The event recording is n ow available:
https://youtu.be/G0dq6tDXiQM?si=vTe1HQuYoFQPg4sB
The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Ru mi’s Misogyny and Racism and the Limits of Mystical Knowledge on January 18 \, 2025.
In this talk\, Mahdi Tourag e will discuss what we should do with the ample evidence of misogyny\, raci sm\, and male-supremacy in the poetry of a globally celebrated mystic like Rumi. He will begin with a survey of the overlooked passages in Rumi’s poet ry containing “non-mystical” vulgar stories\, jokes\, reproving other Sufis \, mocking other men\, slaves\, Jews\, and loathing women. Moderated only b y the degree of our passion for justice and compassion\, and judging Rumi b y his own standards of the Quran and Sunnah\, Tourage will argue that Rumi is irrelevant to our time and our concerns. Because of Rumi's inexcusably h armful beliefs\, he was also harmful to his own time as he upheld and perpe tuated elite male supremacist\, sexist\, and racist aspects of his culture. Tourage will conclude that mystical knowledge is not a guarantee against p ersonal flaws\; nor is it evidence of a recoverable internal core in mystic al experiences claimed or conceptualized by Sufis.
Mahdi Tourage\, PhD (2005\, Un iversity of Toronto)\, is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studie s and Social Justice and Peace Studies at King’s University College\, Londo n\, Ontario. He is the author of Rumi and the Hermeneutics of Eroticism (Brill 2007) and the edited volume Esoteric Lacan (wit h Philipp Valentini\, Roman & Littlefield 2019). His publications have appe ared in Iranian Studies\, International Journal of Zizek Studies and Body and Relig ion Journal. His areas of inter est are Islamic religious thought\, Sufism and postmodern theories of gende r and sexuality.
Abolfazl Moshiri is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and lecturer in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. He also serves as the senior research associate for the Women Poets Iranica project at the Elahé Omidyar Mir-D jalali Institute of Iranian Studies\, in collaboration with the Encyclopedi a Iranica Foundation. His research focuses on Iranian mysticism\, antinomia n and heterodox Sufism\, and the intellectual history of the Persianate wor ld from the 10th to the 16th century.
At the University of Toronto\, he has taught undergraduate courses on Sufi tradition\, classical Persian literature\, and Islamicate culture. His work has been published in journals such as Iranian Studies (2014)\, Iran Namag (2021)\, and the series Christian-Muslim Relations: Primary Sources 600-1 914 (2023). He is currently wor king on two chapters for two upcoming publications by De Gruyter\, which wi ll explore various aspects of heterodox Sufism in 13th- and 14th-century Ir an and Anatolia.
Registration is required. Register he re:
https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rRjW_zkpQ1-8vexmG O5wWw