Shari'ati: The Preoccupied Flâneur in Paris

By Maryam Rabiee and Ali Rahnema

This project is a spatial ethnography of Ali Shari’ati—intellectual, teacher, revolutionary, and poet—during his stay in Paris from 1959 to 1964. His experience in the French capital left a profound mark on his intellectual, political, religious, philosophical, and artistic development In 2014, Maryam started exploring Paris in Shari’ati’s footsteps and explored the important sites he journeyed through as part of the process of what he calls shodan (becoming). Maryam and Ali Rahnema have compiled a list of 49 locations* in this ongoing ethnographic study. 

* Following the launch of this project, the Shari’ati Cultural Foundation requested a similar tracing of Shari’ati’s short time in the UK. The New Life contains 4 locations from Shari’ati’s final chapter. 

Ali Shari’ati (1933-1977)

Born November 24, 1933 in the village of Kahak, Shari’ati spent the first 26 years of his life in the Iranian province of Khorasan. At 22, he enrolled in the University of Mashhad and graduated from the Faculty of Literature four years later. He arrived in Paris in late May 1959, where he found himself living in one of the world’s most important centers of thinkers, writers, and artists. He earned a PhD in the History of Medieval Islam from the Sorbonne and returned to his hometown Mashhad in 1964. Three years later, Shari’ati moved to Tehran where he began his lecture series at the Hosseiniyeh Ershad in December 1969. Shari’ati’s fiery lectures proved so popular among young intellectuals and activists that he began to attract the attention of the authorities. He was arrested in September 1973, and after serving two years in prison, eventually left Iran for the UK in May 1977.  He died in Southampton General Hospital on June 18, 1977.

Mapping Shari'ati's Paris

The following map illustrates 49 locations presented in the section below, Following Shari’ati’s Footsteps. Zoom in to view more locations and follow Shari'ati's movement in Paris on the map below.

Following Shari’ati’s Footsteps

Each site mentioned below is accompanied by photographs and a brief story about the location. Shari’ati’s recollection of numerous locations is vague and at times he confuses similar sounding names, hence some of the locations mentioned in in this section have been included with some level of uncertainty. That is due to the time gap between the events in Paris and Shari’ati’s effort to record them years after he moved back to Iran. Click on any location in the list below to view photographs and read stories about each place.