Iranian thinker
Mohammad Jafar Mahallati
Mohammad Jafar MahallatiIslamic Studies and Theology of PeaceIranian
Life and Thought
Mohammad Jafar Amir-Mahallati is an Iranian scholar of Islamic studies, theology of peace, and the ethics of friendship. Throughout his academic career, particularly at Oberlin College, he has focused on concepts such as peace, friendship, intercultural dialogue, and the ethics of human relations in the Islamic tradition.
Mohammad Jafar Amir-Mahallati, born in 1952 in Tehran, is an Iranian scholar in the fields of Islamic studies, theology of peace, and intercultural ethics. After seminary and university studies, he received his doctorate from McGill University and has taught and conducted research at various universities and academic centers, including Oberlin, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, and Georgetown.
A significant part of Mahallati's academic work is devoted to the concept of "friendship" in the Islamic tradition and the possibility of transforming it into an ethical language for human and intercultural relations. In his writings and lectures, he views peace not merely as the absence of war, but links it to the cultivation of relationship, trust, tolerance, dialogue, and mutual recognition.
Among his well-known works are the English book "Friendship in Islamic Ethics and World Politics" and the Persian book "Friendship as a Worldview" (Dusti be-masābe-ye jahān-bini). He has also spoken in programs and lectures on the costs of enmity, peace studies, Islamic ethics, and interfaith and intercultural dialogue.
