Signs from Above: Towards a Comparative Symbology of Bird Imagery in Medieval Near Eastern Popular Prose
| Autor: | Rachel Schine |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Cultural Studies
Literature History 060101 anthropology Middle East Literature and Literary Theory Poetry business.industry Trope (literature) 05 social sciences 0507 social and economic geography Bestiary Context (language use) Islam 06 humanities and the arts 050701 cultural studies language.human_language language 0601 history and archaeology business Mysticism Persian |
| Zdroj: | Iranian Studies. 51:47-68 |
| ISSN: | 1475-4819 0021-0862 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00210862.2017.1354688 |
| Popis: | This article presents excerpts from two near-contemporary works of popular prose from the medieval Near East: the Persian Dārāb-nāmeh and the ArabicSīrat Banī Hilāl. In each, birds or birdlike characters (the sīmorgh and the crow, respectively) that share in having had theriomorphic, mythic significance in regional pre-Islamic traditions dispense premonitory wisdom to Muslim characters. Comparing these passages, the article contends that the characterization of these birds brokers a pietistic shift in symbolism between the pre-Islamic and Islamic context, while still maintaining the birds’ mystical significance and sustaining the trope of birds as winged, heaven-sent messengers. This modified association between birds and divine ministry is not only prominent in these two texts, but also in the Qurʾān and varied bestiaries, poetry, and belletristic works that comprise these texts’ cultural network. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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