Dr. Viktor Forian-Szabo

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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