The Koran, the Bible, and the Talmud: Tales from Zanzibar

Record summary

Edward Steere’s Zanzibar materials include tales and explanatory traditions situated among Islamic, biblical, and local Swahili narrative worlds. They are a useful lead for examining how religious stories are translated across communities and how collectors classified narratives that could be simultaneously scriptural, legendary, didactic, or entertaining. The material is relevant to nineteenth-century legend formation because print publication could stabilize versions that had previously circulated orally. The exact title, edition, and boundaries of the relevant group of tales should be confirmed, since Steere’s works and later reprints are not always catalogued consistently.