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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   29321 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024

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The Fremen canonically originally roughly from the Nile area

I know the Fremen have a lot of Islamic imagery, but I'd thought this in particular was a Jewish reference? They came out of Egypt, they were slaves on Salusa Secundus, they were persecuted and chased from planet to planet, all the while preserving their ancient beliefs (or at least, they think they did, but getting actual Reverend Mothers on Arrakis probably helped). And look, they're waiting for a Messiah!

There are explicit Jews in the sequels, so they are separate.

Well, yes, but the themes can be reused repeatedly? This is literature (or about as close as sci-fi gets), there doesn't have to be a one-to-one mapping to the real world. The Fremen are clearly a mashup of a lot of things, most especially Arabs and Islam, but why not toss in certain elements of Jewish history, too? (As distinct from "Judaism", which I don't think the Fremen borrow much from. They've got various private rituals, and hold themselves apart from other people, but that may be as far as it goes?)

As I understand it, the Fremen were once pilgrims of the Zensunni religion fleeing persecution (there is a vision/flashback in the book mentioning how the Empire denied them the Hajj), so there's definitely a lot of Islamic coding there.

Stilgar planted the staff in the sand beside Paul, dropped his hands to his sides. The blue-within-blue eyes remained level and intent. And Paul thought how his own eyes already were assuming this mask of color from the spice.

‘They denied us the Hajj,’ Stilgar said with ritual solemnity.

As Chani had taught him, Paul responded ‘Who can deny a Fremen the right to walk or ride where he wills?’

‘I am a Naib,’ Stilgar said, ‘never to be taken alive. I am a leg of the death tripod that will destroy our foes.’

Silence settled over them.

Paul glanced at the other Fremen scattered over the sand beyond Stilgar, the way they stood without moving for this moment of personal prayer. And he thought of how the Fremen were a people whose living consisted of killing, an entire people who had lived with rage and grief all of their days, never once considering what might take the place of either – except for a dream with which Liet-Kynes had infused them before his death.

‘Where is the Lord who led us through the land of desert and of pits?’ Stilgar asked.

‘He is ever with us,’ the Fremen chanted.

And the Glossary:

Hajj: holy journey.

Hajr: desert journey, migration.

Hajra: journey of seeking.

What I find interesting about that "They denied us the Hajj" phrase, is that it's clarified to mean that it was denying them the freedom to go wherever they want. It seems to have lost the significance of a pilgrimage to a specific place (although Muad'dib's religion recreates that in the next book), and instead means something more like what a nomad or one of the traveling people might hold important, as one of the fundamentals of life.

Oh, that makes sense, so there is still some plausible deniability in the "literal Space Arabs" department.

That being said, the idea of people still making the journey to Mecca many centuries in the future (edit: and across many lightyears!) did fascinate me.

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