November 24
6 PM (EST)
Knox Hall Room 208
Dr Daryoush Mohammad Poor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Academic Research and Publications and the Interim Head of Constituency Studies Unit at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. His first monograph, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (2014) is a fresh theoretical engagement with contemporary institutions of the Ismaili imamate. His most recent IIS book is Command and Creation: A Shi‘i Cosmological Treatise, is a Persian edition and English translation of Muhammad al-Shahrastani’s Majlis-i maktūb(2021). He is the author of several chapters and articles in the area of Ismaili studies and political philosophy.
His latest work, A Philosophical Treatise on Muslim Politics: Wisdom and Governance (2022) is an English translation of Mehdi Hairi Yazdi’s Ḥikmat wa ḥukūmat. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK and Editor of the Ismaili Heritage Series.
Dr Mohammad Poor’s early academic background is mathematics, and he completed his postgraduate studies in the UK in International Relations and Contemporary Political Theory. and his PhD in Political and Social Studies focussing on evolutions of authority and leadership. Over the past two decades, he has worked in various capacities in Community institutions and has also taught extensively for the IIS graduate students and various other educational programmes offered by the IIS. His area of specialisation is intellectual history, Ismaili studies and Ismaili philosophy. His various publications cover a range of disciplines including Ismaili studies, contemporary political theory, politics of the Muslim world, Persian literature, poetry and mysticism. He is currently working on a new English translation of Muhammad al-Sharastani’s al-Milal wa al-nihal alongside a Persian edition of the oldest known translation of al-Sharastani’s work rendered by Nizari Ismailis during the Alamut era.
His book talk for A Philosophical Treatise on Muslim Politics: Wisdom and Governance (2022) will be moderated by Hamid Dabashi.