The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection
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Najlaa Aldeeb
Abstract
Solomon’s miracles lived beyond the time of the king himself, as his legend circulated in different geographical areas for several centuries. These miracles resonated from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries, constituting a common cultural legacy, shared by the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic societies. In the Qur’ān, Solomon could command the wind and communicate with birds and demons; in Al-Thaʿlabi’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ, Solomon’s throne, a sculpted design with three thousand chairs of gold and silver around them, followed him wherever he went. Motifs of Solomon’s miracles are found in a series of commentaries, anthologies, folktales, and erudite traditions. This study aims to explore the textual representations of Solomon’s miracles in Al-Thaʿlabi’s Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ (Lives of the Prophets) and “The City of Brass,” a tale in the Arabian Nights collection. To achieve this goal, the portrayal of Solomon and the implications of his miracles are compared within the frameworks of the two narratives. Because religious and fantastical texts are shaped in their historical and cultural contexts, a historical approach is applied to help situate the narratives within their contexts and investigate how these accounts reflect the social and religious dynamics of their time. By exploring the structural and thematic parallels and divergences of these two accounts, the study offers insights into the multifaceted interpretations of Solomon’s story within Islamic literature and folktales, contributing to the broader understanding of Solomon as a figure of wisdom and miraculous power.
Abstract
Solomon’s miracles lived beyond the time of the king himself, as his legend circulated in different geographical areas for several centuries. These miracles resonated from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries, constituting a common cultural legacy, shared by the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic societies. In the Qur’ān, Solomon could command the wind and communicate with birds and demons; in Al-Thaʿlabi’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ, Solomon’s throne, a sculpted design with three thousand chairs of gold and silver around them, followed him wherever he went. Motifs of Solomon’s miracles are found in a series of commentaries, anthologies, folktales, and erudite traditions. This study aims to explore the textual representations of Solomon’s miracles in Al-Thaʿlabi’s Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ (Lives of the Prophets) and “The City of Brass,” a tale in the Arabian Nights collection. To achieve this goal, the portrayal of Solomon and the implications of his miracles are compared within the frameworks of the two narratives. Because religious and fantastical texts are shaped in their historical and cultural contexts, a historical approach is applied to help situate the narratives within their contexts and investigate how these accounts reflect the social and religious dynamics of their time. By exploring the structural and thematic parallels and divergences of these two accounts, the study offers insights into the multifaceted interpretations of Solomon’s story within Islamic literature and folktales, contributing to the broader understanding of Solomon as a figure of wisdom and miraculous power.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
