That Which That Orphan Saw

That Which That Orphan Saw

Author	Mohammad Reza Sarshar
Language	Persian
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	Beh Nashr (Astan Quds Razavi publication), Sureye Mehr Publication
Publication date	2000
Publication place	Iran
Media type	Book
Pages	592
ISBN	978-964-02-0732-1

That Which That Orphan Saw (Template:Lang-fa) is a novel by Mohammad Reza Sarshar about the life of Mohammad, the prophet of Islam. Sarshar has attempted to describe the tumultuous and unique life of Mohammad in his novel. Muslims believe that Mohammad was the last prophet and the most complete human being. That Which That Orphan Saw has received numerous awards and is reprinted many times in Iran. The idea for writing this novel stroke the mind of Sarshar in 1980 because he believed that there were no valuable life story for teenagers about Mohammad, the prophet of Islam. The 8th reprint of this book was published in May 2013.

Narrative

The first part of That Which That Orphan Saw starts with dream of Abdul-Muttalib in which he is ordered to dig the Zamzam Well; He finds the place of the digging near Mecca which he has heard in his dream. The Quraysh are against digging the well and ask Abdul-Muttalib not to do this. Finally they agree to visit a priest and accept his judgement. The priest lives out of mecca. Some of the Quraysh head toward the place of the priest along with Abdul-Muttalib. They miss the way and come across a difficult situation so that they let Abdul-Muttalib dig the mentioned well. Abdul-Muttalib finds a treasure while digging the well. The Quraysh tribe believe that the treasure belongs to all of them and they decide to share each part of the treasure by chance. Another notable point in this part of the book is the importance of having son in the viewpoint of the families; and that Abdul-Muttalib wished to have many sons in order to protect himself from the invasions. When, after years his dream comes true he decides to sacrifice one of his sons based on his covenant with God. His dearest son, Abdullah is chosen to be sacrificed by chance. When he tries to sacrifice his son they prohibit him and advise him to visit a priestess, as a neutral person, and accept her judgement. The priestess tells them to choose the sacrifice between abdullah and certain number of camels by chance and increase the number of the camels by ten if Abdullah is chosen firstly. "Repeat this up to the time the camels are chosen", the priestess says. Abdul-Muttalib acts on the recommendation of the priestess and finally kills 300 camels and Abdullah survives. Abdullah marries a woman and her wife gives into a son. He moves toward Sham and gets sick near Yathrib and passes away in Yathrib. Consequently, Mohammad is born without father. The promised prophet of the apocalypse is mentioned in different parts of the book.

Author

Mohammad Reza Sarshar was born in 12 June 1953 in Kazeroun, Iran. His family was originally from shiraz but due to his father's job, he spent his studes in Shiraz, Isfahan, Jahrom, Boushehr, Tabriz and Urmia. After doing the military service, He was accepted to study industrial engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology. This passage was a start for his talents to emerge. He quit his studies by the Islamic revolution of Iran and studied other majors such as playwrighting and theater, none of which were completed. Finally, because of his 30 years of vast literal and cultural activities, he was awarded the first degree literary medal (equal to PhD degree) by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Sarshar published some of his works with his pseudonym, Reza Rahgozar.