PISC no. 2: “From Last Empire to Last Umma to Last Prophet”
Thu, 10/24 · 5:00 pm—7:00 pm · 102 Jones Hall
David Powers, Cornell University
| Abstract: Islamic tradition teaches that in AH 5, God sent down a revelation in which He responded to the accusation that Muhammad committed a sin when he married the former wife of his adopted son by declaring that he “was not the father of any of your men,” to which He added that Muhammad was “the Seal of Prophets” (Q. 33:40). The Seal of Prophets pronouncement is the sole qur’anic witness to the theological doctrine that Muhammad was the Last Prophet. The emergence of this doctrine in AH 5 in Medina as a seemingly inadvertent by-product of a domestic crisis within Muhammad’s household is curious. I shall argue that this “revelation” was formulated after Muhammad’s death, and that the Islamic doctrine of finality was a product of the post-conquest encounter with Byzantine imperial ideology, specifically, the belief that the Roman empire would be the Last Empire prior to the beginning of an apocalyptic millennium. The Princeton Islamic Studies Colloquium (PISC) is a forum at Princeton University for workshopping students’ and guest scholars’ works-in-progress in Islamic Studies and related fields. The pre-circulated paper will be sent upon registration.
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