On the Image of Calif Ali in Malay Narrative Tradition
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2018, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
With the advent of Islam in the region of maritime Southeast Asia, stories about Prophet Muhammad and his closest companions began to spread there. The most important ones among them are Malay stories about early Islam wars, featuring the fourth of the “righteous” caliphs — Ali ibn Abu Talib — as their character (“The Tale of Rajah Handak”, “The Tale of Raja Lahad”, “The Tale of Abu Bakr”). In these stories, Ali is represented as both a great warrior and a saint, the most enlightened of Muhammad’s companions. Like the prophet Sulaiman, Ali has power over jinnies and animals and is endowed with supernatural capacities. At close examination, it becomes clear that in the Malay stories, the image of Ali and the stories about the early Islam wars are intertwined with local legends and archaic beliefs according to which the well-being of a person depends on his or her relations with the spirits inhabiting the world, and with mountains, hills and forests. Their Middle Eastern roots notwithstanding, Malay stories of this series reveal many similarities to the pre-Islamic literature and to the theatrical tradition of maritime Southeast Asia. Transformation and adaptation of the image of Ali by Malay tradition are associated primarily with the transition of this character into the realm of oral tradition due to the widespread practice of reading books aloud. Obviously, as we move eastwards, stories about Ali and other characters of the sacred Muslim history undergo serious generic changes. This process is accompanied by continuous interaction of oral and written traditions, gradually merging the boundary between legend and history.
Authors and Affiliations
L. V. Goriaeva
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26205
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2018-3-1-58-67
- Views 317
- Downloads 11
ROMANTIC SELF IN SEARCH OF GOD: PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF S. T. COLERIDGE
The article deals with spiritual progress of S.T. Coleridge from his youthful interest in the followers of Locke (his direct predecessors in English intellectual tradition) to his fascination with pantheism, to his stud...
BLOK’S ROSE AND CROSS IN THE LIGHT OF ROSICRUCIAN TRADITIONS
The author explores the mystical nature of symbols and the leitmotif structure of Alexander Blok’s drama Rose and Cross. The choice of the 13th Century Languedoc as the basis for the drama’s chronotope shows that the p...
ON THE VISUAL ORIGINS OF ONE FOLKLORE MOTIF. THE TOMB IN THE CHURCH
The article examines the influence of Christian iconography on poetic images of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian spiritual verses. It claims that the icons that symbolize the Passion of Jesus Christ, both in the West...
“RUSSIAN REVOLUTION WAS PREPARED ON CAPRI...” MICHAIL PERVUKHIN ABOUT A RUSSIAN COLONY ON CAPRI (BASED ON THE A.M. GORKY ARCHIVE)
In his essay “The Russians on Capri” (1924), a Russian journalist Mikhail Pervukhin describes the discovery of Capri by Russian artists and writers before the events of 1905 and the development of the Russian colony on t...
On the Image of Calif Ali in Malay Narrative Tradition
With the advent of Islam in the region of maritime Southeast Asia, stories about Prophet Muhammad and his closest companions began to spread there. The most important ones among them are Malay stories about early Islam...