ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the remnants of the Messianic portion of the tenth century apocalypse. Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, subjected to the rule of a new and alien religion, in God’s time, would come or return to the world, end the sufferings of the faithful and the dominion of their opponents, and establish the kingdom of God upon earth. Before very long Islam itself was affected. With the passing of empires and the flowering and disappointment of successive hopes, the tradition of grew and developed. One oppressor after another added something of himself to the portraits of the Antichrist, while the many false Messiahs, bequeathed new details and new tokens to the Messiah yet to come. When the crumbling of empires under the blows of internal revolutions and external invasions seemed to portend the long awaited end, in the events taking place about them, the vague prophecies and traditions handed down to them of the last wars of the Messiah.
