Secret Philosophies

A strikingly original history of ideas, Secret Philosophies is a compendium of lost and secret theories from the Middle East that offers the possibility of an alternative philosophical tradition.

A compendium of secret societies and their lost ideas, Secret Philosophies is a strikingly original passage through the hidden dimensions of thought.

The book traverses buried archives and forgotten movements that have been lost to time, exploring their philosophies of rumour and conspiracy through a revolving collection of ancient, medieval, and futuristic sects in both the East and West. Taking a new approach to the production of knowledge, Jason Mohaghegh unfolds a labyrinth of texts from vanished libraries, underground circles, and the authors of enigmatic codes and ciphers.

Each chapter features its own object of fascination, a looking glass into the rarest traditions of secrecy in both writing and imagination: from the oldest Babylonian tablet of apocalyptic warnings to a medieval prophet's last words in a cave of delirium; from books of sleep to books of plague; from exiled tongues to forbidden alphabets; from intelligence agencies to occult networks, obscure astronomical schools, science fiction symbols, burned cities, and virtual reality subcultures. Together, these encounters with subterranean worlds form their own mysterious history, and with it a philosophy of secrecy like no other.

Alongside Jason Mohaghegh’s writings are a sequence of encounters with the Palestinian artist and writer Dana Dawud, who curatorially opens each instalment like a subterranean gallery full of codes, prompts, and questions, and the renowned Iranian visual artist Raha Raissnia has also offered original calligraphic drawings that stand like portals before each chapter of the book.