Table of Contents

Introduction: Reclaiming Arabian Myth
1. The Textual Puzzle
2. The Thamudic Backdrop to the Puzzle
3. The First Answer to the Puzzle: The Raid on Tabuk
4. The Totem and the Taboo
5. Poeticizing the Thamud
6. Demythologizing the Thamud
7. The Scream
8. The Arabian Golden Bough and Kindred Branches: Frazer, Vergil, Homer, and Gilgamesh
Conclusion

Promotional Information

This challenging study connects pre-Islamic Arabian myth to world mythic traditions.

About the Author

Jaroslav Stetkevych is Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Modern Arabic Literary Language: Lexical and Stylistic Developments and The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasîb. His articles on classical and modern Arabic literature have appeared in Spanish, English, Arabic, and Ukrainian.

Reviews

"Breaks down the traditional isolation of the Arabic poetic-religious tradition from the broader intellectual and literary currents in the ancient world ... in scintillating, easily comprehensible, and elegant prose... It is truly brilliant." - Richard W. Bulliet "Stetkevych succeeds brilliantly in reconstructing the myth of the destruction of the Thamud, an ancient people of north Arabia... This book will add a new dimension to the study of Near Eastern and Mediterranean myth and legend." -Choice "Stetkevych's critical and wide-ranging perspective reveals a wealth of insights. This book is must reading for everyone in the field of religion and one of the most important works in recent years." --Brannon M. Wheeler, Religious Studies Review "The graceful writing, interdisciplinary scope, and hermeneutical depth should make it compelling reading for those interested in the mythos of Arabia before and at the birth of Islam and in comparable myths in neighboring civilizations." --Michael A. Sells, MESA Bulletin "It opens up new dimensions of how to think about, how to study, how to see interrelationships in the ancient Arabian world and their connections with the Mediterranean world in general... a stunning piece of work." Richard W. Bulliet, Chronicle of Higher Education "Jaroslav Stetkevych has developed powerful new arguments for understanding myth as a given culture's encoding of its truth-values. His approach, keenly attuned to the historical and linguistic realities of ancient Arabian culture, leads to a stunning reassessment of James Frazer's celebrated model of the golden bough." --Gregory Nagy, Harvard University