Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (ed)'s Books

Of Piety and Heresy

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī’s Persian Treatises on Antinomians

By: Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

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Of Piety and Heresy

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī’s Persian Treatises on Antinomians

By: Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

This book examines and contextualizes Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī’s (d. 505/1111) fierce response to antinomian and freethinking currents in twelfth-century Persia. Seyed-Gohrab offers a translation of Ghazzālī’s treatise on antinomians, and one of his religious rulings (fatwa) on the topic. Both were written after Ghazzālī’s intellectual crisis in 488/1095, when he voluntarily withdrew from his position as a Professor at the prestigious Niẓāmiyya College in Baghdad. He determined to live an ascetic life, devoting all his attention to God. In this period, Ghazzālī wrote his masterpieces in Arabic and Persian. Seyed-Gohrab shows that these two less-known works shed new light on the motivation for Ghazzālī's major works. The book depicts Ghazzālī’s Persian intellectual context, and the tumultuous political period in which a strong literary and Sufi antinomian trend emerged from the social periphery to become central to literary activities at the Saljuq court. The book also treats Ghazzālī’s Persian poetry, offering original insights into Ghazzālī’s contemporary, the celebrated polymath ʿUmar Khayyām (d. about 525/1131), whose transgressive quatrains are interpreted as a response to a suffocating religious context.

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242

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published Date

ISBN 10

3111448053

ISBN 13

9783111448053

Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent

The Poetry of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)

By: Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

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Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent

The Poetry of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)

By: Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

This book is the first extensive research on the role of poetry during the Iranian Revolution (1979) and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). How can poetry, especially peaceful medieval Sufi poems, be applied to exalt violence, to present death as martyrdom, and to process war traumas? Examining poetry by both Islamic revolutionary and established dissident poets, it demonstrates how poetry spurs people to action, even leading them to sacrifice their lives. The book's originality lies in fresh analyses of how themes such as martyrdom and violence, and mystical themes such as love and wine, are integrated in a vehemently political context, while showing how Shiite ritual such as the pilgrimage to Mecca clash with Saudi Wahhabi appreciations. A distinguishing quality of the book is its examination of how martyrdom was instilled in the minds of Iranians through poetry, employing Sufi themes, motifs and doctrines to justify death. Such inculcation proved effective in mobilising people to the front, ready to sacrifice their lives. As such, the book is a must for readers interested in Iranian culture and history, in Sufi poetry, in martyrdom and war poetry. Those involved with Middle Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies, Literary Studies, Political Philosophy and Religious Studies will benefit from this book. "From his own memories and expert research, the author gives us a ravishing account of 'a poetry stained with blood, violence and death'. His brilliantly layered analysis of modern Persian poetry shows how it integrates political and religious ideology and motivational propaganda with age-old mystical themes for the most traumatic of times for Iran." (Alan Williams, Research Professor of Iranian Studies, University of Manchester) "When Asghar Seyed Gohrab, a highly prolific academician, publishes a new book, you can be certain he has paid attention to an exciting and largely unexplored subject. Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent: The Poetry of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) is no exception in the sense that he combines a few different cultural, religious, mystic, and political aspects of Iranian life to present a vivid picture and thorough analysis of the development and effect of what became known as the revolutionary poetry of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This time, he has even enriched his narrative by inserting his voice into his analysis. It is a thoughtful book and a fantastic read." (Professor Kamran Talattof, University of Arizona)

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326

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published Date

ISBN 10

3110748851

ISBN 13

9783110748857

Embodiments of Evil: Gog and Magog

Interdisciplinary Studies of the Other in Literature and Internet Texts

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab,Faustina Doufikar-Aerts,Sen McGlinn

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Embodiments of Evil: Gog and Magog

Interdisciplinary Studies of the Other in Literature and Internet Texts

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab,Faustina Doufikar-Aerts,Sen McGlinn

Gog and Magog, as archetypes of evil, have dwelt in our consciousness since their threatening appearance in the Bible and Quran. Maps, literature and texts ranging from Medieval Europe, the Byzantine and Arab world, in Berber, Persian and Indonesian traditions, to contemporary internet texts: all use these imaginary monstrous creatures. The figures are constantly reinterpreted as the enemies of order change. Gog and Magog have been represented with dog heads, snake tongues. On the covers of contemporary Arab apocalyptic literature they may be giants or half-humans. This volume Embodiments of Evil: Gog and Magog reveals in eight essays the images of the 'Other' in genres ranging from contemporary folk religion on the internet to the rich literary heritage of Alexander romances.

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Leiden University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9087280904

ISBN 13

9789087280901

Laylī and Majnūn

Love, Madness and Mystic Longing in Niẓāmī's Epic Romance

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

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Laylī and Majnūn

Love, Madness and Mystic Longing in Niẓāmī's Epic Romance

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Nezāmī's romance Laylī and Majnūn (1188). It examines key themes such as chastity, constancy and suffering through an analysis of the main characters. Majnūn's asceticism, kingship, love-madness, poetic genius, ill-fate, and love-death are treated in separate chapters. The patriarchal society in which Laylī lives, her anxieties and dilemmas, incarceration, secret love, imposed marriage and finally her death are discussed in detail. One chapter is devoted entirely to the different ways parents raise their children and the consequences. Finally, the book gives an analysis of Nezāmī's style, the narrative structure of the romance and the symbolism of time and setting.

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384

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004492437

ISBN 13

9789004492431

Laylī and Majnūn

Love, Madness and Mystic Longing in Niẓāmī's Epic Romance

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

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Laylī and Majnūn

Love, Madness and Mystic Longing in Niẓāmī's Epic Romance

By: Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab

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384

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BRILL

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9004492437

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9789004492431

Book's by Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (ed)

Of Piety and Heresy

Of Piety and Heresy

Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent

Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent

Embodiments of Evil: Gog and Magog

Embodiments of Evil: Gog and Magog

Laylī and Majnūn

Laylī and Majnūn

Laylī and Majnūn

Laylī and Majnūn

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