Tours of Hell and Punishments of Sinners in Mi‘raj Narratives: Use and Meaning of Eschatology

This contribute examines how the “tour of hell” scenes received increasing prominence in mi'raj narratives as they developed over the formative period of Islamic history, demonstrating how they served the moral and polemical purposes of the leaders of the growing Arab Muslim community. His diachronic examination of how ascension tales were expanded through various eschatological details, with a particular attention to women’s sins and their consequent punishments, reveals how such texts attempt to define the moral parameters of communal mores.