ABSTRACT
Built in the early 1960s, Tehran’s Hosseiniyeh Ershad has long been known as an unconventional religious institution with alternative Islamist functions, appealing to a more sophisticated audience than those frequenting the mosques. From its inception, this institution was a venue from which the ideas of Sorbonne-educated Ali Shariati, an enigmatic sociologist and left-leaning Islamic intellectual, pulled the youth of Iran into the revolutionary movement. Despite the significant role the Ershad has played in promoting reformist Islamist thought and featuring the activities of creative agents among Islamic intellectual groups, both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there is only a scant corpus of literature concerning its construction, design and impact on the ensuing similar Islamic institutions across Iran. This article explores the building’s programs of ornamentation and design as well as its “performative” function as an alternate space, which offers intriguing possibilities for rethinking the constructedness of religious identity, subjectivity and agency.
