Azrael: Encounters With the Angel of Death in Islamicate Thought and Culture - Couverture rigide

Rašić, Dunja

 
9780271101484: Azrael: Encounters With the Angel of Death in Islamicate Thought and Culture
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0271101482 ISBN 13 : 9780271101484
Editeur : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2026

Synopsis

Born three hours before Adam, Azrael--the angel of death--enforces the divine command that all living things must return to God. Though no place is beyond his reach, Muslim prophets, saints, and even sorcerers tried to resist him--through prayer, charisma, and esoteric rites designed to defy mortality. These paradoxical efforts reveal a long-standing tension between submission to God's will and the human yearning to transcend death.

With particular attention to the writings of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240), Dunja Rasic traces the emergence of Islamic death-defying practices from the seventh century onward. Ibn ʿArabī, one of the most influential Sufi mystics of the medieval period, claimed among his many spiritual accomplishments the subjugation of Azrael himself. His pursuit of mastery over death was deeply rooted in angelology, prophetic traditions, and thanatology, and his works preserve striking accounts of his encounters with the angel of death. Drawing on these texts, Rasic explores the paradoxes of defying God's angels while affirming faith in God and reevaluates the functions of angels, the nature of divine (dis)obedience, and the limits of human mortality in Islam and Akbarian Sufism.

An original and pioneering work, Azrael contributes new insights into how Muslims have imagined angels, death, and immortality. It will appeal to scholars of Sufism, Islamic studies, comparative religion, and medieval philosophy, as well as general readers interested in spirituality, esotericism, or the teachings of Ibn ʿArabī.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Dunja Rasic is a specialist in philosophical Sufism and the school of Ibn ʿArabī at Tampere University and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. She is the author of The Written World of God: The Cosmic Script and the Art of Ibn ʿArabi, Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism, and The Nightfolk: Ibn ʿ Arabi Behind the Veil of Night.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Pennsylvania State University Press
Date d'édition
2026
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0271101482
ISBN 13 
9780271101484
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
172
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible