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The Intellectual Thought of Al-Ghazālī
  • Language: en

The Intellectual Thought of Al-Ghazālī

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) was one of the most influential philosophers of the classical Islamic period, with his intellectual innovations spanning the fields of theology, logic, and law. Despite this, contemporary assessments of Ghazālī often present him as hostile to rationality, and a guardian of dogma and orthodoxy. This study provides an innovative reassessment of Ghazālī's legacy, offering a compelling depiction of a reformer in his own time with increasing relevance to the issues gripping multicultural and globalized societies today. Ali Mirsepassi and Tadd Graham Fernée closely study Ghazālī's major Persian-language text Kīmīyā-e saʿādat (The Alchemy of Happiness) and its scholarly reception, alongside his lesser-read works, arguing that Ghazālī shared a message of reform, and critique of Abbasid institutions. Ghazālī's critical stance is revealed as both pragmatic and cosmopolitan in its recognition of autonomy from religion in many aspects of life, and in the value placed upon scientific contribution.

Art of Iran in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 428

Art of Iran in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries

  • Categories: Art

This book deals with the exploration and theorisation of Modern and Contemporary art of Iran through the examination of art movements and artistic practices in relation to other cultural, social and political discourses during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on discourses and their impact on art movements and practices and aims to selectively explore certain prevailing debates in action during this time. To come to grips with the way that artistic trends in Iran can be traced within the intellectual and political landscape of the country mainly from the 1940s to the present, the author has tried to articulate new ideas for relating art to its wider context - whether social, cultural or political - and to bring together critical and historical evidence in order to provide an insight into current artistic concerns. The book explores these underlying themes and discourses through a series of case studies, including through close scrutiny of works of artists.

The Loneliest Revolution
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 306

The Loneliest Revolution

In this first-hand account of the Iranian Revolution, Mirsepassi deftly weaves together his memories of provincial life and radical activism in 1960s and 1970s Iran with insights gleaned in his subsequent career as a sociologist of Iran.

Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 235

Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism

This book presents a critical study of citizenship, state, and globalization in societies that have been historically influenced by Islamic traditions and institutions. Interrogating the work of contemporary theorists of Islamic modernity such as Mohammed Arkoun, Abdul an-Na'im, Fatima Mernissi, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, and Aziz Al-Azmeh, this book explores the debate on Islam, democracy, and modernity, contextualized within contemporary Muslim lifeworlds. These include contemporary Turkey (following the 9/11 attacks and the onset of war in Afghanistan), multicultural France (2009-10 French burqa debate), Egypt (the 2011 Tahrir Square mass mobilizations), and India. Ali Mirsepassi and Tadd Ferneé critique particular counterproductive ideological conceptualizations, voicing an emerging global ethic of reconciliation. Rejecting the polarized conceptual ideals of the universal or the authentic, the authors critically reassess notions of the secular, the cosmopolitan, and democracy. Raising questions that cut across the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, and law, this study articulates a democratic politics of everyday life in modern Islamic societies.

Cosmopolitan Radicalism
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 305

Cosmopolitan Radicalism

  • Categories: Art

Exploring visual culture, design and politics in 1960s Beirut, this compelling interdisciplinary study examines a critical period in Lebanon's history.

The Poesis of Peace
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 231

The Poesis of Peace

Exploring the relations between the concepts of peace and violence with aesthetics, nature, the body, and environmental issues, The Poesis of Peace applies a multidisciplinary approach to case studies in both Western and non-Western contexts including Islam, Chinese philosophy, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Established and renowned theologians and philosophers, such as Kevin Hart, Eduardo Mendieta, and Clemens Sedmak, as well as upcoming and talented young academics look at peace and non-violence through the lens of recent scholarly advances on the subject achieved in the fields of theology, philosophy, political theory, and environmentalism.

Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 239

Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment

Ali Mirsepassi's book presents a powerful challenge to the dominant media and scholarly construction of radical Islamist politics, and their anti-Western ideology, as a purely Islamic phenomenon derived from insular, traditional and monolithic religious 'foundations'. It argues that the discourse of political Islam has strong connections to important and disturbing currents in Western philosophy and modern Western intellectual trends. The work demonstrates this by establishing links between important contemporary Iranian intellectuals and the central influence of Martin Heidegger's philosophy. We are also introduced to new democratic narratives of modernity linked to diverse intellectual trends in the West and in non-Western societies, notably in India, where the ideas of John Dewey have influenced important democratic social movements. As the first book to make such connections, it promises to be an important contribution to the field and will do much to overturn some pervasive assumptions about the dichotomy between East and West.

Iran's Troubled Modernity
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 383

Iran's Troubled Modernity

Mirsepassi uses interviews with thirteen individuals to relate the colourful life and times of Ahmad Fardid and his intellectual legacy.

Reversing the Colonial Gaze
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 411

Reversing the Colonial Gaze

A transformative account of the adventures of Persian travelers in the nineteenth century, moving beyond Eurocentric approaches to travel narratives.

Beyond Shariati
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 221

Beyond Shariati

A new reading of Ali Shariati's intellectual legacy on Iranian political discourse and concepts of Islam and modernity.