Mehdi Bazargan (; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government. One of the leading figures of

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

of 1979, he was appointed

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

in February 1979 by

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

, making him Iran's first prime minister after the revolution. He resigned his position in November of the same year, in protest at the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and as an acknowledgement of his government's failure in preventing it. He was the head of the first engineering department of

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

Early life and education

Bazargan was born into an Azerbaijani family in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

on 1 September 1907. His father, Hajj Abbasqoli Tabrizi (died 1954) was a self-made merchant and a religious activist in ''

bazaar A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...

'' guilds. Bazargan went to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to receive university education through an Iranian government scholarship during the reign of

Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi born Reza Khan (15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and founder of the roughly 53 years old Pahlavi dynasty. Originally a military officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war an ...

. He attended Lycée Georges Clemenceau in

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

and was a classmate of

Abdollah Riazi Abdollah Riazi () was an Iranian politician who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran for almost 15 years during the Pahlavi era. According to Ali Rahnema, Riazi was "one of permanent and trusted figures" in the establishment, thus "e ...

. Bazargan then studied

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...

and engineering at the

École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

(École Centrale Paris). Following his return to Iran, Bazargan was called up for

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

, and served from 1935 to 1937. According to

Houchang Chehabi Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi is a scholar of Iranian studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where he is Professor of International Relations and History. Chehabi is Iranian-German and was born in Tehran, ...

, Bazargan was firstly tasked with shifting pebbles in a barracks but was then moved to translate technical articles from French.

Career

After his graduation, Bazargan became the head of the first engineering department at

Tehran University The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

in the late 1940s. He was a deputy minister under Premier

Mohammad Mosaddegh Mohammad Mosaddegh (, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 30th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, elected by the 1950 Iranian legislative election, 16th Majlis. He was a membe ...

in the 1950s. Bazargan served as the first Iranian head of the

National Iranian Oil Company The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; ) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1951 and restructured under The Consorti ...

under the administration of Prime Minister Mosaddegh. Bazargan co-founded the

Liberation Movement of Iran Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...

in 1961, a party similar in its program to Mossadegh's National Front. Although he accepted the Shah,

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the last List of monarchs of Iran, Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until he was overthrown by the ...

, as the legitimate head of state, he was jailed several times on political grounds. A strong admirer of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, he praised Gandhi's ideas and the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

in his writings in jail as an ideal example for Iranians.

Iranian Revolution

On 4 February 1979, Bazargan was appointed prime minister of Iran by

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

. He was seen as one of the democratic and liberal figureheads of the revolution who came into conflict with the more radical religious leaders – including Khomeini himself – as the revolution progressed. Although pious, Bazargan initially disputed the name ''Islamic Republic'', wanting an ''Islamic Democratic Republic.'' He had also been a supporter of the original (non-theocratic) revolutionary draft constitution, and opposed the

Assembly of Experts for Constitution The Assembly for the Final Review of the Constitution (AFRC; ), also known as the Assembly of Experts for Constitution (), was a constituent assembly in Iran that was convened in 1979 to condense and ratify the draft prepared beforehand for the C ...

and the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

they wrote that was eventually adopted as Iran's constitution. Seeing his government's lack of power, in March 1979, he submitted his resignation to Khomeini. Khomeini did not accept his resignation, and in April 1979, he and his cabinet members were reported to have escaped an assassination attempt. Bazargan resigned, along with his cabinet, on 4 November 1979, following the taking of hostages at the U.S. Embassy. His resignation was considered a protest against the hostage-taking and a recognition of his government's inability to free the hostages, but it was also clear that his hopes for liberal democracy and an accommodation with the West would not prevail. Ruhollah Khomeini and Mehdi Bazargan

Bazargan continued in Iranian politics as a member of the first

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

(''Majles'') of the newly formed Islamic Republic. He openly opposed the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

and continued to advocate civil rule and democracy. In November 1982, he expressed his frustration with the direction the Islamic Revolution had taken in an open letter to the then speaker of parliament

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Akbar Hashemi Bahramani Rafsanjani (25 August 19348 January 2017) was an Iranian cleric, politician and writer who served as the fourth president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. One of the founding fathers of the Government of Iran, Islamic Republic, ...

The government has created an atmosphere of terror, fear, revenge and national disintegration. ... What has the ruling elite done in nearly four years, besides bringing death and destruction, packing the prisons and the cemeteries in every city, creating long queues, shortages, high prices, unemployment, poverty, homeless people, repetitious slogans and a dark future?

His term as a member of parliament lasted until 1984. During his term, he served as a lawmaker of the

Freedom Movement of Iran The Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) or Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI; ) is an Iranian pro-democracy political organization founded in 1961, by members describing themselves as "Muslims, Iranians, Constitutionalists and Mossadeghists". It is th ...

, which he had founded in 1961, and which was abolished in 1990. In 1985, the

Council of Guardians The Guardian Council (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, ) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The constitution ...

denied Bazargan's petition to run for president.

Views

Bazargan is a respected figure within the ranks of modern Muslim thinkers, known as a representative of liberal-democratic Islamic thought and a thinker who emphasized the necessity of constitutional and democratic policies. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution Bazargan led a faction that opposed the Revolutionary Council dominated by the

Islamic Republican Party The Islamic Republican Party (IRP; , also translated Islamic Republic Party) was formed in 1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini in their goal to establish theocracy in Iran. It was disbanded in 1987 due to internal confl ...

and personalities such as Ayatollah Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti. He opposed the continuation of the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

and the involvement of Islamists in all aspects of politics, economy and society. Consequently, he faced harassment from militants and young revolutionaries within Iran.

Attacks

On 8 April 1978, Bazargan's house in Tehran was bombed. The underground committee for revenge, a reputed state-financed organization, proclaimed the responsibility of the bombing.

Laws of social evolution

Bazargan is known for some of the earliest work in human thermodynamics, as found in his 1946 chapter "A Physiological Analysis of Human Thermodynamics" and his 1956 book ''Love and Worship: Human Thermodynamics'', the latter of which being written while in prison, in which he attempted to show that religion and worship are a byproduct of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

, as explained in English naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

's ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'' (1859), and that the true laws of society are based on the

laws of thermodynamics The laws of thermodynamics are a set of scientific laws which define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. The laws also use various param ...

Death

Bazargan died of a heart attack on 20 January 1995 at a hospital in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland after collapsing at

Zurich Airport Zurich Airport is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the airline hub, principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines. It serves Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, and, with its surface transport links, much of the rest o ...

. He was travelling to the United States for heart surgery.

Personal life

Bazargan married Malak Tabatabai in 1939. They had five children, two sons and three daughters.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bazargan, Mehdi 20th-century Iranian engineers 1907 births 1995 deaths École Centrale Paris alumni Iranian scholars Gandhians Politicians from Tehran Academic staff of the University of Tehran Iranian expatriates in France Iranian democracy activists Iranian dissidents Prime ministers of Iran Ministers of foreign affairs of Iran Government ministers of Iran People of the Iranian Revolution Iranian revolutionaries Iranian people of World War II Deputies of Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly Iranian Azerbaijanis National Front (Iran) politicians Iran Party politicians Council of the Islamic Revolution members Members of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights Members of the Association for Defense of Freedom and the Sovereignty of the Iranian Nation Secretaries-general of the Freedom Movement of Iran Freedom Movement of Iran MPs Burials in Qom Burials at Fatima Masumeh Shrine Political prisoners in Iran Iranian republicans