“The Reign of God Has Come”: Eschatology and Empire in Late Antiquity and Early Islam
For much of the 20th century, scholarship on Muḥammad and the beginnings of Islam has shown a reluctance to acknowledge the importance of imminent eschatology in earliest Islam. One of the main reasons for this resistance to eschatology would appear to be the undeniable importance of conquest and po...
| Published in: | Arabica |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2014
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| In: |
Arabica
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| Further subjects: | B
Late Antiquity
Early Islam
Eschatology
Apocalyptic Literature
Imperialism
Muḥammad
Christianity
Judaism
Byzantine Empire
B Antiquité tardive débuts de l’islam eschatologie littérature apocalyptique impérialisme Muḥammad christianisme judaïsme empire byzantin |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | For much of the 20th century, scholarship on Muḥammad and the beginnings of Islam has shown a reluctance to acknowledge the importance of imminent eschatology in earliest Islam. One of the main reasons for this resistance to eschatology would appear to be the undeniable importance of conquest and political expansion in early Islam: if Muḥammad and his followers believed that the world would soon come to an end, why then did they seek to conquer and rule over so much of it? Nevertheless, there is no real contradiction between the urgent eschatology revealed by the Qurʾān and other early sources on the one hand, and the determination of Muḥammad and his followers to expand their religious policy and establish an empire on the other. To the contrary, the political eschatology of the Byzantine Christians during the sixth and early seventh centuries indicates that these two beliefs went hand in hand, offering important contemporary precedent for the imperial eschatology that seems to have fueled the rise of Islam. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0585 |
| Contains: | In: Arabica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700585-12341312 |