Asghar Seyed-Gohrab is Professor of Iranian and Persian Studies at Utrecht University in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He has published extensively on Persian literature, mysticism and religion. His publications range from Persian poetry to Sufism and the role of religious and mystical motifs and metaphors in Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and how peaceful religious injunctions are used to justify violence. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator (PI) of an ERC-Advanced Grant entitled Beyond Sharia: The Role of Sufism in Shaping Islam (www.beyondsharia.nl), examining Islamic non-conformist movements.

• Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Whores and Heavenly Beings: Women and Sufism in the Persianate World of the 12th-13th Centuries - Lloyd Ridgeon; Jam.l al-D.n S.v.’s Codification of Qalandar. Rites and Rituals - Zhinia Noorian; Moderate Level-Headed Antinomianism of ..fi. and its Artistic Expression - Majdoddin Keyvani; .Umar Khayy.m’s Transgressive Ethics and their Socio-Political Implications in Contemporary Iran - Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab; A Polemic on Knowledge: An Analysis of Two Persian Quatrains - Arash Ghajarjazi; Omar Khayy.m in German Reformulations: Translation between Politics, Scholarship and Belief - Amir Theilhaber; The Boy Sheikh: The Trial of an Ottoman Heretic - Colin Imber; Islam’s Margins: Ahl-i Haqq, Angels and Peacocks, and the Marginal Scholars who Loved Them - Martin van Bruinessen; A Persian Essay in Defence of Suhraward. Against the Accusation of Supporting Metempsychosis (tan.sukh)” - Cornelis van Lit; Index