Arabian Gulf &1E22;iyya biyya, Jewish Babylonian farfisa, Christian Sicilian sepolcri: Popular Customs with a Common Origin?
The old Gulf popular custom of &1E22;iyya biyya, in which children grew pot plants during the last ten days of the Islamic pilgrimage month of Dhū 'l-Hijja, and then threw them into the sea, a stream, or a well (the important thing is that it had to be into water) on the night before the Fe...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2004
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| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2004, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 275-287 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The old Gulf popular custom of &1E22;iyya biyya, in which children grew pot plants during the last ten days of the Islamic pilgrimage month of Dhū 'l-Hijja, and then threw them into the sea, a stream, or a well (the important thing is that it had to be into water) on the night before the Feast of the Immolation, is explained locally as the children's mimicking of this Islamic ritual sacrifice. However, the close structural similarities which this popular custom bears to others in Christian Sicily (sepolcri), Jewish Babylonia (tashlik/farfisa), and the ancient Adonis cult of the eastern Mediterannean, suggest a common, pagan origin which at some point in the past was taken over and reinterpreted in different ways by the organized religions. Recently, in the Gulf, &1E22;iyya biyya has been ‘reinvented’ as part of a shared Gulf ‘national heritage’ in which its ‘Islamic’ nature is emphasized. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/49.2.275 |