Al-Ḥabasha in Miṣr and the End of the World: Early Islamic Egyptian Apocalypse Narratives Related to Abyssinia

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This paper deals with the representation of al-Ḥabasha (Abyssinia) in the apocalyptic texts written in early Islam and the importance of Egyptian scholars in the transmission of this material. The historical background of this literature and the political context of its writing shows a strong Yemeni influence, related to the struggle between the kingdoms of Ḥimyar and Axum in the sixth century CE. One could ask if Muslim sholars from Fustat, the new Islamic capital of Egypt, enacted a “coll ective memory” by borrowing apocalyptic material from Christian literature, as well as fragments from the pre-Islamic history of Yemen.