Israelites
Just the other day I was thinking about how I don't really know any proverbial sayings or stories from the Qur'an. So when I saw some childrens books at Mustafa Centre in the series "Quran Stories For Little Hearts" I decided to spring for the 6-book box, at $24. A couple of them are beautifully illustrated, while the rest are standard crummy kids' book stuff. It's interesting to see the devices used to avoid illustrating people; in "Uzayr's Donkey" the donkey appears in all the scenes while Uzayr himself is only implied. Likewise in "The Treasure House" we see lots of camels and buildings, but no wicked Qarun (although we do see two servants from behind as they carry the keys to his treasure house--Qarun is so rich that several men are needed just to carry the keys.) What I found interesting is that of the 6 books, 2 are set in Pharaoh's (Firawn's) Egypt, where the children of Israel are in bondage. Qarun is a rich child of Israel who has forgotten his people and become an advisor to Firawn (at first I thought this was going to be about Joseph, but it's not). One of the other books is about the escape from Egypt and the prophet Musa's (Moses) parting of the red sea. I knew that the patriarchs of the old testamant, as well as Jesus (aka Issa) himself, are part of the Muslim tradition, and one hears about the whole "People of the Book" thing, but I was suprised to see so much focus on Allah's special relationship with the people of Israel.
jholbo-at-mac-dot-com
Do you suppose there's a Shia version that has faces?
Posted by: David Moles | June 14, 2007 at 07:48 PM
I should have said, you just see the servants bearing the keys from behind. the prettiest one has beautiful watercolor illustrations of plants, accompanied by general moral advice. all fairly OK from my point of view, except the chastity. strong emphasis on charity and general not-being-a-dick-to-people. I guess that rules superman out.
Posted by: belle waring | June 14, 2007 at 10:54 PM
Jeezus! What age are these intended for if there's advice on chastity?
Posted by: jeet | June 15, 2007 at 06:23 AM
6-8 year olds, I reckon. they don't go into any detail, they just advocate "practicing chastity."
Posted by: belle waring | June 15, 2007 at 08:27 AM
um, I actually did say you only saw the servants from behind. I should read my own posts.
Posted by: belle waring | June 15, 2007 at 08:30 PM