“Science and the soul: New inquiries into Islamic ethics” offers a unique forum not merely for review or commentary on…
Science and the soul: New inquiries into Islamic ethics
Seventeen scholars consider a broad range of topics that pivot off, but are not limited to, inquiries into itineraries of Islam and science. The forum features five recent books: The Iranian Metaphysicals (Princeton, 2018) by Alireza Doostdar, Jinnealogy (Stanford University Press, 2017) by Anand Taneja, The Arabic Freud (Princeton University Press, 2017) by Omnia El Shakry, Knot of the Soul (Chicago University Press, 2018) by Stefania Pandolfo, and The Lighthouse and the Observatory (Cambridge University Press, 2018) by Daniel Stolz.
Begin by reading Noah Salomon’s introduction to the forum here. He provides an overview of the intellectual depth of the conversation that arises between and among these five books, as well as outlines the forum’s structure. Then, check back each week as a new book is featured with essays by the author and two other scholars. These essays will be followed with reflections from some of the book authors and a conclusion by Hussein Agrama.
Thoughts on tradition in The Iranian Metaphysicals
While this book is an extraordinary accomplishment, rich in its ethnographic wanderings and sophisticated in its theoretical framing, my interest…
The future of enlightenment: Comparison, tradition, temporality
In The Iranian Metaphysicals, Alireza Doostdar describes his work as contributing to “comparative anthropologies of epistemology”—“how people know things and…
On epistemic possibility: A reply to Hirschkind and Tambar
In their thoughtful reflections on The Iranian Metaphysicals, Charles Hirschkind and Kabir Tambar focus on my analysis of how different…
Hidden figures in Jinnealogy
Visiting Firoz Shah Kotla has much to tell us about Islamic epistemologies, and much to tell us about how to…
Islam in shadows
Anand Vivek Taneja’s Jinnealogy is an elegant contemplation of the ruins of the fortress built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who ruled…
A wind from the invisible: A reply to Spadola and Khan
I am honored and humbled by the great care and critical attention with which Naveeda Khan and Emilio Spadola have…
The Arabic Freud: Discourse interruptus
The Arabic Freud masterfully excavates the neglected archives of psychoanalysis in mid-twentieth century Egypt, and offers a doubly contrapuntal account…
Vectors of translation
Omnia El Shakry’s The Arabic Freud is both admirably ambitious in its quest to map “the topography of modern selfhood”…
Translation, tradition, and the ethical turn: A reply to Bardawil and Allan
The Arabic Freud ... does not aim to augment the literature on psychoanalysis by contributing yet another reading of Freud (merely…