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Professor Sajjad Rizvi
BA, MA, MPhil (Oxon), PhD (Cantab)
Professor of Islamic Intellectual History and Islamic Studies
4037
01392 724037
Overview
I'm an intellectual historian who is interested in the course of philosophy in the Islamic world both past and present. Increasingly I am interested in how that study and category of philosophy coincides with the emergent category of global philosophy. In terms of method, my research is informed by the need for a decolonial and reparative study of Islam.
I supervise graduate students broadly in Islamic intellectual history, especially in philosophy, theology and Quranic exegesis. I am the director of the Centre for the Study of Islam.
I work on Islamic intellectual history in the wider Persianate world. My particular interests which grew from my PhD at Cambridge on the philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī (d. c. 1636) lie in post-Avicennan philosophical, theological and mystical traditions. My second main area of interest is Qurʾanic exegesis and textual hermeneutics.
I am currently interested in three projects: completing an intellectual history of philosophical traditions in Iran and North India in the 18th century, a diachronic study of the philosophy of time in Islamic thought, and the reception of some European philosophies in the postcolonial Muslim context. On this last project, I have embarked on a seed project with case studies of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan supported by the European Network Fund.
With a former student and colleague Ahab Bdaiwi, I am editing the Oxford Handbook of Shiʿi Islam, as well as an exciting new series of translations of Islamic intellectual traditions for Hackett Publishing.
I have advised various government departments and private sector concerns on Iraq, Iran, Shiʿi Islam in the Gulf, and Islam in Britain and Europe.
I also run a blog that has my various musings on philosophy both Islamic and otherwise as well as notes on manuscript research and related critical editions. The blog entitled Hikmat is available here.
I tweet under the name @mullasadra
For office hours and research leave go here.
Research
My research interests lie mainly in four concurrent (and I hope complementary) areas:
1. Islamic philosophical traditions in particular Mulla Sadra (d. 1636) and Safavid philosophies. I am interested in a number of intersecting problems: first, the relationship between philosophy and other intellectual disciplines such as theology and rational mysticism; second, the course of Neoplatonism(s) in later Islamic thought; third, concepts of the self and self-reflective understanding of philosophy in Islamic culture; fourth, problems of epistemological systems in later Islamic thought; fifth, the legacy of Safavid thought in particular in India; sixth, philosophical theology, the God-world relationship and the possibility of God-talk; and finally, what implications does Sadrian philosophy have for contemporary philosophy and theology in the world of Islam?
2. Qur'anic studies and textual hermeneutics. How do interpreters confront and envision the text? How does one make sense of the exegetical traditions in Islam? I am particularly interested in Sufi and Shi'i experiential and mystical exegeses and hermeneutics of the text.
3. Shi'i theology of all three branches. I have been interested for some time in the relationship between Mu'tazili thought and Shi'i theologies and am focused on three areas: first, the non-Mu'tazili Zaydi tradition exemplified by Sayyid Humaydan b. Yahya (fl. 13th century); second, the development of Twelver traditions of philosophical theology focusing on the role of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) and al-'Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325); and third, the development of Ismaili thought in the pre-Alamut period.
4. Philosophy and theology in the contemporary Muslim world and how in particular more 'traditional' seminarian style learning intersects with the influence of modern science and European philosophies.
Research group links
- Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies
- Centre for the Study of Islam
- Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
Projects
- Mapping Islamic philosophical traditions and knowledge networks in India, 1450-1850 - funded by: British Academy
Supervision
I am happy to supervise research students in Islamic intellectual history and the history of Islamic Philosophy, Qur'anic studies, Shi'i thought and aspects of contemporary Islamic thought.
I have examined doctoral students in Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Talinn, Manchester, London and Warsaw.
Research students
I have successfully supervised the following doctoral projects:
Rushdan Jailani, The Sufi Metaphysics of Shamsuddin Sumatrai (d. 1630) - 2007
Khalil Toussi-Alaghebandi, The Ethics and Politics of Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) - 2007
Chi-Chung (Andy) Yu, Islamic Responses to Modernity: Comparing Tariq Ramadan and Seyyed Hossein Nasr - 2008
Saud el-Tamamy, The Metaphysics of Political Philosophy: Comparing Averroes and Kant - 2009
Kemal Argon, An Intellectual History of Islamism in Pakistan - 2010
Babar Ahmed, Toward a Rational Hermeneutics of Islam - 2011
Minlib Dallh - Serge de Beaureceuil and Abdullah Ansari - 2011
Ammar Nakhjuvani, A Source-critical Approach to Leadership in Early Islam: The Case of Muʿāwiya bin Abī Sufyān - 2011
Khaled Troudi, Qurʾanic Hermeneutics and Narratives: A Study of Medieval Exegetical Traditions - 2011
Ghazoan Ali, Substance and Things: Dualism and Unity in the Islamic Cultural Field - 2012
Sumeyye Parildar, Intentionality in Mullā Ṣadrā - 2014
Ahab Bdaiwi, Shiʿi Defenders of Avicenna: An Intellectual History of the Philosophers of Shiraz - 2015
Christopher Pooya Razavian, The Discursive Self: Rethinking the Relationship between Autonomy and Tradition in Shiʿi Thought - 2015
Ahmed al-Malik, Orientalism and Occidentalism in the Arabic and English Novel - 2015
Zoheir Esmail, Between Philosophy and ʿIrfān: Interpreting Mullā Ṣadrā from the Qajars to Post-Revolutionary Iran - 2015
Zubir Ahmed, Rebuilding the Iraq State: The Regional Dimension of Ethno-Sectarian Conflict - 2017
Khairul Anam Che Mentri, Avicenna on Knowledge - 2017
Saliha Abdelkhalek, Being, Reification, and Ritual: Ibn ʿArabī's Esoteric Paradogm - 2018
Redha al-Lawati, Mullā Ṣadrā's Proof for the Existence of God - 2018
Kumail Rajani, Making Sense of Ismaili Traditions - 2019
John Goodman, A Different Path: The Muslim Minority Experience in Southeast East - 2020
Usama al-Atar, Theology in the Nahj al-balāgha - 2020
Abdul-Latif Finch, Squaring the Circle: The Suspended Person Thought Experiment - 2020
I am currently supervising the following doctoral projects:
Majid Montazermehdi - Biographical Dictionaries and Narratives in Safavid Iran
Farhan Zaidi - The Ontology and Epistemology of Revelation in Mullā Ṣadrā
Hasti Safavi - The Ardabil Shrine Complex: An Islamic Philosophical Analysis
Hayder al-Jafari - Selfhood and Qurʾanic Hermeneutics in the Contemporary World
Faris Abdel-Hadi - Pluralism in Ibn ʿArabī
Catherine Tollerton - Understanding Deobandi Women's Experiences in Education in Britain and India
Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
| To Appear | 2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 1999 |
To Appear
- Rizvi SH. Ibn 'Arabi, The Islamic World, Routledge, 366-373.
- Rizvi SH. Au-dela du miroir: Mulla Sadra's pedagogical epistemology, Miroir et savoir. La transmission d'un theme platonicien des Alexandrins a la philosophie arabo-musulmane, Peeters, 251-271.
2024
- Rizvi S. (2024) Divine Simplicity, the Deus Revelatus, and the Divine Names in the Philosophical Theology of Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī (1571–1636), The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought, Routledge, 67-90, DOI:10.4324/9781003438106-5. [PDF]
2022
- Rizvi S. (2022) Ineffability, Asymmetry and the Metaphysical Revolt: Some Reflections on the Narrative of Job from Muslim Traditions, The Protests of Job, Springer Nature, 51-81, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7_4.
- Rizvi S. (2022) Reply to Weiss and Davison, The Protests of Job, Springer Nature, 97-102, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7_7.
- Daneshgar M, Rizvi S. (2022) Inscribing Persian in the Arabic Cosmopolis, Australian Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 7, no. 1, pages 5-28, DOI:10.55831/ajis.v7i1.461. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2022) Shiʿi Theology and Polemics between Iran and India: The Case of Saiyed Nūrollāh Šūštarī (d. 1019/1610), Entangled Religions, volume 13, no. 5, DOI:10.46586/er.13.2022.9808. [PDF]
- Davison SA, Weiss S, Rizvi S. (2022) The Protests of Job, Springer International Publishing, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7. [PDF]
2021
- Rizvi S. (2021) Esoteric Shiʿi Islam in the Later School of al-Ḥilla: Walāya and Apocalypticism in al-Ḥasan b. Sulaymān al-Ḥillī (d. after 1399) and Rajab al-Bursī (d. c. 1411), Reason, Esotericism, and Authority in Shiʿi Islam, BRILL, 190-241, DOI:10.1163/9789004465503_008. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2021) Considering Divine Providence in Mullā Ṣadrā Šīrāzī (d. 1045/1636): The Problem of Evil, Theodicy, and the Divine Eros, Oriens, volume 49, no. 3-4, pages 318-369, DOI:10.1163/18778372-12340007.
- Rizvi S, Terrier M. (2021) The Challenge of Evil in Islamic Thought: A Brief Survey, Oriens, volume 49, no. 3-4, pages 173-180, DOI:10.1163/18778372-12340009.
- Rizvi S. (2021) ON LA PHILOSOPHIE ARABE À L’ÉTUDE: SENS, LIMITES ET DÉFIS D’UNE DISCIPLINE MODERNE. STUDYING ARABIC PHILOSOPHY: MEANING, LIMITS, AND CHALLENGES OF A MODERN DISCIPLINE. By Jean‐Baptiste Brenet and Olga Lizzini. Sic et Non. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2019. Pp. 784. Paper €58, Religious Studies Review, volume 47, no. 2, pages 185-188, DOI:10.1111/rsr.15202.
- Rizvi S. (2021) God, Cosmos, and Humanity: Muslim Perspectives on Divine Providence, Abrahamic Reflections on Randomness and Providence, Springer Nature, 199-220, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-75797-7_10.
- Rizvi S. (2021) Denis Hermann, Le Shaykhisme à la période qajare. Histoire sociale et doctrinale d’une école chiite, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2017 (Miroir de l’orient musulman), 402 pp., ISBN: 9-782503-53519, Der Islam, volume 98, no. 2, pages 598-602, DOI:10.1515/islam-2021-0040.
2020
- Rizvi S, Keshavmurthy P. (2020) Introduction: Framing Bedil, Arguing the Indo-Persian Self, Journal of South Asian Intellectual History, volume 2, no. 1, pages 3-12, DOI:10.1163/25425552-12340013.
- Rizvi S, Keshavmurthy P. (2020) Foreword, Journal of South Asian Intellectual History, volume 2, no. 1, pages 1-2, DOI:10.1163/25425552-12340014.
- Rizvi S. (2020) An Avicennian Engagement with and Appropriation of Mullā Ṣadrā Šīrāzī (d. 1045/1636): The Case of Mahdī Narāqī (d. 1209/1795), Oriens, volume 48, pages 219-249, DOI:10.1163/18778372-04801008.
2019
- Rizvi S. (2019) Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps Volume 3, by Peter Adamson, Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, volume 7, no. 1, pages 233-238, DOI:10.1163/2212943x-00701008.
- Rizvi S. (2019) Striving beyond the Balance, Approaches to the Qur'an in Contemporary Iran, Oxford University Press, 41-75.
- Rizvi S. (2019) The Speaking Qurʾan and the Praise of the Imam, Communities of the Qurʾan, Oneworld Academic, 135-155.
- Rizvi S. (2019) The Many Faces of Philosophy in the Safavid Age, The Empires of the Near East and India, Columbia University Press, 305-318.
- Rizvi S. (2019) Before the Safavid-Ottoman Conflict: Jāmī and Sectarianism in Timurid Iran and Iraq, Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī's Works in the Islamicate World, Brill, 227-255.
- Rizvi S. (2019) Precarious belongings: Being Shi'i in Non-Shi'i worlds, MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, DOI:10.1080/00263206.2019.1649254. [PDF]
2018
- Rizvi S. (2018) This so sullied flesh? Islamic approaches to human pleasures, Pleasure: A History, 66-93, DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190225100.003.0004.
- Rizvi S. (2018) Whatever happened to the school of Isfahan?: Philosophy in 18th-century Iran, Crisis, Collapse, Militarism and Civil War: The History and Historiography of 18th Century Iran, 71-104, DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190250324.003.0006.
- Rizvi S. (2018) The meaning of the word. Lexicology and Qur>anic exegesis, BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, volume 45, no. 1, pages 116-118, DOI:10.1080/13530194.2017.1365507. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2018) Striving in the path of God: jihd and martyrdom in Islamic thought, BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, volume 45, no. 2, pages 312-314, DOI:10.1080/13530194.2017.1415858. [PDF]
- Rizvi SH. (2018) God is One and there is no Other, Monotheism and its Discontents, Georgetown University Press.
- Rizvi SH. (2018) Freedom, compulsion and esoteric religion, The Maghreb Review.
- Rizvi SH. (2018) The Making of a Marjaʿ: Sīstānī and Shiʿi Religious Authority in the Contemporary Age, Sociology of Islam, volume 6, no. 2, pages 165-189, DOI:10.1163/22131418-00602006.
2017
- Rizvi S. (2017) Shī‘Ī polemics at the Mughal court: The case of QāẓĪ Nūrullāh Shūshtarī, Studies in People's History, volume 4, no. 1, pages 53-67, DOI:10.1177/2348448917693740. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2017) The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam, by Ahmed Azfar Moin, South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies, volume 40, no. 2, pages 424-426, DOI:10.1080/00856401.2017.1300565.
- Rizvi S. (2017) New Sociopolitical Formations and the 'Renaissance' of Philosophy, The Wiley-Blackwell History of Islam and Islamic Civilization, 393-412, DOI:10.1002/9781118527719.ch19.
- Rizvi S. (2017) Al-Ghazali's Moderation in Belief. Al-Iqtisad fi al-i. tiqad, BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, volume 44, no. 1, pages 150-151, DOI:10.1080/13530194.2016.1238593. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2017) The Shii Imamate. A Fatimid interpretation, BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, volume 44, no. 2, pages 289-291, DOI:10.1080/13530194.2016.1272220. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2017) Shii Interpretations of Islam: Three Treatises on Theology and Eschatology, BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, volume 44, no. 3, pages 471-472, DOI:10.1080/13530194.2017.1290776. [PDF]
2016
- Rizvi SH. (2016) Studies in the Muslim Apocalyptic, by David Cook. Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 2002. 470 pages. US$39.95 (Cloth) ISBN 0-87850-142-8, Review of Middle East Studies, volume 38, no. 2, pages 224-226, DOI:10.1017/s0026318400047040.
- Rizvi S. (2016) Philosophy in the Islamic World. A very short introduction. By Peter Adamson . pp. xviii and 138. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume 26, no. 4, pages 711-713, DOI:10.1017/s1356186316000195.
- Rizvi SH. (2016) authority in absence? Shii politics of Salvation, Studies in Christian Ethics, volume 29, pages 294-212.
- Rizvi SH. (2016) Shii Political Theology and Esotericism in Qajar Iran: The Case of Sayyid Jaʿfar Kashfī, Esoterisme Shi'ite, Ses Racines Et Ses Prolongements, BREPOLS, 687-712, DOI:10.1484/M.BEHE-EB.4.01191.
- Keeler ARFOAAMESA, Rizvi SH, Rizvi APOIIHADOTIOAAISSH. (2016) The Spirit and the Letter Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qur'an, Oxford University Press, USA.
- Rizvi S. (2016) Authority, Governance, Legitimacy, Representation: Some Thoughts from the Muslim Margins, Studies in Christian Ethics, volume 29, no. 2, pages 146-157, DOI:10.1177/0953946815623121. [PDF]
2015
- Rizvi SH. (2015) Shīʻī Islam: An Introduction. By Najam Haider. pp. xxi, 243. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume 25, no. 4, pages 721-724, DOI:10.1017/s1356186315000188.
- Rizvi S. (2015) Faith deployed for a New Shi‘i polity in India: The Theology of Sayyid Dildar ‘Ali Nasirabadi, The Shi'a in Modern South Asia: Religion, History and Politics, 12-35, DOI:10.1017/CBO9781316258798.003.
- Rizvi SH. (2015) Between Hegel and Rumi: Iqbal’s Contrapuntal Encounters with the Islamic Philosophical traditions, Muhammad Iqbal: Essays on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought,, Edinburgh University Press, 112-141, DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695416.003.0006.
- Rizvi SH. (2015) The takfīr of the Philosophers (and Sufis) in Safavid Iran, Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on takfīr, Brill, 244-272.
2014
- Rizvi SH. (2014) A Muslim’s perspective on the good death, resurrection and the afterlife, Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny: Muslim and Christian Perspectives, Georgetown University Press, 99-109.
- Rizvi SH. (2014) Establishing the Principles of Faith for a New Shiʿi Polity: The Theology of Sayyid Dildār ʿAlī Naṣīrābādī, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, volume 24, no. 3, pages 363-380, DOI:10.1017/S1356186314000303.
2013
- Rizvi SH. (2013) Divine Manifestations Concerning the Secrets of the Perfecting Sciences, being a Translation of al-Mazahir al-ilahiyyah fi asrar al-'ulum al-kamaliyyah, JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, volume 24, no. 1, pages 83-86, DOI:10.1093/jis/ets092. [PDF]
- Rizvi S. (2013) Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, volume 24, no. 4, pages 536-538, DOI:10.1080/09596410.2013.816011.
- Rizvi SH. (2013) Oneself as the Saved Other? The Ethics and Soteriology of Difference in Two Muslim Thinkers, Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others, DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945399.003.0008.
2012
- Rizvi SH. (2012) The Ikhwan al-safa' and their Rasa'il: An Introduction, JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, volume 23, no. 2, pages 231-233, DOI:10.1093/jis/ets008. [PDF]
- Rizvi SH. (2012) The Sage Handbook of Islamic Studies, JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, volume 23, no. 3, pages 382-384, DOI:10.1093/jis/ets032. [PDF]
- Rizvi SH. (2012) Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Volume 1. Edited by Jørgen S. Nielsen, Samim Akgönül, Ahmet Alibašić, Brigitte Maréchal, and Christian Moe, The European Legacy, volume 17, no. 5, pages 705-706, DOI:10.1080/10848770.2012.699326.
- Rizvi SH. (2012) Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi: The Spirituality of Shiʿi Islam. xxii, 585 pp. London: I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2011. £39.50. ISBN 978 1 84511 738 2, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, volume 75, no. 2, pages 379-380, DOI:10.1017/s0041977x12000158.
- Rizvi SH. (2012) "Only the Imam knows best"The Maktab-e Tafkīk's attack on the legitimacy of philosophy in Iran, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume 22, no. 3-4, pages 487-503, DOI:10.1017/S1356186312000417.
- Rizvi SH. (2012) Philosophy as a way of life in the world of Islam: Applying Hadot to the study of Mullā adrā Shīrāzī (d. 1635), Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, volume 75, no. 1, pages 33-45, DOI:10.1017/S0041977X11000851.
2011
- Rizvi SH. (2011) Mīr Dāmad in India: Islamic philosophical traditions and the problem of creation, Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 131, no. 1, pages 9-23.
- Rizvi SH. (2011) Mir Damad in India: Islamic Philosophical Traditions and the Problem of Creation, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, volume 131, no. 1, pages 9-23. [PDF]
2010
- Rizvi S. (2010) Political mobilization and the Shi'i religious establishment (marja'iyya), International Affairs, volume 86, no. 6, pages 1299-1313, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2346.2010.00944.x.
- Rizvi SH. (2010) Political Mobilization and the Shi'i Establishment, International Affairs, volume 86, no. 6, pages 1299-1313.
- Rizvi SH. (2010) Sayyid Ni'matullah al-Jaza'iri and his Anthologies: Anti-Sufism, Shi'ism and Jokes in the Safavid World, Die Welt des Islams, volume 50, no. 2, pages 224-242, DOI:10.1163/1570060010X514497.
- Rizvi SH. (2010) Communicating Pure Consciousness Events: Using Izutsu to address a problem in the Philosophy of Mysticism, Japanese Contribution to Islamic Studies: The Legacy of Toshihiko Izutsu Interpreted, International Islamic University Malaysia Press, 157-170.
- Rizvi SH. (2010) Reality and Realities: Mulla Sadra Shirazi and structure of reality, JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, volume 21, no. 1, pages 119-122, DOI:10.1093/jis/etp099. [PDF]
- Rizvi SH. (2010) The Other Shiites: From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, volume 21, no. 1, pages 122-124, DOI:10.1093/jis/etp100. [PDF]
2009
- Rizvi SH. (2009) Shi'ism in Bahrain: Marja'iyya and politics, Orient, volume 50, no. 3, pages 16-24.
- Rizvi SH. (2009) Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, SPECULUM-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES, volume 84, no. 1, pages 188-189, DOI:10.1017/S0038713400021382. [PDF]
2008
- Rizvi SH. (2008) The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mullā Ṣadrā By Christian Jambet, transl. Jeff Fort, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 19, no. 2, pages 255-257, DOI:10.1093/jis/etn019.
- Rizvi, S., Hamza, F.. (2008) An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries Volume 1: On the Nature of the Divine, Oxford University Press. [PDF]
- Rizvi SH, Leaman, O. (2008) The Developed Kalam tradition, The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, Cambridge University Press, 77-96. [PDF]
2007
- Rizvi SH. (2007) Paradise of Submission: A Medieval Treatise on Ismaili Thought. A New Persian Edition and English Translation of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's Rawḍa-yi taslīm Edited and translated by S. J. Badakhchani, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 18, no. 1, pages 105-108, DOI:10.1093/jis/etl051.
- Rizvi SH. (2007) The Nature of Time and Consciousness in Islam By Habibuddin Ahmed, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 19, no. 1, pages 107-108, DOI:10.1093/jis/etm073.
- Rizvi SH. (2007) Gods and Humans in Islamic Thought: ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Ibn Sīnā and al-Ghazālī By Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 19, no. 1, pages 97-100, DOI:10.1093/jis/etm074.
- Rizvi SH. (2007) Mulla Sadra Shirazi: His Life and Works and the Sources for Safavid Philosophy, Oxford University Press.
- Rizvi SH. (2007) (Neo)Platonism Revived in the Light of the Imams: Qadi Sa'id Qummi and his reception of the Theologia Aristotelis , Classical Arabic Philosophy: Sources and Reception, Thw Warburgh Institute, 176-207.
- Rizvi SH. (2007) Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, volume 127, no. 4, pages 536-538. [PDF]
2006
- Rizvi SH. (2006) Sufism and Deconstruction: A Comparative Study of Derrida and Ibn ‘Arabi. By Ian Almond, Literature and Theology, volume 20, no. 4, pages 480-482, DOI:10.1093/litthe/frl051.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) God, Life, and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives Edited by Ted Peters, Muzaffar Iqbal and Syed Nomanul Haq (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002). 404 pp. Price HB £57.75. ISBN 0–754–60883–2, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 17, no. 1, pages 68-71, DOI:10.1093/jis/eti177.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) Muḥammad Bāqir aṣ-Ṣadr: Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence Translated by Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), 208 pp. Price HB £44.00. ISBN 1–85168–324–0, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 17, no. 2, pages 207-212, DOI:10.1093/jis/etl018.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) The existential breath of al-rahman and the munificent agency of al-rahim: the Tafsir Surat al-Fatiha of Jami and the School of Ibn 'Arabi', Journal of Qur'anic Studies, volume 8, no. 1, pages 58-87.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) Towards a Typology of Philosophical Inquiry in the Ithna 'Ashariyy Tradition, International Journal of Shi'i Studies, volume 4, no. 1, pages 189-206.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) Between Time and Eternity: Mir Damad on God's creative agency, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 17, no. 2, pages 158-176, DOI:10.1093/jis/etl003.
- Rizvi SH. (2006) Time and Creation in Some Safavid Philosophies, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, volume 62, no. 2, pages 713-737.
2005
- Rizvi SH. (2005) Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy: The Limit of Words. By Kiki Kennedy-Day (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 200 pp. Price HB £65.00 ISBN 0–700–71723–4, Journal of Islamic Studies, volume 16, no. 3, pages 362-366, DOI:10.1093/jis/eti156.
- Rizvi S. (2005) A Sufi theology fit for a Shī‘ī king: The Gawhar-i Murād of ‘Abd al–Razzāq Lāhījī (d. 1072/1661–2), Sufism and Theology, 83-98.
- Rizvi SH. (2005) Mullā Scombining dot belowadrā and causation: Rethinking a problem in later Islamic philosophy, Philosophy East and West, volume 55, no. 4, pages 570-583, DOI:10.1353/pew.2005.0042.
- Rizvi, S.. (2005) Mysticism and philosophy: Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra, The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 224-246.
- Rizvi SH. (2005) Mulla Sadra and causation: Rethinking a problem in later Islamic philosophy, PHILOS EAST WEST, volume 55, no. 4, pages 570-+.
2004
- Rizvi, S.. (2004) A primordial e pluribus unum: exegeses on Q.2:213 and modern Muslim discourses on religious pluralism, Journal of Quranic Studies, volume 6, no. 1, pages 21-42.
- Rizvi SH. (2004) A treatise attributed to Shaykh Muhyi al-Din on the Ultimate Reality, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, volume 25, pages 1-24.
2003
- Rizvi SH. (2003) The Soteriology of Wilaya: early tashayyu' and Mulla Sadra, International Journal of Shi'i Studies, volume 1, pages 157-176.
2002
- Rizvi SH. (2002) Reconsidering the life of Mulla Sadra Shirazi: notes towards an intellectual biography, Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, volume 40, pages 181-202.
1999
- Rizvi SH. (1999) An Islamic Subversion of the existence-essence distinction? Suhrawardi's visionary hierarchy of lights, Asian Philosophy, volume 9, no. 3, pages 219-227, DOI:10.1080/09552369908575500.
Teaching
Modules taught
- ARA1021 - Introduction to Persian History and Culture
- ARA2146 - Islamic Theological Traditions
- ARA3146 - Iranian History, 1500 - the Present
- ARAM103 - New Approaches to Islamic Thought
Biography
I come from a Twelver Shi'i background, on my father's side from a family of Razavi sayyids originally from Khurasan who settled in North India.
After a liberal education at Westminster School (1986-91), I read modern history at Christ Church, Oxford (1991-1994) where I developed an interest in philosophy and in particular Islamic philosophy. At the time, because my interests were in the modern world, I read Modern Middle East Studies for an MPhil, staying in Oxford (1994-1996), specialising with a dissertation on philosophy in 19th century Qajar Iran.
I then decided to continue the study of philosophical traditions by focusing on the Safavid period and moved across to the other place. At Pembroke College, Cambridge, I eventually wrote my doctoral dissertation on the philosophy of existence in the thought of the Iranian Safavid philosopher Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. c. 1635), obtaining my PhD in 2000.
I spent a post-doctoral year as the first fellow in the new Quranic Studies unit at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London.
I then taught for 2 years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. I have been teaching at the IAIS since 2004.
As a historian, I think that one ought not to escape one's positionality with respect to one's inquiry, its method and subjects.