Imperial messianism

Abstract
The focus of this research is to better understand the utopian vision of Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós and to determine whether this vision reflected merely his own idiosyncratic religious delusions or whether it reflected the Messianic aims of the Spanish Empire. It also seeks to compare his ideas alongside those of the famous Italian philosopher, Tommaso Campanella, to which they bear striking resemblance. This study advances the hypothesis that the Messianic vision of Campanella influenced the Spanish Habsburgs who then tasked Quirós with its initiation by locating Terra Australis Incognita.
The research approach includes detailed textual comparisons of key works of Campanella and Quirós to determine whether such a claim can reasonably be substantiated. Particular attention is paid to their common millenarian ideas, shared idiosyncratic interpretations of prophecy, and similarities between Quirós’s belief in a ‘New Jerusalem’ and Campanella’s City of the Sun. I also focus attention on their networks of associations which I argue shed light on how their ideas may have circulated, focusing on their shared links to the Duke of Sessa and Pope Clement VIII.
The findings from this research indicate that Campanella and Quirós envisaged near identical utopian visions. I highlight how they anticipated Spanish and Catholic world hegemony underscored by theocracy and the fulfilment of idiosyncratic interpretations of end-time prophecies. They also held similar views on idyllic societies such as those in the City of the Sun and the New Jerusalem.
The main conclusions drawn from this study are that Campanella and Quirós shared a philosophical and a temporal link centered on the Spanish Crown. These findings lend weight to the idea that Spain experimented with Messianism as a strategic means of regaining imperial ascendancy in the late Renaissance culture wars. This study also provides a basis for rethinking the influence Campanella had with the Spanish Crown, the credibility of Quirós and the idea that the first European search for Terra Australis Incognita was motivated by a Messianic impulse.

Gershom Scholem in Deutschland
Zwischen Seelenverwandtschaft und Sprachlosigkeit
Hrsg. v. Gerold Necker, Elke Morlok u. Matthias Morgenstern

Die Biographie des in Berlin geborenen und ab 1923 in Jerusalem lebenden Kabbala-Forschers Gershom Gerhard Scholem ist von den Katastrophen und Umbrüchen des 20. Jahrhunderts geprägt. Im Horizont des für Scholem ambivalenten deutsch-jüdischen Verhältnisses nehmen die Autoren des Bandes seinen Werdegang im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik in den Blick sowie die Bedeutung, die er als israelischer Gesprächspartner für die Zeitgeschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland hatte. Die Beziehungen zu Walter Benjamin und Hannah Arendt, zu dem Theologen Otto Michel und dem Verleger Siegfried Unseld dokumentieren auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen Scholems Verbindung zu Deutschland, die ihn auch bei persönlicher Lyrik und sogar bei seiner wissenschaftlichen Prosa zur jüdischen Mystik begleitete.

Medieval Persian imperial correspondence (tarassul) remains relatively untapped as a source of historiographical information, due in no small part to its stylized and ornate character. This ornateness, far from being merely an obstructive husk to the useful pith of data within, constitutes a rich source of information in its own right; indeed, the formal aspects of a given letter may significantly alter the ostensible sense of the text. This study examines as a representative case a fathnama sent by Uzun Hasan to Qaytbay on the occasion of the former’s victory over Sultan-Abu Sa‘id in 1469, here contextualized, translated and subjected to formal analysis with reference to contemporary insha’ manuals. For all its submissive rhetoric, the letter’s aggressive intent is shown to be activated by its formal structure, which strategically deploys Uzun Hasanid messianic symbolism to challenge the ascendancy of the Mamluk state.