Overview

How can religion transform a society? This book investigates the ways in which a medieval Islamic movement harnessed Quranic visions of utopia to construct one of the most brilliant and lasting empires in Islamic history (979-1171). The Fatimids' apocalyptic vision of their central place in an imminent utopia played a critical role in transfiguring the intellectual and political terrains of North Africa in the early tenth century. Yet the realities that they faced on the ground often challenged their status as the custodians of a pristine Islam at the end of time. Through a detailed examination of some of the structural features of the Fatimid revolution, as well as early works of ta'wil, or symbolic interpretation, Jamel Velji illustrates how the Fatimids conceived of their mission as one that would bring about an imminent utopia. He then examines how the Fatimids reinterpreted their place in history when the expected end never materialised. The book ends with an extensive discussion of another apocalyptic event linked to a Fatimid lineage: the Nizari Ismaili declaration of the end of time on August 8, 1164.

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9781474432207

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Reviews

An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire makes a compelling case for the prominence of messianic hopes and eschatological expectations in the rise and early rule of the Fatimids. -- Mehdy Shaddel, Reading Religion (American Academy of Religion) [Velji's] analysis is insightful and provocative. In demonstrating the ways in which Fatimid and Nizari texts collapse and elide various temporal registers, he makes these complicated and perplexing texts sing for his readers ... [Velji's] approach will provoke incisive and important questions about apocalyptic phenomena that can easily appear as bizarre and unsettling. Readers will benefit from the glimpse that An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire offers of both the seething creativity and logical elegance of these Fatimid sources. -- William E. B. Sherman, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Religion

An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire makes a compelling case for the prominence of messianic hopes and eschatological expectations in the rise and early rule of the Fatimids. -- Mehdy Shaddel, Reading Religion (American Academy of Religion) [Velji's] analysis is insightful and provocative. In demonstrating the ways in which Fatimid and Nizari texts collapse and elide various temporal registers, he makes these complicated and perplexing texts sing for his readers ... [Velji's] approach will provoke incisive and important questions about apocalyptic phenomena that can easily appear as bizarre and unsettling. Readers will benefit from the glimpse that An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire offers of both the seething creativity and logical elegance of these Fatimid sources. -- William E. B. Sherman, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Religion

Author Information

Jamel Velji is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.

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