Volume 103, Issue 1

Striking a middle ground between apocalyptic and anti-apocalyptic understandings of Islamic origins, Part I of this article argues that Muḥammad is best understood as a “proto-apocalyptic” figure who adhered to a prophetic eschatology infused with apocalyptic elements. Chief among these is a belief in the imminent advent of the Hour, heralded by a divine warrior descending on the clouds – a theophanic motif rooted in the Ancient Near Eastern combat myth and inherited through the biblical “Day of Yahweh” ( yōm yahweh ) and the New Testament’s “Day of the Lord.” Coupled with the nearness topos found across scriptural traditions (root: q - r - b ), this motif signals eschatological imminence. Yet, in the Qurʾān, such imminentism is tempered by epistemic humility, eschatological uncertainty, and historical indeterminacy. Part II of this article examines the attenuation of this eschatological urgency in the Medinan Qurʾān and what I term “the Second Meccan” corpus. Against the prevailing two-stage thesis, a three-stage Qurʾānic eschatology is put forward. The First Meccan corpus anticipates “the Day of Victory” ( yawm al-fatḥ ), mirroring the New Testament’s Day of the Lord. The Medinan period marks a partial eschatological reconfiguration, wherein military victory ( fatḥ ) evokes the Day of Yahweh’s theophanic presence on the battlefield. The Second Meccan phase is inaugurated by the Conquest of Mecca ( fatḥ makka ), at which point in time a fully realized eschatology is articulated: Mecca’s rejection of pagan ritual and its collective turn to the proper worship of God ( dīn allāh ) constitute a “manifest victory” ( fatḥ mubīn ), resulting in the lifting of the imminent eschatological threat and the re-sanctification of the Mother of Cities ( umm al-qurā ).

The concept of Sakīnah (closely related to the rabbinic concept of shekhinah ) is mentioned six times in the Qurʾān in the context of a divine victory given to the believers, or to the Israelites. The traditional interpretations of the sakīnah contains one opinion, attributed to Jewish sages, that describes it as “the head of a dead cat” that was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. Despite being associated with the Israelites, the prevailing assumption in the research literature is that the traditions that describe the sakīnah as a feline entity are based on a pagan Arab imprint , and so they are completely unrelated to Jewish sources. In this study, however, three rabbinic sources for this physical description will be suggested, leading to a hypothesized reconstruction of how traditional Islamic exegesis on the meaning of sakīnah evolved.

This study examines the theological debates surrounding the Ibāḍī epistle of Khalaf b. Ziyād al-Baḥrānī, written in the early 2nd/8th century. The epistle, which focuses on the theological concept of al-asmāʾ wa-l-aḥkām (names and rulings), represents one of the earliest known discussions of faith classifications and their legal implications in Islam. Khalaf’s work is compared to Kitāb al-Irjāʾ and the Epistle of Sālim ibn Dhakwān, highlighting how early Islamic sects, particularly the Ibāḍīs, Murjiʾites, and Muʿtazilites, debated the definitions of īmān (faith) and kufr (unbelief). The study situates Khalaf’s epistle within the broader theological discourse of the period, showing how his classification of faith-related rulings influenced later Ibāḍī thought. It also challenges the assumption that Ibāḍism only matured as a structured doctrine in the 6th/12th century, demonstrating its continuous evolution from the early Islamic period.

The Qiṣṣa-yi salāṭīn , an inshāʾ collection compiled in the Sultanate of Rum in the mid-7th/13th century, places at its forefront a letter from the Khwārazm-Shāh Tekish to Saladin, congratulating him on the reconquest of Jerusalem in 583/1187. This is a rare example of a tahniyat-nāma found in an inshāʾ work that includes readily identifiable contextual elements. The text itself, composed in exceptionally complex Persian, is presented here in an edited version, followed by an English translation and a line-by-line commentary. The article then addresses the central question of the letter’s authenticity. Several factors – ranging from its internal coherence and historical context to the absence of any clear motive for forgery – suggest that it may indeed be genuine, and therefore written in the chancery of Tekish. It might hint at a potential alliance envisaged by Tekish with the aim of dividing the Nile-to-Oxus region – a plan that ultimately did not come to fruition.

The consumption of distilled liquors is attested as early as the 13th century in Western Europe and the 14th century in East Asia. However, the diffusion of distilled liquors in the regions between Western Europe and East Asia remains poorly understood. I assess the historic diffusion of distilled liquors in one such region, the East Mediterranean, to better understand the diffusion across Eurasia. I draw upon sources largely ignored by scholars studying the history of distilled liquors: Hanafi normative texts. My analysis shows that distilled liquors were either rare or absent from the East Mediterranean prior to the 16th century and that the region may have experienced a diffusion of distilled liquors originating from Asia. These findings lead to two major inferences regarding the Eurasian diffusion of distilled liquors. First, it suggests that the spreads of distilled liquors in Western Europe and East Asia were two independent phenomena since any transfer between the two regions should have been visible in the East Mediterranean before the 16th century. Second, it shows that several geographies located between Western Europe and East Asia, including the East Mediterranean, may have experienced a diffusion of distilled liquors originating from East Asia.

Résumé L’article présente une traduction inédite de l’épître d’as-Suyūṭī sur les eunuques, un texte concis mais riche en enseignements sur la perception religieuse, juridique et sociale de l’eunuchisme dans le monde mamelouk. L’article analyse comment as-Suyūṭī compile les récits, ḥadīṯs et commentaires coraniques sur le sujet sans émettre de jugement personnel. L’épître met en lumière les contradictions entre l’interdiction juridique de la castration et la réalité de la présence massive des eunuques dans la société mamelouke. L’étude s’inscrit dans une approche interdisciplinaire, reliant histoire et droit islamique pour mieux comprendre la place des eunuques dans les sociétés musulmanes médiévales.

This article explores the intersection of archival practices, material philology, and administrative documentation in late Mamlūk and early Ottoman Damascus through an in-depth analysis of the codex as a site for document preservation. Challenging earlier assumptions about the absence of archival institutions and documentation in pre-Ottoman West Asia and North Africa, the authors propose a tripartite framework – transmediation, translocation, and book-born documents – to conceptualize the integration of documentary texts and artefacts into codices as a strategy of preservation. Using the case of a 15th-century shurūṭ formulary housed in the Süleymaniye Library (Istanbul), the study focuses on transmediated text added as paracontent by the Damascene judge ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Mufliḥ al-Ḥanbalī. Particular attention is given to a protocol regulating trade and gender separation in the Shaykhī and Dahsha markets of Damascus, offering new insights into local governance, endowment management, and the social logics of documentation. The analysis demonstrates the codex’s role in preserving, transforming, and transmitting legal and administrative memory across the Mamlūk-Ottoman transition, moving beyond institutional, Eurocentric paradigms of the archive. By situating documentary and archival practices within interdisciplinary approaches to manuscript cultures, the article reveals the codex as a dynamic locus for the social life of documents.

Despite extensive research on Ottoman Jews, scholarly attention on their cultural activities has largely remained confined to works produced in Hebrew, Ladino, and Arabic. This article is the inaugural piece in an ongoing series that seeks to showcase the intellectual depth and diversity of Jewish communities within Ottoman society by examining their literary contributions to Turkish in the premodern era. It introduces Debīrī, the earliest known Jewish poet to write in Turkish, and his previously unstudied translation of the first eight Psalms from Hebrew into Ottoman Turkish – the first known translation of the Psalms in this language. After this introduction, the article delves into his translation, comparing it with those of his contemporaries, Ḫākī and ʿAlī Ufḳī, to foster a broader understanding of his linguistic approach and translation methods. It further explores why Ismāʿīl Agha, chief administrator of the Ottoman palace during the reign of Murād IV, commissioned this translation. The article concludes with a full transliteration of Debīrī’s text, thereby offering scholars a solid foundation to conduct further research on the intersection of Jewish and Ottoman Turkish literary traditions.