Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani

Course type: Live Video Meeting (Google Meet)

Language: English
Duration: 8 weeks

Start: First week of November 2025

Economy scholarship: 50% OFF for registrations (included)

Course Description. This course explores mystical philosophy expressed in Persian poetry and prose, focusing on works that use literary form to articulate metaphysical, ethical, and transformative insights. Unlike “philosophical mysticism” (which analyzes mystical experience from outside), “mystical philosophy” proceeds from within, using poetry, allegory, and narrative to convey truths aimed at “transformation” rather than just “information.”

We will examine major Persian poets and thinkers such as Rūmī, Shams Tabrīzī, Shabistarī, Fayḍ Kāshānī, and ʿAṭṭār, alongside modern and contemporary scholarship. Emphasis will be on reading texts philosophically: analyzing how metaphor, paradox, and narrative express conceptions of the self, reality, love, and the path of transformation.

Learning Outcomes. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Distinguish mystical philosophy from philosophical mysticism in the Persian literary context.
• Interpret Persian mystical poems and prose texts philosophically.
• Analyze the role of poetic form and devices in conveying philosophy.
•  Compare different Persian authors’ mystical-philosophical approaches.
• Engage with secondary scholarship.

Course material will be provided before the course begins.