Acknowledgements
This book began its life as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Groningen (UG) and has grown, slowly and sometimes haltingly, through the care of many companions. I owe more than I can easily name to those who walked beside me. Above all, I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, Prof. Christoph Jedan and Dr. Gorazd Andrejč, whose intellectual guidance, critical questioning, and steady encouragement have shaped this work at every stage. Their generous gift of time and attention, and their trust in the promise of the project, have been a quiet but decisive strength throughout.
My heartfelt thanks go to Prof. Mohammad Saeedimehr, who read parts of the manuscript with patience and care, and whose insightful remarks on Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s philosophy helped me to see familiar texts with new eyes. I am likewise indebted to Prof. Walter Van Herck (University of Antwerp) and Prof. Klaus von Stosch (University of Bonn). Their generous and constructive comments enabled me to clarify and refine a number of the arguments developed here, and their questions opened paths I might not otherwise have noticed.
I am grateful to my colleagues in the UG’s Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, whose collegiality, support, and friendship created a living, breathing academic home. Their understanding and flexibility in the more demanding phases of this research were often an unseen but vital encouragement. I also wish to thank the members of the faculty’s assessment committee, who read and commented the final draft of my doctoral thesis with care.
My thanks extend to the team at Brill, whose guidance helped to transform a dissertation into a book. I am especially grateful to Abdurraouf Oueslati and his colleague, Mona Saif, for their kind and efficient support from the time of submission onwards. I am likewise indebted to the Brill Production Department team, especially Joanna El Mir and Sanne Hadfy-Kovács, for their meticulous work on the copy-editing, proofs, and production of this volume in the series ‘Modern Intellectual Trends (MIT)’.
No book of this kind comes into being without a more intimate circle of care. This monograph could not have been completed without the love and support of my family. My deepest gratitude goes to my beloved wife, Mahshid, and my daughter, Sofia, whose patience, empathy, and unfailing encouragement have accompanied me through long days and longer nights. Their presence has been the quiet ground on which every page rests.
I also remember with deep affection my late father-in-law, Tavakol Alvandi, who consistently nurtured my pursuit of knowledge, and whose keen interest in Iranian intellectual life—and in Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s life and thought in particular—has remained a quiet, enduring source of inspiration. May his soul rest in peace and his memory be gently preserved.
To all who have contributed, whether directly or indirectly, visibly or unseen, to the completion of this book, I offer my heartfelt thanks. This work bears many fingerprints besides my own.
Javad Taheri