2002 - The Years Of Rice And Salt

Discuss the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt

Comments

Re-reading YSR while studying history #OxUni and noticed what I think is a neat reference to the American (in our timeline) meta-historian Hayden White as 'Scholar White'. See pp. 645 (para 5) and 647 (first line) of the 2002 HarperCollins (London) edition, within a recounting of a lecture by Zhu Isao on the form of history. Bravo!

I am no specialist, but I will try to find more information.

An internet search has produced the following:

"He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return."
Koran 2:28, very close to the first quote
[url]http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0027/_P2.HTM#MS[/url]

"I tell you of a truth, that the spirits which now have affinity will be kindred together, although they all meet in new persons and names"
This seems to come from "The New Koran", whatever that might be (Sufi?).
[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=kKnjoeTwo9cC&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=%22a...

In the novel the quotes indicate the idea of reincarnation, multiple lives. In the Quran, i believe these quotes refer to the Day of Judgement when all the dead souls will rise. It seems a one time event. But all is open to interpretation by the learned & the devout. So it appeals to me to hear the resonance between beliefs.

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