The Islamic Origins Of The Jedi

The Islamic Origins of the Jedi

Ramadan starts in a few days so I figured that now was a great time to talk about this!

(Disclaimer: My point here isn’t to detract from other sources of inspiration that GL used to create the Jedi, but simply to point out another, lesser known one that many often overlook or intentionally refuse to acknowledge.)

I’m Muslim. My family follows the Hanafi madhab, and the guidance of the Naqshbandi order of Sufi masters, mystics, and teachers. I’m by no means an expert or a scholar, but the Sufi theology and view of the Divine is so clearly prevalent as one of the many inspirations for the Force and the Jedi, that it’s hard to get ignore - and it’s hard to watch while people choose to ignore it.

For starters, we know that during his research for the films, George Lucas met and consulted with the Habibiyyah Sufi order in California. He asked questions and learned what they believed.

Something else that’s hard to ignore is the robes that the Jedi wear! I know they’re commonly thought to be inspired by other origins, but I’d like to point out that the traditional Sufi robes look similar to the Jedi as well.

Still not convinced?

Let’s look at the origins of the word ‘Jedi’. While most believe that it comes from the word ‘jidaigeki’, as GL has mentioned in passing, there is an Arabic equivalent that’s translated to fit the meaning of the Jedi Order with surprising accuracy.

The word is Al-Jeddi, which translates to ‘master of the mystic warrior way’.

In an article released by a prominent Sufi Muslim order, ‘jeddi’ is mentioned by name and a definition that looks and sounds familiar to the Jedi Order of Star Wars and how the Force is viewed by them:

“We are, at our core, a Movement of Jeddi; Sufi masters of Futuwwat ("the Way of the mystic-warrior"). We encourage adherents to train both physically AND spiritually, for their own personal edification and to enhance their knowledge and abilities in the Struggle. The Balance does not lie alone in contemplation, prayer and meditation; nor does it lie alone in action and revolution.”

At the end of the day, we know that Star Wars appropriated from many, many sources that went mostly uncredited and ignored - in ways that had lasting and negative impacts on the peoples and cultures that served as inspiration - and this was one of them.

One of my biggest complaints about the appropriation present here is that it is an opportunity missed - a big one. There was an opportunity to educate, to help others understand what is often misunderstood, simply by being transparent about what you took, from whom, and most importantly, why.

So I’m sharing this with you now, because education is everything, and it is so, so important to be aware of examples of things like this in the media we consume!

More Posts from Crazyturtletree and Others

crazyturtletree

1 year ago

We're experiencing widespread 500 errors due to a hardware failure, but we are working on getting the Archive back! (No data has been lost.)

Date: 19:40 UTC December 22, 2023

19K notes View Post

crazyturtletree

1 year ago

I'ts still not working

Tags

free palestine save palestine

0 notes View Post

crazyturtletree

1 year ago

What if on Irmenu they used flower language? And In @clonewarslover55's writing about Irmenu, she talked about how women dress so I thought. What if they wore 1800's Habsburg dresses. I have so many ideas

3 notes View Post

crazyturtletree

1 year ago

i really should make an oc based on my favourite concept ever: jedi dropout who does online tutoring for kids whose parents didnt hand them over to the jedi

19K notes View Post

crazyturtletree

6 months ago

JEDI ORDER CITATIONS IN STAR WARS CANON, PART V [A Meta/Reference Guide On AO3] Welcome To My Jedi Culture

JEDI ORDER CITATIONS IN STAR WARS CANON, PART V [A Meta/Reference Guide on AO3] Welcome to my Jedi Culture and Teachings in Canon series, where I collate various quotes from current canon to provide a worldbuilding and reference guide, whether for better fic writing, just general interest in getting to know the Star Wars lore better, or if you want to be able to pull out some quotes when you're fighting the internet on behalf of the fictional space wizards. ;) So, what's here? Basically anything I think would be of interest to people who want to know what the Jedi are like in the canon--any worldbuilding bits (what special abilities do the Jedi have? do the Jedi have art? do they have funeral rites? what do we know about Knighting ceremonies? what are the themes of the Force? are the Jedi telepaths or empaths and what scenes in canon support that? what do we know about Jedi schooling?), any quotes from Lucas himself, all arranged in categories to help you find what you're looking for. Feel free to take this guide or leave it, it's not about telling other people what to do, if you scroll on by, that's fine, I'm not your mom, do what you want. But if you want to know what the Jedi have to say about Force bonds or what kind of clothing they way or everything we know about the main ziggurat of the Jedi Temple, I got you covered, babe. This section is admittedly overly large, where previously I would get to about 25k words of citations and post the next part, feeling that was a manageable chunk for readers. But with The Acolyte coming out, I made a challenge to myself to get caught up on all of The High Republic before it aired and I drop citations in as I'm reading, so suddenly I found myself with nearly 50k of citations and I was feeling in the groove, I had all my references easily accessible, I was getting through my backlog, I had access to some of the roleplaying guides, I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and, wham, suddenly it's ~70k and here I am now. But that's 70k of examples of what the Jedi say and do, my best attempt to give context to show the consistent themes and parallels within the Jedi Order all across this continuity. How to use this guide? Well, you do you, for starters! But I hope you'll read the intros, as often some books need to be put in specific contexts, and if you have any suggestions for future categories or better organization, feel free to mention it! I do this for me, but I format it for sharing, so I'm game! Feel free to check out previous sections for more examples, and just scroll through to skim the bolded sections to try to find what you're looking for, since not everything always fits neatly into a single given category! (Or just ask me! I love being a nerd about Star Wars worldbuilding.) The guide is broken down into seven sections as before:

How the Force Works

Jedi Culture & Philosophy & Teachings

Jedi As a People

Psychic Space Wizards Doing Psychic Space Wizard Things

Jedi Temple (Living Quarters, Training Rooms, Meditation Gardens and Dining Halls !)

Jedi Outreach, Politics, and the Bigger Galaxy

Fantasy Flight Games Are Not Canon But Canon-Compliant Is Close Enough

Jedi, Buddhism, and Everything Else

452 notes View Post

crazyturtletree

1 year ago