Podcast episode

Episode 206: Seventh-Century History for Students of Western Esotericism

[Corrigendum: Late in this episode we discuss the death of Muḥammad as having taken place in the year 362; we of course meant 632, but mixed up the first numbers]

Momentous events occurred during the seventh century in the eastern Mediterranean region. The Roman and Sassanian empires fought each other to exhaustion, while Jerusalem was taken by the Sassanians and then retaken by the Romans. Cue the Sefer Zerubbabel, a Hebrew apocalypse foretelling the end of days and rebuilding of the Temple. Then the Arab invaders quickly conquer the near east and take Jerusalem from the Romans. Cue the Apocalypse of the Pseudo-Methodios, a Christian Syriac apocalypse foretelling the end of days, in which a final Roman emperor will return to prepare the way for Christ’s coming. The Sassanian empire is taken over by Muslims. Cue the entry of Mazdaism, the native Persian religion, into the West, with many esoteric consequences. Then the young Believers’ polity plunges into two civil wars. Cue the rise of Shi‘ī Islām, the motor for the first, rich flowering of proper Islamic esotericism.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Ehsan Afkande and Hamidreza Pashazanous. The Last Sasanians in Eastern Iran and China. Anabasis: Studia Classica et Orientalia, 5:139–54, 2014.

Peter Brown. The World of Late Antiquity. Thames & Hudson, London, 1971; we quote p. 165.

On genetic analysis of the plague of Justianian: Michaela Harbeck, Lisa Seifert, Stephanie Hänsch, David M. Wagner, Dawn Birdsell, Katy L. Parise, Ingrid Wiechmann, Gisela Grupe, Astrid Thomas, P. Keim, L. Zöller, B. Bramanti, J.M. Riehm, and H.C. Scholz. Yersinia pestis DNA from Skeletal Remains from the 6th Century AD Reveals Insights into Justinianic Plague. PLOS Pathogens, 9(5), 2013. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003349. PMID: 23658525.

Michael Stausberg. Faszination Zarathushtra: Zoroaster und die Europäische Religionsgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1998.Faszination Zarathushtra: Zoroaster und die Europäische Religionsgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit.

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