Comparison and criticism of the views of Islamic encyclopedias, Qur'an and Iranica about the origin of Dajjal

The departure of Dajjal in the apocalypse is one of the issues that have attracted the attention of Orientalists. Considering the importance of influence of encyclopedias in introducing a problem, the purpose of this research is to investigate the authenticity of Dajjal in the encyclopedias of Islam, encyclopedias of Quran and encyclopedias of Iranica. For this purpose, this article has analyzed, explained and criticized the views of these encyclopedias based on Islamic teachings by referring to library sources and using a comparative approach. Abel and Robinson did not consider Dajjal to be authentic and believe that Dajjal's hadiths are retellings of the legends of the past and Christian and Jewish texts, but Algar did not make a definite opinion about this, and only described the Dajjal's hadiths in Islamic texts. The findings of this research indicate that the sources, approach and assumptions of the authors in these articles had a significant impact on the results of their research. Some of the authors' arguments can be criticized for being fallacious. Also, contrary to the claim of Robinson and Abel, who consider the similarity between religious elements to indicate the acquisition and adaptation of this doctrine from previous religions, the divine origin and the common goal of religions in bringing people to happiness can be the reason for the similarity in their teachings.