Overview

Did God exist a thousand years ago? This book discusses and analyses the origins of questioning God and Religion in Medieval Middle Eastern and European literature and thought. Author Fatemeh Azinfar analyses two medieval texts from the Middle East, A Thousand and One Nights and Vis and Ramin , both of which question God's existence and actions. Europeans such as Dante, Abelard, Chaucer, the author of Chanson de Roland, and the author of The Pearl poem are shown to have asked similar questions. Azinfar argues that the European authors were influenced by the religious scepticism inherent in medieval Middle Eastern texts. The roots of the ideas of rationalism, existentialism, surrealism, and feminism are traced from the Islamic world to the medieval West. Azin-far shows that a period most view as steeped in religious dogmatism was actually an analytical era, rooted in rationality, scientific advancement, and scepticism. Tales of questing knights who rescue damsels also con-tain theories that question traditional views on religion, the possibility of the existence of a physical world, and nihilism.

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9781588140517

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Fatemeh Chehregosha Azinfar received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She is the recipient of two Ford Foundation Fellow-ships. She has taught at Harvard, UCLA and Trinity College.

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