1890 - 1946
Iranian writer and reformer.
Born into a religious family in Tabriz, Ahmad Kasravi received a religious education and for a brief time was a preacher. As a young man, he joined the Tabriz branch of the reformist Democrat party, which had acquired a reputation in the national assembly for being anticlerical. Kasravi was expelled from the party in 1917 for his opposition to a growing trend among Tabriz Democrats to emphasize provincial concerns over national concerns. In 1921, he moved to Tehran, where he spent the remainder of his life working as a social reformer, activist, and historian. Kasravi was one of the most prolific and influential writers of early twentieth-century Iran. His important works include History of Iran's Constitutional Revolution, An Eighteen-Year History of Iran, Shiʿigari, and Piramun-e Islam (all of them in Arabic). Kasravi often criticized the Shiʿite clergy in his writings, especially in the two latter works, both of which were condemned by some clergy. He was assassinated by a member of the radical Fedaʾiyan-e Islam.
Bibliography
Kasravi, Ahmad. On Islam and Shiʿism, translated by M. R. Ghanoonparvar. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1990.
— ERIC J. HOOGLUND
