Book Review: Edgar Allan Poe’s Islamic References and Possible Influences

Name: Nur Syahira binti Anuar (1520408)

Page Number: 75

Title of the Chapter: Edgar Allan Poe’s Islamic References and Possible Influences

Author: Faatimah Salmyyah Raheem

Title of the Book: Islamicisation of Knowledge and English Literary Studies: In the Age of Islamophobia and Westernophobia

Edited by: Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf & Aimillia Mohd Ramli

Place of Publication: Shah Alam

Publisher: One Global Publication Sdn. Bhd in collaboration with The International Institute of Islamic Thought

Year of Publication: 2016                  

Synopsis:

The world has known Edgar Allan Poe as an American gothic writer. However, his works such as The Thousandand-Second Tale of Scheherazade; Tamerlane; Al-Aaraaf; Tamerlane and Minor Poems has caught Faatimah Salmyyah Raheem’s attention to investigate whether Poe’s inspiration for such works were influenced from Islamic sources directly from Qur’an or any other British Romantic poets who happened to wrote as well within this oriental setting?

Review:

There are subtopics (topic sentences) and overt used of discourse markers such as ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’ and ‘thirdly’ which has made reading experience for readers of this article simpler. It also helps prepare the readers on what to expect from later paragraphs. Other than that, it is a refreshing way of knowing Edgar Allan Poe’s works can be deemed as having influenced from Islam especially from al-Qur’an because readers would usually relate Poe’s as a gothic writer. However, due to minimal number of references to verify the author’s judgements, in the end this article can be seen as mere speculations only.