10 Things to Know About Ahmad Kasravi

Seyyed Ahmad Kasravi Tabrizi was born on September 29th,1890 and assassinated on March 11th,1946. He was commonly known as Ahmad Kasravi. Kasravi was a leading Iranian linguist, nationalist, religious reformer, historian and former Shia cleric. Born in Hokmabad (Hohmavar), Tabriz, Iran, Kasravi was an Iranian Azerbaijani. Initially, Kasravi enrolled in a seminary. Later, he joined the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. He experienced a sort of conversion to Western learning when he learned that the comet of 1910 had been identified as a reappearance of Halley's comet. He abandoned his clerical training after this event and enrolled in the American Memorial School of Tabriz. Thenceforward he became, in Roy Mottahedeh's words, "a true anti-cleric." Kasravi was associated with the Democrat Party in Iran. Kasravi was a professor of law at the University of Tehran and also a lawyer in Tehran, Iran. He was the founder of a political-social movement whose goal was to build an Iranian secular identity. The movement was formed during the Pahlavi dynasty. Kasravi authored more than 70 books, mostly in the Persian language. The most important works from his oeuvre are History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Azari or the Ancient Language of Azerbaijan and The 18 Year History of Azerbaijan.