Death, paradise and the Arabian Nights

Abstract

The article explores the relevance of modern sociological theories on death and dying as they might apply to Islamic communities. These include several relevant important European sociological commentaries: Walter's typology of death attitudes, Seale's pseudo-psychoanalytical approach and Kellehear's important study of the social history of dying. The article is based on a variety of sources including religious texts, tales from the Arabian Nights and recent ethnographies, as well as descriptions by European travellers in the Middle East. Ethnographic detail from the Middle East includes recent and current practices among pastoral nomads (the Beja, Ma‘aza Bedouin), among peasants from villages in Nubia and the Nile Valley, in the cosmopolitan cities of Ottoman Aleppo and in modern Cairo, as well as encounters with Muslim death in the West. No single Islamic tradition can be identified. In the light of practices that surround death, beliefs in the afterlife and Paradise, this article highlights the relevance of various sociological approaches to the study of dying in a variety of Muslim communities. Mirroring Kellehear's ‘Ages’, this article contrasts a range of orthodox religious and local Muslim traditions many of which are rarely discussed in the West.

Keywords:

• death
• dying
• Paradise
• Islam
• Arabian Nights

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to Professor Douglas Davies in the Theology Department in Durham for inspiring me to prepare this paper for publication; to the Society for Arabian Studies for allowing me to chair a workshop at the British Museum on the topic in November 2008; to Leor Halevi of Vanderbilt University whose work is inspirational; and to Professor Allan Kellehear at Bath University for his patience and helpful suggestions on the sociological framework of the essay.