Politics – History – Eschatology. Functional, Inter(con)textual, Structural, and Comparative Approaches to Gog and Magog

Montag, 23.09.2019

09.00
Welcome/Introduction
Christiane Witthöft, Julia Eva Wannenmacher, Lutz Greisiger, Georges Tamer

09.30
I. Inward and Outward Evils (I)
Chair: Georges Tamer

• Agustí Alemany Vilamajó: The Gog and Magog Motif as a Source for the History of Eurasian Steppe Nomads
• Christian Zolles: The Devil Within. Gog and Magog in Modern Mass Discourse

11.00
II. The Wanderings of Gog & Magog Through Texts and Traditions (I)
Chair: Andrew Mein

• Mark Dickens: Gog & Magog in Syriac Literature
• Anke Holdenried: “Libri Sibyllini non habent”. Textual Cross-Fertilisation and the Transmission of the Gog & Magog Motif in the Medieval West

14.30
III. Spatial Eschata. Mapping Gog & Magog
Chair: Jarmila Geisler

• Anna Ayşe Akasoy: Gog and Magog in Islamic and Graeco-Roman Geography and Eschatology
• Ian Richard Netton: Towards a Comparative and Literary Anthropology of Force and Chaos. Gog and Magog with Particular Reference to Kitab al-Fitan by Nu'aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi (d.229/844) and The Tower of London by William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)
• Felicitas Schmieder: Gog and Magog as Geographical Realities

17.15
IV. The Wanderings of Gog & Magog Through Texts and Traditions (II)
Chair: Ellinor Morack

• Sasson Chahanovich: Gog and Magog in the Early Modern Ottoman World
• Majid Daneshgar: Gog and Magog in the Malay-Indonesian Quranic Commentaries
• Ramy Abdin: The Correlation Between Gog and Magog and the Antichrist in Imran Hosein's Concept of Islamic Eschatology

Dienstag, 24.09.2019

09.00
V. The Wanderings of Gog & Magog Through Texts and Traditions (III)
Chair: Julia Eva Wannenmacher

• Helen Spurling: The Reception of Gog and Magog in Jewish Apocalyptic Traditions at the Emergence of Islam
• Andrew Colin Gow: The Gog and Magog Motif. Pre-Modern Roots and Protestant Aftermath

11.00
VI. Gog & Magog and the Politics of Apocalypse
Chair: Fabian Schmidmeier

• James T. Palmer: An Undefined Evil. Gog & Magog Between Exegesis and Prophecy in the Eigth and Ninth Centuries CE
• Grit Schorch: Edom, Gog and Magog, Leviathan and Behemoth. Apocalyptic and Other Enemy Myths as Evocations of War
• Zeinab Mirza: Mobilizing the Devotional Ritual Against Tyranny. Nabatieh's ‘Āshūrā’ South Lebanon During the Israeli Occupation

14.30
VII. Identifying Gog & Magog
Chair: Hans Christian Lehner

• Wolfram Brandes: Gog & Magog in Photios (820-891) and Other Byzantine Authors
• Kristin Skottki: No Saracen Gog/Magog? Reviewing the Evidence of Latin Crusade Chronicles
• Tiborc Fazekas: “I Am the Son of Gog and Magog” – Assuming the Role of Destroyer and Renovator in a Programmatic Poem by Ende Ady (1906)

17.15
VIII. (Collective) Evil as a Problem. Gog & Magog in Theology and Philosophy
Chair: Lutz Greisiger

• Todd Lawson: Evil in Shaykhi, Babi and Bahai Texts. Gog, Magog and the Perfection of Humanity
• Dustin N. Atlas: Twins Through Sleep. Gog and Magog, Zoroastrian Liturgy, and the Need for Myth in Martin Buber's Understanding of Evil

18.45
Evening Lecture
Chair: Lutz Greisiger

Marina Miller Dessau, Arne Vogelgesang (internil e.V., Berlin): The Theatrical Production “Gog/Magog – An Apocalyptic Disinformation Campaign”

Mittwoch, 25.09.2019

09.00
IX. Gog & Magog in Mystical and Gnostic Interpretations
Chair: Susanne Talabardon

• Charles Häberl: The Enclosed Peoples of Mandaean Lore
• Gadi Sagiv: Gog and Magog in Hasidism. Spiritualizing and Re-Mythologizing the Evil that Precedes Redemption

11.00
X. Subversive Views of Gog & Magog
Chair: Susanne Talabardon

• Pavlína Cermanov: The Figure of Gog and Magog in Medieval Heretical Discourse
• Yaakov Ariel: Coming Together and Staying Apart. Gog and Magog in Contemporary Christian and Jewish Messianic Scenarios and their Cultural and Political Roles

14.00
XI. Gog & Magog in Disguise
Chair: Cüneyd Yildirim

• Martin Treml: Figurations of Gog & Magog in Hollywood
• Tim Lanzendörfer: Gog and Magog, Me and You. The Zombie-‘Apocalypse’

16.00
XII. Inward and Outward Evils (II)
Chair: Georges Tamer

• Jörn Happel: Asian Horsemen, Bolshevik Monsters. Europe's Primal Fear of the East
• Matthias Riedl: Gog and Magog – Corpus Antichristi – Synagogue of Satan. Symbolizations of Collective Evil in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modernity

17.30
Concluding Session