Apocalyptic anxieties were a common feature of early modern Eurasia. From India to Iberia, the circulation of prophecies and multiplication of messianic movements transformed the social and political orders for Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike. Yet these phenomena have tended to be studied exclusively within their particular religious traditions. Through a cross-cultural approach, the participants of this symposium will explore the implications of these radical claims to authority both within their historical contexts and for the wider field of early modern history. The aim is to set a common analytical language that is perceptive to shared features, particularities, and connectivities.

Keynote Address:
Wednesday, April 15
4:00-6:00
MLB Commons 4th Floor
Kenneth Mills: A ‘City of Penitence': Narrating the Apocalyptic Voice of San Francisco Solano

Symposium:
Thursday, April 16
2435 North Quad

9:00am
Visit to Hatcher Graduate Library Special Collections
8th floor Hatcher Graduate Library

10:15am
Coffee and Opening Remarks
2435 North Quad

10:30am
Presenter: Robert Bast
The Messianic Kingship of Augustin Bader as Anti-Habsburg Polemic: Prophecy and Politics in Reformation Germany
Respondent: Kenneth Mills

11:30
BREAK

11:40
Presenter: Mayte Green-Mercado
Prophecy as Diplomacy: Henry IV of France and the Moriscos
Respondent: Enrique García Santo-Tomás

12:40pm
LUNCH

1:40pm
Presenter: Matt Goldish
Could Early Modern Messianic Movements Cross Religious Boundaries?
Respondent: Diane Owen Hughes

2:40pm
COFFE BREAK

3:00pm
Presenter: Azfar Moin
Why Mughal Kings Venerated the Sun: Messianic Peace and Cosmotheism in Islam
Respondent: Cornell Fleischer

4:00pm
BREAK

4:10pm
Presenter: Evrim Binbaş
Corporate Messianism in the Timurid Period: Varieties of Iskandar b. ‘Umar Shaykh’s Constitutional Discourse
Respondent: Kathryn Babayan

5:10pm
BREAK

5:20pm
General Discussion


Sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, International Institute, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, Department of History, Institute for the Humanities, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies, and Rackham Graduate School.