Asadova chexrangiz salim qizi saydullayev nuriddin zayniddin o‘G‘li 35 – O‘zbek theme: idealism in tamburlane the great- the work of christopher marlowe contents

The public biblioclasm of the Qur’ān

Inspired by the success of the first part, Marlowe came to write the second part – The Second Part of the Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine. The main theme is the cruelty of Tamburlaine with no sympathy. Marlowe imaginatively invents his own Timur. The second Tamburlaine is a degenerate character. His lofty and arrogant tone demonstrated his hostility towards deity and mankind. He sets “black streamers [of fire] in the firmament” after his madness because of the death of his Queen, Zenocrate, “to signify his slaughter of the Gods” (Part II, 3.2.1–18). Though Tamburlaine’s love for Zenocrate’s earthly beauty was a human source for “more courage to my [i.e. Tamburlaine] conquering mind”, it was a heavenly curse upon him which drives him to burn the city. The death of Zenocrate is, as every critic has recognized, the first real setback and end of Tamburlaine. In view of her association with the city in Part I, it is appropriate that Tamburlaine makes a city suffer for her death, by setting fire to it. The drumming muse of a furious war against heaven means the spoiling of the town together with its residents where his queen died. Tamburlaine goes on the extent of killing his own son who has his own grievances against his father. This murder constitutes a more vivid and shocking example than even the treatment of Bajazeth. Marlowe’s emphasis on terror is consistent with the entire depiction of Tamburlaine. He shoots everybody before him. He asks his officer, Techelles, to “drown them all, man, woman, and child; \Leave not a Babylonian in the town”. Tamburlaine becomes increasingly cruel. His fury can only be appeased by blood and the Empire. For a spectator these horrible actions are not divine. They are ambitiously extreme outputs of human inspiration. Marlowe attempts to locate more bloodydrenched words and expressions to portray Tamburlaine as an image of “the Scourge of God” to Muslims in particular and other religions in general.
The expression of “the scourge of God” is a Marlovian phrase for the counteraction of aggressive forces persists in Tamburlaine. Gorley Putt remarks this title as “a thrilling theatrical ogre a decorous defence of orthodox Christian theology” (1981:42). As with Tamburlaine’s astounding progress of mass destruction, the spectators collaborate readily in this vicarious experience of infinitely extended violent power by blood, which affords a conscious exhilaration and a sense of nonstop release. Since Marlowe was deeply sceptical about the credentials of Christianity as an organised religion, a perspective that made him detest the claims of Christianity, he had a burning desire to make his ideas known. But in the Renaissance England, attacking Christianity was simply unthinkable. Therefore Marlowe chose to pick up a soft target: Islam. By attaching Islam on stage, he accomplished the twin objectives of attacking organised religion and endearing himself to his native audience. Paul H. Kocher says, “Tamburlaine’s creed is what Marlowe himself believes” (1962:79).
As the drama proceeds, he reaches the peak in killing, but he finds no victim. Hence, he challenges “the settlers of the sky” to fight him. So far Tamburlaine claims his affinity to heaven and dislike to earth whose dominion may not be enough for him. To be the terror of the world is his special aim. In the last Act of Part II, Tamburlaine publicly burns the Qur’ān. Harry Levin says that “it is a peculiarly Marlovian twist, an antireligious fascination with a ceremony, which animates Tamburlaine’s burning of the Koran... and culminates in the ritual of excommunication” (Jump 1967:148). It is a scene of both a literary and ideological communication with his audience. He has described it as Turkish which means Islamic for Elizabethan writers. Along with copies of the Qur’ān, he includes other Islamic books. Marlowe knows other Islamic religious books, probably about the Prophet’s tradition, since they contain news about future which Tamburlaine calls ‘superstitious’. The description of books in ‘heaps,’ refers to the Islamic architecture of mosques and their libraries. Gorley Putt adds that “Bible too, if they had been handy in Babylon, would surely have been tossed onto the same bonfire” (1981:42). Nevertheless, Henry Morley thinks some twentieth century attitudes about Marlowe’s orthodoxy as the blaspheming Tamburlaine, are not the work of a blaspheming poet (Putt 1981:20). His attack on Islam is regarded as a natural attack on the infidel enemy and his theology. The Qur’ān, Muhammad and God are not Christian. On the other hand, a simple Christian spectator, rather a critic, will not accept if the same happened to the Bible. Tamburlaine directs his friend and soldiers to collect the copies of the Qur’ān from the Islamic temples. He says: