Akhundzade is one of the greatest Iranian modern intellectuals. Addressing nationalism, literary criticism, and alphabet reform in the Muslim world, and, most importantly, provoking trenchant criticism of the Islamic religion, he initiated a persistent controversy among the Iranian intellectuals. It is often argued that he approached the European thought through the lens of self-orientalism and grounded a so-called will to imitation. Drawing on his method of Qirītīkā (criticism), particularly in Maktūbāt (1865), I argue that he confronted the Western ideas instrumentally and was aware of the historical and social context of Iran. Furthermore, despite his apparent secular approach, which is labelled usually as garbzade (West-struck), he articulated an ensemble of elements that can be traced back to pre-Islamic Iran, India, and the West. His intellectual works not only stand as the figureheads of regional studies but also represent a pathbreaking approach to the problem of backwardness in Muslim societies.

阿洪德扎德（Akhundzade）是伊朗最伟大的现代知识分子之一。他谈到穆斯林世界中的民族主义，文学批评和字母改革，最重要的是，引起对伊斯兰宗教的尖锐批评，他引发了伊朗知识分子的持续争议。经常有人争辩说，他是通过自我东方主义的眼光来对待欧洲思想的，并以所谓的模仿意志为基础。我以他的“批评”的方法，特别是在马克图巴特（1865）中的批评方法为依据，认为他在工具上面对西方思想，并且了解伊朗的历史和社会背景。此外，尽管他有明显的世俗方法，但通常被标记为garbzade（West-struck），他阐述了一系列可以追溯到伊斯兰前时期的伊朗，印度和西方的元素。他的知识分子著作不仅是地区研究的先锋，而且还是解决穆斯林社会落后问题的开创性方法。