Srinagar, Aug. 3 -- An Iranian-American professor at Columbia University, he's known for his wide-ranging commentaries on cinema, Islam, revolution, and exile.

His prose is lyrical, references layered, and style unapologetically bold.

Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest, published in the wake of dashed hopes following the Iranian revolution, carries his familiar voice: part theorist, part memoirist, and always a provocateur.

But this time, Dabashi's literary confidence comes at a cost.

His core claim, that Shi'ism is not a theological system but a cultural posture rooted in historical grief, raises eyebrows for reasons deeper than scholarly disagreement.

The book may be stirring, but it trades doctrinal accuracy for poetic mood, and colla...