Essays on Shi’ism and Iran

Author: Hamid Algar Cover: Paperback “Hamid Algar’s travel to, and residence across, the region from an early age combined with his command of its languages and in-depth study have made him a unique observer and commentator across a broad range of Middle Eastern Studies’ disciplines and discourses…  This collection of his essays affords the reader an excellent glimpse into the breadth and depth of Algar’s oeuvres…. Most scholars of Islam and Iran writing before the 1979 Revolution embraced the paradigm of ‘modernisation’ and the trajectory of secularisation that ‘modernisation’ postulated. Some few held out. Hamid Algar was one of these.” – Professor Andrew J Newman, The University of Edinburgh Shi‘ism, Iran, and the Islamic Revolution are subjects fraught with political biases and ideological agendas; sometimes, even fiction is presented as fact. This lucid collection of writings demystifies these subjects. With some of these pieces written before the Revolution, they demonstrate