alTtawabi’, al-Zzawabi’ and Risalat al-Ghufran: Aspects of Imitation and Innovation

Abstract

In this study I try to examine one of the oldest and most important human literature piece of work, i.e. the Sumerian Myth of Dilmun. The significance of this myth is due to the obvious resemblance between its events and those in the quranic and biblical account of Eden story. This leaves a possibility that the myth contains a theme which still popular among great number of people. By this theme the researcher means Paradise or the Perfect World. The Myth of Dilmun is regarded as one of the most complicated one among ancient myths. Hence, there are quite a numerous studies that tried to analyze this myth and to understand its events. Many of these attempts succeeded to make considerable approaches to understand the myth events and purposes. This study's researcher hopes that he does his best contributing in analyzing this myth with providing his own opinion, not denying that he benefited from the previous studies. In this study, the researcher sheds light on some features of the myth in Sumer particularly, and in Mesopotamia generally, and discuses the most significant purposes that lies behind composing of these ancient myths.