Gholamreza Aavani is one of Iran’s most distinguished contemporary philosophers. An Emeritus Professor at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy, he began his academic journey in his hometown of Semnan before pursuing undergraduate studies at the American University of Beirut. He later earned his doctorate under the supervision of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, while also studying closely with two of the twentieth century’s most eminent scholars of Islamic thought—Toshihiko Izutsu and Henry Corbin.
From 1984 to 2011, Aavani served as the director of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy, where he played a pivotal role in shaping Iran’s philosophical landscape. Internationally recognized, he has served on the steering committee of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP), and has held prestigious global academic positions, including the Rifai Professorship of Islamic Philosophy at Peking University and a Visiting Professorship at the Catholic University of America.
Dr. Aavani’s intellectual achievements have earned him some of the highest honors in Iran, including the Everlasting Figure Award (Chihra-yi Māndigār), the International Farabi Award, and the Allameh Tabataba’i Prize conferred by the National Elites Foundation. He is a permanent member of the Iranian Academy of Sciences and has been a longstanding faculty member at Shahid Beheshti University.
Professor Aavani’s scholarly corpus is vast, ranging from critical editions of foundational texts, like Mullā Ṣadrā’s Asfār and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī’s Aʿlām al-nubuwwah, to groundbreaking monographs such as Rumi: A Philosophical Study (2016) and The Splendor of Wisdom (2023).
