An Islamic Utopian A Political Biography of Ali Shari'ati

This book provides a new understanding of a man who played a significant part in the Iranian revolution and an analysis of a current of political Islam that has influenced movements throughout the Middle East.This full-length political biography looks at Ali Shari`ati's life and thought in the context of the complex and contradictory cultural, social, and political conditions of the Iranian society that shaped him.
Dr Rahnema has given us an example of objective writing. He offers insights into the complex life, actions and writings of Shariati while never burdening us with judgement or synthesizing the matter for us. He lays the story out and let's us draw our own judgements. Rahnema gives us facts from the sources and doesn't draw conclusions or lead us to a thesis. He let's us draw our own.

The story is divided into three parts - the young Shariati at odds with his intelligence finding a haven in poetry. He then takes up the struggle between classical poetry and modern poetry. Rahnema uses this to prepare us for the last third of the book where Shariati carves out a modernist theology of Shia Islam in the face of the classical and institutionalized system. In the middle we learn of his education and exposure to the post war critical thinkers in Paris. Rahnema takes us through Shariati's complex synthesis of Economic theory, political theory, liberation theology, Sunni and Shia thought and how Shariati wove these sometimes with his own fictive additions to arrive at a living Shia ism which was definitely at odds with the traditional interpretations. Shariati found himself trying to change Shia thoughts and beliefs into a dynamic revolutionary system -- not anti western, but true to Iranian culture and history and the problems of Iran, not regurgitated problems of the West. His was definitely an Iranian centric view of the world, but taking from and using Eastern and Western thought where it was appropriate.

To Rahnema's credit he never bothers us with his judgement or critique of Shariati's work. He presents a man whose thoughts are complex and who often revised his own thinking. He presented the facts as he could of Shariati's concessions to SAVAK and his role as one of the flames of the Revolution. But through all this we see a man who was often frustrating to his supporters and critics and yet true to himself, even as his ideas may have evolved.

This isn't a quick read but it will definitely enlighten you and fuel your desire to go further with Shariati and inner complexities of Iran, the Shia themselves, Sufism and ideological transition and revolt.
Table of contents
Part 1: The Political and Religious Setting * Part 2: Mohammad Taqi Sharíati * Part 3: The Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists * Part 4: From Child to Adult * Part 5: The Young Intellectual and Political Activist * Part 6: The University Years * Part 7: Paris * Part 8: Looking to the Future * Part 9: Schooling in Paris * Part 10: Homeward Bound * Part 11: Mystical Murmurs * Part 12: Fictive Mind * Part 13: At Mashhad University * Part 14: Sharíati's Audience and Discourse at the University of Mashhad * Part 15: A Cat and Mouse Game * Part 16: Hosseinyeh Ershad * Part 17: Ershad * Part 18: Restoration