What do the occult sciences, seances with the souls of the dead, and appeals to saintly powers have to do with rationality? Since the late nineteenth century, modernizing intellectuals, religious leaders, and statesmen in Iran have attempted to curtail many such practices as "superstitious," instead encouraging the development of rational religious sensibilities and dispositions. However, far from diminishing the diverse methods through which Iranians engage with the immaterial realm, these rationalizing processes have multiplied the possibilities for metaphysical experimentation.

The Iranian Metaphysicals examines these experiments and their transformations over the past century. Drawing on years of ethnographic and archival research, Alireza Doostdar shows that metaphysical experimentation lies at the center of some of the most influential intellectual and religious movements in modern Iran. These forms of exploration have not only produced a plurality of rational orientations toward metaphysical phenomena but have also fundamentally shaped what is understood as orthodox Shi'i Islam, including the forms of Islamic rationality at the heart of projects for building and sustaining an Islamic Republic.

Delving into frequently neglected aspects of Iranian spirituality, politics, and intellectual inquiry, The Iranian Metaphysicals challenges widely held assumptions about Islam, rationality, and the relationship between science and religion.

About the Author
Alireza Doostdar is assistant professor of Islamic Studies and the anthropology of religion at the University of Chicago.

Reviews
"Winner of the Vinson Sutlive Book Prize, Anthropology Department of William & Mary"
"Winner of the 2018 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association"
"Important and highly original."---Nile Green, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Alireza Doostdar's The Iranian Metaphysicals stands as a rigorous and thoughtful contribution to this scholarship. Drawing on a rich ethnographic archive, Doostdar gives us a superbly argued and highly original exploration of Iran's 'metaphysical explorers.'"---Charles Hirschkind, Immanent Frame
"The Iranian Metaphysicals provides valuable insights not only to scholars of Iran or Islamic studies, but also to those interested in global and comparative approaches to the politics of religion, cultural studies, and histories of the occult."---Elise K. Burton, International Dialogue



Book Information
ISBN 9780691163789
Author Alireza Doostdar
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 454g