In God and Man in Tehran , Hossein Kamaly explores the historical processes that have made and unmade contending visions of God in Iran’s capital throughout the past two hundred years. Kamaly examines how ideas of God have been mobilized, contested, and transformed, emphasizing how notions of the divine have given shape to and in turn have been shaped by divergent conceptualizations of nature, reason, law, morality, and authority.
God and Man in Tehran analyzes official government policies, modern textbooks, and university curricula; popular beliefs and ritual practices; and philosophical and juridical attitudes toward theological questions in traditional institutions. Kamaly considers continuity and change in religiosity under the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties; the significance of outbreaks of messianic expectations; why a modernizing nation took a sudden turn toward state religiosity; and how the Islamic Republic deploys visions of God against foreign enemies and domestic critics. Beyond the majority Shia Muslim population, the book includes minority and suppressed voices, discussing the views of Sunni Muslims, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Jews, Bahais, and Zoroastrians and investigating issues of gender and class. With a focus on the diversity of ideas of the divine, God and Man in Tehran offers a novel perspective on the intellectual movements that have shaped Iranian modernity.
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Review A masterful mapping of the intellectual and spiritual currents that roiled Iran's capital for a century and a half before bursting forth in the Iranian Revolution. (Richard Bulliet, Columbia University)
From the dawning of modernity around 1800 to the present, God and Man in Tehran expertly describes the diversity of reactions among Iranians to ideas in both their own tradition of learning and imported learning from the western world. Kamaly’s extremely wide reading in primary sources in Persian, Arabic, French, and other languages enables him to describe these reactions in a wide range of cultural modes from poetry to scientific texts. (Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard University)
Hossein Kamaly is a scholar of unrivaled learning, a writer of quiet elegance. In his God and Man in Tehran he has written an exquisite rarity: An urban history of Almighty God. An earthly theology emerges from his capable hands that will make you hear the voice of God from the elegant urbanity of a nation. An utter delight to read! (Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University)
About the Author
Hossein Kamaly is a scholar of the Middle East, focusing on the history of ideas. He has taught at Barnard College and Columbia University and lives in Larchmont, NY.

motw/God and Man in Tehran_ Contendi - Hossein Kamaly.pdf

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