Mehdi Bazargan | |
|---|---|
مهدی بازرگان | |
 Bazargan in the 1979 | |
| 41st Prime Minister of Iran | |
| In office 4 February 1979[a] – 6 November 1979 | |
| Appointed by | Ruhollah Khomeini |
| Preceded by | Shapour Bakhtiar |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad-Ali Rajai (1980) |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs Acting | |
| In office 1 April 1979 – 12 April 1979 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Karim Sanjabi |
| Succeeded by | Ebrahim Yazdi |
| Member of the Parliament of Iran | |
| In office 28 May 1980 – 28 May 1984 | |
| Constituency | Tehran, Rey and Shemiranat |
| Majority | 1,447,316 (68%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mehdi Bazargan 1 September 1907 Tehran,Sublime State of Iran |
| Died | 20 January 1995(1995-01-20) (aged 87) Zürich,Switzerland |
| Resting place | Qom,Islamic Republic of Iran |
| Political party |
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| Other political affiliations | |
| Spouse | Malak Tabatabai |
| Children | 5, includingAbdolali |
| Alma mater | |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Imperial State of Iran |
| Years of service | 1935–1937 |
| |
Mehdi Bazargan (Persian:مهدی بازرگان; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head ofIran's interim government.
One of the leading figures ofIranian Revolution of 1979, he was appointedprime minister in February 1979 byAyatollah Khomeini, making him Iran's first prime minister after the revolution. He resigned his position in November of the same year, in protest at thetakeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and as an acknowledgement of his government's failure in preventing it.[5]
He was the head of the first engineering department ofUniversity of Tehran.
Bazargan was born into anAzerbaijani family[6][7] inTehran on 1 September 1907.[8][9] His father, Hajj Abbasqoli Tabrizi (died 1954) was a self-made merchant and a religious activist inbazaar guilds.[8]
Bazargan went toFrance to receive university education through an Iranian government scholarship during the reign ofReza Shah.[10] He attendedLycée Georges Clemenceau inNantes and was a classmate ofAbdollah Riazi. Bazargan then studiedthermodynamics and engineering at theÉcole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures (École Centrale Paris).[11][12][13]
Following his return to Iran, Bazargan was called up forconscription, and served from 1935 to 1937.[14] According toHouchang Chehabi, Bazargan was firstly tasked with shifting pebbles in a barracks but was then moved to translate technical articles from French.[15]
After his graduation, Bazargan became the head of the first engineering department atTehran University in the late 1940s. He was a deputy minister under PremierMohammad Mosaddegh in the 1950s.[16] Bazargan served as the first Iranian head of theNational Iranian Oil Company under the administration of Prime Minister Mosaddegh.[17]
Bazargan co-founded theLiberation Movement of Iran in 1961,[16] a party similar in its program to Mossadegh's National Front. Although he accepted the Shah,Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the legitimate head of state, he was jailed several times on political grounds. A strong admirer ofMahatma Gandhi, he praised Gandhi's ideas and theIndian independence movement in his writings in jail as an ideal example for Iranians.[18][19]
On 4 February 1979, Bazargan was appointed prime minister of Iran byAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.[20][21] 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 nameIslamic Republic, wanting anIslamic Democratic Republic.[22] He had also been a supporter of the original (non-theocratic) revolutionary draft constitution, and opposed theAssembly of Experts for Constitution and theconstitution 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.[23] Khomeini did not accept his resignation,[23] and in April 1979, he and his cabinet members were reported to have escaped an assassination attempt.[24]
Bazargan resigned, along with his cabinet, on 4 November 1979, following the taking of hostages at the U.S. Embassy.[5][25] 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.
Bazargan continued in Iranian politics as a member of the firstParliament (Majles) of the newly formed Islamic Republic. He openly opposed theCultural Revolution 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 parliamentAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
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?[26]
His term as a member of parliament lasted until 1984.[7] During his term, he served as a lawmaker of theFreedom Movement of Iran, which he had founded in 1961, and which was abolished in 1990.[7] In 1985, theCouncil of Guardians denied Bazargan's petition to run for president.
Bazargan is a respected figure within the ranks of modern Muslim thinkers, known as a representative of liberal-democratic Islamic thought[27] and a thinker who emphasized the necessity of constitutional and democratic policies.[28] In the immediate aftermath of the revolution Bazargan led a faction that opposed the Revolutionary Council dominated by theIslamic Republican Party and personalities such asAyatollah Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti.[29] He opposed the continuation of theIran–Iraq War and the involvement of Islamists in all aspects of politics, economy and society. Consequently, he faced harassment from militants and young revolutionaries within Iran.[30]
On 8 April 1978, Bazargan's house in Tehran was bombed.[31] The underground committee for revenge, a reputed state-financed organization, proclaimed the responsibility of the bombing.[31]
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 bookLove 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 ofevolution, as explained in English naturalistCharles Darwin'sOn the Origin of Species (1859), and that the true laws of society are based on thelaws of thermodynamics.
Bazargan died of a heart attack on 20 January 1995 at a hospital inZurich, Switzerland after collapsing atZurich Airport.[7] He was travelling to the United States for heart surgery.[7]
Bazargan married Malak Tabatabai in 1939.[8] They had five children, two sons and three daughters.[8]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Iran 1979 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran 1979 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by None | Secretary-General ofFreedom Movement of Iran 1961–1995 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
