Arabic Literature, and 16 moreNear Eastern Studies, Structuralism (Literary Criticism), Biblical Studies, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Pre-Islamic Arabic Literature, Ancient Near East, Herodotus, Zenobia of Palmyra, Revenge, Folk and Fairy Tales, Book of Judith, History of wine, Anthropology of the Middle East, Blood Vengeance, Arabic popular epics, and Tomyris
Het bestaan van wijnpoëzie in de islam lijkt vreemd, maar juist het koranisch verbod op wijn verleende aan de eeuwenoude Midden-Oosterse wijnsymboliek een nieuwe lading, waar Klassiek Arabische dichters gulzig gebruik van maakten.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article points to the many parallels between the book of Judith and the Arabic account of the life and death of Zenobia of Palmyra. By comparing these two stories with the episode about Zopyros in Herodotus’ Histories and the episode... more
This article points to the many parallels between the book of Judith and the Arabic account of the life and death of Zenobia of Palmyra. By comparing these two stories with the episode about Zopyros in Herodotus’ Histories and the episode about Sinon in accounts of the fall of Troy, it argues that these similarities can only be explained if we assume that the book of Judith and the Arabic Zenobia Legend are adaptations of the same Vorlage, an earlier story that contained a Holofernes motif (heroine kills enemy) and a Sinon motif (enemy deceives heroine). When this Vorlage was adapted to create the book of Judith, the part of the deceiving Sinon was adapted to create the role of the sincere Achior, whereby he lost his function in the story and became a blind motif.