Trees and those wacky Persians' faith and things

[snowgrouse]

Forgive me if I've mentioned it before--I honestly can't remember--but I'm still torn about this idea of a spiritual Jaffar/Princess fic I want to write. One where she has a spiritual crisis about what she sees as Jaffar's polytheism, the way any religious medieval person would, and is seriously worried about whether her husband would be cast into

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[snowgrouse]

The Falconverse is the one where most of the mystical stuff happens, and as it's all from her POV and she is more traditionally religious than Jaffar, I just keep thinking there might be some conflict at some point. Islam isn't as anti-wizardry as Christianity (for instance, King Solomon is portrayed as the greatest of wizards because his power came from God), but Jaffar mixes and matches so many things and built things that looked like Hindu idols, so, well. At one point, they go over a Tantric volume about prolonging life through male/female energy-swapping and there are parts where he helps her out of her depression with Buddhist teachings, stuff that the Barmakids would've been well-versed in. But as people tend to get more pious with age and sometimes become really stuck-up about it as well, I do wonder if she isn't just... plagued by worry, especially as Jaffar is 25 years older than she is. And I don't want to spoil the previous stories for you, but there are things that would cast doubt on the certainty of him making it to Paradise as well. Oh fuck, and here I thought she was more or less cured from her depression! Poor girl.

This is just a really good example of how absorbed one can get in lives that are so different from one's own. I had maybe a brief worry about my grandma going to heaven when I was like 12 and she died, but I've always been more Pagan than Christian and haven't really thought of things in terms of Heaven/Hell or even been that big on a belief in past lives--just everything returning to Nature and that's that. So it's really interesting to have such *intense* experiences of how a medieval Muslim would've been *tortured* by this worry. Half the Qur'an is basically 'You're doing it wrong, you idiots, God has shown you how to do it right and THIS is how you do it, DUH,' so she would have been worrying about orthopraxy a lot. Whereas Jaffar is such a goddamn universalist Sufi hippie in comparison to her and, like many magicians, a pragmatist who would use anything that worked. AND NOW I AM CAUGHT UP IN A MEDIEVAL CRISIS OF FAITH IN A RELIGION I'M NOT EVEN INVOLVED IN AND HELP

[ataslightangle]

Mmm, it's not too difficult to imagine that she wouldn't be *quite* as freethinking as Jaffar when it comes to something as heavily embedded in their culture as religion. I suppose she would have been indoctrinated from birth. And I seem to remember in TKWF she's basically entirely self taught in relation to everything else, so perhaps there's still a twinge of fear of hell and such things from her upbringing? The passing of time does seem to have an influence on that sort of worrying on people... I was sent to a *very* Christian primary school and I remember as my great grandmother aged I started praying for her, even though I had absolutely no solid belief in Christianity. I guess it can almost become a 'just in case' sort of thing when the mind is plagued by worries and doubts. Well, I mean religion is such a comfort to so many people for that sort of thing.
And awww! I guess she would forever have that 25 year age gap in the back of her mind.

l wonder whether the Barmakids converting would have had some sort of influence over Jaffar's varying beliefs and penchant for universalism etc. And thus, would the rest of his family have been likewise inclined? Would they have communicated that to each other? It's interesting to think about, as I'm sure you'd have had to keep things like that very much to yourself in those days.
I can see it being one area that Jaffar/Princess definitely could conflict on, even if it is merely concern for the other that brings it about each time!

[snowgrouse]

The Barmakids were really open-minded and took in wisdom from people of all faiths, so that's one of the reasons there were rumours of them not being proper Muslims. They were all pretty pious Muslims from what I understand, though, despite those rumours, and known for their hospitality and kindness and generally being too good to last. And since Yahya hosted those philosophical debates between scholars from different religions, people would've started to whisper--so it wasn't all that hidden back then because the point was wisdom rather than arguing about doctrine.

But yeah, poor Pwinzezz. The Jaffar in the movie is such an out-and-out wizard and we see those idol-type things that it would be pretty much out in the open, the religiously suspect stuff. I think that most of the conflict would come from her being a bit more conservative in religious matters because in Sufism in particular, Islam can technically encompass anything because some mystics said even idols would have been forms of God and the pagan worshippers did nothing wrong (something that'd give the more stuck-up scholars heart attacks). So Jaffar would have plenty of room for philosophical argument there, but she'd stick to the Qur'an and that obviously condemns such things and it'd be more of a matter of interpretation as to whether he was an idolator or not. (I just somehow imagine some of those arguments ending with him going "Yes, because I worship at the altar of this sweet cunny!" *FACEPLANTS* "Mmmph!")

[snowgrouse]

Oh, and re: the idolatry: there was LITERALLY a legend they made up about the Barmakids--back when they were Buddhist priests in Balkh--having supposedly practiced some sort of proto-Islam. This was all bullshit, basically, but there was honestly a story (perhaps propagated by Yahya himself) that they built some black cube in the temple and hung flags on it and circumambulated it because they'd heard that's what God wanted, so they were technically circumambulating the Kaaba before even knowing it. Yeah, right. But, you know. That's how hard they tried to reconcile their Buddhist past with their current faith. THEY WERE REALLY MUSLIMS ALL ALONG! HONEST! *shakes head*

[ataslightangle]

"I just somehow imagine some of those arguments ending with him going "Yes, because I worship at the altar of this sweet cunny!" *FACEPLANTS* "Mmmph!"" ...can't argue that, *really* can't :3 Thinking about it, I reckon Jaffar would be an absolutely formidable person to go up against in an argument. On almost any subject. It'd be like entering a dual with but a slippery fish at hand.

Ah no way! Legends are always fascinating when you link them back to the RL stuff that they're routed in. Haha, gotter' give them credit - that's a pretty creative thing to come up with really. It is bizarre how proving ones faith was, and remains *such* a big part of religious community. I've always thought that that contradicts the sort of fundamental meaning behind the word 'faith' itself, as it were. But there you have it. One would only hope that the Pwinzezz wouldn't be too hard on Jaffar's wayward convictions! And vice versa :)