Christian Apocalyptic Texts in Islamic Messianic Discourse

In Christian Apocalyptic Texts in Islamic Messianic Discourse Orkhan Mir-Kasimov offers an account of the interpretation of these Christian texts by Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 796/1394), the founder of a mystical and messianic movement which was influential in medieval Iran and Anatolia. This interpretation can be situated within the tradition of ‘positive’ Muslim hermeneutics of the Christian and Jewish scriptures which was particularly developed in Shıīʿī and especially Ismaīʿlī circles. Faḍl Allāh incorporates the Christian apocalyptic texts into an Islamic eschatological context, combining them with Qurʾān and ḥadīth material. In addition to an introductory study, the book contains a critical edition and an English translation of the relevant passages from Faḍl Allāh’s magnum opus, the Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr.

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov Ph.D. (2007), is Senior Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has published extensively on Islamic mysticism and messianism, including Words of Power: Ḥurūfī Teachings between Shiʿism and Sufism in Medieval Islam (2015).

Preface and Acknowledgements
Conventions and Abbreviations

Introduction
1 Muslim Approaches to the Exegesis of Jewish and Christian Texts
2 The Jāvidān-nāma of Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī and Its Hermeneutical Theory
3 The ‘Christian Chapter’ of the Jāvidān-nāma and Its Sources
4 Summary of the ‘Christian Chapter’
Conclusion

Critical Edition and Translation
Notes on the Critical Edition, Manuscripts and Translation
The Text of the ‘Christian Chapter’ and Its Translation

Astarābādī Vocabulary
Bibliography
Index of Qurʾānic Citations
Index of Citations from the Bible and the Book of the Rolls
General Index

All interested in the history of Islamic biblical scholarship and in the reception of the Christian texts in the Islamic mystical and messianic circles.