ABSTRACT
Throughout history the world has witnessed the rise of charismatic figures; men and women whose image and rhetoric captures the imagination of the public; as if the ebb and flow of history somehow conspired to facilitate their emergence at that moment and no other. For the adoration and even reverence such figures have inspired within their communities of support they have, almost inevitably, inspired in at least equal measures revulsion and anger outside of these cliques. Perhaps no greater example of these extraordinarily complex dynamics and dichotomies lies in the charismatic leadership phenomenon in Islamist radicalism and militancy. Those same figures that appear to many in the West as, at best, comical caricatures that arouse nothing but scorn and derision – at worst the epitome of evil – are seen in other corners of the world as humble, articulate, intelligent, pious and courageous heroes willing to forsake material wealth, comfort, safety and even their own lives for the sake of their people and God. These figures are not aberrations, freak anomalies of history who mesmerise the psychologically weak masses and bend them to fulfill their malevolent whims. Rather, as this study has shown, the charismatic leaders of modern Islamist militancy are both products of their society and history as well as shapers of it. Moreover, they rise and influence their followership by building on the charismatic capital of predecessors. The result of this extraordinary phenomenon is complex chains of charismatic leaders stretching deep into Islamic history that are destined to stretch well into the 21st century and beyond.
