Table of Contents

The political and religious setting - the Tudeh party, the Kasravi tendency; Mohammad Taqi Shari'ati - father and teacher - the Centre for the propagation of Islamic truths, the Centre and the oil nationalization movement, the influence of the Centre; the movement of God-worshipping socialists - the split, a homespun ideology; from child to adult - Ali's primary school, secondary school, the adult child, contradictory moods, Ali and his books; the young intellectual and political activist - the league for the freedom of the Iranian people, the political agitator, translation, the median school of Islam, Khorasan; the university years - political discontent, new sparks, friends and teachers, a patron of modern poetry, imprisonment, marriage and graduation; Paris - observation, introspection and adjustment, political revival and radicalization (1960-1964), discrete presence, penmanship, the Congress of the World Confederation of Iranian students; looking for the future - the pen, socio-political activities, the death of Ali's mother, beyond the National front, Iran-e-Azad, the Lausanne Congress; schooling in Paris - a classical education, the genuine fountain of knowledge, Massignon, Gurvitch, Berque, Fanon, Sartre, theoretical bridge-building, the Islamic alternative; homeward bound - Salman-e Pak, a guide to Khorasan, applying to Mashhad University; mystical murmurs - Shari'ati's retreat, the need for God, Shari'ati's gnosticism, mystical experiences; fictive mind - Shari'ati, Sham', Chandel, Chandel and Chapelle, Shari'ati and Solange, Solange's death and resurrection, three episodes of the fictive mind; at Mashhad University - the Jacobins, the medium, a patron of cultural activities, the relief worker, a diversion - Shari-ati and Jalal-e Al-e Ahmad; Shari'ati's audience and discourse at the University of Mashhad - Eslamshenasi, the intellectual left and Shari'ati, the revolutionary left and Shari'ati; the religious establishment reacts; a cat and mouse game -interrogations, the ban on public lectures, a mind under pressure; Hosseiniyeh Ershad - the first phase, the second phase, the Hejazi affair, Shari'ati first taste of Ershad, the return to Ershad; Ershad - a disturbing iconoclast, the backlash, the struggle for Ershad, an unexpected reinstatement; restoration - the nascent Iranian guerrilla movement, Shari'ati Ershad, the clerical opposition of Shari'ati, Mosaddeqist criticism.