Universität zu Köln

Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine and Franke, Lisa M. (2015). Narrative Reconfigurations of Islamic Eschatological Signs: The Portents of the Hour in Grey Literature and on the Internet. Arch. Orient., 83 (3). S. 411 - 439. PRAHA 8: ORIENTAL INST CZECH ACAD SCI. ISSN 0044-8699

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Abstract

Current political developments have not only been interpreted by Muslim religious scholars and individual laymen as signs, which inaugurate the end of time (ashrat al-sa'a), but these eschatological interpretations have also been and still are being instrumentalized by various religious and political groups. Among them, for example, the IS (dawla islamiyya) in Iraq and Syria, which has inaugurated an eschatological fear that is mirrored in numerous online discussion forums and online publications. Especially in social media and grey literature, motifs and figures that appear at the end of time according to the aladith and the Qur'an, are often reinterpreted and synthesized with other sources, ideologies, worldviews and conspiracy theories. The article explores these narrative reconfigurations, focusing on these central motifs or figures: the Dajjal and its apocalyptic antagonist, the Mahdi, tribulations and trials (fitan) and the political victory over a perceived enemy. It reveals that the end and the last things identified in these narratives are often reinterpreted as a political turn and change in the here and now through spatial and historical reconfigurations. We argue that the functions of these narratives are manifold: They can provide a simple orientation by means of a clear cut dualistic identification of good and evil, or they can offer meaning to otherwise hardly understandable or bearable events. They can also act as a call for political action in a declared sacral conflict.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Franke, Lisa M. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-415247
Journal or Publication Title:	Arch. Orient.
Volume:	83
Number:	3
Page Range:	S. 411 - 439
Date:	2015
Publisher:	ORIENTAL INST CZECH ACAD SCI
Place of Publication:	PRAHA 8
ISSN:	0044-8699
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Humanities, Multidisciplinary; Asian Studies Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/41524