Professor Sajjad Rizvi

I'm an intellectual historian who is interested in the course of philosophy in the Islamic world both past and present, and especially in the Persianate world. For some time, I am been committed to an approach to philosophy that focuses on spiritual exercises, following the work of the late Pierre Hadot. 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 currently interested in three projects: a monograph on Plato and Platonisms in Islam, a theological analysis of Imamology in Shiʿi thought, and the reception of some European philosophies in the postcolonial Muslim context.

With a former student and colleague Ahab Bdaiwi, I am editing the Oxford Handbook of Shii Islam.

I have advised various government departments and private sector concerns on Iraq, Iran, Shii 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.