From Babylon to Baghdad

Babylonian heritage in Arabic literature

Author's name: Saeed Al-Ghanimi

The cultural influence of the Babylonians on those who came after them took two distinct paths: the path of texts, when the stories themselves were transmitted, and the path of literary traditions, when specific texts could not be transmitted, but rather literary customs and practices, and genre forms with their own characteristics in the use and interpretation of language. With the spread of texts east and west, and the localization of texts and traditions in new cultures, a slow and subtle process had to be taken into account: the adaptation of texts and traditions for the purpose of localization and acclimatization. Thus, new layers belonging to other cultures accumulated on top of authentic texts and traditions. Texts and traditions do not remain static; rather, they change slowly and imperceptibly to suit the literary and cultural environments to which they are transmitted. However, after a long period of time, when these texts and traditions return to the environment from which they originated, their external features have changed, and they appear as if they have lost their formal affiliation, at least to the historical image with which they began. This is precisely what happened when some texts and traditions returned to Arabic literature, representing texts belonging to the last cultures that adopted them. Indeed, Arabic culture itself adapted and modified them as well. The book traces the forms of adaptation of Babylonian myths as they reach neighboring literatures, particularly when they reach Arabic literature, as well as the types of literary genres and their themes; such as the slaying of the dragon, the death and resurrection of the hero, the myth of the hero's birth, the formation of heroic tales, and proverbs. It follows the myths in their transmission from the Babylonian heritage to Arabic literature directly, or through the intermediate paths through which they passed.