(b. Rafsanjan, 25 Aug. 1934) Iranian; Speaker of the Majles (Consultative Assembly) 1980 – 9, Acting Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces 1988 – 9, President 1989 – 1997 Rafsanjani became a pupil and disciple of Khomeini at Qom theological seminary, reaching the rank of Hojjatoleslam in the late 1950s. He organized anti-Shah riots in June 1963 and was imprisoned at least four times for his political activities in the Islamic resurgence between 1964 and 1978. Rafsanjani was one of Khomeini's chief lieutenants in Iran after his banishment in 1964 and a member of the small group of radical mullahs who led the Islamic revolution in Iran until Khomeini's return in 1979. He was then appointed to the governing Revolutionary Council by Khomeini. Rafsanjani co-founded the Association of Militant Clergy faction and was co-leader of the Islamic Republican party which dominated the Assembly after the general elections of 1980 and elected him as its Speaker. In that capacity he entered into secret negotiations to trade Western hostages for US arms in 1986, but succeeded in avoiding lasting damage to his reputation when the negotiations became public knowledge. After Khomeini's death in 1989, Rafsanjani emerged as the Islamic Republic's first executive President, to which he was re-elected for a final, four-year term in 1993. During his presidency, Iran has undergone widespread and fundamental reforms that have reconstituted it as a Second Republic. Among the more important of these has been a programme of economic reconstruction through liberalization and the state's withdrawal from the economy. A corresponding shift in foreign policy, aimed at Iran's reintegration into the international community, began with the release of Western hostages in Lebanon at Rafsanjani's behest between 1991 and 1992. Rafsanjani's Iran, however, continues to export Islamic revolution and it sponsors militant Islamic fundamentalist groups on a worldwide basis.

A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.