Jihadist Preachers of the End Times

Bronislav Ostřanský is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. He graduated from Charles University, Prague, specialising in the Arabic language and the history and culture of Islamic countries (Ph.D. in 2005). His research focuses mainly on medieval Islamic thought, especially mysticism (Sufism).

It is an unnecessary tragedy that Westerners had to wait almost twenty years to find out what’s going on in the minds of the people who have targeted them and their infidel societies for destruction. After almost two decades since 9-11 of westsplaining about global Jihadis and their uses of terror (dying to win, desperation), we begin to see studies that listen to what the Jihadis say and treat them as serious agents in their own right. Such studies inevitably report the prominence of their millennial dreams (global Caliphate) in apocalyptic action (now, this generation). Indeed, were one so inclined, one might suggest that the remarkable strengthening of global Jihad in the 21st century, has been in no small part due to Western researchers inability to conceive of Muslim apocalyptic passions and their capacity for ferocious violence, their enduring ability to recruit.Among the recent crop of books on this topic, none compares with　Bronislav Ostřanský’sThe Jihadist Preachers of the End Times for its scope, conceptual sophistication, thorough empirical research, and penetrating analysis. If　you are in religious studies, history, political analysis, security… or if you just want to expand your understanding of human belief and action beyond the straight-jackets of post-colonial political correctness, read this book.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsNote on Names and TransliterationIntroductionAnchoring the SubjectThe Current State of ResearchStructure and MethodologyChapter 1: The Quest for the Portents of the HourKey Apocalyptic Terms and NotionsMain Players of the Muslim ApocalypseApocalyptic Sources and Historic ManifestationsChapter 2: Muslim Preachers of the Approaching EndFrom Dusty Bookshelves to Spiritual BlockbustersModern Muslim Apocalyptic CreativityThe Jihadist Fuse and the Millennial Charge?Apocalyptic Messengers and ForerunnersChapter 3: The Topography of the Last DaysFrom the East to JerusalemSymbolism and Imagery of the ApocalypseChapter 4: The Spark Has Been Lit Here in Iraq The Apocalyptic MarchFrom DābiqTo RomeChapter 5: The Countdown to the Apocalypse They Plot, but Allah Also PlotsThe Islamic ArmageddonHow to Sell the Apocalypse?Chapter 6: A Feeble Folk to Whom No Concern is AccordedThe Apocalypse as a BattlefieldSunni ‘Apocalypses Light’Doomsday Visions of the ShiitesChapter 7: The Hour as Goal and Vehicle: A Summary of ISIS ApocalypticismAppendices1. A Brief Glossary of Muslim Apocalyptic and Eschatological Vocabulary2. A Comprehensive Chronological Overview of the ISIS Phenomenon3. An ISIS ‘Apocalyptic Reader’4. Overview MapBibliographyIndex