Ethos

Ahmad Kasravi is among the most influential Iranian intellectuals in the 20th century. He received traditional Islamic education as a seminarian, but was later drawn to modern science and scholarship. A philologist, anthropologist, linguist, jurist, journalist and historian, Kasravi was assassinated in 1946, but his works continued to influence both secular and Islamist modernists in Iran and beyond.Hamid Rezaei Yazdi is Professor at Humber College, Canada. He is the editor of Persian Literature and Modernity: Production and Reception (2019).

This translation of Kasravi’s A‘in (Ethos) is an outstanding contribution to nativist works and critiques of Orientalism from Iran. There are only a few English translations of Kasravi’s compositions, and this is an accurate and valuable addition to the literature on this provocative pre-WWII observer of the ills of Europe. The translation by Rezae Yazdi is precise and readable, and the work is contextualised superbly by an introduction and afterward by Tavakoli-Targhi and Jaskowski respectively

• Translator’s Note / Introduction by Mohamad Tavakoli-TarghiPart I.Thesis one: The earth and earthlings Thesis two: Is the world progressing? Thesis three: The consequence of Europe’s inventions Thesis four: The instruments have changed, the war remains Thesis five: Europe disrupts the world’s tranquillity Thesis six: Can law replace religion? Thesis seven: Europe’s woes Thesis eight: What will be the consequence of machinism? Thesis nine: What have the prophets said and what does Europe say? Thesis ten: The Eurocentric movement in Iran Thesis eleven: The East loses its treasures Thesis twelve: What is civilization? Thesis thirteen: European sciencesThesis fourteen: Women should not be headstrong Thesis fifteen: A leader does not lie to his own people Thesis sixteen: We must not look to Europe Thesis seventeen: What is religion? Thesis eighteen: Religion is humanism Part IIThesis one: In the Creator’s virtuous name Thesis two: How has Europe become entangled? Thesis three: Ancient grudges Thesis four: Irreligiosity and unethical education Thesis five: The harms of machinism Thesis six: Madness Thesis seven: Bolshevism Thesis eight: Three principles of life Thesis nine: Deviant leaders Thesis ten: The rites of life Thesis eleven: Brotherly behaviour Thesis twelve: Agriculture Thesis thirteen: European laws [1] Thesis fourteen: European laws [2] Thesis fifteen: European laws [3] Thesis sixteen: Righteous and evil dispositions Thesis seventeen: The value of European inventions Thesis eighteen: The Orient and the Occident Thesis nineteen: The great Geneva Convention Thesis twenty: What is our claim?