Ebrahim Towfigh

Drawing on my research findings on the postcolonial state and the production of knowledge in modern Iran, I intend to explore the development of gofteman-e gharbzadegi (the discourse of Westoxification) during the final three decades of the Pahlavi regime (1950–1979). Specifically, I ask: How did a group of conservative intellectuals appropriate Henry Corbin’s apolitical and theosophical analysis of Iranian Islam (Shi’ite and Irfan) in order to formulate Westoxification as a discourse? And how did these conservative intellectuals transform into key social actors as a result of the interaction between power and knowledge systems in this period? This research paves the way for a genealogy of conservative thought in modern Iran. In my view, the lack of attention to the history of Iranian conservatism in the human and social sciences has prevented adequate consideration of the particularities of the Iranian experience of modernity and its specific form of social differentiation. This lack of attention to Iranian conservatism is both the result of and a condition for an orientalist and modernist narrative of the history of modern Iran. This narrative considers the different forms of conservatism in systems of thought, structures of power, and social relations in Iran as the reproduction of premodern traditions within a society that is in a transitional state, progressing from premodern/authoritarian tradition to modernity/democracy. In this narrative, the discourse of Westoxification is considered through the prism of the Islamic Revolution and seen as a sign of “politics of authenticity,” a “nativist” response to the imbalance between socio-economic development and political underdevelopment under the Pahlavi regime. I have previously argued against this perspective, illustrating elsewhere that the formation of Westoxification as a discourse was, in fact, the result of an effort by conservative intellectuals to formulate a new theory of monarchy, and a response to the crisis of the patrimonial power structures. I propose to advance my previous findings by exploring the following hypotheses: First, that the departure from the conventional archaic historiography of the first Pahlavi era, and the critique of the emerging positivist sociology enabled the formation of Westoxification as a philosophical discourse. Second, that Westoxification transformed into an influential intellectual force through the strategic actions of key social players such as Seyed Hussein Nasr, Darush Shaygan, and Ahmad Fardid. I posit that Westoxification was then given further definition by a network that spanned official and unofficial institutions such as the Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, The Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at the University of Tehran, the ashabe taavil circle, and the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, along with their related periodicals. This research project will draw on archival material, analytical sources, and interviews conducted with the key actors who were involved in the rise of Westoxification as an intellectual discourse. In sum, this research project will offer an alternative account of the development of Westoxification as a discourse by critically engaging with orientalist and modernist accounts of the phenomenon.