Abdolkarim Musavi-Ardebili

1926 -

Politically active Iranian cleric.

Born in Ardebil in 1926, AbdolKarim MusaviArdebili began his religious career in 1942 in Qom, where he was a student of Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini and Hosain Borujerdi. In 1948 he went to Najaf, Iraq, to pursue his education further, and he stayed there for nineteen months. In the 1960s in Qom he copublished the journal Maktab-e Islam (School of Islam), and also pursued political activities in his hometown of Ardebil. In 1971 he moved to Tehran to conduct sermons at a mosque. A founder, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, of the now defunct Islamic Republican Party, MusaviArdebili also established the Bonyad-e Mostazʾafan (Foundation of the Oppressed). He was the prosecutor general from 1980 to 1981 and head of the supreme judicial council and the Supreme Court from 1981 to 1989. In 1988 he was appointed to the Expediency Council. Other positions held by Musavi-Ardebili include his appointment by Khomeini to the constitutional review panel in 1989 and his membership in the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. Generally he has adopted moderate positions in the factional disputes among politicians since the early 1990s and has devoted his attention to a private high school that he founded.

Bibliography

Iran Research Group. Iran 89/90. Bonn, Germany: Author, 1989.

— NEGUIN YAVARI
UPDATED BY ERIC HOOGLUND