Doostdar The Iranian Metaphysicals

Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4008-8978-5
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 312 Seiten, EPUB

What do the occult sciences, séances 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Doostdar, Alireza

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamische Gruppen: Schiiten
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Note on Transliteration ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

PART 1 RAMMAL

1 Crossing the Line 29

2 Popular Nonsense 38

3 Legal Censure 46

4 Do Jinn Exist? 52

5 Virtuous Caution 58

6 A Scholar-Rammal 65

7 The Hesitant Officer 70

8 Metaphysical Pleasures 78

9 The Fantastic 87

10 Rammali Refashioned 93

Suppress, Accommodate, Sublimate 101

PART 2 SCIENTIST

11 Quantum Understanding 105

12 Empirical Spirits 112

13 Scientific Virtues 123

14 Wings of Imagination 136

15 Cosmic Mystics 145

16 Specters of Doubt 155

17 Becoming Witness 159

18 Authority in Experience 166

Experiments in Synthesis 171

PART 3 FRIEND OF GOD

19 A Protector Lost 175

20 Whips for the Wayfarers 181

21 Discretion and Publicity 191

22 The Politics of Veneration 199

23 Metaphysics of Vision 209

24 Technospiritual Reflexivity 217

Hagiographies Unbound 229

Conclusion 231

Note on the Cover Image 237

Notes 239

References 265

Index 287

Über Autor(innen)

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