ABSTRACT

Three analysis patterns have been chosen in order to highlight selected broad aspects of the tales of Job, Saul, David and Noah: (1) Crime and Punishment, which functions on an axis of God and His prophet and gives a moralistic or religious interpretation to events; (2) Oedipus, which is concerned with the father-figure and son dynamic of each tale, and defines the stories in a psychological way; and (3) Order and Chaos, which revolves around the community’s role in events, thus giving emphasis to the voice of ‘the people’, often a major, if silent, player in tales of this type, and looking at events for their impact on society. Although al-Tha‘labc (and other compilers of this sort of material) expand greatly on the biographical material provided or alluded to in the Qur’an, these works nonetheless give a relatively fragmented, non-linear account of specific events in each subject’s life. Some episodes are given in minute detail, others are glossed over or dealt with in a few words. Consequently, the stories defy instant or easy interpretation. It is here that the application of standard story patterns can be very useful in helping us to understand each story as more than a somewhat disjointed biography of each figure’s life.