The Politics of Translation Approaches to Intellectual Thought Case Study: Ali Shariati and Revolutionary Modern Iran Reading Revolution Mona Rahmani

Appeals to the past are among the most common of strategies in interpretations of the present. What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past and what the past was, but uncertainty about whether the past really is past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different forms, perhaps. This problem animates all sorts of discussions – about influence, about blame and judgment, about present actualities and future priorities. Edward Said Culture and Imperialism

Historiography & Intellectual History TRADITION WEB OF BELIEFS DILEMMAS Mark Bevir, The Logic of the History of Ideas (1999)

Ali Shariati ( )

Shah Reza Pahlavi Leaves Iran January 16, 1979

Ayatollah Khomeini Returns from Exile February 1, 1979

National Referendum to Become an Islamic Republic April 1, 1979

روشنفکر roshanfekr روشن فکر fekr roshan enlightened thought

Shariati believed… Neither capitalist liberalism, which causes and profits from this illness, nor Marxist or socialist doctrines, which have lost their dynamism and envisage an antihumainst and antireligious levelling, can provide a way out. Shariati saw in Islamic humanism the sole ideology that could save Iran and all oppressed peoples. Islam should be followed, not in the degraded form found in contemporary Muslim societies, but in the form of Mohammad’s ideal society,… Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (2003); Updated edition of Roots of Revolution (1981)

“If I speak of religion, it is not the ‘religion’ which has prevailed in human history, but a religion whose prophets rose for the elimination of [the religion of] social polytheism. I speak of a religion, which is not realized yet.” Collected Works XXII, in Abbas Manoochehri, “Critical Religious Reason: Ali Shari'ati on Religion, Philosophy and Emancipation”

“When it is said, "Rule belongs to God", the meaning is that rule belongs to the people, not to those who present themselves as representatives of God... When it is said, "Property belongs to God“, the meaning is that capital belongs to the people as a whole... When it is said, "Religion belongs to God," the meaning is that the entire structure and content of religion belongs to the people; it is not a monopoly held by a certain institution or certain people known as ‘clergy’ or ‘church’." Ali Shariati, On the Sociology of Islam, Trans. Hamid Algar (1979)

Since the clergy had betrayed the cause, Shariati continued, the vital task of understanding the Koran and the Hadith, and revealing the revolutionary meaning of true Islam, now fell upon the shoulders of the rawshanfekran : a term which Shariati himself translated as the ‘intelligentsia’ but which some of his followers have diluted by translating it as ‘freethinkers’.” Ervand Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin (1992)

Historiography Alternative Frameworks & Paradigm Shifts Quentin Skinner Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

Cult of Fact Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

Mythology of Coherence Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

Mythology of Meaning Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

Mythology of Doctrine Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

Mythology of Prolepsis Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics, Volume 1: Regarding Method (2002)

The Politics of Translation Approaches to Intellectual Thought Case Study: Ali Shariati and Revolutionary Modern Iran Reading Revolution Mona Rahmani