 Sometimes the author incorporated related local folklore or oral traditions, and many of the "Qiṣaṣ al-'Anbiyā""s tales echo medieval Christian and Jewish stories.During the mid-16th century, several gorgeously illuminated versions of the "Qiṣaṣ" were created by unnamed Ottoman Empire painters.According to Milstein et al., "iconographical study [of the texts] reveals ideological programs and cliché typical of the Ottoman polemical discourse with its Shi‘ite rival in Iran, and its Christian neighbors in the West."