Stories of miracles, or karamat, are ubiquitous and influential in jihad. Yet, they remain poorly understood. Current treatments are limited to descriptions of reports in individual conflicts. None have systematically studied their genesis: from whom, and where do they originate? Some, to be sure, imply origins—especially in deception. But they have done so based on impressions, and not systematic investigation. However, the question is of considerable interest and warrants closer study. Examining it would not only illuminate an understudied aspect of the movements in question but also advance scholarship on religion on the battlefield, a budding field of inquiry. This article thus traces the genesis of official and semiofficial reports of karamat, drawing on a wide range of evidence, including hundreds of reports culled from books, magazines, and video and audio recordings from multiple groups and individuals spanning decades, and interviews. The results point to origins in experience, misrepresentation, rumor, and tradition. The findings advance our understanding of karamat, and the documentary value of reports of them. More generally, they sensitize us to the significance of elusive phenomena seldom studied in the conflict literature: religious experience, propaganda about religious experience, rumor about religious experience, and folklore about religious experience.

中文翻译：

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圣战奇迹故事的起源

奇迹故事或卡拉马特在圣战中无处不在且具有影响力。然而，他们仍然知之甚少。目前的处理仅限于对个别冲突中报告的描述。没有人系统地研究过它们的起源：它们来自谁，来自哪里？可以肯定的是，有些暗示着起源——尤其是在欺骗方面。但他们这样做是基于印象，而不是系统的调查。然而，这个问题是相当有趣的，值得仔细研究。研究它不仅会阐明所讨论运动的一个未被充分研究的方面，而且还会促进战场上的宗教研究，这是一个新兴的研究领域。因此，本文利用广泛的证据，包括从书籍、杂志、来自多个团体和个人数十年的视频和音频记录，以及采访。结果指向经验、虚假陈述、谣言和传统的起源。这些发现促进了我们对卡拉马特的理解，以及它们报道的文献价值。更一般地说，它们使我们对冲突文献中很少研究的难以捉摸的现象的重要性敏感：宗教经验、关于宗教经验的宣传、关于宗教经验的谣言和关于宗教经验的民间传说。