Dr. Mohammad Meerzaei

Assistant Professor

Dr. Mohammad Meerzaei
(615) 898-5773
Room JUB 304A, James Union Building (JUB)
MTSU Box 73, Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Office Hours

By appointment

Degree Information

  • PHD, Vanderbilt University (2023)
  • MA, Vanderbilt University (2018)
  • MA, Bu Ali Siina University (2009)
  • BA, Shiraz University (2006)

Areas of Expertise

Islamic Studies

Zoroastrian Studies

Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

Publications

- “KÄ“ čihr az yazdān: The Zoroastrian King’s Divine Visage and Its Soteriological Frame” in  Sasanian studies: Late antique Iranian world | Sasanidische Studien: Spätantike iranische Welt. Vol. 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2026, forthcoming).

- “Alternative Orientalism: Henry Corbin’s ‘Iranian Islam’ as European Nostalgia”  in Journal of the Council for Research on Religion. Vol. 7, No. ...

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- “Kē čihr az yazdān: The Zoroastrian King’s Divine Visage and Its Soteriological Frame” in  Sasanian studies: Late antique Iranian world | Sasanidische Studien: Spätantike iranische Welt. Vol. 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2026, forthcoming).

- “Alternative Orientalism: Henry Corbin’s ‘Iranian Islam’ as European Nostalgia”  in Journal of the Council for Research on Religion. Vol. 7, No. 1 (2026) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.26443/jcreor.v7i1.205.

- “A comparison between spэništa mainyu-spэnta mainyu in Zarathushtra’s’s Gāthas and al-fayḑ al-aqdas-al-fayḑ al-muqaddas in Ibn Arabi’s mystical system” in Adyān va Erfān (Iranian Journal of Religion and Mysticism), Tehran University, Vol. 45, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2012-2013 (with Dr. Teymour Ghaderi) 

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Presentations

- “Memory and Authenticity: Tracing the Difference of Narratives in Khwadāynāma in Transition from Sasanian to Early Islamic Iran” – International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May 14–16, 2026.

“YahÌ£yā SuhrawardÄ«: The Twentieth-Century Making of a Medieval National Martyr” – AAR-SE Annual Conference, Furman University, Greenville, SC, February 27–March 1, 2026.

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- “Memory and Authenticity: Tracing the Difference of Narratives in Khwadāynāma in Transition from Sasanian to Early Islamic Iran” – International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May 14–16, 2026.

“Yaḥyā Suhrawardī: The Twentieth-Century Making of a Medieval National Martyr” – AAR-SE Annual Conference, Furman University, Greenville, SC, February 27–March 1, 2026.

- “Suhrawardī’s Other Dream: Knowledge, Power, and Authenticity between Three Dream Accounts”  The American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Boston, MA, November 22-25, 2025.

-  “The Misconceived Mystic Nation: The European Birth and Iranian Life of Iranian Islam.” Signs of the Times: Interdisciplinary Responses to Religious Nationalism Conference. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, March 20-22, 2025.

- “Religion in a Historical Transition: From Zoroastrian dēn to Islamic dīn.” American Academy of Religion-Southeast (AAR-SE) Conference. Miami Memorial University, Miami, Florida, March 7-9 2025. 

- “Arms of Light in a War of Reasons: Yaḥyā Suhrawardī's Renegotiation of Mysticism and Philosophy on the post-Ghazālī Map of Islamic Knowledge.” American Academy of Religion-Southeast (AAR-SE) Conference. The College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, March 1-4, 2024.

- “Alternative Orientalism: Henry Corbin and the Helleno-Christian Making of his Theory of Iranian Islam.”  The American Academy of Religion, Co-sponsored session: Cultural History of the Study of Religion Unit and Study of Islam Unit. November 20-23, 2022.

- “Politics of Knowledge in Yaḥyā Suhrawardī’s Revival of Ancient Iranian Wisdom.” The American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS), Villanova, PA, March 19-20, 2021.

- “Seeing Religion, Naming Religion, and Changing the Religious Landscape: the Mystical and the Imperial in the Formation of Zoroastrian Orthodoxy.” American Academy of Religion – Southeastern Commission, Section: Asian Religions. The University of Georgia Athens, Georgia, February 28 – March 1, 2020.

- “Anthropologizing the Qur’anic Milieu.” The American Academy of Religion – Southeastern Commission, Section: Islam, Theme: Method and Theory in the Study of the Qur’an. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, March 8-10, 2019.

- “Spirits Versus Historians from Yaḥyā Suhrawardī to Henry Corbin: The Notion of ‘Spirit’ as a means for Transcending the Historicity of Religion.” Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies, The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota, March 22-24, 2018.

- “Al-kitāb wa ʾl-ḥikma (The Book and The Wisdom): Authenticity And Authority in the Qur’an And the Early Exegetical Tradition.” Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, Sewanee The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, March 10-11, 2017.

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Courses

RS 2010 Introduction to Religion in the Middle East

MES 2010 Introduction to Middle East Studies

RS 2030 Religion and Society

RS 3060 Pilgrimage and Sacred Journeys

RS 3070 Supernatural Encounters

RS 3080 Comparative Mysticism

RS 4080 Islamic Traditions

RS 4700 Special Topics in Religious Studies: Scriptures and Sacred Texts

RS 4050 Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

RS 4150 Religion and Nationalism