Us and Them: The Conflict of Identity in Arabic Popular Folktales The Byzantine -Muslim Conflict in the Arabic Legends

Volume 5|Issue 19| Winter 2017 |Articles

Abstract

This paper concerns the popular interpretation of the struggle between Islam and Byzantium during the Islamic conquest of Egypt, as reflected in the literary sources comprising the Arab folk epics and the popular interpretation of that event. The study attempts to observe its dimensions and gauge the extent of its effect on the popular imagination and to what extent the popular epics provide us with a different interpretation of the traditional sources. The popular mentality was little interested in the facts of the events, places, and historical characters, and the chronology of events in their real historical context, but rather made use of all of those things to serve its artistic goal with its social/cultural content, since this gave prominence to the role of the ordinary people in shaping their history.

Download Article Download Issue Cite this Article Subscribe for a year Cite this Article

Professor of Medieval History at the Faculty of Arts, South Valley University, Egypt, he is an Egyptian writer and academic, member of the Egyptian Writers’ Union and the Egyptian Historians’ Union. He is interested the relationship between oral history and folk heritage. His books include Jerusalem in Arab Legends and Egypt and the Nile between History and Folklore.

× Citation/Reference
Arab Center
Harvard
APA
Chicago