“The Wonderful Apathy of the Oriental” Famine, War, and Apocalypse in Early Modern Iran

Abstract

Famine and the sword are central symbols of total destruction in the apocalyptic literature of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. This symbolic framework also shaped early modern interpretations of natural disasters and wartime devastation. This paper examines how apocalyptic beliefs influenced the interpretation of famine and war in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Iran. While historians have extensively documented these crises, the religious and cultural transformations that accompanied them remain underexplored. Moreover, the concept of apocalypse in Islam— particularly within the Shi’ite tradition—has received limited scholarly attention. In Qajar Iran, a period marked by frequent famine, conflict, and epidemic disease, apocalyptic thinking flourished. Crises were increasingly interpreted through religious archetypes and cosmic narratives. Drawing on understudied sources such as memoirs, laments, marginalia, and visual representations, this study demonstrates how apocalyptic discourse provided a framework for comprehending catastrophe and imagining redemption through destruction. Using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, the paper treats apocalyptic symbolism as a dynamic form of religious interpretation, emphasizing the interplay between cosmic upheaval (qiyāmah) and personal transformation through tribulation (balā). The portrayal of famine and war as apocalyptic events entails a confrontation with existential questions about the self and its place in divine order. It invests the natural world with theological agency, presenting famine and disaster as expressions of divine intervention and internal moral decay. Apocalyptic discourse, in this context, not only critiques existing theodicies but also destabilizes Qajar political theology, which sought to legitimize hierarchical authority through claims to divine favor and historical continuity.