Review: The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, by Stephen J. Shoemaker

Abstract

Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. 272 pp. ISBN 9780812250404. $59.95. This book is a strong contribution to the sustained surge in publications on “Late Antiquity and Early Islam,” in which the origin of Islam is explained, quite reasonably, by reference to its prior historical context. It is devoted specifically to apocalypticism, that narcissistic belief that the time in which one lives is the very most significant since creation itself, in which the meaning of history will become evident. Building on his earlier book The Death of a Prophet (2012) and an earlier article, and repeating arguments to an extent necessary to make this sequel independent, Shoemaker argues persuasively that late ancient apocalypticism and its formulation as eschatology played a major role in the genesis of Islam in the career of Muḥammad and afterward, both in its early doctrine and in animating the conquests carried out by Muḥammad's followers. In doing so he demonstrates his detailed familiarity with the recent and varied outpouring of challenging research on the Qurʾān in its historical context as well as his sure footing among religious texts of the late ancient period. In a field characterized by subtle, and sometimes unsubtle, apology and polemic, Shoemaker takes a historian's stance, adopts specific positions, and defends them on the basis of primary sources, many of which will be unfamiliar to readers. He is undogmatically open to a Qurʾānic text shaped by the prophet's followers even after his death. The general argument addresses only one piece of the puzzle of Islamic origins, apocalypticism. As Shoemaker indicates, this is a component of ideology that has been neglected by quite a few specialists in early Islam in favor of an implicitly laudatory view of Muḥammad as a reformer initiating a new society rather than warning of the end of all society. About two-thirds of the book consists of discussions of apocalypticism …