The Basil that Enlightens the Garden: On the Style and Structure of the Literature of Today's West

Numerous books and articles have been written about the life, works, and ideas of Mirza Agha Khan Kermani (1853 or 1854 - 1896 CE), one of the most capable Iran-centered writers, a founding figure in the discourse of the Constitutional Revolution, and one of the most influential critics of religion and government in the nineteenth century. This book presents, for the first time in book form Rayḥān būstān-afrūz. The full title of the book is Rayḥān-e būstān-afrūz: bar ṭarz va tartīb-i adabiyāt-i farangistān-i 'imrūz ("On the Style and Arrangement of the Literature of Today's West), and as Agha Khan Kermani himself notes in the book, he conceived the project in Istanbul and began writing it in Trabzon during his exile "to pass the time and occupy the mind." It is likely his final work. The book has reached us in an incomplete form-only twenty pages are extant. The date of composition is Dhi'l-Qaʿda 1313 AH, corresponding to 1896 CE / 1275 SH. In this book, Agha Khan Kermani not only critiques classical and contemporary literature of his time but even takes issue with his own earlier works, calling for a fundamental re-evaluation of literature-literature to which he assigns a social function.

M. Rezaei Tazik was born in July 1983 in Mashhad. He graduated with degrees in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from the Universities of Lucerne and Berne in Switzerland. His master's and doctoral studies focused on the history of intellectual thought in Iran, particularly the criticism of religion by Iranians. His doctoral dissertation examined religion and the criticism of religion in the works of Ahmad Kasravi. Additionally, Tazik has co-translated some of the works of FathAli Akhundzadeh and Mirza Agha Khan Kermani into German.