Javad Tabatabai and Academic Indigenization in Contemporary Iran

This paper examines the contemporary Iranian intellectual pursuit of indigenizing social sciences and humanities through the scholarship of Javad Tabatabai (1945–2023). As an influential figure in recent Iranian debates on nationhood and identity, Tabatabai’s intellectual journey provides valuable insights into the various approaches to academic indigenization in Iran. In his early career, Tabatabai critically engaged with the pre-1979 Revolution pursuit of “authenticity” by nativist thinkers such as Ehsan Naraqi, as well as post-Revolutionary Islamization and indigenization efforts to reconfigure knowledge systems. He explored the “conditions of impossibility” for establishing modern social sciences within Islamic civilization, ultimately rejecting the feasibility of developing indigenous social sciences in Iran. However, Tabatabai’s later scholarship marked a significant departure. He began advocating for the creation of a distinctly “national” framework for social sciences and humanities, rooted in a “theory of Iran” aimed at addressing perceived exceptional complexities of Iranian culture and civilization through history. By situating Tabatabai’s shift in perspective within the broader “nationalist turn” in his later work, this paper highlights the interplay between national identity and knowledge production in his final scholarship, interpreting it as another chapter in the Iranian intellectual pursuit of indigenous social sciences and humanities.