Revised and expanded version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--SOAS, University of London, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 The Text -- 2 The Prophets: Islamic Legend in Sīrat Sayf -- 3 The Gods: Sīrat Sayf and Ancient Egyptian Myth -- 4 The King: Sīrat Sayf and the Alexander Romance -- 5 Intertextual Dialogue in the Diversion of the Nile -- Appendix: Glossary of Principal Characters -- Bibliography -- Index.

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This book is a literary, intertextual study of an Egyptian popular epic. In this innovative study, Helen Blatherwick investigates how various sources, including Islamic qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ (‘tales of the prophets’), Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman and Coptic Egyptian myths and narratives, and recensions of the Alexander Romance function as intertexts within Sīrat Sayf . Blatherwick argues that these intertexts are deployed as narrative devices which are readily recognisable to the story's audience, and that they are significant carriers of meaning and theme. Crucially, these intertexts also interact within Sīrat Sayf to bring a conceptual continuity to its discussion of kingship and society that stretches from this late-medieval epic back to ancient Egyptian narratives.

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