Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
Good grief. The Romantic Age was much about such fascinations. (Have you read my Givens book?)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...nalCode=cjmm20
Why do you think some snake oil salesman was peddling Ptolemaic papyrus in Nauvoo?
Why are Mormons defensive about this? The comparisons I've made are neutral. Islam is more important, older, bigger, richer, etc. The Koran is much more respected as literature than Mormon scriptures. The Islamic brand is probably a lot more valuable. I'm sure it would be the acquiring entity. If Mormons don't like the comparison they should ask themselves why. |
It is not a challenge, but a request for reasonable proof. Just because there was fascination with Egyptian materials, which are not inherently Islamic as they pre-date Islam, that seems odd to assert the primitive folk of upstate New York had much of an understanding of the Shia/Sunni dynamics of Islam and its tenets. There wasn't even a decent English translation of the Quran until Yusuf Ali completed his in 1934.
The Holy Qur'an: Translation and Commentary (1934) by
Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
Mohammed does form perhaps an archetype of the warrior/prophet whose calling commences with a vision of God and his angels. In that sense, what the archetype set up in the charismatic sense is analogous to Joseph Smith, but to state categorically that Joseph Smith knowingly emulated a man he could hardly known much about, given the lack of materials in English with much understanding. Early translations from Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Farsi into workable English seem hardly likely to make to it to an uneducated farm boy in upstate New York.
It more likely possible that the sociological conditions which allow charismatic figures to create a following recur from time to time, as shown by numerous charismatic "prophets" throughout the ages.
Moreover, Islam won over its minions through martial conquest and the LDS faith is now floundering because it is unable to control the information flow and is unable find a central message for new adherents. The Caliphates and Umayyads were well-established within 150 years, but 750 CE, leading the growth under the Abbasids, Seljuks and Ottomans over the centuries.
In many respects, absent moderation and attachment to a growing economy or world empire, the LDS faith is unlikely to see such growth and domination.