Dariush Shayegan ( fa, داریوش شایگان; 24 January 1935 – 22 March 2018) was one of the most consequential thinkers of contemporary Iran and the Near East.
Life and career
He was born in Tabriz from an Shia
Iranian Azeri
Iranian Azerbaijanis (; az, ایران آذربایجانلیلاری, italics=no ), also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani lan ...
father and a
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
Sunni mother; his mother descended from an aristocratic family from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. Shayegan studied at the
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. He was a Professor of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n religions at the
Tehran University
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
. Besides
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, Shayegan wrote in
French and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, and spoke fluently Georgian, Russian, and Turkish (both Ottoman and Azeri).. Having spent his teens at boarding school in Great Britain, Shayegan subsequently lived, during his formative years, in Geneva, where he read at the Université de Genève French literature, philosophy, Sanskrit, and political science. Shayegan received his doctorate (''doctorat de troisième cycle'') at the Sorbonne under the tutelage of his Doktorvater Henry Corbin, with a thesis entitled: ''Les relations de l'hindouisme et du soufisme d'après le "Majma’ al-Baḥrayn" de Dārā Shokūh.''
Shayegan has written many pioneering works on the epistemological specificities of eastern and western cultures and the possibility of dialogue between them. He was the founding director of the Iranian Center for the Studies of Civilizations, which launched its work in 1977 with an international symposium on the "dialogue between civilizations," a concept that has been selectively appropriated by the former Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
. In 2009 Shayegan was awarded the inaugural
Global Dialogue Prize, an international award for "outstanding achievements in the advancement and application of intercultural value research", in recognition of his dialogical conception of cultural subjectivity (for a statement of the award committee and a scholarly presentation (including a fairly complete bibliography) of Shayegan's contribution to intercultural dialogue, see the (copyrighted) webpages of this award.)
Death
Shayegan died on 22 March 2018, at the age of 83 in Tehran.
Works
Main works by Shayegan:
* Hindouisme et Soufisme, une lecture du «Confluent des Deux Océans», Éditions de la Différence, Paris 1979, 2nd edition, Albin Michel, Paris
* Qu'est-ce qu'une révolution religieuse? Presses d'aujourd'hui, Paris 1982, deuxième édition, Bibliothèque Albin Michel des idées, Paris,1991.
* Le regard mutilé, Schizophrénie culturelle : pays traditionnels face à la modernité, Albin English Translation : Cultural Schizophrenia, Islamic Societies Confronting the West, Translated from the French by John Howe, Saqi books, London 1992. Also published by Syracuse University Press, 1997.
* Henry Corbin, La topographie spirituelle de l'Islam iranien, Éditions de la Différence, Paris, 1990
* Les illusions de l'identité, Éditions du Félin, Paris, 1992
* Sous les ciels du monde, Entretiens avec Ramin Jahanbegloo, Éditions du Félin,1992
* Au-delà du miroir, Diversité culturelle et unité des valeurs, Editions de l'Aube, 2004
* La lumière vient de l'Occident, Le réenchantement du monde et la pensée nomade, L'aube, essai. Paris, 2001, troisième édition, 2005, quatriéme édition, essai poche, 2008
* Terre de mirages, avec la collaboration de Maryam Askari, La collection Regards croisés, Éditions de l'Aube, Paris, 2004
Works on Shayegan:
* Mehrzad Borujerdi : Iranian Intellectuals and the West, Syracuse University Press, 1996
* Afsaneh Gächter, Daryush Shayegan, interkulturell gelesen, Interkulturelle Bibliothek, Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen 2005
* Dariush Borbor, the well-known Iranian architect and urban planner has discussed his seventy years of intimate friendship with Shayegan and his family in an interview, 2018
See also
*
Intellectual Movements in Iran
*
Iranian Studies
Iranian studies ( fa, ايرانشناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...
*
Persian philosophy
*
Henri Corbin
*
Daryoush Ashouri
*
Aydin Aghdashloo
*
List of University of Tehran people
Here is a list of notable people affiliated with the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences, commonly including alumni, chancellors, current and former faculty members, students, and others.
Academics
* Mostafa Azkia, U ...
References
External links
''Letters to future generations'' original texts selected and compiled by Federico Mayor in collaboration with Roger-Pol Droit, Cultures of Peace/
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Publishing, 1999 .
The next chapter* Simon F. O'Li (Oliai)
''The Iranian'', October 27, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shayegan, Dariush
1935 births
2018 deaths
Iranian Iranologists
Iranian people of Georgian descent
21st-century Iranian philosophers
20th-century Iranian philosophers
University of Paris alumni
University of Tehran faculty
People from Tabriz
Persian-language writers
Asian writers in French
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease