Revisiting the Identities of the King of the South and the King of the North in Daniel 11

Abstract

It is clearly evident that the final three chapters of the book of Daniel, especially Chapter 11, contain unique problems. For a long time, scholars have had interpretive difficulties with this part of the book. Chapter 11 introduces two new kings, the king of the South and the king of the North. Most interpreters, almost unanimously, identify the king of the South as the king of Egypt or a coalition of Southern kingdoms in which Egypt is prominent. The identification of the king of the North is, however, surrounded with ambivalence. This research article suggests that the kingdom of the South is the Kingdom, or Caliphate, of Islam. And, as stated in Daniel 11:5-6, the king of the North was one of the commanders of the king of the South, but rebelled against him, creating two kingdoms, the Sunni, to the North and the Shi‟ite, to the South. Versebyverse, this article demonstrates how both history and theology of Islam align with the events of Daniel 11 and the descriptions of its two kings.