Introduction: modernity and "culture" -- Western narratives of modernity. Orientalism and the Occidentalist discontent. Montesquieu's Persian Letters. Hegel: the colonization of world history. Karl Marx: the materialist narrative of modernity. The "popularization" of the Islamic Other -- Reconciling with the West's Other. The Mashruteh movement: reconciliation through capitulation -- The crisis of secularism and the rise of political Islam. The decline of democratic secularism (1941-53). Modernization and its discontent. The politicization of Shi'ism. Reform in Shi'i institutions -- Islam as a modernizing ideology: Al-e Ahmad and Shari'ati. Al-e Ahmad: "return" to the "roots" Ali Shari'ati: Islamic ideology as an authentic discourse.