Hell’s Kitchen: The Banquet in the Hereafter and the Reflexion of Zoroastrian Eschatological Motifs in the Qurʾān

Abstract

This article discusses potential Zoroastrian prefigurations concerning the Qurʾānic imagination of tormenting and distasteful food in hell. Although research on paradise and hell in the Qurʾān and the Islamic tradition has recently undergone a significant revival, recognizing potential allusions to Jewish, Christian, and—to a lesser extent—ancient Arabic traditions, Zoroastrian texts continue to be largely neglected. While scholars have argued that the banquet scenes in hell have no antecedents in Jewish or Christian literature and should therefore be understood as echoing or rather inverting and perverting ancient Arabic evocations of generous hospitality, some remarkable parallels in the Zoroastrian tradition will be brought to attention here. It is thus intended to argue for the plausibility of a reflection of Zoroastrian ideas in the Qurʾānic milieu, particulary in relation to eschatological ideas.