DOI: 10.12730/is.1903328 ISSN: 1309-1786

Cosmic Destruction and the Eschatological Threshold: A Comparative Analysis of the Apocalypse Motif in the Qurʾān, Mythology, and Turkish Folk Narratives

Kadir Gömbeyaz, Fatma Aygün Erdem
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Since ancient times, images of the apocalypse, deluge, cosmic cataclysm, and divine punishment have provided the basis for narrative patterns that reveal the relation between man and time, ethics, and religion. According to many apocalyptic narratives, the dissolution of cosmos in the process of divine punishment is not an absolute destruction but a threshold beyond which new forms of order come into being. This study proposes that apocalyptic and cosmic destruction narratives, despite their various cosmological and theological assumptions, possess a common liminal structure that acts as a threshold between destruction and regeneration, chaos and order, mortality and transcendence.Patterns of apocalyptic and cosmic destruction will be explored through a comparative analysis of Qurʾānic narratives, classical myths, and Turkish folklore narratives. Comparative textual analysis will be conducted as the primary methodology of the research, and the concept of liminality, borrowed from anthropology and narrative theory, will be the main framework of the research. Previous scholarly approaches have examined those traditions separately or have focused on thematic similarities among those traditions, while a holistic view of their liminal function has not been elaborated yet. Liminality in the current study is conceived as a transitional period when old structures are dismantled, transformed, and rearranged into the new one. The originality of the study consists in showing how different traditions use apocalyptic narratives as liminal structures by which cosmic transformation, moral reconstruction, and existential rebirth are narrativized.The research results show that according to the Qurʾān, the apocalyptic cataclysm is an irreversible threshold in the linear understanding of time when the manifestation of divine power and absolute justice takes place through resurrection, judgment, and the hereafter. At the same time, mythological stories usually depict cosmic destruction within the cyclic understanding of time and renewal. The Turkish folk narratives combine features of both linear and cyclic time schemes. Thus, the apocalyptic narrative appears to be not only a narrative about the end but a multi-dimensional symbolic structure through which the human interpretation of finitude, sacred order, and existence occurs.

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