Date of Birth: 1962
Address: P.O .Box 14155-6195. Tehran –Iran
Foreign Languages: Proficiency in Arabic (Classical and Modern) and English; amateur in German
Academic Background:
– Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, Institute of Islamic Studies (2004-2009).
– M. A. Philosophy, at the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy, Tehran (1999-2002). The Institute is affiliated with the Ministry of Sciences, Research, and Technology.
– Graduated from Islamic theological seminary of Qum (equivalent Ph.D.), (1982–1997).
– Diploma in Experimental Science (1980), Isfahan.
The main field of Interest: Islamic Studies, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Law, and Dialogue between Religions.
Awards and honors
– Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2003-2004).
– Fellowship at the Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program (2014).
– Guest Professor at Freie Universität Berlin (The Faculty of History and Cultural Studies, Institute of Islamic Studies), summer semester, 2017. The MA students’ courses are Intellectual History: Shiite Imāmi School, Theology, and Exegesis.
Appointments:
– Associate professor at the Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation, Dept. of Jurisprudence and Law, Tehran (September 2004 until present).
– Academic member at the Azad University of Tehran, Science and Research Branch, Dept. of Islamic Theology and Philosophy (2005-2010).
– Director of the Department of Religions at the International Center for Dialogue among Civilizations (2000-2003).
– Director of Islamic Studies Dept. at the International Cultural Organization (1997-2000).
– Editor-in-chief of the scholarly Journal of Hawza and University, Quarterly (1993–1997) published in Qum.
Publications:
A. Books
– The Legal Status of non-Muslims in the Shiite Fiqh and Iranian Laws (1906-2020), Leiden, Brill, 2023.
– Editor and supervisor in translating the following work in Persian (Published in Tehran, Hekmat, July 2018); Anton Wessels, The Torah, The Gospel, and the Quran: Three Books, Two Cities, One Tale, tr. By Henry Jansen (Cambridge UK, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013).
– Einsicht: Drei Reisen in die innerste Welt des schiitischen Islam, Fotografien von Hans Georg Berger und frühen iranischen Fotografen (in German and Persian), Berlin and Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2017. (I was co-editor).
– The Method of Writing Academic Essays (in Persian), Tehran: Niy, 1393/ September 2014, 2016, 2017,2019.
– Creation in the Qur’an: Hermeneutic Study of the Old and New Exegeses (in Persian), Tehran: Negah Muaser, 1392/2013.
– Ph.D. dissertation on The Shiite Tradition and Modernism: The Codification of the Rights of Religious Minorities in Iranian Law (1906-2004). The revised version will be published soon under the title Legal Status of non-Muslims in the Shiite fiqh and Iranian Laws (1906-2018).
– An Introduction, footnotes concerning a comparative study on Christian and Islamic Mysticism in Translation of The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A. Kempis (Tehran: Tarh-e nuw, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2016).
– On ijtihād: The Essays on the Effectiveness of the Islamic Jurisprudence in Today’s World, ed. by Saeid. Edalatnejad (Tehran: Tarh-e nuw, 2003, 2006, and 2009).
– Evaluation of Idea’s Nasr Hāmid Abu Zayd (Egyptian scholar, d. 2010), ed. by Saeid. Edalatnejad (Tehran: Mashq-i Imrouz, 2001).
– Editorial of Lessons Presented by Professor Mustafa Malekiān (1992-1995) on the History of Philosophy in the West (from Thales to some Modern Analytical Philosophers), 4 volumes, (Qum: Hawza and University Press, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2015).
B. Articles in Journals and Books
- Iran’s first Constitution and the Supplement to it, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vol. 48, ed. by David Thomas and John Chesworth, Leiden, Brill, 2023.
- Semantics and the Understanding of the Qur’an, The Mirror of the Research, vol. 31, no. 186, Spring 2021, pp. 153-172.
- From Myth to Miracle on the Creation: Evaluation of Four Commentaries regarding a Verse in the Quran, Marburg Journal of Religion, Vol. 22, No. 2 (2020).
- Al-Farabi: A Philosophical Evaluation of Jihad, Tārīkh wa Tamaddun-i Islamī, No.30, Fall 2019 & Winter 2020, pp. 33-69. This is written with the cooperation of two more authors: Amirhossein Emami Koupaei and Reza Najafzade
- Ein Überblick über das lehr- und Erziehungssystem der schiitischen Geistlichkeit im Einsicht, 2017.
- A critic on the translation of Joseph Schacht’s Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, in Persian, Jurisprudence, and Law Quarterly Book Review, vol. 2, no.5, 2016, pp. 193-206.
- Translation of “Exegetical Genre: Abrogating and Abrogated Verses”, David Powers, in Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Quran, ed. Andrew Rippin, Persian version, Tehran: Hekmat 1394/2015.
- “The Development of Human Rights in Muslim Societies” in Menschenrechte und inter-religiöse Bildung, (eds) by Manfred L. Pirner, Johannes Lahnemann, Heiner Bielefeldt, Berlin: Eb Verlag, 2015, pp. 105-116. See also in Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contexts, Switzerland, Springer 2016, pp. 115-127.
- A Critical Reading on Najam Haider, The Origins of The Shīʽa: Identity, Ritual, and Sacred Space in Eighth Century Kufa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, xvi+ 276, in Quarterly of Iran and Islam (in Persian), vol. 1, No. 1& 2 (1393/2014): 123-144.
- Translation of “Through the Lens of Modern Hermeneutics: Authorial Intention in al-Ṭabarī’s and al-Ghazālī’s Interpretations of Q. 24:35”, Ulrika Mårtensson, in Studies on Ṭabarī, Tehran: Khan-e Ketab, 1393/2014: 310-346.
- “Pictures, symbols and the media: An Islamic Perspective”, in Media Power and Religions, Eds. By Manfred L. Pirner and Johannes Lähnemann, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013, pp. 97-107.
- “Theory of Innateness in Islamic Theology: Historical Approach”, Ethical Researches, vol. 1, no. 4 (2012): 67-84.
- “Why Encyclopedia?” Iranian Consortium, vol.1, no. 4 (2012): 10-16.
- “Salafian Takfiri or al-Jihadiyyun: Origin and Ideas”, Journal of History and Islamic Civilization, vol. 13, no. 9 (2011): 165-194.
- “Saadia Gaon: a Jewish Muʽtazili”, Iranian Journal on Philosophical Investigations, vol. 8, no. 13 (2011): 123-138.
- “The Islamic Point of View on the Problem of Evil”, Probing the Depths of Evil and Good. Multi-religious Views and Case Studies. Gort, Jerald D. Henry Jansen and Hendrik M. Vroom (Eds.), Amsterdam & New York, Rodopi, 2007, pp. 305-319.
- Translation of “How to Become a Philosopher?” Bertrand Russell, Madrasah, vol. 2, no. 5 (2007): 10-17.
- Translation of “What We Do in Prayer?” by Vincent Brümmer, published in Faith and Modern World, Tehran, The International Center for Dialogue, 2005, pp. 111-34.
- “Religious Groups in Afghanistan”, in Persian, Pol-Firozeh, vol. 4, no. 14 (2005): 24-38.
- Translation of “Purposes and Rules of Dialogue” by Vincent Brummer, Pol-e Firuzeh 2, no. 8 (2003): 29-45.
- “The Closed Gate of Ijihād”, Kian, vol. 8, no. 49, Tehran (1999): 45-58.
- Translation of “Religious Pluralism” by John Hick, in A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Edited by Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (Cambridge: Black well, 1997), Pol-e Firozeh, vol. 2, no. 8 (2003): 81-93.
- “The New Ijtehād”, Review and Critique of Naqd al- Khitāb al-Dīnī, Nasr, Hamid, Abu Zaid, published, in the Evaluate on Idea’s Nasr Hamid, ed. by S. Edalatnejad (Tehran: Mashq-i Imrouz, 2001): 57-93.
- “The Role of Religions in Minimizing the World’s Crises”, Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, Belgium: Peters, vol. 10/1 (2000): 117-123. It was republished in Qazaya Islamiyya, Lebanon, vol. 14/3 (2001): 269-277.
- Translation of “Consequentialism”, D. McNaughton, in Rutledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Rutledge, in Organon, vol. 4, no.16 (2000): 121-131.
- Translation of “Is Morality Absolute or Relative?” Chapter 5 of Existentialism, For and Against, P. Roubiczek, Naqd and Nazar Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 14 (1998): 134-156.
- Translation of “The Language of Religion”, William Alston, in Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. by Paul Edwards, Hawza and University Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 8 (1996): 34-46.
C. Articles in Encyclopedias
C.1. Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (EWI) in Persian
“War/Jang”, “Jihad”, “Dhimmī”, “Smoking/Dukhaniyāt”, “Daff”, “Hujjat in Jurisprudence”, “Tasnim”, ‘Taghābun”, “Takāthur”, “Hujjat al-Islam”, “The Rights of Religious Minorities in Iranian Law”, “The Rights of Muslim Minorities in non-Islamic Countries”, “Ḥaṣkafī, Muhammad b. Ali”, “Husayn b. Sa ̔īd Ahwāzī”, “Khazrajī, Ahmad b. Abd al-Rahmān”, Khaṣṣāf, Ahmad b. ‘Umar”, “Encyclopaedia of Islam published in Leiden/da’ira al-maʽārif Islām”, “Saḥnūn Abd- al-Salām b. Said”, “Salafiyya Jadīd/ new Salafiyya”, “Joseph Schacht”, “Intellectuality (Rawshanfikrī) in the Arab World”, “Orientalism (Sharq shināsī)”, and “Shaybānī, Muhammad b. Ḥassan”, “Sadr Shahid”, “Sadr al-Sharī‛a thānī”, “Santillana, David”, “Calder Norman”, “Moslem/Muslim World, Journal”.
C.2. Articles in other Encyclopedias
– Translation of following legal entries from the Encyclopaedia of the Quran, Ed. By Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: Brill, 2001-2005); “marriage and divorce”, “inheritance”, “insanity”, “poll tax”, “pilgrimage”, “circumcision”, “menstruation”, “widow”, “economy”, “slavery”, “burial”, “lawful and unlawful”, “animal life”, “blood money”, “fasting”, “lactation”, “stoning”, “usury”, “witness”, “witnessing and testifying”, “adultery”, “abortion”, “illegitimacy”, “debt”, “fosterage”, “pledge”, “theft”, “wine”, “ritual purity”, “Safā and Marwa”, and about other forty legal and jurisprudential entries. They are published in Tehran (2013-2020), by Hekmat press.
– “Six abstracts on different Iranian Encyclopedias” in Encyclopedias about Muslim Civilizations (Muslim Civilizations Abstracts), ed. Aptin Khanbaghi, London, Aga Khan University, 2009.
– “Baghdādi Manjanīghī, Ya ̔qūb b. Ṣāber” for Philosophers of War, Washington: ABC- CLIO publisher, 2013.
– “Taxation”, in Encyclopedia of Muhammad in History, Washington: ABC- CLIO publisher, 2014.
– “Iran’s Constitution 1906 and Its Supplement”, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1700-1914, Leiden: Brill, 2019.
– Translation of the following entries from Dictionary of the History of Ideas, New York, 1975. “Ethics of Stoicism”, “Perennial philosophy”, “Islamic Conception of Intellectual life”, “Gnosticism”, “Freewill in Theology”, “Dualism in Philosophy and Religion”, “Determinism in Theology”, “Alienation in Christian Theology”, Published in Farhang Tarikh Andisheha, Tehran: Suaād, 2006.
