Imagining the End: Visions of

farashkart

), an essential notion of  Zoroastrian eschato-

logy, is firmly tied to the advent of  a charismatic figure who becomes the

prototype for saviours in other religions of  Middle Eastern origin. The

Saoshyant’s

, 

who is of  sacred origin, divine mandate and miraculous powers,

epitomizes the forces of  good and leads the armies of  his human and angelic

supporters in a cosmic battle that ends with the destruction of  evil and the

reconstitution of  the original and lasting order. In Judaism, the Day of  the

Lord (

yum adunay

) similarly commences with the advent of  a messianic

saviour, the Mashiah, and culminates in the salvation of  the people of  Israel

from the yoke of  slavery. Christ’s Second Coming, which initiates the 

parusia

,

brings about the millennial era (or ends it, according to the post-millennialist

doctrine), and in Islam, especially in Shi'ism, the appearance of  the Madhi

initiates the process of  the great revolt (

khuruj

) culminating in the Resurrection

(

qiyama

) and the Day of  Judgment (

yawm al-din)

. In all these apocalyptic

scenarios the power and charisma of  the saviour is countered with those of

his arch-opponent and mirror image. The Zoroastrian Ahriman (who is not

humanly personified) is mightier than the Hebrew Bible’s Belial, the Christian

Antichrist, and the Islamic Dajjal, yet they all in various degrees serve as the

personification of  evil, an agent whose tyranny and terror runs supreme at the

outset of  the apocalyptic chaos before being eventually vanquished at the

hands of  the saviour and his army.

Not surprisingly, apocalyptic messianism through the ages has been the

genesis of  new religious currents and a predominant mode of  prophetic

expression. Jesus’ own call for salvation and the birth of  Christianity could

not be fully explained without the apocalyptic spirit which consumed the

Judeo-Hellenistic world of  the first century. Nor can the essence of

Muhammad’s early mission be fully understood without the apocalyptic

admonitions, calamities, and the terror of  the Day of  Judgment, as appears

in the early 

sura

s of  the Qur'an. In more recent times Luther’s call for

reforming the Catholic Church, Shabbati Zevi’s claim to be the Jewish messiah,

Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad, the Bab’s claim to be the Shi'i Mahdi and the evolving

of  his movement into the Baha'i faith, Joseph Smith’s Church of  Jesus Christ

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8

Imagining the End

of  the Latter-Day Saints, and other American indigenous religions should be

seen as conscious fulfilment of  the messianic role conceived on the ancient

biblical and Zoroastrian models. Messianic prophets emerge not only in a

milieu of  apocalyptic expectations, but their doctrinal unfolding and course

of  action tend to re-enact the apocalypse. In time, the movements they initiate

tend to evolve in conjunction with the dynamics of  their surroundings and

in response to the whims and wishes of  their supporters. From being pre-

cursors and agents to being the saviour who fulfils the scriptural prophecies,

there is a gradual shift. As a millennial manifestation, a saviour may preside

over a new dispensation and consciously engender a new religious system,

thus crossing even the ancient biblical divide between prophethood and

divinity.

In their post-apocalyptic phase, messianic movements seldom succeed in

entirely transforming the pervasive apocalyptic notions in a given religi-

ous culture. Regardless of  their success or failure to fulfil their perceived

prophecies and regardless of  becoming a conspicuous socio-religious force,

messianic movements retain the intense expectation for an imminent para-

disiacal bliss. In due course, therefore, the paradigm of  the impending End

is to be relegated into a supra-temporal space. Such a post-apocalyptic shift

is deemed necessary, inadvertently perhaps, to allow a gradual routinization

of  the prophetic charisma and the emergence of  an institutionalized creed.

The alternative is to be reduced to sectarian marginality or altogether to be

thrown into the repository of  dormant memories, to be retrieved only as the

raw material for re-emerging apocalyptic trends in later times. It goes without

saying that beyond the launching phase, once a messianic movement comes

of  age, the sustaining of  the millennial momentum in any organized religion

often proves impossible. Without resorting to some form of  future recurrence,

possibly another millennial return, such anticipations are inherently viewed as

subversive.

Millenarian Movements and Social Change

With few exceptions, millennial movements in Western religious traditions

acquired a distinct socio-cultural dimension discernible in their social com-

position as well as in their explicit, or dormant, social message. Almost

invariably they are socially inclusive movements which tend to break across

class and other social barriers and create a momentary spirit of  unity and

equity within the community of  believers. Anticipation for some form of

divine judgment, though based on individual, rather than collective, deeds

and misdeeds, is often translatable into a message of  social justice. Moreover,

the ultimate test of  salvation in the anticipated Last Judgment is adherence

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9

Introduction

and loyalty to the messianic upholder of  the truth, an act of  individual choice,

rather than the deeds of  one’s ancestors, tribe or community.

Individual choice, however, is curtailed by an intense sense of  group

identity which enacts and fulfils the scripted prophecies. This uneasy mix of

voluntary choice and collective destiny has often been a source of  attraction

to the deprived, whether perceived or real, the underprivileged, the margin-

alized and the socially exiled. Promises of  plenty and justice, or more likely

vengeance, abound in apocalyptic literature; combined with ideals of  love and

sexual liberty, luxury and immortality, they offer a collective consciousness

grounded in shared memories. Predictably, any millenarian melting pot renders

an ethnic, occupational and class amalgam with implicit leitmotifs of  modern

nationhood and even conscious nationalism.

By the same token the apocalyptic rationale not only offers a frame of

analysis for understanding human social behaviour across social divides, but

also a source of  solace and hope at moments of  crisis. An apocalyptic outlook

rationalizes real or perceived human suffering by treating it as providential

design to expedite the millennial relief. Devastating wars, pandemics, genocide,

earthquakes and floods hence were perceived as God’s punishment to destroy

the sinful, tyrannical rule, the arrogant and the corrupt and to vindicate the

victims.

Moreover, though most ‘positive’ apocalyptic images and values were

masculine and decidedly patriarchal, millenarian movements in reality were

among the very few pre-modern social channels through which women could

excel and even occupy positions of  leadership. Ann Lee, the principal founder

of  the Shakers, shared her founding role with Qurrat al-'Ayn, one of  the

leaders of  the Babi movement and an advocate of  a break with Islam. Such

prominence is in contradistinction to the misogynous imagery of  the Judeo-

Christian and Islamic apocalyptics which usually associate femininity with

evil and women as deceptive agents of  sin. The Whore of  Babylon of  the

Book of  Revelation had other counterparts.

2

Women’s presence may in part be attributed, at least in the Islamic context,

to the antinomian self-perception which placed millenarians in a different

plane from society at large as paragons of  a value-free paradise. Millenarian

communities often, though not as a rule, found in the very notion of  the End

a liberation from the restrictive socio-religious norms such as marital sanctions

which were grounded in women’s subordination and controlled sexuality.

The End meant a deliberate transgression of  these norms, whether the

removal of  the facial veil and other infringements of  the prevailing dress

code, appearance in the company of  the men in public, even annulment of

marriage and redefining the accepted notions of  family.

Promise of  paradisiacal bliss also meant in reality an equal access to the

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10

Imagining the End

limited material resources available to the community of  believers. At times

this gave rise to communistic practices of  shared land and property, be it the

believers’ own or the spoils of  wars waged against unbelievers. A spirit of

remorseful austerity and egalitarian discipline were added leitmotifs but the

momentum created by these practices seldom engendered democratic values.

Millennial visions, in theory as well as in practice, remained largely akin

to absolute power, a manifestation, so millenarians tended to believe, of  God’s

absolute might and glory transfused through the saviour to his community. At

their apex, few millenarian movements were hotbeds of  democratic ideals,

though in their post-apocalyptic phase some nurtured a greater pluralistic

outlook perhaps because of  a diffused leadership. Others remained firmly

committed to the original absolutist culture and even reinforced it.

For the same basic reason most millenarian movements, at least in their

climax, were not tolerant of  the liberal ideals of  religious tolerance and

diversity. Nor were they all committed to a peaceful spreading of  their message

of  salvation. The quest for expansion at various regional, national and inter-

national levels often propelled millennial programmes for action into instances

of  vengeance and eradication of  doctrinal enemies. Desperately imprisoned

in the confines of  their own convictions, millenarians’ dreams could easily

turn into nightmares prescribed in the apocalyptic literature.

Alternatively, they could themselves become victims of  society’s undue

suspicion and anger. Labelled as dangerous heretics, they were legitimate

targets of  torture, massacres, enslavement and mob frenzy, at times even

more violent than their own visions. Frequently the fragile social structure of

these movements could not withstand the joint forces of  religious authorities

and the state. Too often millenarian communities were wiped out of  existence

outside history books or the memory of  their sectarian progeny. Those with

enough coherence and stamina to sustain a semblance of  group identity,

inevitably developed pacifist strategies of  survival. Belief  in an ascended,

hidden, lost or unidentifiable saviour who at some point in time will return

to relieve the community from the oppression and torment to which it has

been subjected, is a common feature of  so many failed, or delayed, millenarian

movements.

Millennialism as a Field of Study

Millennialism (or apocalypticism) emerged as a field of social and intellectual

(in the humanities and social sciences) studies beyond Christian biblical

exegesis with the publication in 



 of  Norman Cohn’s seminal study,