Maisam Haider Ali
Graduate Student Comparative Literature
MA Comparative Literature and Languages, University of California, Riverside.
BSc Hons. Social Development and Policy, Minor in History (2019), Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Syed Maisam Haider Ali Rizvi is currently a 5th year PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages at the University of California, Riverside. His research lies on the intersection of philosophy and poetics, with a focus on notions such as mimēsis, askēsis, and theosis within classical Greek, Arab-Islamic, and Persian traditions. His dissertation, titled “Between Ethics and Aesthetics: Mimēsis as a Praxis of Becoming in the Arab-Islamic Tradition,” underlines how the two aspects of Arabic Mimēsis (muḥākat and takhayīl) in the works of al-Fārābi and Ibn Sīnā provides us with an opportunity to articulate poetic practice as a praxis of becoming that truly bridges the alleged gap between the ‘ethics’ and ‘aesthetics.’ It demonstrates how the contemplation on the “beautiful” in the Arab-Islamic and Persian philosophical-poetic tradition simultaneously demands and necessitates the cultivation of the beautiful self.
Book Reviews:
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali. “Review of Virtues of Greatness In The Arabic Tradition, Written by Sophia Vasalou.” Journal of Islamic Ethics, vol. 4, no. 1–2, Brill, Dec. 2020, pp. 264–67. brill.com, doi:10.1163/24685542-12340040.
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali. “Review of Virtues of Greatness In The Arabic Tradition, Written by Sophia Vasalou.” Journal of Islamic Ethics, vol. 4, no. 1–2, Brill, Dec. 2020, pp. 264–67. brill.com, doi:10.1163/24685542-12340040.
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali. “Review of The Sufis’ and Ibn al-‘Arabi Attitudes Towards the Pillars of Islam, Written by Binyamin Abrahamov.” Journal of The Muhiyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society, vol 68, 2020, pp. 119-121.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali., and Fatima, Syeda Maryam. “Text as a Site of Hermeneutical ‘Possibility’: An Attempt to Explore the Gradational Referentiality and Various Modalities of Hakim Sanai’s Concept of ‘Ishq.” International Journal of Persian Literature. (Summer 2025).
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali. “Al-Farabi’s Poetics Reconsidered.” Journal of Islamic Philosophy. (Summer 2024)
Rizvi, Syed Maisam Haider Ali. “Meditating The Forgotten Purpose of Philosophical Practice: A Close Reading of al-Kindī’s Risālah fī Kammīya tul-Kutub.” (Under-Review)