Abu al-Qasem Kashani

1882 - 1962

Iranian religious leader and political activist, important for his role in the events of 1945 - 1955, the postwar decade.

Born in Tehran, Abu al-Qasem Kashani was taken at an early age by his father to al-Najaf in Iraq, where he began his formal religious education in Islam. With his father, he fought against the British in the battle of Kut al-Amara in 1916. Hostility to British imperialism was destined to remain the chief emphasis of his political life. Kashani also participated in the anti-British uprising of 1921, as a result of which he was compelled to return to Persia (Iran). He remained politically inactive until 1941, when the British forces occupying Iran arrested him for alleged contacts with agents. Released in 1945 (after World War II), he was placed under house arrest in 1946 for opposing a new press law.

In 1948, he organized demonstrations that called for volunteers to fight the Zionists in Palestine (Israel was established in May 1948) and also began collaborating with the militant organization Fedaʾiyan-e Islam. In 1949, he was exiled to Beirut on charges of involvement in a failed attempt on the life of the shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. He returned in triumph in 1950 and was elected to the majles (Iran's legislature), where he worked with Mohammad Mossadegh in bringing about the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. From the fall of 1952 on, relations between the two men declined, and Kashani stood aside when Mossadegh was overthrown by the U.S.-sponsored royalist coup of August 1953. Kashani nonetheless resumed his own oppositional activities in 1954 and was arrested anew in 1955. He was released in January 1956 and, intimidated by the death of his son under questionable circumstances, remained politically inactive until his death in March 1962.

Bibliography

Richard, Yann. "Ayatollah Kashani: Precursor of the Islamic Republic?" In Religion and Politics in Iran, edited by Nikki R. Keddie. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983.

— HAMID ALGAR