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Volume
35, Number 3
Special Issue: Children’s Literature of the Islamic World Dear
Bookbird Reader, The history of Islam has witnessed the intersection of cultures, races, and religions. As Muslims journeyed out from Mecca and Medina—as conquerors, travelers, scholars, merchants—they took with them their religion, the Arabic language and literature, and their love of learning, and integrated these with the knowledge that they acquired from others during their travels: achievements in astronomy, medicine, mathematics, geography, and literature. Muslims established great empires and seats of learning in places as far flung as Bukhara, Cordova, Timbuktu, Djenne, and Istanbul. Wherever Muslims settled, they adapted to their host countries and contributed in important ways to the intellectual life, to art and literature, while still maintaining their distinct Islamic heritage. It is awesome to contemplate that Muslims all over the world—whether in Delhi or Timbuktu or London—turn to Mecca five times daily to pray. This powerful image symbolizes both the diversity and oneness of the Islamic world. Islamic literature, too, embodies this eclecticism and richness; however, it has been distorted and stereotyped through films, TV, and children’s books. Ever since the translation and publication of the Arabian Nights tales spun by Scherazade, known as Alf Laylah wa Laylah (The Thousand and One Nights), the Western conception of Islamic literature has been that it is a “sensuous, rambling, exotic, erotic, and fantastic” literature that is intended only to “excite the idle imagination.”1 The recent Disney movie, Aladdin, is a further exploitation of the exotica associated with the Middle East, with cultural details borrowed without regard to authenticity from Arabic, Indian, and other sources. The vast range and variety of Islamic literature—from popular folktales to humorous narratives and jokes, from the mystical Sufi poets to the legends of saints and culture heroes, from realistic stories to fantasies—are seldom presented to Western children. The books discussed in this issue come from throughout the Islamic world: Brunei Darussalam, Iran, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, UK, US. The essays by Suzanne Fisher Staples, Sylvia Iskander, and Greta Little touch on the sensitive issue of representation by discussing books about Muslims by Western authors. They maintain that one can do away with “orientalist” stereotypes about Islam by encouraging the writing and publishing of books based on human experience. In contrast, the essays by Tasneema Ghazi, Elizabeth Liew, Mansooreh Rai, Sudha Sundaresh, and Jeffrey Garrett focus on the literature especially produced for Muslim children. They attest to its hybrid and syncretic nature;yet, they demonstrate that it is also a literature distinguished by its emphasis on the teachings of the Quran and its “thread of deep ethical concern” (Kritzeck 13). By not succumbing to Western stereotypes and images, and by having the courage to project its worldview and culture without apology, contemporary Islamic children’s literature refutes Edward Said’s conclusion that “the modern Orient…participates in its own Orientalizing.”2 While Islamic literature for adults is complex, often full of questionings of faith, books for children serve as integrating forces and are intended to provide an ideological base for youth. According to Mahmud Husain, if traditions are not transmitted through education and reading, there will be “a barrier between age and youth and, what is worse, it will make the young feel that life is purposeless because they would have nothing from their own past to lend meaning and definition to their existence.”3 Yours
sincerely, 1.
James Kritzech, “Introduction,” Anthology of Islamic Literature:
From the Rise of Islam to Modern Letters To the Point: Children’s Literature of the Islamic World Islamic
Literature for Children Adopts the English Language Portrayals
of Arabs in Contemporary American Picture Books Writing
about the Islamic World: An American Author’s Thoughts on Authenticity Islam
and Other Belief Systems in West African Children’s Books
Other
Voices Regular Features Focus
IBBY Country
Survey: Brunei Darussalam (I) Author
Spotlight: KvŠeta Pacovská International Children’s Books of Note Professional Literature News and Announcements Calendar |
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