Assignment 3: Analysis

After the read more break is my analysis for the assignment 3 paper dealing with The Iliad, Beowulf, Prokopios, Ibn Shaddad, Dhuoda, Abelard, and Heloise.

Thesis Statement: All of these authors are driven to utilize religion as a source of comfort in their writing by crises. However, each author utilizes religion differently based on the scope of the crisis he or she faces. Authors like Homer, the poet of Beowulf, and Prokopios who face societal crises give the gods an active role in their narrative where authors who face more personal crises, like Ibn Shaddad, Dhuoda, and Abelard and Heloise, respond by giving the gods a more passive role in the events of their writing.

Sub Argument 1: Prokopios, in writing the Secret History, uses religion actively to show how the actions of the emperor Justinian, constituting a societal crisis, violate comfortable traditions.

Sub-point 1.1: Prokopios’ writing was a response to a societal crisis. From the final draft of assignment 1:

His thesis is essentially that Justinian “kept introducing into public life things… previously forbidden by law while abolishing firm and established customs all at once” (Prokopios 50). This quote establishes Prokopios as a conservative who did not like the customs that Justinian was breaking. Alongside Justinian’s legal changes, events like the Nika Riots and the plague constituted major crises for Prokopios. As a result, he wrote The Secret History to try to persuade the Roman populace of his problems with Justinian.

Sub-point 1.2: Prokopios uses references to comfortable religious traditions to show how Justinian and his wife Theodora deviate from them. From the final draft of assignment 1:

One way Prokopios attacks Justinaian and Theodora is by showing how far they deviate from religion based moral traditions. For example, when describing Theodora’s past as a prostitute he says that “there was no inviolable place that [Theodora] could ever hesitate to desecrate, as she thought nothing of violating all sacred things. Along with the common people, the priests of the Christians were likewise too afraid of her and so they stood aside and let her do whatever she pleased” (Prokopios 17). When describing Theodora’s time as a prostitute, he says “God would show no mercy upon the man who specified the name of [her] trade” (Prokopios 43). These quotes show how Prokopios uses religious references to imply just how deviant Theodora must have been, leaving the specifics to the imagination of his audience and furthering his goal of making his audience dislike Theodora and.Justinian by association. While it is much nastier here, Prokopios is using religion the same way the Ibn Shaddād does.

Sub-point 1.3: Prokopios, above referencing religion to bolster his arguments, gave it an active role in the events of Justinian’s rule. Above calling Justinian demonic, Prokopios gives him demonic powers. From the final draft of assignment 1:

Prokopios goes a step further than Ibn Shaddād by accusing Justinian of being connected to demonic forces. There is a section in The Secret History titled “The Demonic Nature of Justinian and Theodora” (Prokopios 58-68). He highlights the number of deaths during their reign, testimony of Justinian’s mother about his birth, Justinian’s ascetic lifestyle, and an instance in which a monk called Justinian “the Lord of Death” as evidence for his claim that Justinian is not human. Here, Prokopios is using religious tradition as a means to dehumanize Justinian. He is deliberately trying to make his audience as uncomfortable as possible with the rule of Justinian by describing him as a demon. While Ibn Shaddād might refer to Saladin’s relationship with Allah, he would never claim that Saladin was divine or a prophet.

Using his established demonic description of Justinian, Prokopios ends part two of The Secret History with a section titled “The Destruction of the World by the Demon Justinian.” He attributes the Nile subsiding at the wrong time, a flood in Tarsos, earthquakes, and the plague to Justinian’s “occult power and demonic nature” (Prokopios 85). Here Prokopios is using the populace’s beliefs in religious customs and traditions to accuse Justinian of crimes he could not have possibly committed so that Romans would have more reasons to dislike Justinian. It is unlikely that even Prokopios truly buys into this argument. Had Prokopios truly believed that Justinian was responsible for such huge disasters, he would have made Justinian’s control of the natural world the focal point of The Secret History. Instead, the argument is relegated to the end of the text.

Sub Argument 2: Ibn Shaddad, in writing the Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, uses religion passively in response to a personal crisis.

Sub-point 2.1: Although he tells of many battles in the crusades, Ibn Shaddad is really responding to the personal crisis of Saladin’s death. As he says at the end of the text: “I completed the collection of [the records] the day he died. Through this I planned to win the favour of God by urging people to bless his name and remember his excellent qualities” (245). As communicated in the introduction, “Ibn Shaddad was [Saladin’s] intimate and close confidant, being seldom absent for any length of time” (2). These two quotes communicate that, more than anything else, this book is mourning the death and honoring the life of a close friend. That death is the real personal crisis that Shaddad is responding to.

Sub-point 2.2: Ibn Shaddad uses religious references to establish common ground with his audience. These references are to comfortable traditions that are used to honor Saladin after the crisis of his death. From the final draft of Assignment 1:

Ibn Shaddād wastes no time making an appeal to the comfortable traditions of his Muslim audience. To establish how well Saladin practiced the Islamic faith, Ibn Shaddād starts his book by showing how Saladin followed the Five Pillars of Islam (Shaddād 18). This is the second thing that the reader learns about Saladin in this book, the first being his birth. Even the two pillars that Saladin does not quite fulfill, the Ramadan Fast and the Pilgrimage (Shaddād 19), are explained and excused thoroughly. Opening the book this way stresses the importance of religious tradition to Ibn Shaddād and, to a Muslim audience, makes Saladin instantly more admirable. As a result, this opening successfully furthers Ibn Shaddād’s goal of selling Saladin to his audience.

Ibn Shaddād continues this trend by referring to religion throughout the text. Whenever a significant individual is introduced, he adds a parenthetical comment like “(God be pleased with him).”  When referring to the King of the Frankish army, Ibn Shaddād makes the parenthetical comment “(God curse him)” (Shaddād 94). These constant references throughout the book make it clear to Muslim audiences that Ibn Shaddād’s priorities are linked with theirs and makes his arguments more palatable to them.

Sub-point 2.3: These religious references are passive. At no point does Ibn Shaddad say that Allah has taken action or use him as a character in his narrative. Allah’s grace is frequently asked for and some times is given, but Allah is not an actor in the text. Therefore, Ibn Shaddad responds to his personal crisis by using passive religious references.

Sub-Argument 3: In response to her personal family crisis, Dhuoda responds by writing letters to her son William that reference religion passively as a source of comfort.

Sub-point 3.1: Dhuoda is responding to a personal crisis. From the final draft of assignment 2:

“Dhuoda’s son William is taken as a hostage in Charles’ the Bald’s court because of his father’s disobedience to the King while Abelard and Heloise are forced to leave their previous lives because of their love affair. Each author responds to their personal crises by writing letters. Dhuoda’s letter takes the form of an advice manual, called the Handbook for William”

Sub-point 3.2: Dhuoda responds by making religious references that are a source of comfort. Primarily, she is seeking the salvation of Williams soul. From the final draft of assignment 2:

“Dhuoda’s clear concern for William’s spiritual well-being and safety is evident from the form her advice takes. She makes a book of advice covering a multitude of topics without any prompting from William. The whole book is focused on him and his salvation. She only references herself as a negative contrast: “Indeed, knowing my human frailty, I never seek to chastise myself, whereas I am wretched, dust and ashes.”[i] As shown in the following quote, she does not put her advice or knowledge on a pedestal. She writes, “If the patriarchs and prophets and the other saints, from the first-made man up until now, have been unable to understand entirely the accounts of holy mysteries, how much less should I be able to?”[ii]

[i] Dhuoda 7

[ii] Dhuoda 7”

Sub-Point 3.3: Dhuoda’s advice does not give God an active role. Instead, she tells William to actively pray to God for everyone. God is passive in her book advice. From the final draft of assignment 2:

Dhuoda spends the entirety of Book 8 directing William on how to pray and for whom he should pray. She urges him to “despair of no one”[i] and asks him to pray for his father, the king that is causing them pain, the poor, for the dead, travelers, and a multitude of others. While her ultimate goal is William’s salvation, it comes off as a lesson in empathy for him. She is trying to make him think of others as if he were in their situation and to have compassion for them.

[i] Dhuoda 85

Sub Argument 4: Abelard and Heloise respond to their personal crisis by referencing religion and giving it a passive role.

Sub-point 4.1: Abelard and Heloise suffer a personal crisis. Because of their love affair, both Abelard and Heloise’s lives are dramatically changed. Heloise has to move to a convent and abandon her son. Abelard has to abandon his work at the school and joins a monastery. Although their letters occur during and discuss reformation, their major focus in writing is in response to their own personal crisis.

Sub-Point 4.2: Abelard and Heloise reference religion as a source of comfort. For example, to bring Heloise comfort about his well-being, Abelard gives her instructions to pray for his well-being. From the final draft of assignment 2:

. He asks Heloise to “consider then the great power of prayer, if we pray as we are bidden, seeing that the prophet won by prayer what he was forbidden to pray for, and turned God from his declared intention.”[i] On page 60, he provides a prayer script for her to follow. While his instructions are more specific than Dhuoda’s, likely because he has had more training on the subject, Abelard’s are much more self-centered. He spends the whole section telling Heloise specifically how to pray for him. He says, “At present you are over-anxious about the danger to my body, but then your chief concern must be for the salvation of my soul, and you must show the dead man how much you love the living by the special support of prayers chosen for him.”[ii]

[i] Radice 57

[ii] Radice 62

Sub-point 4.3: God has a passive role in the correspondence of Abelard and Heloise. In giving her advice, as shown above, Abelard says prayer might alter God’s intention.  This is evidence that God really is not an active character in their correspondance. God is an outside character that they have to try and get the attention of.

Sub Argument 5: In the Iliad, Homer, in response to societal crisis that was the war of Troy, gives the Greek Gods an active role in his narrative to explain the events that took place during the war.

Sub-point 5.1: Its a societal crisis. Although the poem focuses on the rage of Achilles, the larger crisis the poem is about is the war leading to the fall of Troy. This work is a response to the massive Trojan War

Sub-point 5.2: The Greek Gods are very active in the Iliad. Throughout the poem, Homer talks about events occuring on Mount Olympus that affect the action in Troy. For example, Athena comes down to convince Achilles from killing Agamemnon (84), Zeus directly impacts the course of battle by stealing Glaucus’ wits when he faces Diomedes (203), Apollo saves Hector’s life (223), and when Hermes guides Priam to Achilles’ tent. While other works feature characters praying, in the Iliad we know whether or not the gods hear those prayers and how they respond. For instance, Athena refuses to hear the prayers of the Trojan woman (205). And the human characters are perfectly aware of the God’s involvement. Priam says “we’ll fight tomorrow until some fatal power decides between us both” (226) and Achilles warns Patroclus that if he goes too far with his attack, a god will get involved and kill him (415). It is as though the events of the events of the Trojan war were so chaotic that they accepted explanation was that the gods were actively involved and that mortal men could not control the situation.

Sub Argument 6: Beowulf occupies an interesting middle ground. While Beowulf the character acts in reaction to murderous monsters, the poem is written as a memorial to Beowulf. While his death might seem to be more of a personal matter, the whole poem is about his impact on society. Overall, it seems to be more of a societal crisis.  The anonymous poet responds to the societal crisis by attributing the strength and success of Beowulf to the Christian God, thereby giving God an active role.

Sub-point 6.1: We do not know who wrote Beowulf or what the writer was responding to. But the text of the poem provides clues. As J.R.R. Tolkein argues in his scholarship on the poem  “it is an heroic-elegiac poem; and in a sense all its first 3,126 lines are the prelude to a dirge” which is the portion of the poem (128). So, as with Ibn Shaddad, this writing seems to be a reaction to the death of an individual.  The poem ends with the lines “So the Geat people, his hearth companions,/sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low./ They said that of all the kings upon earth/ he was the man most gracious and fair-minded,/ kindest to his people and keenest to win fame” (78). Although the death of an individual is usually a personal crisis, the focus on the impact of Beowulf’s death on society and the lack of personal connection between the poet and Beowulf, as there was with Ibn Shaddad and Saladin, makes this more of a societal crisis.

Sub-point 6.2: These references give God an active role. While it is not as active as the gods are in the Iliad, religion is given a very active role in the story. Grendel and his mother are offspring of Cain (6) from the Biblical story. Beowulf is clarified to be Christian (11). Grendel’s defeat is credited to God on an active level: “as he would have killed more, had not mindful God and one man’s daring prevented the doom”(27). When Beowulf is fighting Grendel’s mother, the poet states “holy God decided the victory” (41). At Beowulf’s funeral, the point is made the one can’t alter God’s will (71). While God himself is not a character in this story, religion and superstition are given an active role through the monsters that Beowulf fights. Overall, Beowulf’s successes are attributed to God in his fights against demons and pagan monsters.

Structure: Intro-> Ibn Shaddad->Dhuoda->Abelard->Prokopios->Iliad->Beowulf-> Conclusion.

Conclusion: In these texts, personal crisis results in religion having a passive role in the text where societal crisis results in religion being given an active role. Perhaps it is because as crisis is increased in scale, a larger explanation is demanded. In times of crisis, people seek comfort. In crises effecting individuals: God might not be paying attention and his blessing is what is needed. In crises effecting the multitude, it is not enough for God to be sitting idly by: he must be involved somehow.

 A Potential Addendum: I think the chronological order for these texts is: Iliad-> Prokopios (500ish)-> Dhuoda (840) -> Beowulf (975–1025 date of manuscript)-> Abelard (1142-died)-> Ibn Shaddad (1193-died). Aside from the placement of Dhuoda ahead of Beowulf, this order corresponds to a movement from active use of religious figures to a passive use of religious figures as time passes.

 

 

• Analysis
• Assignment 3