Tempo sacro, tempo mitico, tempo storico: profezia ebraica, regalità persiana e cronaca araba nell’orizzonte temporale dell’Islam

This article proposes an interpretation of one of the main conceptions of the nature of time in the context of Islam. Starting from the notions found in the Koran concerning the time of human existence and the time of the world, the conception of time in world history elaborated by the influential Arab historian al-Ṭabarī in his work of universal history, Tārīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk (“History of the Prophets and Kings”) is studied. The result is a reflection on time that, fitting into the dynamics shared by monotheistic religions in the context of Late Antiquity considers time as a created entity; limits the duration of the world with a beginning and an end (sanctioned by the arrival of the Hour); integrates the space prior to the birth of Islam, as well as with roots in the Arabic chronicle tradition, through the prophetic chain of the Judeo-Persian tradition and the royal chain of the Persian tradition at whose intersection point the figure of Alexander the Great (the Koranic Dhū’l-Qarnayn) is placed; nevertheless, expresses an extremely original perspective in the concept of a writing of the inexorable destinies of every human being at the moment of Creation.