Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
Biographic Data
| ID | 179560 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Reza Zia-Ebrahimi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Reza |
| FAMILY NAME | Zia-Ebrahimi |
| SIGNATURE | ZIA-EBRAHIMI R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3857-5064 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 79 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The islamogauchisme discourse, or the power to create the inner enemy
This article aims to examine the genealogy of the discourse of islamogauchisme (sometimes translated as ‘Islamo-leftism’), provide a socio-historical analysis of its political functions in the French culture wars and highlight its relevance to an understanding of transnational, particularly transatlantic, opposition to antiracist and pro-Palestinian politics. The article will also place the islamogauchisme discourse within a deeper history of rac…
The French origins of ‘Islamophobia denial’
Denial of Islamophobia as a form of racism is widespread among French intellectual and political elites. Time and again it has been claimed in op-eds, talk shows, investigative journalistic work and even in full-length books devoted to the topic that the invocation of Islamophobia is part of an Islamist conspiracy to ‘silence legitimate criticism of Islam’, and no less than a threat to ‘republican values’ and laïcité (laicism). Even anti-racist a…
Betty Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East
When the Elders of Zion relocated to Eurabia
Zia-Ebrahimi’s objective in this article is two-fold. First, to argue that antisemitism and Islamophobia display similar dynamics in representing their target population as a separate and antagonistic race (a process referred to as ‘racialization’). Second, to suggest that conspiracy theories of the ‘world Jewish domination’ type or their Islamophobic equivalent ‘Islamization of Europe’ type are powerful enablers of racialization, something that …
David N. Yaghoubian. Ethnicity, Identity, and the Development of Nationalism in Iran
David N. Yaghoubian’s Ethnicity, Identity, and the Development of Nationalism in Iran is both less and more than what it claims to be. It is less, because the title suggests that the book is some broad examination of the development of nationalism in Iran, while in fact it focuses on a specific minority: Armenian Iranians. Yet, it is more than a study of Iranian nationalism, because the author makes very captivating inroads into topics as diverse…
The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi revisits the work of Fath'ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, two Qajar-era intellectuals who founded modern Iranian nationalism. In their efforts to make sense of a difficult historical situation, these thinkers advanced an appealing ideology Zia-Ebrahimi calls "dislocative nationalism," in which pre-Islamic Iran is cast as a golden age, Islam is reinterpreted as an alien religion, and Arabs become implacable others. Di…
Better a Warm Hug than a Cold Bath
This paper assesses the extent to which the modern historiography of Iran is indebted to a nationalist construction of Iran’s past, rather than proceeding from impartial and critical historical research. The paper pursues this aim by applying the distinction between history (as a scholarly discipline) and memory (as a nationalist construct) to one of the central tropes of the country’s historiography. According to that trope, Iranian history can …
‘Arab invasion’ and decline, or the import of European racial thought by Iranian nationalists
Historical research on western racial theories has grown exponentially in the past few years. A number of scholars have also investigated various cases of ethnic prejudice beyond the western pale, for instance against Koreans in Japan or Muslims in India. Yet, little attention has been given to the modalities in which European nineteenth-century racial thought was adopted in other parts of the world. This article attempts to broach a discussion o…
Courting the former colony
This article analyses the relationship between France and Algeria in the immediate aftermath of Algerian independence. In 1963, Algeria repeatedly breached the Evian Accords, and continuously threatened France's national interests. Yet, French policymakers accommodated Algeria's reassertion and even rewarded it with a generous coopération package. I will argue that this remarkable discrepancy was due to Gaullist France's belief that association w…
Self-Orientalization and Dislocation
The claim to belong to the “Aryan race,” believed to be rooted in the ancient self-designation ariya , is a fundamental pillar of the Iranian nationalist discourse. This paper aims to show that in fact it is a twentieth-century import from Europe, where after being instrumentalized for colonial endeavors and Nazi atrocities, it has become almost completely discredited. Yet Iranians continue to nonchalantly refer to themselves as Aryans and the my…
An Emissary of the Golden Age
Early nationalist thought in nineteenth‐century Iran emphasised the lost glories of the Zoroastrian pre‐Islamic past, which it held for a utopian society of refinement, progress, and power destroyed by the advent of Islam. This article aims to show the prominence of this archaistic movement in the early phase of Iranian nationalism by highlighting the impact of an Indian Parsi traveller named Manekji Limji Hataria on nationalist intellectuals. Be…
Self-Orientalization and Dislocation
The claim to belong to the “Aryan race,” believed to be rooted in the ancient self-designation ariya , is a fundamental pillar of the Iranian nationalist discourse. This paper aims to show that in fact it is a twentieth-century import from Europe, where after being instrumentalized for colonial endeavors and Nazi atrocities, it has become almost completely discredited. Yet Iranians continue to nonchalantly refer to themselves as Aryans and the my…
When the Elders of Zion relocated to Eurabia
Zia-Ebrahimi’s objective in this article is two-fold. First, to argue that antisemitism and Islamophobia display similar dynamics in representing their target population as a separate and antagonistic race (a process referred to as ‘racialization’). Second, to suggest that conspiracy theories of the ‘world Jewish domination’ type or their Islamophobic equivalent ‘Islamization of Europe’ type are powerful enablers of racialization, something that …
The French origins of ‘Islamophobia denial’
Denial of Islamophobia as a form of racism is widespread among French intellectual and political elites. Time and again it has been claimed in op-eds, talk shows, investigative journalistic work and even in full-length books devoted to the topic that the invocation of Islamophobia is part of an Islamist conspiracy to ‘silence legitimate criticism of Islam’, and no less than a threat to ‘republican values’ and laïcité (laicism). Even anti-racist a…
The islamogauchisme discourse, or the power to create the inner enemy
This article aims to examine the genealogy of the discourse of islamogauchisme (sometimes translated as ‘Islamo-leftism’), provide a socio-historical analysis of its political functions in the French culture wars and highlight its relevance to an understanding of transnational, particularly transatlantic, opposition to antiracist and pro-Palestinian politics. The article will also place the islamogauchisme discourse within a deeper history of rac…
The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi revisits the work of Fath'ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, two Qajar-era intellectuals who founded modern Iranian nationalism. In their efforts to make sense of a difficult historical situation, these thinkers advanced an appealing ideology Zia-Ebrahimi calls "dislocative nationalism," in which pre-Islamic Iran is cast as a golden age, Islam is reinterpreted as an alien religion, and Arabs become implacable others. Di…
An Emissary of the Golden Age
Early nationalist thought in nineteenth‐century Iran emphasised the lost glories of the Zoroastrian pre‐Islamic past, which it held for a utopian society of refinement, progress, and power destroyed by the advent of Islam. This article aims to show the prominence of this archaistic movement in the early phase of Iranian nationalism by highlighting the impact of an Indian Parsi traveller named Manekji Limji Hataria on nationalist intellectuals. Be…
Better a Warm Hug than a Cold Bath
This paper assesses the extent to which the modern historiography of Iran is indebted to a nationalist construction of Iran’s past, rather than proceeding from impartial and critical historical research. The paper pursues this aim by applying the distinction between history (as a scholarly discipline) and memory (as a nationalist construct) to one of the central tropes of the country’s historiography. According to that trope, Iranian history can …
Courting the former colony
This article analyses the relationship between France and Algeria in the immediate aftermath of Algerian independence. In 1963, Algeria repeatedly breached the Evian Accords, and continuously threatened France's national interests. Yet, French policymakers accommodated Algeria's reassertion and even rewarded it with a generous coopération package. I will argue that this remarkable discrepancy was due to Gaullist France's belief that association w…
An Emissary of the Golden Age
Early nationalist thought in nineteenth‐century Iran emphasised the lost glories of the Zoroastrian pre‐Islamic past, which it held for a utopian society of refinement, progress, and power destroyed by the advent of Islam. This article aims to show the prominence of this archaistic movement in the early phase of Iranian nationalism by highlighting the impact of an Indian Parsi traveller named Manekji Limji Hataria on nationalist intellectuals. Be…
Self-Orientalization and Dislocation
The claim to belong to the “Aryan race,” believed to be rooted in the ancient self-designation ariya , is a fundamental pillar of the Iranian nationalist discourse. This paper aims to show that in fact it is a twentieth-century import from Europe, where after being instrumentalized for colonial endeavors and Nazi atrocities, it has become almost completely discredited. Yet Iranians continue to nonchalantly refer to themselves as Aryans and the my…
Courting the former colony
This article analyses the relationship between France and Algeria in the immediate aftermath of Algerian independence. In 1963, Algeria repeatedly breached the Evian Accords, and continuously threatened France's national interests. Yet, French policymakers accommodated Algeria's reassertion and even rewarded it with a generous coopération package. I will argue that this remarkable discrepancy was due to Gaullist France's belief that association w…
‘Arab invasion’ and decline, or the import of European racial thought by Iranian nationalists
Historical research on western racial theories has grown exponentially in the past few years. A number of scholars have also investigated various cases of ethnic prejudice beyond the western pale, for instance against Koreans in Japan or Muslims in India. Yet, little attention has been given to the modalities in which European nineteenth-century racial thought was adopted in other parts of the world. This article attempts to broach a discussion o…
The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi revisits the work of Fath'ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, two Qajar-era intellectuals who founded modern Iranian nationalism. In their efforts to make sense of a difficult historical situation, these thinkers advanced an appealing ideology Zia-Ebrahimi calls "dislocative nationalism," in which pre-Islamic Iran is cast as a golden age, Islam is reinterpreted as an alien religion, and Arabs become implacable others. Di…
Better a Warm Hug than a Cold Bath
This paper assesses the extent to which the modern historiography of Iran is indebted to a nationalist construction of Iran’s past, rather than proceeding from impartial and critical historical research. The paper pursues this aim by applying the distinction between history (as a scholarly discipline) and memory (as a nationalist construct) to one of the central tropes of the country’s historiography. According to that trope, Iranian history can …
David N. Yaghoubian. Ethnicity, Identity, and the Development of Nationalism in Iran
David N. Yaghoubian’s Ethnicity, Identity, and the Development of Nationalism in Iran is both less and more than what it claims to be. It is less, because the title suggests that the book is some broad examination of the development of nationalism in Iran, while in fact it focuses on a specific minority: Armenian Iranians. Yet, it is more than a study of Iranian nationalism, because the author makes very captivating inroads into topics as diverse…
When the Elders of Zion relocated to Eurabia
Zia-Ebrahimi’s objective in this article is two-fold. First, to argue that antisemitism and Islamophobia display similar dynamics in representing their target population as a separate and antagonistic race (a process referred to as ‘racialization’). Second, to suggest that conspiracy theories of the ‘world Jewish domination’ type or their Islamophobic equivalent ‘Islamization of Europe’ type are powerful enablers of racialization, something that …
Betty Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East
The French origins of ‘Islamophobia denial’
Denial of Islamophobia as a form of racism is widespread among French intellectual and political elites. Time and again it has been claimed in op-eds, talk shows, investigative journalistic work and even in full-length books devoted to the topic that the invocation of Islamophobia is part of an Islamist conspiracy to ‘silence legitimate criticism of Islam’, and no less than a threat to ‘republican values’ and laïcité (laicism). Even anti-racist a…
The islamogauchisme discourse, or the power to create the inner enemy
This article aims to examine the genealogy of the discourse of islamogauchisme (sometimes translated as ‘Islamo-leftism’), provide a socio-historical analysis of its political functions in the French culture wars and highlight its relevance to an understanding of transnational, particularly transatlantic, opposition to antiracist and pro-Palestinian politics. The article will also place the islamogauchisme discourse within a deeper history of rac…
Law (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · History (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Nationalism (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)