A Philosophical Treatise on Muslim Politics: A Book Talk with Daryoush Poor

On January 27, join us for a book talk with Dr. Daryoush Mohammad Poor as he delivers a talk about his incisive book, A Philosophical Treatise on Muslim Politics.

About the Speaker

Dr. Daryoush Mohammad Poor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Academic Research at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and a lecturer for the Department of Education. He is also the editor of the Ismaili Heritage Series.

He received his PhD in Political and Social Studies from the University of Westminster in 2012. His first monograph, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (2014) is a fresh theoretical engagement with contemporary institutions of the Ismaili imamate. He co-edited and translated the memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam, The First Aga Khan (2018) with Daniel Beben. His most recent book, Command and Creation: A Shi‘i Cosmological Treatise, is a Persian edition and English translation of Muḥammad al-Shahrastānī’s Majlis-i maktūb (2021).

Dr Mohammad Poor is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Religious Minorities Under Muslim Rule.

He has served as member of the Aga Khan Education Board for the UK (2015-2019). He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK.

About the Book

This is a translation of Mehdi Hairi Yazdi’s حکمت و حکومت (Ḥikmat wa Ḥukūmat) which provides a philosophical critique of the theory of the guardianship of the jurist.

This theory is currently the governance theory in Iran and Mehdi Hairi Yazdi’s treatise provides a critique based on both philosophical and traditional arguments. It asks numerous questions, such as: ‘Is the governance of jurists philosophically coherent, rational and efficient?’ and ‘How can Muslim communities have their own forms of governance in such a manner that their faith commitments are met while living in their own time without clashing with universal values of governance?’ and debunks the key foundation of the guardianship of the jurist.

The present translation makes accessible, for the first time, the text of this critique in English, and provides a competing narrative based on his theory of joint public ownership in political theory.