The Iranian Metaphysicals

Alireza Doostdar

Published by Princeton University Press 2018

The Iranian Metaphysicals

Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny

Alireza Doostdar

https://doi.org/10.23943/9781400889785

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author information

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

Reviews

"This original book considers Iranians' experiments with the supernatural world through investigations into their encounters with the occult, mysticism, healing, exorcism, magnetism, and Spiritism, among other practices. In engaging with the complex spiritual worlds of Iranians, The Iranian Metaphysicals reveals new meanings and uses of science in the pursuit of knowledge and the divine."—Arzoo Osanloo, University of Washington

"Examining contemporary Iranians' wide-ranging experiments with the supernatural, including political-cultural and historical contexts, Doostdar demonstrates the profound ‘edginess' of these practitioners: their doubts and concerns with respectability. This is a captivating read and an unprecedented book, certain to appeal to anthropologists and to Middle East specialists alike."—Cyrus Schayegh, Princeton University

"Beautifully written and argued, this powerful book turns our full attention to the rationality of enchantment in the modern world. Deftly weaving gripping stories with history, theology, and political considerations, Doostdar presents an important analysis of the landscape of Iranian metaphysical inquiry and a new, fresh perspective on the conditions and qualities of reason and rationalization in the world and in anthropological inquiry."—Courtney Bender, Columbia University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	Cover
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Note on Transliteration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1. RAMMAL
Crossing the Line Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Popular Nonsense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
Legal Censure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Do Jinn Exist? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Virtuous Caution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
A Scholar-Rammal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
The Hesitant Officer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Metaphysical Pleasures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
The Fantastic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Rammali Refashioned Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Suppress, accommodate, sublimate Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
PART 2. SCIENTIST
Quantum Understanding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Empirical Spirits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Scientific Virtues Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Wings of Imagination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Cosmic Mystics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Specters of Doubt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Becoming Witness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Authority in Experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Experiments in Synthesis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
PART 3. FRIEND OF GOD
A Protector Lost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Whips for the Wayfarers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Discretion and Publicity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
The Politics of Veneration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Metaphysics of Vision Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Technospiritual Reflexivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Hagiographies Unbound Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Note on the Cover Image Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287