Ethos

ETHOS: A CRITIQUE OF EUROCENTRIC MODERNITY, by Ahmad Kasravi (translated by Hamid Rezaei Yazdi). London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2023, 205pp. ISBN: 978-0755647750.

Reviewed by: Zeeshan Mahmood, Nottingham, UK 

Alija A. Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim philosopher and the first President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, once asserted that if religion does not lead to progress, then science does not lead to humanism . This constant tension has been one of the major fault lines within the project known as modernity, often seen as a European-led and European-dominated affair. Since the twentieth century, Iran has continued to represent a fascinating case study in its own right. It is one prominent space where the tension between secular modernity and (Shiʾite) Islamic tradition have played out for the world to see and learn from. It is from this country that a certain historian, sociologist and literary critic damningly indicted European modernity long ago for its many faults whilst attempting to formulate an alternative vernacular modernity to the rest of the world, including Europe.