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In this paper I will argue that the theoretical and methodological apparatus of the French structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss, with good results can be applied to much of early Islamic historiography. I will suggest that when this method is applied to the story of the death of Husayn b. `Alī at Karbalā’ in 680, one can deduce that the function of the character of Husayn in the text is that of a “mediator” in structuralist terms. This means that he acts both to keep polar oppositions apart, and that he allows for a bridging from one opposite to the other.

The first Shiʿi leader with true political power – although it was limited in space and time – after the death of ʿAli b. Abī Ṭālib was al-Mukhtār b. Abī ʿUbayd (d. 67/687). In this paper, I will argue that one reason why he succeeded in his political ambitions was that he legitimized his endeavor by deferring to ʿAli. In doing this he set a precedent for all future Shiʿi leadership. Al-Mukhtār gained authority by convincing his followers about his function as mediator between the people and the deceased ʿAli, who was still supposed to be alive and active in one way or another by many Shiʿis. As a tool of analysis I use the notion of religious aesthetics as it has been developed by Birgit Meyer and others. Meyer regards religion as a practice of mediation between the temporal and the perceived transcendental worlds, a mediation that is performed by appealing to all human senses through various media. The person in control of these media has the power to distribute and withhold religious sensations generated in the devotees; what Meyer calls “the aesthetics of persuasion”. In the paper, I will investigate three instruments of mediation used by al-Mukhtār: a living human being, a religio-political action, and an artefact. The first is his claim to act on behalf of ʿAli’s son Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya, whom he called al-mahdī, “the rightly guided”; the second, his call to revenge for ʿAli’s son al-Ḥusayn; and the third, his claim that he was in possession of an ʿAlid relic, a chair that had belonged to ʿAli. I will briefly argue that the accounts of these three instruments most probably reflect a historical reality. Of these three, in particular the designation of a mahdī was a feature that became influential in shaping Shiʿite patterns of authority in the centuries to follow.

I artikeln behandlas nödvändigheten av att ta i beaktande de litterära och retoriska grepp som används i den tidiga islamiska historiografin för att rätt förstå den. Jag visar där vilka problem som kan uppstå om man läser den historiografiska litteraturen från denna tid alltför okritiskt.

Essentialist concepts of religion are common in the teaching of religion in schools and to a certain extent also in the academic discipline of religious studies. In this article, a number of problems with essentialist perceptions of religion are discussed. In the first part of the article a thesis is maintained, according to which essentialist conceptions of religion or specific religions are too limited to be of value in the teaching of religion. This is done through examples of essentialist expressions on religion. The examples are grouped according to a typology of different kinds of essentialism. Two main categories, each with two sub-categories are identified. Thus, the category of essentialism regarding the substance of religion is divided into transcendental or theological essentialism (which presupposes the existence of a sacred power of some kind, the experience of which is the basis for religion), and core essentialism (where it is presupposed that certain ideas or concepts constitute religion as a general category or specific religions). Likewise, the category of essentialism regarding the function of religion has two sub-categories: positive and negative essentialism. These kinds of essentialism presuppose that religion or specific religions are inherently good or harmful respectively to human be-ings. Examples from each of these categories are given and discussed. In the second part of the article, Benson Saler’s open concept of religion is presented as an alternative to essentialist or bounded perceptions. It is based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of family resemblances and on prototype theory. In connection with this, it is argued that a certain kind of conscious ethnocentrism is needed as a point of departure in the study and teaching of religion. The metaphor of education as a journey from the familiar out into the unfamiliar and back again is suggested as a possible pattern for such teaching.

Despite its importance for Shīʿites and other Muslims, the story of the death of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī at Karbala in 61/680 is clearly under-researched. So, for example, except for Borrut (2015) hardly any of the previous studies made have compared different versions of the story and attempted to set a relative date to them. Such a study is necessary in order to map the development of the Karbalāʾ story and the image of Ḥusayn in the emergence of Shīʿite ideology. In this paper I will discuss the relative date of two important versions of the Karbala story related by Ṭabarī: one, relatively short and lacking in detail, is ascribed to Imam al-Bāqir (d. 114/732); the other, much longer and more detailed, is compiled by Abū Mikhnaf (d. 157/774). Studies in other fields, such as “historical Jesus-studies,” have shown that brevity and lack of details is not a certain criterion for old age of a version of a story; in order to ascertain the relative age of two versions, detailed studies have to be made and conclusions drawn from case to case. By comparing three passages in the two versions of the Karbalāʾ story: Ḥusayn’s encounter with al-Ḥurr; Ḥusayn’s attempt to negotiate with the enemy; and the killing of Ḥusayn’s baby boy, I hope to demonstrate that the version ascribed to al-Bāqir is indeed the older of the two, although its authorship cannot be established with certainty. I will also share some thoughts about the historicity of the events described in the three passages analyzed.

In this study the author examines some aspects of authority in the movement of theShiʿite leader al-Mukhtār (d. 67/687). The notion of religious aesthetics as developedby Birgit Meyer is used as an analytical tool. It is argued that al-Mukhtār accomplishedhis political endeavour partly by introducing and controlling three “aesthetic forms”which functioned as “media” between the people and the deceased ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib:his claim to act on behalf of ʿAlī’s son Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya, whom he called al-mahdī, “therightly guided”; his call to revenge for the killing of ʿAlī’s son Ḥusayn; and his exhibitingof a chair that he claimed had belonged to ʿAlī. The accounts of these three media,the author furthermore argues, have an historical foundation. Finally he holds thatthrough these media al-Mukhtār was able to channel the needs and aspirations ofmany of the Shiites of Kufa into political action.

Studien visar hur Islamiska statens (IS) propaganda under 2010-talets mitt var fylld av föreställningar om tidens slut. Ett av IS-kalifatets främsta syften var att bereda vägen för den yttersta tiden, och den enskilda människan uppmanades att välja vilken sida hon eller han ville stå på när Guds dom faller över världen. I artikeln lyfts IS tanke om den rättrogna muslimens främlingskap i världen fram: genom att ta ställning för det sanna islam och ”migrera” till kalifatet i både mental och fysisk mening, skulle främlingskapet upphävas och människans liv bli äkta.

Essentialist concepts of religion are common in the teaching of religion in schools and to a certain extent also in the academic discipline of religious studies. In this article, a number of problems with essentialist perceptions of religion are discussed. In the first part of the article a thesis is maintained, according to which essentialist conceptions of religion or specific religions are too limited to be of value in the teaching of religion. This is done through examples of essentialist expressions about religion. The examples are grouped according to a typology of different kinds of essentialism. Two main categories, each with two sub-categories are identified. Thus, the category of essentialism regarding the substance of religion is divided into transcendental or theological essentialism (which presupposes the existence of a sacred power of some kind, the experience of which is the basis for religion), and core essentialism (where it is presupposed that certain ideas or concepts constitute religion as a general category or specific religions). Likewise, the category of essentialism regarding the function of religion has two sub-categories: positive and negative essentialism. These kinds of essentialism presuppose that religion or specific religions are inherently good or harmful respectively to human beings. Examples from each of these categories are given and discussed. In the second part of the article, Benson Saler’s open concept of religion is presented as an alternative to essentialist or bounded perceptions. It is based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of family resemblances and on prototype theory. In connection with this, it is argued that a certain kind of conscious ethnocentrism is needed as a point of departure in the study and teaching of religion. The metaphor of education as a journey from the familiar out into the unfamiliar and back again is suggested as a possible pattern for such teaching. Finally,some examples of non-essentialist ways to introduce religions are offered.

In spite of the fact that essentialist views of religion have been debated for decades in other parts of the world, e.g. in the USA, it is only recently that such ideas have been contested in Sweden. Furthermore, it is mainly in academic circles that non-essentialist ideas of religion have been promoted.

In this paper I intend to present an outline of an article where I argue that essentialist views on religion are indeed highly problematic, but are still widespread in many parts of Swedish society, not least in religious education in the schools. I will also suggest alternative views of religion and propose a hermeneutical approach to teaching religion that might help to overcome the problem of essentialism.

The present study has a twofold purpose: Firstly, it is an analysis of the Karbala´ Drama—i.e. the death of Husayn b. `Ali in the hands of an army which had been sent out by the Umayyad authorities, at Karbala in 60/680—as it is retold by the Muslim jurist and historiographer Abu Ja`far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (d. 310/923). Despite its importance, especially to Shi`ite Islam, this text as such has received relatively little attention among scholars of Islam. In this study, the Karbala´ Drama is regarded as a myth and the method used to analyze it is inspired by the structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Lévi-Straussian structuralism has probably never before been ap-plied to early Arabic material to the extent that it is used here. The second purpose of the study, then, is to investigate to what extent and in what mode such a method is applicable to this material. A portion of the text, called the “Text of Reference,” has been selected and thoroughly analyzed. In that analysis, a number of structural features such as codes, oppositions, mediations, and transformations have been identified and made the basis for a more cursory study of the rest of the story. An important structural feature that is detected in this way is the way the argument of the story is forwarded. By the transformation of metaphors into metonyms, the story attempts to make arbitrary relationships look natural and intrinsic. Such a relationship is that between water and blood—two liquids which are at times shed, at times withheld in the story. Husayn takes a mediating position in that he gives his water and his blood. He acts as mediator both in a negative sense (he establishes the basic Islamic opposition of good and evil), and in a positive sense (as religious guide he acts as a bridge between them).

The question about how much we can know about Muhammad as an historical person has engaged historians of Islam for a long time and created fierce debate. In Swedish or other Nordic languages not much has been written about this research and the related debates. In the present study, I want to draw attention to some of the international research and point at some of the sources and methods used to understand the earliest history of Islam. I have chosen to analyse the tradition about Muhammad’s sending of his companions to Abyssinia to help them escape from the persecution of the non-Muslims there. Two types of sources are analysed. Some versions of the Abyssinian migration from various biographies about Muhammad are discussed. The earliest of these can be dated to the turn of the eighth century CE; about 70–80 years after the events described. During this time, the stories about the Prophet would probably have been shaped by the interests of the later community, and we cannot be sure that they relate a historical reality. Therefore, this material is supplemented in the present study, by a ḥadīth which only in passing refers to the Abyssinian migration, but which manifests a less flattering side of the relationship between the migrants and those Muslims who stayed in Mecca. Thus, it can be concluded that it confirms that the migration actually took place.

The concept of al-mahdī is one of the most important theological ideas in Shiʿism. Its literary meaning is ‘the rightly guided’, and this is how it was probably used in the first decades after the Prophet Muhammad. In Twelver Shiʿism it has come to denote the hidden Imam, who will one day return to redeem his followers and restore justice on earth, and in that sense it is akin to the Christian idea of the Messiah. Among scholars of early Islam there is near consensus on the view that the transition of meaning, from its literal meaning ‘the rightly guided’ to an eschatological redeemer, occurred with the Shiʿite rebel leader al-Mukhtār b. Abī ʿUbayd (d. 686) when he applied it to Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, the son of ʿAlī. In the present study I will contest that view. I will hold that, while it can be established from the sources that Mukhtār probably spoke of Ibn al-Hanafiyya as al-mahdī, they do not support his use of this title in a messianic sense. This eschatological meaning can only be verified soon after his death.

I kapitlet diskuteras mytbegreppet på introducerande nivå. En funktionell och dynamisk användning av begreppet föreslås, och två exempel ges på hur en och samma myt kan ges olika tolkningar i skilda kontexter. De exempel som behandlas är den grekiska myten om Herakles och den shi'itiska berättelsen om Husayn ibn Alis död i Karbala.

The developing myth about the events at Karbala, as well as the image of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī and the cult connected with him, were important factors in the shaping of early Shiite identity. In this article, I argue that some of the earliest traces of this process are found in the account of the Tawwābūn, or Penitents, events which took place in the years immediately following the death of al-Ḥusayn at Karbala in 60 AH/680 CE. Important elements of this story originate at least as early as the late first century AH/early eighth century CE. In the story we see the image of al-Ḥusayn in process of transformation from that of someone merely human to someone ascribed traits that transcend the human. In the same process, the story of his death at Karbala is in process of being elevated from a tragic story to a myth with its associated rituals.

The story of the killing of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī at Karbalāʾ is of course one of the most important narratives in Shīʿite Islam. In this paper, a very early phase in the development of this story into a Shīʿite myth will be discussed. It will be argued that in the story of the Tawwābūn (the Penitents) we can see some of the mechanisms of this process at work.

The paper will begin with a brief discussion of the concept of myth which leads up to a stipulated definition of myth: the term will be used to connote a narrative that is foundational to the world view and identity of a group of people. I will argue that the story of the Tawwābūn, at least the parts that are relevant in this context, date back to the beginning of the 2nd/8th century if not earlier. Finally, I will maintain that, in this early story we see how pre-Islamic stories are re-interpreted, and old rituals are filled with new meaning in accordance with the Karbalāʾ event and the Tawwābūn’s feeling of guilt concerning Ḥusayn’s fate. The story of the Tawwābūn thus testifies to the growing importance of the Karbalāʾ drama and the beginning of its development into a myth in the sense mentioned above.

This paper will discuss the emergence of Shiʿite mourning rituals around the grave of Husayn b. ʿAli. After the killing of Husayn at Karbala’ in 61/680, a number of men in Kufa feel deep regret for their neglect to come to the help of the grand­son of the Prophet. They gather and discuss how they can best make penitence for this crime. Eventually, they decide to take to arms and go against the Umayyad army – to kill those that killed Husayn, or be killed them­selves in the attempt to find revenge for him. Thus, they are called the Penitents (Ar. Tawwābūn). On their way to the battlefield they stop at Husayn’s tomb at Karbala’, dedicat­ing themselves to remorseful prayer, crying and wailing over the fate of Husayn and their own sin.

When the Penitents perform certain ritual acts, such as weeping and wailing over the death of Husayn, visiting his grave, asking for God’s mercy upon him on the Day of Judgment, demand blood revenge for him etc., they enter into already existing rituals in the pre-Islamic Arab and early Muslim context. That is, they enter into rituals that were traditionally performed at the death of a person. What is new is that the rituals that the Penitents perform have partially received a new content. As described, the rituals are performed out of loyalty towards Husayn and the family of the Prophet. The lack of loyalty in connection with the death of Husayn is conceived of as a sin that has to be atoned. Blood revenge thus be­comes not only a pure action of revenge to restore honor, but equally an expression for true religious conversion and penitence.

Humphrey and Laidlaw argue that ritual actions in themselves are not bearers of meaning, but that they are filled with mean­ing by the performer. Accord­ing to them, ritual actions are apprehensible, i.e. they can be, and should be filled with meaning, and the people who perform them try to do so within the context where the ritual is performed. The story of the Penitents is a clear example of mourning rituals as actions that survive from earlier times, but that are now filled with new meaning when they are performed in a new and developing move­ment with a different ideology. In later Shiʿism, these rituals are elaborated and become a main tenet of this form of Islam.

In this paper I try to apply theories from cognitive linguistics, mainly the idea of "conceptual blending" as outlined by Fauconnier and Turner in their book "The Way We Think" (2002). Arguments and metaphors, they hold, can be analyzed as conceptual blends. In an article from 2005, Edward Slingerland connects this theory with the concept of "somatic markers" or "gut feelings" as developed by the neurologist Antonio Damasio (1994). Slingerland argues that the somatic markers are important when presenting an argument. We do not only rely on the purely rational capacities of our listeners when we argue, but by connecting our arguments to somatic markers we appeal to the feelings of those we try to convince. Two basic arguments in my paper is 1) that rituals can be analyzed as conceptual blends, and 2) that an important function of many rituals is that they reinforce certain basic feelings, thereby disposing the performer of a specific ritual to follow the norms that underlie the current interpretation of that ritual. As an example I use the controversy on the Muslim salat among the Gayo people of Sumatra, that John R. Bowen describes in his works (1984, 1993).

In the story of the Penitents (ar. Tawwābūn) we are told about a group of men in early Islam, who deeply regret that they did not support Husayn b. ‘Alī, the grandson of the Prophet, when he was killed at Karbala in 680 CE. In their remorse, they first discuss the option of committing collective suicide. As this is prohibited in the Qur’ān, however, they decide to seek revenge by going against the Umayyad army. This will certainly lead to their death, and they accept this as martyrdom for true Islam which will cleanse them from their sin.

As the story most likely is written down as early as the middle of the 8:th century, and probably has earlier roots, it is remarkable that very little attention has been paid to it in academic research. In spite of its old age, it incorporates many elements that later came to be basic in Shi‘ite Islam. At the same time, however, other components in later Shi‘ite theology and ritual, such as the Shi‘ite imamology, that began to develop around the mid-8:th century, are lacking in the story. Thus, it is an important link to the understanding of the development of early Shi‘ism.

In this paper I will introduce a research project concerning the story of the Penitents that is financed from the Swedish Research Council. In the project, the story will be studied from three perspectives. First, the history of tradition will be focused, and three different versions of the story, i.e. the versions by Ibn A‘tham al-Kūfī, al-Balādhurī and al-Tabarī, will be compared and the relations between them will be analyzed. Second, special attention will be paid to the theological ideas expressed in the text in relation to those that developed later in Shi‘ism. Third, the rituals performed in the story will be studied in connection with rituals in the surrounding culture as well as in later Shi´ism.

The movement of the Tawwābūn (“Penitents”) emerged after the killing of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī at Karbalāʾ in 61/680. Although several scholars have held that the story of the Tawwābūn is indeed old, it has been little studied. In this article an analysis is made of a central section of the story: the account about the Tawwābūn’s visit at Ḥusayn’s grave. The three versions of this account is analysed by means of tradition- and content critical methods. It is concluded that behind the three versions lie two earlier reports that date back at least to the end of the 1st century AH/the beginning of the 8th century CE. This story is, hence, of importance for the study of the early development of Shīʿite ideas and rituals.

According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muḥammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia to escape from the persecution that he and his community experienced in Mecca. This first hijra (Arabic for “emigration”) is the first recorded instance of Muslims in Africa, and has become a story of great importance for many African Muslims, even today. The tradition relates how the Negus (the king) of Abyssinia received the Muslim emigrants well. The story is related, or alluded to, in two categories of sources that claim to describe the life of Muḥammad: the biographies of his life, and some of the ḥadīths, i.e. legal traditions said to record his sayings and doings. Modern scholars have debated to what extent these sources can be used in the study of the history of the Prophet; their positions range from total scepticism to more or less uncritical acceptance of the sources. In this study, samples of sources regarding the migration to Abyssinia are investigated, one from each of the above-mentioned categories: a letter and an oral tradition describing the early work of the Prophet, purportedly transmitted by the traditionist ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 713), and a ḥadīth about tensions between the migrants to Abyssinia and those who remained in Mecca. The conclusion is that there is reason to believe that the Abyssinian migration actually took place, although details, such as the dealings between the migrants and the Negus, are probably later additions to the story.

This article is an analysis of the story of the killing of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī at Karbalāʾ in 61/680, as it is presented by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923). The main argument is that the notion of the divine covenant, which permeates the Qur’an, constitutes a framework through which al-Ṭabarī views this event. The Qur’anic idea of the covenant is read in structural/thematic continuity with the Hebrew Bible account of the covenant between Yahweh and the Hebrew people, which has, in turn, been traced back in its basic form to Late Bronze Era treaties between rulers and their vassals.

The present study focusses on four speeches ascribed to Ḥusayn during the encounter he and his group had with the vanguard of the Kūfan army led by al-Ḥurr. These are analysed in accordance with their use of Qur’anic covenant vocabulary. They are also categorised within the broader framework of the eight standard characteristics of Ancient West Asian and Biblical covenants, as presented by George Mendenhall and Gary Herion, which have recently been developed in a Qur’anic context by Rosalind Ward Gwynne. This article argues that al-Ṭabarī’s Karbalāʾ narrative presents the pact of loyalty to Ḥusayn as a clear extension of the divine covenant.

The paper is a summary of some of the ideas from a book that will be published at Edinburgh University Press in 2025. As the time for this presentation was limited, I have skipped all the dense textual analyses that make up the core of the book, and just shared the main theoretical framework and some of the main conclusions.

Artikeln diskuterar begreppet myt i islam. Traditionella definitioner fokuserar berättelsernas innehåll snarare än deras funktion. Detta gör att de flesta berättelser som för muslimer är grundläggande för deras tro utesluts ur katgorin myter. I artikeln analyseras Karbala-myten med hjälp av L. Honkos fyra mytkriterier. Slutsatsen av analysen är att, ur ett funktionellt perspektiv kan denna berättelse betraktas som en myt för shi´itisk islam. Till sist nämns också några andra islamiska berättelser som i funktionell mening kanske också kan räknas som myter.