Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-31T00:13:35.662Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Popular religious narratives

from Part IV - Popular prose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Kamal Abdel-Malek
Edited by
Roger Allen  and
D. S. Richards
Roger Allen
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
D. S. Richards
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Many Arabic popular religious prose narratives from the post-classical period exist mostly in manuscript; relevant sources are few and their tone is dismissive, if not downright disdainful. As a result, the main sources of information on the composers and transmitters (qussās) of these religious narratives are polemical works, such as Ibn al-Jawzī’s (d. 1200) Kitāb al-qussās wa’l-mudhakkirīn (The Book of Story-Tellers and Preachers) and al-Suyūtī’s (d. 1505) Tahdhīr al-khawāss min akādhīb al-qussās (On Guarding the Elite Against the Falsehoods of the Story-Tellers). Few modern scholars have treated popular religious writings in Arabic and other Islamic languages as worthwhile literature.

The genre of popular religious narrative surveyed here, the qissa, typically includes a tale of the contest of good and evil and the ultimate triumph for good; tales about the meek who, armed with no more than their piety and fear of God, stand up to and overcome the mighty and wicked. The heroes of such tales are prophets, saintly figures (awliyā’), and pious men and women, who are granted this divine gift of working miracles and marvels (mu‘jizāt and karāmāt).

Some of these popular religious narratives derive their material from the Koran, its various narratives about the biblical and non-biblical figures before Muhammad, such as Abraham, Joseph, the Children of Israel, Mary, Hūd and Sālih, among others. Other sources include hadīth reports, non-Koranic tales derived from Jewish sources (isrā’īliyyāt) and tales about Sufi masters and their miracles (karāmāt).

Type
Chapter
Information
Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period , pp. 330 - 344
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdel-Malek, Kamal and Asani, Ali in collaboration with Schimmel, Annemarie. Celebrating Muhammad. Columbia, SC, 1995.Google Scholar
Abdel-Malek, Kamal. Muhammad in the Modern Egyptian Popular Ballad.Leiden, 1995.Google Scholar
al-Halabī, al-Shāfi‘ī, al-Dīn, ‘Alī ibn Burhān. al-Sīra al-halabiyya, 3 vols. Beirut, 1320/1902.Google Scholar
al-Tabarī, Abū Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarīr. Jāmi‘ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān.Beirut, 1972.Google Scholar
al-Bāqilānī, . I‘jāz al-Qur’ān, ed. Saqr, Ahmad. Cairo, 1963.Google Scholar
al-Bukhārī, . Sahīh al-Bukhārī: The Translation of The Meanings of Sahih al-Bukharī, ed. Khan, Muhammad Muhsin. Lahore, 1979.Google Scholar
al-Damīrī, . Hayāt al-hayawān al-kubrā. Cairo, 1305/1887; repr. Beirut, n.d.Google Scholar
al-Isfahānī, Abū Nu‘aym. Dalā’il al-nubuwwa.Hyderabad, 1950.Google Scholar
al-Nabhānī, Yūsuf. Jāmi ‘karāmāt al-awliyā’, 3rd edn. Cairo, 1404/1984, vol. II.Google Scholar
al-Najjār, Muhammad Rajab. al-Turāth al-qasasī fī’l-adab al-‘arabī.Kuwait, 1995.Google Scholar
al-Sakhāwī, . al-I‘lān bi’l-tawbīkh li-man dhamma al-tārīkh, ed. Rosenthal, F.. Baghdad, 1963.Google Scholar
al-Suyūtī, . al-Khasā’is al-kubrā, ed. Hurās, Muhammad Khalīl. Beirut, 1967.Google Scholar
al-Suyūtī, . Tahdhīr al-khawāss min akādhīb al-qussās, ed. Sabbāgh, Muhammad. Beirut, 1973.Google Scholar
al-Tamīmī, ‘Abd al-Qāhir ibn Tāhir al-Baghdādī. Usul al-dīn.Istanbul, 1928.Google Scholar
Cachia, Pierre. Popular Narrative Ballads of Modern Egypt.Oxford, 1989.Google Scholar
Hamid, Ismail. Arabic and Islamic Literary Tradition.Kuala Lumpur, 1982.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Athīr, Abū’l-Hasan ‘Alī ibn Abī’l-Karam. al-Kāmil fī’l-ta’rīkh.Beirut, 1978.Google Scholar
Ibn, al-Batanūnī. al-‘Unwān fī’l-ihtirāz min makāyid al-niswān, 2nd edn. Beirut, 1989.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Jawzī, ‘Abd al-Rahman. al-Wafā bi-ahwal al-Mustafā, ed. al-Wāhid, Mustafā ‘Abd. Cairo, 1966.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Jawzī, ‘Abd al-Rahman. Ibn al-Jawzī’s Kitāb al-qussās wa’l-mudhakkirīn, ed. and tr. with introd. Swartz, M. L.. Beirut, 1971.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Jawzī, ‘Abd al-Rahman. Talbīs Iblīs.Cairo, 1928.Google Scholar
Ibn Hishām, ‘Abd al-Malik. Sīrat Rasūl Allāh, ed. Tadmurī, ‘Abd al-Salām, 4 vols. Beirut, 1987.Google Scholar
Ibn, Ishāq. Sīrat Rasūl Allāh, tr. Guillaume, A.. London, 1955.Google Scholar
Ibn Kathīr, al-Imām Abū’l-Fidā Ismā‘īl. Nihāyat al-bidāya wa’l-nihāya fī’l-fitan wa’l-malāhim, ed. ‘Abiyya, Muhammad Abū. Riyadh, 1968.Google Scholar
Ibn Kathīr, al-Imām Abū’l-Fidā Ismā‘īl. Qisas al-anbiyā’ li-Abī’l-Fidā Ibn Kathīr, ed. al-Lahhām, Sa‘īd. Beirut, 1988.Google Scholar
Ibn Kathīr, al-Imām Abū’l-Fidā Ismā‘īl. Shamā’il al-rasūl wa-dalā’il nubuwwatihi wa-fadā’iluhu wa-khasa’isuhu, ed. al-Wāhid, Mustafā ‘Abd. Cairo, 1967.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīm, ‘Abd Allāh. al-Sardiyya al-‘arabiyya.Beirut, 1992.Google Scholar
Khalafallāh, Muhammad and Sallām, Muhammad Zaghlūl (eds.). al-Rummānī, al-Khatt ābī, al-Jurjānī: thalāth rasā’il fī i‘jāz al-Qur’ān.Cairo, 1968.Google Scholar
Knappert, Jan.Islamic Legends: Histories of the Heroes, Saints and Prophets of Islam, 2 vols. Leiden, 1985.Google Scholar
Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. Woman’s Body, Woman’s Word.Princeton, 1991.Google Scholar
Meinardus, Otto. Christian Egypt: Faith and Life.Cairo, 1970.Google Scholar
Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad is His Messenger.Chapel Hill, NC, 1985.Google Scholar
Shoshan, Boaz. ‘High Culture and Popular Culture in Medieval Islam’, Studia Islamica 73 (1991).Google Scholar
Thackston, W. M. (tr.). The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisā’ī.Boston, 1978.Google Scholar
Waugh, Earle H.The Munshidīn of Egypt: Their World and Their Song. Columbia, SC, 1989.Google Scholar
Yūnis, ‘Abd al-Hamīd. Difā‘ ‘an al-fūlklūr.Cairo, 1973.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×