“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...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:  
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Shoemaker, Stephen J. 1968- (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Verificar disponibilidad: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publicado: 2014
En: Arabica
Año: 2014, Volumen: 61, Número: 5, Páginas: 514-558
Otras palabras clave: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
Acceso en línea: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (Publisher)
Descripción
Sumario: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.
Descripción Física:Online-Ressource
ISSN:1570-0585
Obras secundarias:In: Arabica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700585-12341312