In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

Chapter 1 introduces the Iohannis and sets the book in its intellectual context. It discusses the particular difficulties associated with the epic and the different approaches scholars have adopted to it. It argues that the poem cannot be read as an extended panegyric and suggests that the poet was motivated to address the perceived shortcomings of imperial rule, rather than simply to celebrate recent military victories. The chapter provides a survey of the chapters to follow and closes with a detailed summary of the narrative of the Iohannis itself.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

Chapter 5 examines Corippus’ accounts of military activity, his battle narratives and his use of violent imagery. The first part of this chapter discusses the likely sequence of John’s campaigns in 546, 547 and 548. Certain conclusions are drawn regarding the size of John’s army, its constitution and the strategic goals he followed, as well as Moorish fighting practices in the same period.The second part of the chapter considers the long battle accounts within the Iohannis, and the political function they may have had. Stylized combat sequences were a very common feature of Greek and Latin epic, and Corippus added new and visceral imagery to the poetic repertoire. Violent imagery of battle was a display of poetic virtuosity, but also a means to address the ambiguities of ‘Moorish’ identity and political fealty. Battle clarified loyalties – and hence identities – in a manner that was not otherwise possible. Violent imagery accentuated this process, essentially transforming the ‘good’ Moors into heroes, (and so comparable to their Roman allies), and the ‘bad’ into abject and dismembered body parts. If the Iohannis was intended to reconstitute the body politic in North Africa, it frequently did so in an unusually literal manner.

The Iohannis remains something of a puzzle. Corippus’ motivations in composing the work, the degree to which he manipulated his knowledge of the recent past to meet his own literary ends and the innumerable details of the poem’s Latin all resist straightforward elucidation. But an appreciation of the delicate political position of Justinianic North Africa at the time of its composition is crucial to appreciating the historical importance of the poem and casts a great deal of light upon the text that survives to us. This in turn allows us to consider the Iohannis as a meaningful source on the early history of imperial rule in the region, and not simply as a repository of discrete points of historical or ethnographic information, or indeed as a thoughtless regurgitation of imperial ‘propaganda’. Repeated political and military convulsions had destabilized the Byzantine occupation almost from its outset, and had left a profound mark upon the economy and society of Africa.1 This pattern can only have been exacerbated by the plague of 543 and (perhaps) by the poor harvests which had struck other parts of the Mediterranean world following the cold snap of 536.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.

In this volume, Salih Sayilgan explores the problem of evil and suffering in Islamic theology along with the questions that both religious and nonreligious people alike perennially ask: Why is there evil and suffering? What is God’s role in both natural and moral evil? If God is loving, just, and powerful, why is there innocent suffering? Do humans have free will or are they predestined to act in a certain way? Examining both theoretical and practical theodicy in Islam, Sayilgan provides Muslim perspectives on natural and moral evil in light of Islamic theological concepts. He interrogates several specific topics related to evil and suffering, including death, sickness, aging, disability, climate change, and pandemics. These topics are explored through case studies from the lives of Muslims, with particular attention given to the American context. A comparative and dialogical study, this volume also engages with Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian approaches, as well as nonreligious perspectives.