summary of The Last Muslim Intellectual: The Life and Legacy of Jalal Al-e Ahmad by Hamid Dabashi:

Hamid Dabashi’s The Last Muslim Intellectual is a critical intellectual biography of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, one of Iran’s most influential twentieth-century thinkers, who became a central voice in articulating the cultural and political dilemmas faced by Muslim societies in the modern world. Dabashi situates Al-e Ahmad within the broader history of anti-colonial thought, nationalism, and Islamic intellectual traditions, portraying him as a figure who wrestled with the contradictions of modernity, secularism, and tradition. Best known for his concept of Gharbzadegi (“Westoxification”), Al-e Ahmad diagnosed the deep cultural dependency and alienation produced by Western imperial and technological dominance, warning that the uncritical imitation of the West would erode the autonomy and authenticity of Muslim societies. Dabashi examines not only Al-e Ahmad’s political writings but also his fiction, travelogues, and translations, showing how his work embodied both the aspirations and anxieties of a society caught between modernization and cultural preservation. At the same time, Dabashi frames Al-e Ahmad as “the last Muslim intellectual” in the sense that he represented a tradition of public intellectuals who engaged simultaneously with Islamic heritage and global modernity, a role that has become increasingly fragmented in the contemporary period. The book highlights how Al-e Ahmad’s ideas resonated in Iran’s revolutionary context, influencing debates about authenticity, sovereignty, and resistance, while also tracing their limitations and internal contradictions. Ultimately, Dabashi uses Al-e Ahmad’s life and thought as a lens to reflect on the fate of Muslim intellectualism in the postcolonial world, questioning whether a figure with such wide-ranging cultural authority can still emerge in the fractured and globalized intellectual landscapes of today.