Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Contributors -- Introduction: Apocalyptic Anxieties and Millennial Hopes in the Salvation Religions of the Middle East -- I Origins -- 1 Mesopotamia and the End of Time -- 2 Millennialism and Eschatology in the Zoroastrian Tradition -- 3 The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic -- II Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- 4 Eschatological Dynamics and Utopian Ideals in Early Judaism -- 5 The Messiah and the Millennium: The Roots of Two Jewish-Christian Symbols -- 6 Messianism, Millennialism and Revolution in Early Islamic History -- III Medieval and Early Modern Periods -- 7 Medieval Europe: Religious Enthusiasm and Social Change in the 'Millennial Generation' -- 8 Wrestling with the Millennium: Early Modern Catholic Exegesis of Apocalypse 20 -- 9 Deciphering the Cosmos from Creation to Apocalypse: The Hurufiyya Movement and Medieval Islamic Esotericism -- IV Modern Times -- 10 American Millennial Visions: Towards Construction of a New Architectonic of American Apocalypticism -- 11 Millennium, Prophecy and the Energies of Social Transformation: The Case of Nat Turner -- 12 Comparative Millennialism in Africa: Continuities and Variations on the Canon -- 13 Is There a Chinese Millenarian Tradition? An Analysis of Recent Western Studies of the Taiping Rebellion -- 14 Millennialism in Modern Iranian History -- 15 The Middle East in Modern American Popular Prophetic Belief -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index.