Hussein-Ali Montazeri - Early Life and Public Career

Early Life and Public Career

Born in 1922, Montazeri was from a peasant family in Najafabad, a city in Isfahan Province, 250 miles south of Tehran.

Muslim scholar
Hossein-Ali Montazeri
Title Grand Ayatollah
Born 1922
Died 19 December 2009 (aged 87)
Era Modern era
Region Iran
Madh'hab Shia Islam
Main interest(s) Fiqh, Irfan, Islamic philosophy, Islamic ethics, Hadith, politics
Notable idea(s) Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, Islamic Democrasy, Dynamic Fiqh
Notable work(s) Al-Hodod, From Beginning to End, Hoghogh, Islam-Religion of mould
Influenced by
  • Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari
Influenced
  • Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahhari, Akbar Hashemi, Mohsen Kadivar

His early theological education was in Isfahan. Montazeri then went to Qom where he studied under Khomeini and went on to become a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School. While there he answered Khomeini's call to protest the White Revolution of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in June 1963 and was active in anti-Shah clerical circles.

After Khomeini was forced into exile by the Shah, Montazeri "sat at the center of the clerical network" which Khomeini had established to fight the Pahlavi rule. He was sent to prison in 1974 and released in 1978 in time to be active during the revolution.

Read more about this topic:  Hussein-Ali Montazeri

Famous quotes containing the words early, life, public and/or career:

    In an early spring
    We see th’appearing buds, which to prove fruit
    Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
    That frosts will bite them.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    A woman’s life is not perfect or whole till she has added herself to a husband. Nor is a man’s life perfect or whole till he has added to himself a wife.
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

    I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition in all points to the real and wholesome success. One adores public opinion, the other, private opinion; one, fame, the other, desert; one, feats, the other, humility; one, lucre, the other, love; one, monopoly, and the other, hospitality of mind.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)