This past week, I read Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish. I thought overall, this unit was quite interesting. It
involved a lot of different perspectives from different religions that made the
traditional Christian stories much more interesting for me to read. For
example, I grew up learning about Job and the pain he had to go through. The
Islam folklore of this is similar, but there are some distinct differences. For
instance, Job promises to beat his wife for doubting Allah and speaking to the
devil. Or even the story of David. For the most part, this story stands the
same as the bible in terms of plot, but in the Moslem folklore, Allah in heaven
gives 1,000 wives Uriah because David betrayed him on earth.
It is kind of crazy to think that so many people in the
world share the same stories, but with different twists. This makes me want to
research where the differences entered through each religion’s stories.
Because I am familiar with Christian stories from the bible,
I thought this class has done a good job of easing into stories from different
religions. During the first week, I was reading stories straight from the bible
and the next week, I got to read some biblical stories through Jewish folklore
and myths and now I am reading stories through Moslem folklore. I think this is
a good thing because it is broadening my perspective. I don’t have to agree
with what I am reading, but I do think it is important to understand what I am
reading and understand why people believe some stories over others.
Honestly, I was pretty surprised by some of the readings and
that is why I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to reading more folklore
from different cultures and religion so that I can better understand people and
their backgrounds.
The Holy Land seen from a map.
Photo Cred: Wikipedia
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