The Antichrist Between Christian and Islamic Traditions

ARAB 40388 Paper Sharif Randhawa The Antichrist Between Christian and Islamic Traditions INTRODUCTION The idea of the Antichrist, though not mentioned in the Qur’ān, figures in the Islamic tradition through the (mostly Sunni) ḥadīth collections. Naturally, ideas about the Antichrist in the ḥadīths have many distinctive features, but also major points of contact with Christian tradition, which include ideas found in the New Testament and extracanonical Christians texts composed in Greek and Syriac. Indeed, the very term for the Antichrist in Arabic, al-masīḥ al-dajjāl (“the Deceiving Messiah”) or simply al-dajjāl (“the Deceiver”), is cognate to the Syriac term for the Antichrist, mashīḥa d-daggala, or “the Messiah of Deception.” Cook, p. 93. See also the Syriac dictionary entry for mashīḥa d-daglūtha in Smith, p. 83b. An even closer cognate to the Arabic term, mashīḥa d-daggala, occurs in the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel. I thank my friend Taha Soomro for helping with the dictionary reference. In this paper, I will compare ideas about the Antichrist in the early (second and third century hijrī) Sunni ḥadīth collections with those found in the Christian tradition. In order to keep this paper within a manageable scope, I will be focusing in particular on the Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq and the major sunan collections, with occasional references to ḥadīths in the Muwaṭṭa’ Imām Mālik and Musnad Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, as these collections have significant overlap on the topic of the Dajjāl. However, I will be excluding certain sources like the Musannaf Ibn Abī Shayba and the Kitāb al-Fitan of Nu‘aym b. Ḥammād, because these contain a substantial number of unique ḥadīths about the Dajjāl that parallel the Christian sources, and which merit their own study. See for example Cook p. 102, n. 56 and p. 104, n. 66; Henze, p. 89, n. 121. Similarly, I will only be focusing on first-millennium Greek and Syriac Christian sources that provide significant parallels with these ḥadīths, and so will be excluding sources such as the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, despite its significant place among Late Antique Christian apocalyptic works, because of its lack of overlap with these ḥadīth collections on the topic of the Antichrist. There are also Hebrew and other sources that may potentially be relevant, but which I will be unable to examine here. Such Hebrew sources may include those listed by Wintermute, p. 724, and especially Cook, p. 97, n. 28. To be sure, these are late sources and may reflect Christian and Islamic influence, especially as the notion of the Antichrist is not reflected in Jewish sources (aside from possibly the relevant New Testament documents) prior to the seventh century. Besides these sources, there may also be relevant material in the Sibylline prophecies: cf. especially R.Y. Ebied and M.L.J. Young, “An Unrecorded Version of a Sibylline Prophecy,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 41 (1977), 279-307 and perhaps also R.Y. Ebied and M.L.J. Young, eds., “An Arabic Sibylline Prophecy,” Oriens Christianus 60 (1976), 83-94. However, I have not yet been able to access these studies. In the first part of this paper, I will focus briefly on the New Testament data that provides background both for some of the ḥadīths on the Dajjāl and for subsequent Christian apocalyptic traditions. In the second part, I will examine parallels between descriptions of the Antichrist and his activities in the ḥadīths and extracanonical Christian sources, with special attention to questions of historical chronology. Finally, I will summarize the data chronologically in order to determine possible directions of influence and interaction. I. THE ANTICHRIST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ḤADĪTHS: DECEIVER, WONDER-WORKER, AND CLAIMANT TO DIVINITY The New Testament provides the basic background for the idea of the Antichrist. The Synoptic Gospels attribute to Jesus generic statements about “false prophets” and “false messiahs” (pseudokhristos) who “will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24; Mark 13:22). All quotes from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version. The Johannine epistles refer to “the antichrist” (antikhristos) whom “you have heard is coming” (1 John 2:18; 1 John 4:3), but also states that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ or that he came in the flesh is “the antichrist” or one of “many antichrists” (1 John 2:22; 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7). Together, these texts provide the basis for the notion of a series of minor antichrists followed by a major Antichrist, who will produce signs and omens to lead people astray. 2 Thessalonians also describes a figure called “the lawless one,” who is also associated with signs and wonders that lead people astray, and will even claim to be God, but whom Jesus will ultimately destroy “with the breath of his mouth”: Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you? And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thess. 2:3-11, emphasis added) Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 CE) is the first Christian author on record to explicitly identify this description in 2 Thessalonians 2 with the Antichrist. See Tertullian, On the Resurrection, XXIV, accessible in English translation at https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.viii.xxiv.html. A number of similar descriptions of the Antichrist occur in the ḥadīth literature. A number of ḥadīths state that the Antichrist will be the last of a series of (thirty) false claimants to prophecy. According to one ḥadīth, “[The Dajjāl] is a liar from thirty liars who will emerge before the Messiah.” Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20823. Another ḥadīth states, “The Hour will not be established until nearly thirty deceivers (dajjālūn) appear, each of them claiming that he is the messenger of God.” Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4333; cf. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4334; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2218. The ḥadīths also state that the Dajjāl will claim to be God and perform wonders. In one ḥadīth the Prophet is reported to have said, “Verily he will say, ‘I am your Lord,’ so whoever says ‘You are my Lord’ will have been tested, but whoever says, ‘You have lied. My Lord is God, and upon him I rely and to him I turn,’ then he will not harm him.’” Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20828. Translations of ḥadīths from the Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq are my own. Translations of ḥadīths from the other collections are either entirely my own or are adapted those found on Sunnah.com. Other ḥadīths state that the Dajjāl will persuade people that he is God by appearing to resurrect the dead Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20821. or by actually doing so. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1882, 7132; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2938a. Finally, the idea that Christ will annihilate the Antichrist with “the breath of his mouth” has a semi-parallel in a ḥadīth which states that when Christ descends, “Every disbeliever who encounters the fragrance of his breath will die, and his breath will reach as far as his eye can see.” Fa-lā yaḥillu li-kāfirin yajidu rīḥ nafasihi illa māta wa-nafasuhu yantahī ḥaythu yantahī ṭarafuhu. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2937a. Then he will pursue and kill the Dajjāl at the gate of Ludd. The New Testament idea that the Antichrist is a deceiver who will claim to be God and perform supernatural wonders provides the basic concept of the Antichrist that is shared across both the ḥadīths and Christian apocalyptic sources. Therefore, in the rest of this paper we will narrow our focus to more specific parallels between the ḥadīths and Christian apocalyptic traditions. II. THE ANTICHRIST IN EXTRACANONICAL LITERATURE AND THE ḤADĪTHS Extracanonical Christian traditions in Greek and Syriac elaborate on the characteristics and activities of the Antichrist with a wealth of additional details, some of which have parallels in the early ḥadīth collections. It will be easiest to first provide an overview of the relevant Christian sources, which will be referred to more than once, including information about their dates of composition. This will allow us subsequently to determine whether these texts necessarily provide background for the parallels in the ḥadīths, or whether Islamic influence on the Christian traditions is possible. Accordingly, for the reader’s convenience, upon referring to a given tradition in the subsequent parts of this essay, I will again mention the range for its date of composition in parentheses. The relevant Christian sources are as follows, in order of their relative chronology. Pre-Islamic works 1. The Apocalypse of Elijah is an apocalypse composed in Greek in the second or third century but surviving only in Coptic manuscripts. Wintermute, pp. 729-730; Collins, p. 99. One scholar, Jean M. Rosenstiehl, argues that the work is in fact a Christian redaction of a first-century Jewish work, though according to Collins his arguments “are not conclusive.” Despite the title, it is an anonymous document that is only ascribed to Elijah by an editorial preface. It is dated on the basis of references to the New Testament Johannine literature, which provide a late first century terminus post quem, and the dating of the earliest manuscripts Coptic manuscripts to “the early fourth century at the latest,” providing a terminus ante quem. Wintermute, p. 729. However, it is also a composite work that incorporates earlier written, and possibly oral, Jewish traditions. Wintermute, pp. 721-726, 730. These possibly even include traditions about the signs of the Antichrist, which “are well known from such late Hebrew texts as the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel, the Prayer of Simon ben Yochai, the Signs of the Messiah, and Midrash Wayissou.” Wintermute, p. 724. Though this work does not have, to my knowledge, direct parallels in the ḥadīth collections we are concerned with, it provides an important testimony to early ideas about the Antichrist outside of the New Testament and seems to be an important source of ideas for subsequent Christian apocalypses. 2. The Testament of the Lord is a work on church order composed in Syriac, but which contains an apocalyptic section. Scholars have dated the work to the fifth century, but consider the apocalyptic section—which is what we are concerned with—to represent an earlier, independent work. Some scholars have suggested a mid-third century date on the basis of historical allusions, namely to “a king of foreign race who will arise in the west, a homicide and a persecutor,” which may be identified with Maximus Thrax (r. 235 -238 CE), and to “Dexius” in a Latin version, which is possibly an allusion to Decius (r. 249-251 CE). Collins, p. 77. Hence we will regard the apocalyptic section as possibly dating to the mid-third century. In any case, it can confidently be regarded as pre-Islamic. 3. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem is a Syriac work that attributes itself to Ephrem the Syrian, but which most scholars regard as pseudonymous, having been composed after Ephrem’s death (c. 373). Since the author speaks repeatedly about the wars between the Romans and the Persians, it must be a pre-Islamic work composed no later than the early seventh century. Alexander argues that the extremely odious and graphic descriptions of Gog and Magog suggest that the composition reached it final form no earlier than the invasion of the Huns in the first half of the fifth century, after which such descriptions of Gog and Magog appear in connection with the Alexander legends. However, he grants that parts of it may have been composed earlier. Alexander, pp. 144-147. In any case, it can confidently be regarded as pre-dating the Islamic conquests. A work dating to the pre-Islamic or early Islamic period 4. The Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel is, as its title suggests, a Syriac apocalypse that attributes itself to the Old Testament prophet Daniel. Henze dates its composition to the seventh century, between c. 630 and 690 CE. He argues that because the work shows an awareness of the Syriac Alexander Legend, the latter’s date of composition c. 630 CE provides a terminus post quem. On the other hand, because the author of the legend shows no awareness of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, despite its pervasive influence on the Christian apocalyptic tradition, the latter’s date of composition c. 690 CE provides a terminus ante quem. Henze, pp. 11-15. However, Shoemaker and the majority of earlier scholars have argued persuasively that the Syriac Alexander Legend was originally composed c. 515 CE and was only redacted and updated c. 630 CE. Shoemaker, pp. 79-85. Therefore, it may be safer for us to assign the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel to the sixth or seventh century. Notwithstanding, it is “shaped to a significant degree out of material that is much older.” Henze, p. 17. Post-Islamic Works 5. The Greek Apocalypse of Daniel is a Byzantine work, which Zervos suggests was written in Constantinople on the basis of its overwhelming focus on the city. Zervos, p. 757. It is the only one of these compositions that can be assigned a firm and precise date of composition: based on an allusion to the enthronement of Charlemagne, as well as other historical references, it can be dated to 801 or 802 CE. Nonetheless, it also incorporates earlier traditions. Zervos, p. 756. Works of unknown dates of composition 6. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-John, or the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian, is a Greek composition that attributes itself to John the apostle and evangelist. Scholars have suggested various dates for its composition ranging from the second to fifth centuries. Collins argues that its dependence on the Book of Revelations provides a terminus post quem of around 100 CE, but that there is yet no compelling argument for fixing a terminus ante quem. Collins, p. 76. Hence, we will consider it undated. 7. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a work of unknown date and provenance. Stone simply indicates that it was written “sometime in the first millennium,” probably between c. 150 and 850 CE. Stone, p. 575. I will now consider parallels in these sources and the ḥadīths concerning the Antichrist. In order to streamline the presentation, I will proceed according to topic in the following order: the wonders of the Antichrist, the physical descriptions of the Antichrist, and miscellaneous details about the Antichrist. a. The Wonders of the Antichrist Extracanonical Christian traditions elaborate on the activities of Antichrist, including the ‘wonders’ or ‘signs’—he will perform. The earliest such text is the Apocalypse of Elijah (2nd/3rd c.), which list signs imitating the miracles of Jesus as well as astronomical signs: He will say to the sun, ‘Fall,’ and it will fall. He will say, ‘Shine,’ and it will do it. He will say, ‘Darken,’ and it will do it. He will say to the moon, ‘Become bloody,’ and it will do it. He will go forth with them from the sky. He will walk upon the sea and the rivers as upon dry land. He will cause the lame to walk. He will cause the deaf to hear. He will cause the dumb to speak. He will cause the blind to see. The lepers he will cleanse. The ill he will heal. The demons he will cast out. (3:6-10) Translated by Wintermute, p. 745. While these particular wonders do not, to my knowledge, have parallels in the early ḥadīth collections, They are, however, attributed to the Antichrist in later Muslim apocalyptic speculation. See Cook, p. 101, n. 48. they do provide an important testimony to the kind of miracles that the Antichrist was viewed as being capable of—including the power to imitate the miracles of Christ and to control natural phenomena. The one qualification in this text, as well as subsequent Christian texts such as the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem and the Apocalypse of Daniel, is that he will not be able to raise the dead. Apocalypse of Elijah 3:12; Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem; Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel chap. 24. Ironically, this is the one miracle of Christ that the Dajjāl does imitate in the ḥadīth collections we are considering. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1882, 7132; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2938a. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem (4th – early 7th c.) and Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel (6th/7th c.), while reproducing the list of signs in the Apocalypse of Elijah, add some further items. One of them is that the Antichrist will have control over the rain and produce. Pseudo-Ephrem states, “He will summon the rain and it will fall / He will command the seed and it will sprout.” Translated by Reeves. Similarly, the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel states that he will “stretch out his hands toward the firmament of clouds and hold back the rain and the drew” (chap. 23). Translated by Henze, p. 94. This notion is also found in a ḥadīth which indicates that the Dajjāl will have control over the rain and vegetation: He will command the sky so that it rains, and the earth so that it produces vegetation. Then their grazing animals will come to them in the evening with their humps taller, their udders fuller, and their flanks more stretched out. Then he will go to a people and invite them, but they will reject him, so he will leave them and they will suffer drought such that nothing will remain for them of wealth. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2937a. Cf. Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2240; Sunan Ibn Majāh 4075, 4077. On the other hand, the Greek apocalypses attributed to Elijah (2nd/3rd c.), Daniel (6th/7th c.), and John (unknown date) view the time of the Antichrist simply as one of severe famine, coming after a period of extraordinary productivity. See Apocalypse of Elijah chap. 5; Apocalypse of Daniel chaps. 11:4-6; 12:9-11; Apocalypse of Pseudo-John. Another ḥadīth also associates the time of the Dajjāl with one of widespread famine: [Asmā’ b. Yazīd al-Anṣārī] said: The Messenger of God was in my house and mentioned the Dajjāl. He said that there will be three years, a year in which the sky will hold one-third of its rain and the earth one-third of its produce, a second [year] in which the sky will withhold two-thirds of its rain and the earth two-thirds of its produce, and a third [year] in which the sky will withhold all of its rain and the earth all of its produce, such that there will not remain anything with a cloven hoof or a molar tooth among the animals except that it will perish. During this time of famine, the Dajjāl will come to people, appearing (with the help of Satan) to make their livestock productive and to resurrect the dead. Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20821. b. Physical Descriptions of the Antichrist A number of physical descriptions of the Dajjāl in the ḥadīths have semi-parallels in Christian sources, which emphasize his bizarre appearance. A hallmark of his description in the ḥadīths is that he will have defective and mismatched eyes. According to the most widespread ḥadīth on the topic, the Dajjāl “is blind in the right eye [which is] as if it were a floating grape.” A‘war al-‘ayn al-yumnā ka’annahā ‘inaba ṭāfiya. Muwaṭṭa’ Imam Mālik 49:1675. cf. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3441, 4402, 4403, 5902, 6999, 7026, 7123, 7128, 7407; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 169, 171; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2241. Another physical sign of the Dajjāl in the ḥadīths is that “between his eyes will be written ‘disbeliever’.” Bayna ‘aynayhi maktūb kāfir. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1555, 5913, 7480, 7131; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 166c, 169d, 2930a, 2931, 2934b; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2235; Sunan Ibn Majāh 4077. Cf. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2933c. The Christian sources frequently depict the Antichrist as having mismatched and deformed eyes—though their precise descriptions vary from source to source—and two of them also contain the motif that he will be identifiable by writing on his forehead. The apocalyptic section of the Syriac Testament of the Lord (mid-3rd c.?) says that the Antichrist’s “right eye [is] shot with blood, his left eye [is] blue-black and he [or: the left one] hath two pupils” (chap. 11). Translated by Cooper and McLean, p. 57. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra (date unknown) says, “His right eye is like a star at dawn and the other is unmoving” (4:29). Translated by Stone, p. 575. The Greek Apocalypse of Pseudo-John (date unknown) states that “his right eye [is] as the morning star and the left like a lion’s” and that “on his forehead is the writing ‘The Antichrist.’” Translated by McGinn, Visions, p. 55 with the help of James Tabor. A complete translation of this brief work is also available at http://wch.utep.edu/Wrenjohnson/WCH3302/apocalypse_of_pseudo.htm. The Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (early 9th c.) says, “His eyes will be like the star which rises in the morning, and his right eye will be like a lion’s” (9:20). Translated by Zervos, p. 767. It also contains a modification of the idea of writing on his forehead: “And he also has upon his forehead three letters: A, K, T. And the A signifies: ‘I deny,’ the K: ‘And I completely reject,’ the T: ‘The befouled dragon’” (9:25-26). Translated by Zervos, p. 768. The Apocalypse of Elijah does not contain any similar descriptions of the Antichrist, McGinn’s table in Antichrist, p. 72, indicates that the Apocalypse of Elijah (2nd/3rd c.) describes the Antichrist as having a bloody right eye, a radiant left one, and two pupils in the left eye. However, I was not able to find these descriptions in Wintermute’s translation. but it does say that despite being able to transform himself, “the signs of his head [he] will not be able to change” (3:17). While the only features of his head that the text mentions are that he will have “a tuft of gray hair at the front of his bald head” and that “[h]is eyebrows will reach to his ears” (3:15), it does attest to the motif that he will be identifiable by physical signs on his head that he will be unable to alter. Translations by Wintermute, p. 746. Moreover, the text also contains the motif of writing on the forehead in connection with Christ, as it refers to “those upon whose forehead the name of Christ is written” (5:4). Translated by Wintermute p. 750 It is surprising that among all the Christian sources, the notion in the ḥadīths that the Antichrist is identifiable specifically by writing on his forehead is found in (two) Greek sources, but has not so far been found in Syriac texts. Given that the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel was composed in a Byzantine setting and dates to the early ninth century, Islamic influence seems unlikely. At the same time, the ḥadīth containing this notion is found in the Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq (d. 827 CE), and therefore also cannot be later than the early ninth century. Since the Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq was composed in a setting rather far removed from Byzantium, it seems most likely that this motif in common between the ḥadīth and the Greek apocalypse reflects an earlier, shared tradition. The date of the other Greek source that contains this motif, Apocalypse of Pseudo-John, is unknown, but it may easily pre-date both sources. The ḥadīths also state, among other things, that the Dajjāl is jasīm, or large-bodied. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3439-3441, 7026, 7128; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 169b, 171, 2937a; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2240. This is somewhat ambiguous as to whether it means he is tall in stature, has a muscular build, or is corpulent, One ḥadīth actually describes the Dajjāl as “short” (qaṣīr) (Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4320). but it may be considered another parallel with the Christian sources that emphasize his having a (usually extraordinarily) large body. One groups of ḥadīths report that a Christian Arab man, Tamīm al-Dārī, came to the Prophet to embrace Islam, and narrated that he had been out at sea and encountered the Dajjāl on an island chained up in a monastery. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2942 specifies that he was chained in “iron” (bi ’l-ḥadīd). Cf. the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra 4:25, where Ezra witnesses “a man there restrained with iron bars,” who is identified as the Antichrist—though here said to be located in “the north” (translated by Stone, p. 575), whereas Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2942 and Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4326 emphasize that the island in “the east” (the Indian Ocean?). In some versions, Tamīm describes the Dajjāl as being “the greatest and mightiest human being we had ever seen in terms of build.” A‘ẓamu insānin ra’aynāhu qaṭṭu khalqan wa-ashadduhu (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2942; Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4326). Another version describes him as “trailing his hair” (yajurru sha‘rahu), Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4325. though more commonly he is described in the ḥadīth collections simply as having curly hair. The idea that the Antichrist is (extraordinarily) large-bodied also features prominently in the Christian sources, both Greek and Syriac. The Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel (6th/7th c.) says, “And these are his signs and the awe-inspiring vision of his stature: his head is huge, his hair red, his eyes blue and his neck strong. His sides are high, his chest broad, his arms long, and his fingers short…His figure is wrathful, stupendous, and furious, the figure of his stature is likewise stupendous” (chap. 22). Translated by Henze, pp. 91-92. The Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (early 9th c.) states, “The height of his stature will be fifteen feet. And the hairs of his head will reach down to his feet. And he will be large and three-crested. And the track of his feet will be large…And his right hand will be four and a half feet long” (9:17-19, 23). Translated by Zervos, pp. 767-768. Throughout this paper, I have omitted the parentheses that occur in this translation to improve its readability. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra (date unknown) states, “His mouth is one cubit, his teeth are a span long, his fingers like scythes, the soles of his feet two span” (4:29-31). Translated by Stone, p. 575. On the other hand, the Apocalypse of Elijah (2nd/3rd c.) describes him as “a skinny-legged young lad” (3:15). Translated by Wintermute, p. 747. Some of the ḥadīths describing the Dajjāl also characterize him as young (shābb), though not skinny. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2937a; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2240; Sunan Ibn Majāh 4075. c. Miscellaneous details The Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel (6th/7th c.) states that the Antichrist will come from “the ends of the land of the east.” This also has some slight parallels in the ḥadīth collections, in which the Dajjāl is sometimes conceived of as hailing from eastern regions. Some versions of the ḥadīth about Tamīm al-Dārī’s encounter with the Dajjāl, discussed above, emphasize that it occurred “in the east.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2942 and Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4326. Another ḥadīth states, “The Dajjāl will emerge from a land in the east called Khorasan.” Musnad Aḥmad 12, 33; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2237; Sunan Ibn Majāh 4072. Cook, p. 94, notes, “In all likelihood, the identification of the Dajjāl with Khurasan and the East came about as a result of the similarity between the name Khurasan and the name Chorazin, where according to Christian tradition the Antichrist is to be born.” For citations from the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius and the Apocalypse of Peter, see Cook, p. 94, n. 13. Other ḥadīths locate his emergence in various localities in Iraq or Persia, though still others between Syria and Iraq. See Cook, p. 94. Some Christian apocalypses state that Jews will follow the Antichrist, an idea connected to the belief that they rejected the true Messiah. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem (late 4th – early 7th c.) states, “The Jews will take pride in him / They will prepare themselves and come to him,” though it also says that “ten thousand Jews will denounce him.” Translated by Reeves. Unsurprisingly, the idea that “the Jewish nation” will follow the Antichrist comes across most strongly in the Byzantine Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (early 9th c.). Greek Apocalypse of Daniel 11:1-2 passim. The idea that a substantial segment of the Antichrist’s followers will be Jews is also found in the ḥadīths. According to one report, ‘Umar inquired a Jewish man about the Dajjāl, and the Jewish man confessed, “The Jews will be with him” (ilayhi ’l-yahūd). Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20836. According to other ḥadīths, the Dajjāl will be followed by “the Jews of Isfahan.” Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20826, where they are identified as “the generality of the followers of the Dajjāl”; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2944, which specifies “seventy thousand Jews of Isfahan, wearing Persian shawls.” Pseudo-Ephrem (late 4th – early 7th c.) also states about the Antichrist, “The elect will flee from his presence / To the peaks of mountains and hills.” Translated by Reeves. Similarly, the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (early 9th c.) states that “many Christians will hide in the mountains” (14:19). Translated by Zervos, p. 770. This idea seems to be based on Jesus’ exhortation in the Gospels, “When you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains” (Mark 13:14; cf. Matt. 24:15-16). Similarly, according to one ḥadīth, “the people will flee from the Dajjāl into the mountains.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2945a; cf. Sunan al-Tirmidhī 4309. Another ḥadīth relates that the Dajjāl will besiege a remnant of the Muslims taking refuge at the peak of a mountain in Syria. A yet more striking parallel is as follows. In the Greek Apocalypse of Pseudo-John (date unknown), John asks God how long the Antichrist will be on the earth. God replies, “Three years shall those times be; and I will make the three years like three months, and the three months like three weeks, and the three weeks like three days, and the three days like three hours, and the three hours like three seconds.” Translation from wch.utep.edu/Wrenjohnson/WCH3302/apocalypse_of_pseudo.htm. No further bibliographical information available. This seems to reflect the notion that God will condense the time of the Antichrist for the sake of the elect. Similarly, according a ḥadīth, “The Dajjāl will remain on the earth for forty years. The year will be like the month, the month like the week, the week like the day, and the day like the burning of the palm leaf in the fire.” Musannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq 20822; cf. Sunan Ibn Majāh 4077. However, other ḥadīths indicate that the units of time will not be condensed, but prolonged: “The Dajjāl will remain on the earth for forty days, [including] a day like a year, a day like a month, a day like a week, and the rest of his days will be like your days.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2937a; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2240; Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4321; Sunan Ibn Majāh 4075. III. SUMMARY For convenience, we can organize all of the data points in the form of a table, as follows. Period of composition unknown; possibly or likely pre-Islamic Pre-Islamic Pre- or early Islamic period Post-Islamic period Source Apocalypse of Ps.-John (Greek) Greek Apocalypse of Ezra Apocalypse of Elijah (Greek) Apocalyptic section of Syriac Testament of the Lord Apocalypse of Ps.-Ephrem (Syriac) Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel Greek Apocalypse of Daniel Date of composition Unknown Unknown 2nd/3rd c. Mid-3rd c.? Late 4th – early 7th c. 6th/7th c. Early 9th c. Control over rain, produce ✓ ✓ Mismatched, deformed eyes ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Writing on forehead ✓ ✓ Large size ✓ ✓ ✓ Comes from the east ✓ Followed by Jews ✓ ✓ Believers flee to mountains ✓ ✓ Time diluted ✓ We are now in a position to assess the degree to which parallels between ideas about the Antichrist in the Christian traditions and the ḥadīths reflect Christian background or influences on the ḥadīths, albeit with a few caveats. The first is that it is possible for some of these motifs to have arisen independently, such as the ideas that the Antichrist will come from the east or that he will have a substantial following among Jews. However, some motifs are more specific and make independent development unlikely. The second caveat is that these parallels are often only partial, and even if the Christian traditions provide a background for the ḥadīths, these motifs appear in the ḥadīths reshaped (such as the descriptions of the eyes of the Dajjāl) and recontextualized. Moreover, there are of course many descriptions of the Dajjāl and his activities in the ḥadīths which do not have any attested parallels in the Christian sources. The third caveat is that the ḥadīths are by no means consistent on all of these details. For example, the ideas that the Dajjāl is of massive size or that he will come from the east are contradicted by other ḥadīths in the same collections, and the ḥadīths that indicate that time will be condensed during the Dajjāl’s advent are outnumbers by ḥadīths that indicate instead that it will be prolonged. The basic profile of the Antichrist as a deceiver, wonder-worker, and as claiming to be God—all rooted in the New Testament—form a common background to both the Christian and Islamic understandings of the Antichrist. Yet further motifs in the ḥadīths that can be confidently assigned to pre-Islamic Christian (particularly Syriac) traditions include the Antichrist’s mismatched and deformed eyes (apocalyptic section of the Syriac Testament of the Lord, pre-Islamic, mid-3rd c.?), his control over rain and produce (the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraim, late 4th-early 7th c.), his being followed by Jews (Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraim), and the flight of believers into the mountains (Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraim). Another Syriac source, the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel (6th/7th c.), also contains motifs that most likely predate the ḥadīth traditions, namely that the Antichrist is of massive size (cf. the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, date unknown, and the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel, early 9th c.) and that he comes from the east. Yet the ḥadīths also contain motifs that are (so far) only attested in Greek sources. They include the motifs of the writing on the Antichrist’s forehead (found in two Greek sources, the Apocalypse of Pseudo-John, of unknown date, and the early ninth-century Greek Apocalypse of Daniel) and the dilution of time (also found in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-John). Given (1) the unlikelihood of ḥadīth traditions prior to the early ninth century CE influencing Greek-speaking Christians in Byzantium, (2) the possibility or even likelihood of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-John predating the ḥadīths, and (3) the tendency of the Christian apocalypses to recycle earlier motifs, it is most likely that these motifs also formed part of the Christian background of the ḥadīths about the Dajjāl, possibly through the medium of Syriac Christianity. Unsurprisingly, is also evident from the table that when one looks at the Christian sources that can be assigned relative dates of composition, the closer they are to the period of the development of the ḥadīth traditions, the higher are the frequency of parallel motifs reflected in the ḥadīths. Works Cited ‘Abd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām al-Ṣan‘ānī, Abū Bakr. Kitāb al-Musannaf. Ed. Ḥabib al-Raḥmān al-A‘ẓamī. Vol. 11. Beirut: al-Majlis al-‘Ilmi, 1972. Alexander, Paul J. The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition. Uni. of California Press, 1985. Apocalypse of Pseudo-John, wch.utep.edu/Wrenjohnson/WCH3302/apocalypse_of_pseudo.htm. Collins, Adela Yarbro. “The Early Christian Apocalypses.” Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre, edited by John J. Collins, The Society of Biblical Literature, 1979, pp. 61–121. Cook, David. Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic. Darwin Press, 2002. Cooper, James, and Arthur John McLean. The Testament of Our Lord. T&T Clark, 1902. Henze, Matthias. The Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel. Mohr Siebeck, 2001. McGinn, Bernard. Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages. Columbia UP, 1979. ———. Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil. Columbia UP, 2000. Reeves, John C. “Pseudo-Ephrem (Syriac).” John C. Reeves, UNC Charlotte, pages.uncc.edu/john-reeves/research-projects/trajectories-in-near-eastern-apocalyptic/pseudo-ephrem-syriac/. Shoemaker, Stephen J. The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Uni. of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Smith, Jessie Payne. A Compendious Syriac Dictionary: Founded upon the Thesaurus Syriacus of R. Payne Smith, D.D. Clarendon Press, 1903. Stone, M. E. “Greek Apocalypse of Ezra.” The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Hendrickson, 2011, pp. 561–579. Sunnah.com, sunnah.com. [For all hadith references excluding ‘Abd al-Razzāq, Kitāb al-Musannaf. Further bibliographical information absent.] Wintermute, O. S. “Apocalypse of Elijah.” The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Hendrickson Publishers, 2015, pp. 721–753. Zervos, G. T. “Apocalypse of Daniel.” The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Hendrickson, 2011, pp. 755–770. 1