Dr. Viktor Forian-Szabo

Dr. Viktor Forian-Szabo is a multidisciplinary scholar specializing in Middle Eastern economic history, Islamic studies, political economy, and international development, with a particular focus on Iran and neighboring regions.

His research examines the relationship between law, religion, and economic institutions, especially Islamic finance and the Iranian insurance market.

He has taught at universities in Vienna, Budapest, and Sopron and conducted field research at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt.

Institutional Crossroads: Economic Law and Fiqh in Pahlavi Iran. Agency, Path Dependence, and the Making of a Legal Order

I seek to explore the evolution of economic institutions in Pahlavi-era Iran (1921–1979) through a historical institutionalist lens, focusing on the interplay between economic law, fiqh, and state-building. Challenging deterministic narratives that attribute legal modernization solely to external geopolitical pressures, this project emphasizes institutional choice, asking why Iranian elites adopted specific legal models — particularly in the areas of taxation, commercial law, banking, and insurance — while discarding others. By combining process tracing with historical analysis, the study investigates how early legal reforms produced path-dependent trajectories that shaped the foundations of modern Iranian governance. This approach makes it possible to examine how different institutional models were selectively adapted in a context that, while deeply affected by foreign influence, was never formally colonized — highlighting the agency of local actors and the contested, often hybrid nature of institutional development in non-colonial settings.

• Forian-Szabo. (2024). Risk and Uncertainty in Modern Islamic Practice. The insurance industry in Iran from the beginnings to the present. Monograph. Frank & Timme, Berlin. 
• Ebert, Oucharah, Forian-Szabo (2024). Berber Studies, Islamic Studies and Arabic Studies in Leipzig. The correspondence of Hans Stumme (1864-1936) to Ignaz Goldziher (1850-1921). Frank & Timme, Berlin. 
• Forian-Szabo. (2023). Insurance and Islam. Theological and legal discussions in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Journal of Law and Islam 13 (2023). 
• Fórián-Szabó, & Kovács, T. (2021). A burdensome legacy: opportunities and challenges for the Iranian economy after the presidential election. Hungarian Foreign Policy Review [Külügyi Szemle], 20 (3), 38–79. https://doi.org/10.47707/Kulugyi_Szemle.2021.3.2