Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth - Hardcover

Stetkevych, Jaroslav

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253332087 ISBN 13: 9780253332080

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Through its development of a methodology for analysing the mythic and folkloric traditions of pre-Islamic Arabia and the process of their incorporation into Islamic myth and Qur'anic texts, "Muhammad and the Golden Bough" offers compelling insights for students of Islam, comparative religion, and cultural anthropology. By linking Arabic myth with a broad range of ancient and classical texts - including Gilgamesh, Homer, and the Hebrew Bible - the book makes a provocative contribution to Biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies, classics, and comparative literature. The richness of myth in Arab-Islamic culture has long been ignored or even denied.In "Muhammad and the Golden Bough", Jaroslav Stetkevych demonstrates the existence of a coherent pre-Islamic Arabian myth that was subsequently incorporated into Islamic poetic tradition. The study dissects the intriguing Arab-Islamic myth built around Muhammad's unearthing of a 'golden bough' from the grave of the last survivor of an ancient Arab people, the Thamud, who, according to the myth, were destroyed by a divine scourge for their iniquity. Stetkevych draws together the lore of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Qu'ran, and the Biography of the Prophet. Once reconstructed and deconstructed, the Arabian myth then serves as the basis for a comparative study that links Arabic mythic traditions with Gilgamesh, Homer, and the Hebrew Bible.

About this title

About the Author

Jaroslav Stetkevych is Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Modern Arabic Literary Language: Lexical and Stylistic Developments and The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasîb. His articles on classical and modern Arabic literature have appeared in Spanish, English, Arabic, and Ukrainian.

From the Back Cover

The richness of myth in Arab-Islamic culture has long been ignored or even denied. In Muhammad and the Golden Bough Jaroslav Stetkevych demonstrates the existence of a coherent pre-Islamic Arabian myth that was subsequently incorporated into Islamic poetic tradition and the Dur'an. The book dissects the intriguing Arab-Islamic myth built around Muhammad's unearthing of a ""golden bough"" from the grave of the last survivor of an ancient Arab people, the Thamud, who, according to the myth, were destroyed by a divine scourge for their iniquity. In the myth the episode of the slaying of the she-camel of the prophet Salih, which precipitates the downfall of the Thamud, is symbolically linked with Muhammad, the discoverer of the golden bough. Through its development of a methodology for analyzing the mythic and folkloric material of pre-Islamic Arabia and the process of its incorporation into Islamic myth and Qur'anic exegesis, Muhammad and the Golden Bough offers compelling insights for students of Islam, comparative religion, and anthropology.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253332087
• ISBN 13: 9780253332080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184