Prophets, Gods and Kings in Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan: An Intertextual Reading of an Egyptian Popular Epic

This book is a literary, intertextual study of an Egyptian popular epic. In this innovative study, Helen Blatherwick investigates how various sources, including Islamic qisas al-anbiya’ (‘tales of the prophets’), Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman and Coptic Egyptian myths and narratives, and recensions of the Alexander Romance function as intertexts within Sirat Sayf. Blatherwick argues that these intertexts are deployed as narrative devices which are readily recognisable to the story’s audience, and that they are significant carriers of meaning and theme. Crucially, these intertexts also interact within Sirat Sayf to bring a conceptual continuity to its discussion of kingship and society that stretches from this late-medieval epic back to ancient Egyptian narratives.