Dead Sea Apes
The Dead Sea Apes is a fable of dwellers by the Dead Sea who, according to the Muslim tradition, were transformed into apes for breaking the Sabbath. A similar story is found in Jewish traditions, when people built the tower of Babel were punished by turning into apes and phantoms. Further it might be a reference to a Yemeni midrash.[1] It is also a metaphor used, for instance by Thomas Carlyle, describing people in modern times to whom the universe, with all its serious voices, seems to have become a weariness and a humbug.[2]
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References
- Gerald R. Hawting, The idea of idolatry and the emergence of Islam: from polemic to history, Cambridge University Press, 1999 p. 105 n.45
- Carlyle, Thomas (1918), Past and Present, C. Scribner's sons, p. 177
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