Book Description
1894. Kingsley novel was the winner among 377 manuscripts submitted in response to a contest run by the publisher. It is a commentary on the book of Titus. The purpose of the book is to present the life of Jesus upon earth in such a way as to give a fresh interest to the old story, to portray a real Jesus as he was with the dwellers of Palestine. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.
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Titus: Comrade of the Cross
Florence Kingsley
Manufacturer: Angela's Bookshelf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1881545792 |
Book Description
When the Black Dragon seized the Deep of Ylferdun, young Gareth braved the far Winterlands to find John Aversin, Dragonsbane -- the only living man ever to slay a dragon. In return for the promise of the King to send help to the Winterlands, Aversin agreed to attempt the nearly impossible feat again.
With them, to guard them on the haunted trip south, went Jenny Waynest, a half-taught sorceress and mother of Aversin's sons.
But at the decadent Court, nothing was as expected. Rebellion threatened the land. Zyerne, a sorceress of seemingly unlimited power, held the King under an evil spell, and he refused to see them. Meantime, the dragon fed well on the knights who had challenged him.
In the end, Aversin, Jenny, and Gareth had to steal away at night to challenge Morkeleb, largest and wisest of dragons.
But that was only the beginning of the perils they must face.
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful surprise!.......2007-08-27
The title and cover of this book both have the look and feel of a very typical type of fantasy tale - the evil dragon clutches a revealingly clad babe in its black talons, and a warrior looms not far off - obviously coming to the rescue... But almost immediately the book begins to correct these false impressions (though the picture IS true to a major episode in the story...). There is no cliché here; Hambly has actually given us a far subtler sort of story, with a conflicted couple at its heart.
"Dragonsbane" is a label given to the very rare handful of human heroes that have actually managed to kill dragons. All of them (of course!) have been immortalized in legends and ballads galore. Only one of them is actually currently alive... Unfortunately, legend and reality are not the same, and the dragonkiller hero (the Dragonsbane of title) is a very practical guy, in charge of a squalid little struggling community in a very hostile land. The king of the little community's country has abandoned them to struggle with their local problems without federal (or royal?) assistance for years. But when a dragon comes along, who ya gonna call?
The story of the Dragonsbane's second dragonkilling adventure is told by his girlfriend, Jenny. But Jenny is not just an observer in this story. She is also the resident witch and healer in the squalid little community, and rather effective right-hand "man" to the Dragonsbane. As a witch, or "mage", she is sort of second-rate, and has always striven to learn as much as possible, and to be as good at her art as she can be. She's tough, she's humble, she's honest - she's admirable. She can't really afford the time away from her magic that her love for this man (and their 2 kids) has pulled from her. She knows she could be better at it if she spent more time with abstract magic, but... she loves her family and community, and feels responsibility for them, so she spends most of her time as a healer and mother. She is torn between her love and her career! And the Dragonsbane, John, recognizes her conflict. Indeed, this ultimately is the biggest conflict in the book - beyond the conflict with the dragon, the conflict with the witch, and the conflict with the monster. (No more plot clues!!)
Hambly draws her characters beautifully. Jenny is the protagonist, and the tale is told from her viewpoint, but all the main characters are clear and quirky individuals: John, the "Dragonsbane", is a brilliant, largely self-taught, amateur engineer/naturalist with a wacky sense of humor; Gareth, who comes to beg for his help, is a dreamer and idealist who slowly discovers that substance is more important than surface glitter. And the more minor characters are well rendered and believable also.
From the beginning, the story sets us up to expect the usual, only to turn it on its head. The glorious shining hero, the Dragonsbane, makes his first appearance ankle-deep in muck. Expecting a horrible physical battle, the heroes end up instead beset by politics. Ironic reverses and surprises continue throughout the story, all the way to the complex and surprising ending. Need I add that I loved it?!
Innovative in its approach to an old theme.......2004-12-03
Dragonsbane is a story about a witch (Jenny Waynest), a celebrated dragonslayer (John Aversin) and a black dragon named Morkeleb. Without revealing too much of the story, it's enough to say that it follows a standard formula for a dragon / fantasy book, but does so in a rather illustrative and original fashion.
Rather than give us a one-dimensional baddie dragon which is merely a prop set up to be dispatched by the main characters, Hambly proceeds past this and reveals a depth to the black dragon that I have not yet seen duplicated in other fantasy stories involving such mythical creatures. Needless to say, the characters in this novel are very well developed, as well as the artful descriptions of the story's tapestry-so well described at times, we often feel we're really there. This is a talent Barbara brings to her works and is what distances herself from the usual sci fi / fantasy writer "me-too-izm."
Some may find her long winded descriptions tedious, claiming that she wastes valuable space at the beginning of this novel with filler, but I welcome it as building a solid foundation of character study and depth. If you pay attention, you'll no doubt increase your knowledge of medieval culture as well.
If you prefer traditional "sword & sorcery" type novels with mounds of action and little depth, pass this by. If, however, you prefer more to your fantasy than warriors, warlocks and mindless monsters, check out Dragonsbane.
Too much description and details.......2004-11-22
This book did not keep my interest. I kept reading assuming the story would get better. It did not. The writer gave a lot of information about past events and medieval times that were not necessary and took away from the actual story. Hambly seems to get the readers involved with the setting and background information. I prefer books that get the reader more involved with the characters such as in the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini or any of the Harry Potter stories by J.K. Rowling.
Dragonsbane is an ordinary book that might be interesting to those that are interested in medieval times. This book would not be interesting to anyone that likes more dialog between characters in a story.
Not your usual heros.......2004-04-25
I love this book because it is a about a woman who wants to be a witch and is not very good at it. And her true love who is a lord who doesn't want to be one and the only living person who has fought and killed a dragon, which he really wishes he hadn't done. It's funny and heart wrench and poignant and lovely. You're missing the best if you haven't read this.
Not That Great A Book.......2004-04-20
When I had read the title, backflap and seen the cover, I had expected the book to be about the dragon. Not true. The dragon doesn't appear in a really significant scene until chapter ten, which is when the real story begins. The action was slow and the language dull and lackluster. Barbara Hambly spent too much time on the minute details of things that I didn't particularly find interesting. While the book does have a dragon that appears ans talks to Jenny from time to time, the actual story is about the relationships of the people, Jenny, John and Gareth primarilly, but includes some others, not of such importance to be a main character, yet important enough to have a significant role. There was too much focus on the character Mab, and the ending was very cliche, much like a good portion of the book. I probably would have liked it better if it had had more about Jenny's relationship with Morkeleb, but it didn't. For all it's worked up to be, this is not a book about dragons, nor does it have many satisfactory action sequences. The first chapter was engaging, however, as were certain other parts of the book, namely the scenes with the dragon. Other than that, it was a rather dull read.
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Dragonsbane
Barbara Hambly
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PR838Y |
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Dragonsbane
Barbara Hambly
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRGMBI |
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Dragonsbane
Barbara Hambly
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NT9LVC |
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Dragonsbane
Barbara Hambly
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HLN8V0 |
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Dragonsbane (Point Fantasy S.)
Patricia C. Wrede
Manufacturer: Scholastic Point
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic | Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Wrede, Patricia | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0590552929 |
Average customer rating:
- neverdone it by yourself author.
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Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: The Absolute at Large-Dragonsbane
Manufacturer: Salem Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
History & Criticism | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
History & Criticism | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
History | Bibliographies & Indexes | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
Literature | Bibliographies & Indexes | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
Science | Bibliographies & Indexes | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0893569070 |
Customer Reviews:
neverdone it by yourself author........2002-03-20
I must say that the writer has excelled very much in this book.
The massage is clear and well understandable.
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Dragonsbane
Barbara Hambly
Manufacturer: New York: Ballantine Books, 1987
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LVJFJU |
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Hannah and the Homunculus
Kurt Hassler , and
K. L. Darnell
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Bedtime & Dreaming
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ASIN: 1585360430 |
Book Description
Homunculus knows the power of words. After all, it was a word that gave him life. Preoccupied with increasing his vocabulary, Homunculus takes words from people and Hannah is no exception. And the morning after Homunculus takes Hannah's "No," she creatively barters to get it back.
Customer Reviews:
Kids loved it!.......2001-08-02
We checked this book out from the library while on vacation and it became a favorite. All three of my children, ages 10, 7, and almost 4 loved it. I think it was because the little girl in the story is not weak, but very strongwilled and forceful. It was fun for me to read because the dialogue is very animated.
Book Description
Homonculus is a fascinating trip to a London that never existed ... but perhaps should have.
Darkly atmospheric, Homonculus weaves together the stories of Narbondo -- a mad hunchback who works tirelessly to bring the dead back to life, of the members of the Trismegistus Club -- a surly group of scientists and philosophers who meet at Captain Powers' Pipe Shop, and of the homonculus -- a tiny man whose powers can drive men to murder.
Customer Reviews:
So What !!!???.......2005-11-30
Ok.It's not an easy read.
Ok.It's digressive.
Ok.The plot is convoluted and complex as hell.
Ok.The characters don't feel "realistic"or "believable"
Ok.He is not Tim Powers
So What !!!???
HOMUNCULUS is undiluted quintessencial Steampunk.Blaylock's prose is stylish, intricate and labyrinthine.Sometimes witty, sometimes dark and blackly humorous, and like Joe Lansdale
and Norman Partridge, he has a fine eye for vivid comic book imagery and absurd situations that sometimes verges on the surreal.
To give you a taste of Blaylock magic, here is some samples picked at random:
There was no room in the world of science for mediocrity, for half measures, for wet cigars.
And another:
I'm posessed by the most evil aching of the head - such that my eyes seem to press down to the size of screwholes, so that I see as if through a telescope turned wrong end to. Laudanum alone relieves it, but fills me with dreams even more evil than the pain in my forebrain. I'm certain that the pain is my due - that it is a taste of hell, and nothing less. And I can feel myself decay, feel my tissues drying and rotting like a beetle-eaten fungus on a stump, and my blood pounds across the top of my skull. I can see my own eyes, wide as half crowns and black with death and decay, and Narbondo ahead with that ghastly shears. I pushed him along! That is the truth of it. I railed at him. I hissed. I'd have that gland, is what I'd have, and before the night was gone. I'd hold in my hand my salvation ...
HOMUNCULUS is a celebration of the absurd and a triumph of the imagination, a little masterpiece of humour and atmosphere.
Here is a short list of authors, books, movies, Tv Shows and comic books that I think share the same Blaylockean (non) sense of invention and absurdity:
Authors and Books:
R. A. Lafferty (Nine Hundreds Grandmothers; Lafferty in Orbit).
Robert Sheckley (The Mask of Manana or another collection, Journey Beyond Tomorrow; Immotarlity Inc etc.).
Steven Millhauser (Some novellas and short stories in The Barnum Museum and The Knife Thrower)
Norman Partridge (The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists; Bad Intentions; Mr Fox and Other Feral Tales)
Graphic Novels/Comic Books:
Ruse (Mark Waid)
Starman (James Robinson)
Sebastian O; Doom Patrol (Grant Morrison)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Moore)
Top Ten (Alan Moore)
The Airtight Garage (Moebius)
Movies:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Time After Time
That Magnificent Man and Their Flying Machines
Young Sherlock Holmes
Fearless Vampire Killers
Robur the Conqueror
Young Einstein
TV Shows:
Wild, Wild West
Bisko County Jr
The Avengers
The New Avengers
Flaky.......2005-03-17
I didn't particulary like this book. The characters are either indistinguishable from one another, or completely over the top (or some combination thereof). The villians are stereotypically ridiculous, and there's just way too much fish-gutting for my squeamish tastes. May I suggest The Anubis Gates instead?
Nice ride.......2003-06-05
If you enjoy teh Anubis Gate youl like this book. Far out fantasy.
Horribilus.......2002-08-10
"Homonculus" is Blaylock's unhappy attempt to maintain apace with his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter, at a time when each was writing a pastiche set in a London of the 19th century. Jeter produced the amusing and strange "Infernal Devices", Powers wrote the now-legendary and award-winning "Anubis Gates" and Blaylock, well, Blaylock wrote this mess.
James Blaylock seems to suffer from the worst kind of Chris Columbus fantasy imaginings. Plot slowing down? Throw in a big, anachronistic machine! Don't waste time with character development, just dress 'em up and make 'em talk funny. That'll do it.
Overall, Blaylock seems unable to rise above mediocrity.
Homunculus is a Roller Coaster..........2001-04-18
Homunculus is a roller coaster of excitement. I think Blaylock may have lived in 18th century London, and might actually know the secret of the carp bladder himself.
I have a theory, in fact that James P. Blaylock is none other than his own character Ignacio Narbondo, and these books are simply his own autobiography. Of course he threw us off his trail when he killed himself in the "Digging Leviathan".
This book, and series is excelent (I'm half way through Lord Kelvin's Machine). However, it's not as good as "The Elfin Ship", "Disappearing Dwarf" and "The Stone Giant". I don't know if these are available any longer, I may have the last copies on earth, but if you can find them, do read them...
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Homunculus;: A magic tale
Sven Delblanc
Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
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ASIN: B0006BYTB4 |
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The Fall of Homunculus
Pentti Otsamo
Manufacturer: Drawn & Quarterly
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Comics & Graphic Novels
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General
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Drawn and Quarterly
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Contemporary
| General
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ASIN: 1896597157 |
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HOMUNCULUS
Austen, Brauker
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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ASIN: 1847288065 |
Book Description
Extreme fiction. Mature audiences only. Dark comedy. Back woods sneak up. Native American themes and northern Michigan setting. Drama. Mystery. Conspiracy. Murder and counter culture. Alchemy. Sweat lodges and white buffalo. Monsters and their makers. Intense.
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Homunculus
Manufacturer: Morrigan Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Science Fiction & Fantasy
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| Fantasy
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Contemporary
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ASIN: 1870338405 |
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Homunculus
Manufacturer: Grafton Books, London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Blaylock, James P.
| ( B )
| Authors, A-Z
| Horror
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Blaylock, James P.
| ( B )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
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ASIN: B000EA4AH0 |
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Homunculus
James P. Blaylock
Manufacturer: Morrigan Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKJER8 |
Customer Reviews:
Vey valuable...but Confused in parts...Works in progress????.......2005-12-31
The purpose of this book is not to justify the status of women in the middle east (or any where else in the Islamic world for that matter)but explore the deeper level of spiritual reality that informs Islamic thinking about male/female relationship.
Murata attempts(quite successfully) to show that Islam is not intrinsically misogynist, and if it appears so to western minds, that is a misunderstanding on their part as this is the nature of things.
Her writings give clarity on Islamic rulings on polygamy for Men, why there is a need for two women witnesses as opposed to one man and many other Islamic ruling which appear Barbarous to our enlightened European friends.
Male hierarchy is built into the cosmos, instead of struggling against it we have to accept it as reality and work with it. But that is only part of the story. Essentially the world of male and female(duality)is a world of separation from unity, this hierarchy is thus ultimately illusory. However whilst we are in the realm of duality and seperation (this earth) we must work within its laws.
Murata highlights that if the universe seems by nature as outwardly conspirating against womenkind,this is (ultimately)only a illusionary sense of domination ,the power of the subtle is stronger than the obvious, gods mercy precedes his wrath as the Islamic saying goes.Women's power and liberation thus lies in their feminity not in trying to be like men. Feminism will eventually result in hyper and counter productive misoginy,.When yin becomes yang it becomes evil as the I ching says.
Like one of the reaviewers below I feel her tendency for exaggeration, discredits the overall marvelousness of her work.
In the example of the prophets wife(which one reviewer feels the need to write a whole essay about) murata uses a very bad example.
The point murata is trying to make is not served by the example.Murata only deals with rulings between men and women that are in the Quran and sometimes Hadith, not on other practices such as women not being allowed to choose their husband(that's has nothing to do with islam)
Unlike christopher I think Muratas understanding of Taosim is not based on a superficial reading of the iching but something she has an inherent grasp of.The Iching is the origin of all indigenous Chinese cosmology,Confucianism is the Chinese equivalent of the Shariah,whereas Sufism or tariqah Is the equivalent of Taoism.
Murata makes a very valid comment about how Most Taoist were Confucian In their social lives,In the same way the most Sufis followed the Shariah.The balancing of the lahir and batin (exoteric and esoteric) is where the genius of Islam lies.That is a very modern western view that seeks to pit Taoism against Confucianism as exemplified by books like the tao of pooh,Whereas one couldn't exist without he other.
Also Confucian traditions and practices were based on cosmoligal ideas about the relationship between Tien and earth.Confucianism dealt With the outer world of man Taoism to he invisible,both are part of reality.
As for her using the modern spiritualist trendy rule:anything but Christian, she is totally justified in this as Christianity is not the focus of the book and is not part of her cultural makeup so why should she?.
Besides the traditional Christian discourse has been so focused on separating mind boy and spirit and earth from heaven, a fragmented approach that is seemingly totally opposed to the Taoist and Islamic understanding of unity of heaven and earth.
Gender and spiritual cosmology: the BIG picture.......2004-04-18
In "The Tao of Islam" Sachiko Murata uses the lens of gender ideas in Islam to explore in a comparative religious framework the idea of a spirtual cosmology based on feminine and masculine principles. Although she is aware of the contemporary issues of women's legal status in Islam, she feels that such issues are not as fundamental as understanding the true role of gender within the cosmos. Those seeking arguments about whether the legal provisions of the Sharia (Islamic law) are or are not culpably sexist and what should be done about them if they are will not find much meat for their arguments in this book. Murata writes relatively clearly, and the writers she cites are often fascinating and insightful. They are, however, frequently prolix and I must say I found the book somewhat repetitive at times. (For this reason I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5.)
Professor Murata presents in this book a philosophy well-known to Platonism and which was also once familiar in the Christian West, but which is in danger of vanishing. In this philosophy, God, the cosmos (or the macrocosm), and the human self (microcosm) are the three great realities with the latter two stemming from and returning to God. The cosmos around us, and especially the human being in a superlative way, manifest as a kind of shadow the attributes of God. The highest purpose of studying the cosmos and the human self is thus to learn to recognize these manifestations of God's nature. Islamic writers in the Sufi Islamic tradition correlated these attributes into two fundamental families, that of majesty, awe, punishment, masculine, etc., and that of beauty, intimacy, mercy, feminine, etc. God is beautiful as well as majestic, intimate as well as awe-inspiring, merciful as well as punishing. Jalal (majesty) and jamal (beauty) are analogous to yang and yin of Chinese writings, while God matches the eternal Tao ("Way").
To manifest both His yang/jamal and His yin/jalal attributes visibly, God creates within the cosmos and human nature paired relations of yang-yin, jalal-jamal: heaven and earth, intellect and soul (both universal and in each person), spirit and nature, men and women. The productivity and fertility of these pairs is the sign of God's own abundance overflowing from His majesty and beauty. Things in the cosmos manifest these relations naturally, but human beings, having freedom, frequently damage these relation, with the yin elements rebelling against the yang and the yang elements forgetting their yin relation to God and tyrannizing over the yin.
As the creator and governor of all, God is primarily experienced by His creation naturally as powerful, active, and bright, i.e. jalal or yang. As a result God cannot normally be experienced by His creation but as a He, that is to say as manifesting yang/jalal attributes. Yet Sufi writers also recognize that God's Essence, apart from its relation with the cosmos, is like the true Tao mysterious, dark, and hidden from the sight and is thus in an absolute sense feminine. Yet such an understanding of God's yin/jamal nature must always be an esoteric understanding, compared to the exoteric understanding of God as yang/jalal.
Murata points out that the real enemy of this view of gender is not so much feminism (although feminism is certainly hostile to it), but the purely materialist vision of natural science. Materialism inquire only into mechanism, sees the cosmos and humanity as purposeless, and rejects the correlative thinking that sees the world around and inside us as keys to knowing God. Science has given us so much new knowledge about creation, yet we have not yet made sense of it as God's creation, demonstrating His attributes.
As Murata acknowledges, Islam's gendered cosmology is only one, albeit strikingly clear and articulate, contribution in the long tradition of spiritual cosmology. Murata compares Islamic cosmology to the Tao but her treatment of "Taoism" is the weakest part of the book. Her main source for "Taoism" is a superficial reading of the Yijing (I ching), but the Yijing is quite as much Confucian as it is Taoist, if not more (see the twelfth-century Neo-Confucian anthology "Reflections on Things at Hand" translated by Hok-lam Chan). Murata adheres closely to the ABC rule for modern spiritual writers ("anything but Christianity"), but the Christian readers will find in this book thought-provoking parallels to the several pairs of creation (light-dark, dry-wet, man-woman etc.) in Genesis 1, the feminine Wisdom as God's instrument in creation in Proverbs 8, the divine-human marriage language in Psalm 45 and Ephesians 5, and the structuring duality of works (jalal/yang) and grace (jamal/yin), Law and Gospel, Moses and Christ in St. Paul's epistles and St. John's gospel. Those involved in the debates over gender and sexuality now wracking parts of the Christian church will find Murata's book a powerful reminder that gender is not something under human control that we can remake as we wish--instead human gender is only one reflection of the fundamentally gendered fabric of the cosmos, itself made by God.
A Deeper Analysis of Gender in Islam.......1999-12-25
Murata has accomplished a formidable feat by pooling together sources from both the sunni and shiah perspectives in order to present an overview of the Islamic perception of gender. By doing so she has done more justice to the multi-faceted Islamic tradition than most scholarly works that deal with the subject at hand. Her sunni sources are largely drawn from the sufic or mystical sunni-Islamic dimension, which in many respects stands parallel to shiaism, not because of a "borrowing" of one from the other as a historicist approach is forced to presume by its very premises, but rather because both sufism and shiahism tap into the same Prophetic Reality. Considering that sufism is the interior spiritual sap that gives life to the exterior bark of sunni-Islam, and that shiasm is an exteriorized Islamic spiritualism, the link between these two worldviews -- the sufic and shiite -- becomes clear. Hence Murata's employment of both sources.
As Murata shows, Islamic cosmology perceives sexual differentiation of the genders as a cosmic polarity compirising of a yin/yang interplay of opppostes. The Divine "faces" are both feminine and masculine.
Murata's work is already begining to exert its weight in Islamic studies departement's across Europe and North America. The book is sure to go a long way in reshaping the dominant views of Islam as an inherently mysogynistic religion.
A great book with some exaggerations.......1998-12-20
I find this book very interesting and very enlightening. There is however passages which seem to be a bit far-fetched and unrealistic. The problem with the constant obsession with "mystical" interpretation is that at times one may overshoot the mark and miss the obvious. True that there are some sayings attributed to Muhammad with respect to women, but one has to understand that Muhammad lived at a tie when people in Arabia were burrying baby girls alive out of shame. In chapter 6 page 176, author mentions a verse in the Koran along with Ibne Arabi's understanding of the meaning of this verse which is really far fetched. The verse which is simply a warning to couple of his wives who seemed to have a lack of fundamental understanding of Prophet and his status with God and spiritual world. One of these two women, according to history, did repeatedly show this lack of understanding in one way or another. Apparently these two "exemplary Moslem wives" had conspired against Muhammad in hope of creating a character issue for Muhammad, and God tells them that going against Prophet is in reality going against the entire spiritual realm, something well beyond the two women's wildest imagination (or if they could understand the "divine will and presence" they certainly didn't think Muhammad had anything to do with it. Now the interpretation of this verse has been turned around and upside down stating that since "women" are so magnificently powerful that in order to counter balance their plot against Muhammad God himself has to declare war and step in or else the totality of universe will collapse. The matter is even worse than what we have pictured, since in counterbalancing these two "super women", according to this interpretation, even God himself would not be worthy enough, and he has to come to Mohammed's support with his mighty angels and all the believers, apparently God himself had the fear of getting defeated by these two and had to warn Aisha, and Hafsa that they are up not just against God (since they may still have a chance to overcome Him) but rather it is the entire sphere of existence that they will have to deal with. Who knew these two women had so much power up in their sleeves. Come on now lets be serious and have a more down to earth understanding of what took place and what this verse in the Koran is trying to tell us. This verse is not a testimony to super natural almost Godlike power of Aisha and Hafsa but rather a testimony of their lack of understanding of the status of the man whom they claimed to have believed to be "messenger of God"(yeah right). Koran is telling them that if you really were believers in this claim of Muhammad, you would have known, provided you are intelligent enough, that God and Gabriel are his supporters and even the thought of trying to overcome him is a sign of a sick and absurd mind. Is it possible for someone to have truly understood the Status of Muhammad, as this verse was trying to convey, and yet play a kind of sick game that they had up their sleeves? This verse is not about the "super natural" power of couple Bedouin women in Arabia, but rather a testimony of who Muhammad is. . I guess before we start searching heavens for meaning of things we should look around on earth, the explanation may be closer than we think. Ofcourse if one chooses to go this path of "out of this world" interpretation for this verse, then one has to be consistent and apply this same principle to other occasions where God has declared that he and angels are his protector which would imply that in these other cases, too, the power of his enemy must have been tremendous and Muhammad very weak in comparison, which necessitated the direct backing of God and his angels. I also think there is a political motivation behind this kind of approach to history and verses of Koran. One is to turn the meaning around and instead of being honest and blaming Aisha and Hafsa for their lack of faith and decency in trying to bring under question the character of Muhammad, who was not only their husband but supposedly a Prophet of God, would actually make the verse into a testimony of these two being "goddesses" with so much power as to warrant the direct attention of the entire divine realm (Wow). Secondly the inhumane way that women have been treated in the middle east, is being justified by telling them that the reason they can't have even the most basic right such as choosing their husband, is because they are just so very much powerful and if this power is left unchecked it will end up destroying the entire universe. So what do you do with untamed lions? Well, you just cage them and that is what Middle East traditionally has done to women. And yet the weird thing is though, that some women actually buy this argument. I call this "desperate feminism". Moslem scholars have long held the view that "Christianity and its theology" as we know it has more to do with Paul than Jesus himself, and this may very well be true. But what is best kept secret is that " Islam and Islamic theology" also has little to do with Muhammad and has much to do with certain other figures as is evident by the incidents of last few days of his life which the "pious" scholars of the Moslem world rarely mention in their works.
A must to read book for all women.......1998-09-02
A very fine book on Islam. This book is a must, not only for those who aren't Moslem and want something more than a tabloid introduction to Islam and its view on women, but more importantly for Moslems who seem to be so disconnect and ignorant of their own religion. I am a Moslem and have never heard or seen anything as deep and as enlightening as this book. Every Moslem woman should read this book.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on October 1, 1994. The length of the article is 915 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought. (book reviews)
Author: Carl W. Ernst
Publication:
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1994
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v114
Issue: n4
Page: p677(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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