The apocalyptic ideology of ISIS needs to be appraised in a balanced, nuanced way. If we are serious about confronting the apocalyptic tendencies and perspectives of fringe groups as they not only potentially radicalize populations but may eventually lead to – and legitimate – violence, then we must be ready to acknowledge that this is not only a problem “over there,” but rather also constitutes a problem much closer to home. As recent events have made clear, this is a problem with tangible consequences for our society, our discourse, and our politics, and so such comparative analysis proves to be much more than a merely academic exercise.

How to evaluate narrative-historical sources is the subject of intense controversies in Islamic Studies and beyond. Arguably, no student of Islamic history can escape the conundrum of debates surrounding these sources. Chase Robinson aptly observed, “it is a measure of just how conservative the professional study of Islamic history remains that the noisiest controversy of the last 25 years concerns the reliability of our written sources, rather than the models according to which we are to understand and use them.” When a scholar makes a claim about the supposed “unreliability” of late antique Islamic sources, she often operates under the positivist assumption of the existence of an “original Truth” that can be discovered through a specific methodology...

The little-known and undated manuscript that will be the focus of the second part of this essay, the Buku Doa dan Jampi, was apparently written in the nineteenth century. It uses different short and long phrases in dealing with supplications (doa-doa), incantations or spells (jampi dan petua), and rituals. One supplication begins “in the name of the Restorer of Health, in the name of the All-Sufficing, in the name of the Forgiver…” According to Islamic teachings, these Arabic terms are among the beautiful names of Allah, extensively used in talismans and amulets to protect a child, heal a patient, increase property, and so on...