Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introducing Ismaili Apocalypses
- 1 From ẓāhir to bāṭin: An Introduction to Fatimid Hermeneutics
- 2 Oaths, Taxes and Tithes: Organising an Imminent Utopia
- 3 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript I: The Book of Unveiling
- 4 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript II: The Book of Righteousness and True Guidance
- 5 To Temper an Imminent Eschatology: The Contributions of al-Mahdī and Qāḍī l-Nu ʿmān
- 6 A Spiritual Progression to a New Eschatological Centre: The Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim on the Hajj
- 7 Actualising the End: The Nizari Declaration of the Resurrection
- 8 From Movement to Text: The Haft-bāb
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Subject Index
5 - To Temper an Imminent Eschatology: The Contributions of al-Mahdī and Qāḍī l-Nu ʿmān
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introducing Ismaili Apocalypses
- 1 From ẓāhir to bāṭin: An Introduction to Fatimid Hermeneutics
- 2 Oaths, Taxes and Tithes: Organising an Imminent Utopia
- 3 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript I: The Book of Unveiling
- 4 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript II: The Book of Righteousness and True Guidance
- 5 To Temper an Imminent Eschatology: The Contributions of al-Mahdī and Qāḍī l-Nu ʿmān
- 6 A Spiritual Progression to a New Eschatological Centre: The Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim on the Hajj
- 7 Actualising the End: The Nizari Declaration of the Resurrection
- 8 From Movement to Text: The Haft-bāb
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Subject Index
Summary
Paul Walker opens his recent work on Fatimid history with an elegant description of the initial public proclamation of Fatimid rule:
On 20 Rabīʿ II 297/Friday 4 January 910, the mosques of the old Aghlabid governorate in North Africa and Sicily rang with the proclamation of a new ruler, one no longer subservient to an eastern caliphal overlord but completely independent, replacing, in fact, not only all former rulers but the earlier forms of Islamic government back to the golden era of the Prophet himself and of his rightful successor ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭ ālib. The caliph al-Mahdī's victory was in reality a revolution in the true sense. For his Ismaili followers, it constituted a restoration of correct and righteous government, and of God's ordinance; it represented the assumption of power by His real friends, the family of His prophet and their most loyal supporters. Years of hardship and repression at the hands of usurpers were now over; in this one corner of the far west, a lengthy period of secret struggle in many other regions of the Islamic empire had at last achieved a glorious end.
Walker describes the rise of the Fatimids, according to Ismaili followers, as a successful revolution – a ‘glorious end’ that is grounded in a return to an idealised past, a time when truth has triumphed over falsehood. One of the most remarkable and unexplored aspects of early Fatimid political theology is how early exegetes of empire so effectively harnessed the utopian dimensions of apocalypticism while distancing its imminence. This chapter explores some of the hermeneutical mechanisms used by two exegetes in particular to locate the Fatimid empire and/or the imām as the locus of earthly utopia while postponing the end of time. These questions – of eschatological postponement and simultaneous consolidation of authority – are inspired by and related to theoretical discussions in the sociology of religion concerning the reinterpretation of apocalyptic prophecy. My analysis differs from this body of literature in at least two respects. First, I focus here on the specific mechanisms of reinterpretation and consolidation articulated by my sources; my analysis is thus more textual than sociological.
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- An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire , pp. 75 - 96Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2016