Mohsen Goudarzi, PhD ’18, Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies

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Mohsen Goudarzi has been interested in the Qur’an for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Tehran, he attended Qur’an classes and spent hours listening to, and emulating, professional Qur’anic recitations. Today, Goudarzi is a scholar of the Qur’an, focusing on themes that continue to spark debate in the field: its textual history, its exegesis throughout centuries by Muslim communities, the people it was originally preached to, and the impact it had on them. “There is so much of the Qur’an that we don’t fully understand,” he says. “And there are new ways of looking at central aspects of the Qur’an that lead to a better understanding not only of the Qur’anic text but also of the world of early Islam and the communities that inhabited that world.” 

Goudarzi was a computer engineering major in college when his interest in studying religion began to flourish. “Religion was such a central topic of conversation, and something that pervaded every level of society, from the nuclear family to the government,” he remembers. “My classmates and I especially enjoyed debating the details of Islamic history, which led me to want to study these topics professionally.” In keeping with his family’s wishes, Goudarzi went on to earn a master’s degree in information technology, while also taking religion courses in his university’s humanities department. By the time he graduated, he had decided to go abroad to pursue advanced study of Islamic history in a multireligious context. He attended Stanford, where he earned a master’s degree in religious studies, and then received his PhD from Harvard.  

Now, having joined the HDS faculty in July 2021, Goudarzi teaches early Islamic history and Qur’anic studies, engaging students in fundamental historical and religious topics that have continued relevance for contemporary communities. Noting that every student brings a fresh perspective to the subject matter, he encourages classroom discussion about questions that remain unanswered in the field, from the structure of a Qur’anic surah to the meaning of a particular passage. He also draws students’ attention to the “unique beauty,” as he says, of the literature they are studying. “Religious literature captures the most profound feelings of individuals throughout history,” he shares, “their fears, their sense of elation, their feelings of inspiration in front of a sublime force.” For Goudarzi, witnessing students’ growth as they learn new methodologies and ways of thinking is one of his favorite parts of teaching: “This is a very special phase in our students’ lives. It is a time of tremendous and rapid development for them, and to be part of that journey of growth and transformation is a joy and a privilege.”

—by Sarah Rubin