Download or read book Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire written by Jamel Velji and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-04 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the role of apocalyptic symbolism in the formation and maintenance of a medieval Islamic empireHow can religion transform a society? This book investigates the ways in which a medieval Islamic movement harnessed Quranic visions of utopia to construct one of the most brilliant and lasting empires in Islamic history (979-1171). The Fatimids apocalyptic vision of their central place in an imminent utopia played a critical role in transfiguring the intellectual and political terrains of North Africa in the early tenth century. Yet the realities that they faced on the ground often challenged their status as the custodians of a pristine Islam at the end of time.Through a detailed examination of some of the structural features of the Fatimid revolution, as well as early works of ta'wil, or symbolic interpretation, Jamel Velji illustrates how the Fatimids conceived of their mission as one that would bring about an imminent utopia. He then examines how the Fatimids reinterpreted their place in history when the expected end never materialised. The book ends with an extensive discussion of another apocalyptic event linked to a Fatimid lineage: the Nizari Ismaili declaration of the end of time on August 8, 1164.Key featuresIntroduces selected themes, texts and theoretical problems in early Fatimid history and thought to those unfamiliar with Islam or the Shia tradition Explores the nature of apocalyptic rhetoric, what constitutes an apocalypse and how apocalyptic prophecies can be reinterpretedUses techniques from religious studies and rhetorical analysis on data from the Fatimid tradition, showing how Islam can contribute to broader discussions in the history of religionsContains extensive translations from two Fatimid texts, including: the Kitab al-Kashf (Book of unveiling), and Qadi l-Nu'mans Ta'wil al-da'a'im (Symbolic interpretation of his Pillars of Islam)

Download or read book Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire written by Jamel Velji and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-04 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the role of apocalyptic symbolism in the formation and maintenance of a medieval Islamic empireHow can religion transform a society? This book investigates the ways in which a medieval Islamic movement harnessed Quranic visions of utopia to construct one of the most brilliant and lasting empires in Islamic history (979-1171). The Fatimids apocalyptic vision of their central place in an imminent utopia played a critical role in transfiguring the intellectual and political terrains of North Africa in the early tenth century. Yet the realities that they faced on the ground often challenged their status as the custodians of a pristine Islam at the end of time.Through a detailed examination of some of the structural features of the Fatimid revolution, as well as early works of ta'wil, or symbolic interpretation, Jamel Velji illustrates how the Fatimids conceived of their mission as one that would bring about an imminent utopia. He then examines how the Fatimids reinterpreted their place in history when the expected end never materialised. The book ends with an extensive discussion of another apocalyptic event linked to a Fatimid lineage: the Nizari Ismaili declaration of the end of time on August 8, 1164.Key featuresIntroduces selected themes, texts and theoretical problems in early Fatimid history and thought to those unfamiliar with Islam or the Shia tradition Explores the nature of apocalyptic rhetoric, what constitutes an apocalypse and how apocalyptic prophecies can be reinterpretedUses techniques from religious studies and rhetorical analysis on data from the Fatimid tradition, showing how Islam can contribute to broader discussions in the history of religionsContains extensive translations from two Fatimid texts, including: the Kitab al-Kashf (Book of unveiling), and Qadi l-Nu'mans Ta'wil al-da'a'im (Symbolic interpretation of his Pillars of Islam)

Download or read book The Apocalypse of Empire written by Stephen J. Shoemaker and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-11-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Apocalypse of Empire, Stephen J. Shoemaker argues that earliest Islam was a movement driven by urgent eschatological belief that focused on the conquest, or liberation, of the biblical Holy Land and situates this belief within a broader cultural environment of apocalyptic anticipation. Shoemaker looks to the Qur'an's fervent representation of the imminent end of the world and the importance Muhammad and his earliest followers placed on imperial expansion. Offering important contemporary context for the imperial eschatology that seems to have fueled the rise of Islam, he surveys the political eschatologies of early Byzantine Christianity, Judaism, and Sasanian Zoroastrianism at the advent of Islam and argues that they often relate imperial ambition to beliefs about the end of the world. Moreover, he contends, formative Islam's embrace of this broader religious trend of Mediterranean late antiquity provides invaluable evidence for understanding the beginnings of the religion at a time when sources are generally scarce and often highly problematic. Scholarship on apocalyptic literature in early Judaism and Christianity frequently maintains that the genre is decidedly anti-imperial in its very nature. While it may be that early Jewish apocalyptic literature frequently displays this tendency, Shoemaker demonstrates that this quality is not characteristic of apocalypticism at all times and in all places. In the late antique Mediterranean as in the European Middle Ages, apocalypticism was regularly associated with ideas of imperial expansion and triumph, which expected the culmination of history to arrive through the universal dominion of a divinely chosen world empire. This imperial apocalypticism not only affords an invaluable backdrop for understanding the rise of Islam but also reveals an important transition within the history of Western doctrine during late antiquity.

Download or read book Building the Caliphate written by Jennifer A. Pruitt and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting exploration of how the Fatimid dynasty carefully orchestrated an architectural program that proclaimed their legitimacy This groundbreaking study investigates the early architecture of the Fatimids, an Ismaili Shi‘i Muslim dynasty that dominated the Mediterranean world from the 10th to the 12th century. This period, considered a golden age of multicultural and interfaith tolerance, witnessed the construction of iconic structures, including Cairo’s al-Azhar and al-Hakim mosques and crucial renovations to Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock and Aqsa Mosque. However, it also featured large-scale destruction of churches under the notorious reign of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, most notably the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Jennifer A. Pruitt offers a new interpretation of these and other key moments in the history of Islamic architecture, using newly available medieval primary sources by Ismaili writers and rarely considered Arabic Christian sources. Building the Caliphate contextualizes early Fatimid architecture within the wider Mediterranean and Islamic world and demonstrates how rulers manipulated architectural form and urban topographies to express political legitimacy on a global stage.

Download or read book Cultures of Eschatology written by Veronika Wieser and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-07-20 with total page 1181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions. The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic invasion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Buddhism. Examining apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology in medieval Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities, the contributions paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time scenarios and provide their readers with a broad array of source material from different historical contexts. The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, examines the formation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions, and the role they played as vehicles for defining a community’s religious and political enemies. The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatology: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. It also analyses modern readings and interpretations of eschatological concepts.

Download or read book e The Book of Tribulations e The Syrian Muslim Apocalyptic Tradition written by al-Marwazi Nu'aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Tribulations is the earliest complete Muslim apocalyptic text to survive, and as such has considerable value as a primary text. It is unique in its importance for Islamic history: focusing upon the central Syrian city of Hims, it gives us a picture of the personalities of the city, the tribal conflicts within, the tensions between the proto-Muslim community and the majority Christian population, and above all details about the wars with the Byzantines. Additionally, Nu`aym gives us a range of both the Umayyad and the Abbasid official propaganda, which was couched in apocalyptic and messianic terms.

Download or read book Jihadist Preachers of the End Times written by Bronislav Ostransky and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on apocalyptic manifestations found in ISIS propaganda, this book situates the group's agenda in the broader framework of contemporary Muslim thought and explains key topics in millennial thinking within the spiritual context of modern Islamic apocalypticism.Based on the group's primary sources as well as medieval Muslim apocalyptic literature and its modern interpretations, the book analyses the ways ISIS presents its message concerning the Last Days as a meaningful, inventive and frightening expression of collectively shared expectations relating to the supposedly approaching the End Times.

Download or read book Seeing God in Sufi Qur an Commentaries written by Pieter Coppens and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the intersection of Samuel Beckett's thirty-second playlet Breath with the visual arts

Download or read book Apocalypses in Context written by Kelly J. Murphy and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Apocalyptic scenarios remain prevalent and powerful in popular culture (in television, film, comic books, and popular fiction), in politics (in debates on climate change, environmentalism, Middle East policy, and military planning), and in various religious traditions. Academic interest in apocalypticism is flourishing; indeed, the study of both ancient and contemporary apocalyptic phenomena has long been a focus of attention in scholarly research and a ready way to engage the religious studies classroom. Apocalypses in Context is designed for just such a classroom, bringing together the insights of scholars in various fields and using different methods to discuss the manifestations of apocalyptic enthusiasm in different ages. This approach enables the instructor to make connections and students to recognize continuities and contrasts across history. Apocalypses in Context features illustrations, graphs, study questions, and suggestions for further reading after each chapter, as well as recommended media and artwork to support the college classroom.

Download or read book Attempt to Uproot Sunni Arab Influence written by and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of popular uprisings that unleashed the quest for freedom, Arab governments scrambled to limit sectarian divisions, though much of these efforts came to naught. Regrettably, weak governments fell into carefully laid traps, aimed to divide and rule. Protracted wars further destroyed Arab wealth and cohesiveness, and Sunni communities saw their power bases marginalised. On cue, and predicted by some commentators, extremist movements like the so-called Islamic State emerged, targeting Sunnis with extreme violence. In 2014 Nabil Khalife, an established Lebanese thinker, published a widely praised thesis that identified the root causes of renewed sectarian tensions at a time when confrontations polarised awakened Arab societies. Based on an extensive discussion of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah, Khalife advanced the notion that the revolution was not Islamic but an Iranian-Shiah rebellion that ended the Pahlavi military monarchy, and that the post-2011 Sunni-Shiah struggle was planned by leading Western powers, including Russia, to preserve Israel and impose the latters acceptance in the Middle East as a natural element. In this translation of Istihdaf Ahl al-Sunna [Targeting Sunnis], Joseph A. Kechichian analyses the fundamental questions raised by the author to better place the current sectarian collision in a geo-strategic global perspective. Based on the books avowals of how the worlds three monotheistic religions perceive each other and Political Sunnism, Kechichian assesses Henry Kissinger's famous appellation of the Middle World that houses significant and indispensable oil resources, and why that allegedly makes it -- Political Sunnism -- dangerous. In a comprehensive introduction to the translation, he describes various initiatives that led global powers to check the undeniable force of Political Sunnism.

Download or read book Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World written by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies How has the Ismaili branch of Shi'i Islam interacted with other Islamic communities throughout history? The groups and movements that make up Islamic civilisation are diverse and varied yet, while scholarship has analysed many branches of Islam in isolation, the exchanges and mutual influences between them has not been sufficiently recognised. This book traces the interactions between Ismaili intellectual thought and the philosophies of other Islamic groups to shed light on the complex and interwoven nature of Islamic civilisation. Based on a broad range of primary sources from the early medieval to the late nineteenth century, the book brings together different disciplines within Islamic Studies to cover polemical and doctrinal literature, law, mysticism, rituals and philosophy. The main Ismaili groups, such as the Fatimids, Nizaris and Tayyibis, are represented, as well as lesser known traditions such as that associated with the mountain region of Badakhshan in Central Asia. Religious syncretism, particularly in the Indian subcontinent and in Yemen, is considered alongside cultural interactions as reflected in the circulation of books in Fatimid markets, and various literary and mythical traditions, some still little explored. The chapters include contributions from leading experts in the field shed new light on the close and complex relationships very different Islamic groups and movements have enjoyed throughout the centuries.

Download or read book End of Days written by Wendell G. Johnson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering religious traditions ranging from Buddhism to Christianity to Zoroastrianism and modern apocalyptic movements such as Arun Shinrikyo and the Branch Davidians, this book addresses prophesied end of days from a breadth of perspectives and includes material on often-neglected themes and genres. End of Days: An Encyclopedia of the Apocalypse in World Religions describes apocalyptic writings in the world's major religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The cross-referenced entries address ancient traditions—Zoroastrianism, as one example—as well as modern apocalyptic movements, such as Arun Shinrikyo, the Branch Davidians, and the Order of the Solar Temple. This book's broad scope offers coverage of overlooked traditions, such as Mayan Apocalyptic, Norse Apocalyptic, Native American eschatological literatures, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Readers seeking detailed information on the eschatological and apocalyptic movements and proponents of End Times can reference entries about individuals such as Harold Camping, Jerry Falwell, David Koresh of the Brand Davidians, and James Jones and the People's Temple. This single-volume encyclopedia also contains numerous historical entries on subjects such as the Great Disappointment, the Great Awakening periods of religious revival, Joachim of Flora, the Maccabean Revolt, and the Plymouth Brethren. The influence of apocalyptic ideas far outside the realm of religion itself is documented through entries on film, including well-known modern movies such as The Hunger Games and Apocalypse Now, literature by writers such as Dante, and works of fine art like Wagner's Götterdämmerung. The inclusion of entries related to literature, film, and other art forms further attests to the wide-ranging social influence of belief in the end of days.

Download or read book Beekeeping in the End Times written by Larisa Jašarević and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every hundred years, as the story goes, two angels wonder out loud whether the bees are still swarming. For as long as the bees are swarming, the angels are reassured, the world holds together. Still, the tale suggests, the angels live in anxious anticipation of the End. Local beekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina retell the old tale with growing unease, as their honeybees weather the ground effects of climate change. Beekeeping in the End Times relates extreme weather events and quieter disasters that have been altering honey ecologies across Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2014. While world-wide endangerment of pollinators, and bees in particular, has been the subject of much global concern, effects of climate change on the indispensable honeybees,remain understudied. Drawing on a five-year long study, the book suggests that local apiarists' field observations resonate with many climate biologists' concerns and speculations about the future of plant-bee relations on the warming planet. Local practice also adds to the record complex and puzzling trends that make honey scarce in otherwise lush, biodiverse landscapes. To Bosnian Muslims, honeybees are more than pollinators. They are inspired beings whose honey is another form of divinely revelation. To appreciate the meaning of honeybees and to grasp the dire ecological catastrophe underway, Jašarević reads contemporary environmental writings and Sufi texts, she listens to the seasoned beekeepers and collects local wisdom tales. From start to finish, Jašarević pores over key Islamic texts, the Quran and the Hadith, and their popular retellings. The Islamic end-times lore, the book proposes, holds surprising lessons on how to live and strive in the 'not yet,' stalling the apocalypse.

Download or read book World of Image in Islamic Philosophy written by L. W. C. van Lit and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most controversial issues that divided Islamic philosophers and theologians during the Middle Ages was whether human beings would have a spiritual or bodily existence after death. The idea of a world of image was conceived as a solution, suggesting that there exists a world of non-physical (imagined) bodies, beyond our earthly existence. This world may be reached in sleep, in meditation or after death.From the embryonic conception by Ibn Sina, to the radical rethinking by Suhrawardi and Shahrazuri into a sophisticated system, L. W. C. van Lit unravels the history of this idea. Using a distant reading approach for measuring the transmission, he further shows how the idea remained relevant for Muslim thinkers through the centuries, up until today.

Download or read book KaE ba Orientations written by Simon O'Meara and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most sacred site of Islam, the KaE ba (the granite cuboid structure at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca) is here investigated by examining six of its predominantly spatial effects: as the qibla (the direction faced in prayer); as the axis and matrix mundi of the Islamic world; as an architectural principle in the bedrock of this world; as a circumambulated goal of pilgrimage and site of spiritual union for mystics and Sufis; and as a dwelling that is imagined to shelter temporarily an animating force; but which otherwise, as a house, holds a void.

Download or read book Wisdom s House Heaven s Gate written by Teresa Shawcross and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Medieval Islam written by Said Amir Arjomand and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of messianism and revolution examines an extremely rich though unexplored historical record on the rise of Islam and its sociopolitical revolutions from Muhammad’s constitutive revolution in Arabia to the Abbasid revolution in the East and the Fatimid and Almohad revolutions in North Africa and the Maghreb. Bringing the revolutions together in a comprehensive framework, Saïd Amir Arjomand uses sociological theory as well as the critical tools of modern historiography to argue that a volatile but recurring combination of apocalyptic motivation and revolutionary action was a driving force of historical change time and again. In addition to tracing these threads throughout 500 years of history, Arjomand also establishes how messianic beliefs were rooted in the earlier Judaic and Manichaean notions of apocalyptic transformation of the world. By bringing to light these linkages and factors not found in the dominant sources, this text offers a sweeping account of the long arc of Islamic history.