Regular readers of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung will certainly have come across the name of Navid Kermani during the past six years. Until last year, one could have followed developments in Iran by reading his articles, which were sympathetic to many opposition leaders whom he was allowed to interview on the spot. Experts also know Kermani from his doctoral thesis on the aesthetics of the Qurءan (Gott ist schön. Das ästhetische Erleben des Korans, Munich, 2000). He is now a long-term fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and has used the first part of his stay to revise thoroughly some of his contributions in order to publish them as a book.