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Abol-Ghasem Mostafavi-Kashani | |
|---|---|
سید ابوالقاسم کاشانی | |
 | |
| 14th Chairman of the Parliament of Iran | |
| In office 8 August 1952 – 1 July 1953 | |
| Monarch | Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi |
| Preceded by | Hassan Emami |
| Succeeded by | Abdullah Moazzami |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1882-11-19)19 November 1882 |
| Died | 14 March 1962(1962-03-14) (aged 79) Tehran,Imperial State of Iran |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Political party | Society of Muslim Warriors |
| Other political affiliations | National Front(1949–52) |
| Children | 26 |
SayyedAbol-Ghasem Mostafavi-Kashani (Persian:سید ابوالقاسم کاشانیAbu’l-Qāsem Kāšāni; 19 November 1882 – 13 March 1962) was an Iranian politician andShiaMarja. He played an important role in the 1953 coup in Iran and the overthrow of Prime MinisterMohammad Mosaddegh.[1]
His father,AyatollahHajjSeyyed Mostafavi Kashani (Persian:آیتالله حاج سید مصطفوی کاشانی), was a noted scholar of Islam in his time. Abol-Ghasem was trained in Shia Islam by his religious parents and began study of theQuran soon after learning to read and write.
At 16, Abol-Ghasem went to an Islamicseminary to studyliterature,Arabic language,logic,semantics and speech, as well as the principles of Islamic jurisprudence, orFiqh. He continued his education at the seminary inNajaf in the Qur'an andHadiths as interpreted in Sharia law, receiving his jurisprudence degree when he was 25.
Kashani had 3 wives and 19 children, including 7 sons and 12 daughters.[2]
His son, Mostafa, died in an accident in 1955; the newly appointed prime minister,Hossein Ala', escaped an assassination attempt at the funeral.[3] According to British intelligence, around this time two of his sons were involved in a lucrative business buying and selling import-export licenses for restricted goods.[4]
One of Kashani's children,Mahmoud Kashani, went on to become head of the Iranian delegation to theInternational Court of Justice inThe Hague, Netherlands, in Iran's case with the United States and a presidential candidate in theIranian presidential elections of 1985 andelections in 2005. His second son isAhmad Kashani, a former member of theIranian parliament.
Abol-Ghasem expressedAnti-capitalist leanings from early on in his career and opposed what he saw as "oppression,despotism andcolonization." Because of these beliefs, he was especially popular with the poor in Tehran.[5] He also advocated the return of Islamic government to Iran, though this was most likely for political reasons.[6]
Due to his pro-Nazi positions, Ayatollah Kashani was arrested and exiled by the British toPalestine in 1941.[7] He continued to oppose foreign, especially British, control of Iran's oil industry while in exile. After he returned from exile on 10 June 1950, he continued to protest. Angered by the fact that theAnglo-Iranian Oil Company paid Iran much less than it did the British, he organized a movement against it and was the "virtually alone among the leading mujtahids in joining" nationalist Prime MinisterMohammad Mosaddegh, in his campaign tonationalize the Iranian oil industry in 1951.[8][9]
Kashani served as speaker of theMajles (or lower house of Parliament), during the oil nationalization, but later turned against Mosaddeq during the1953 Iranian coup d'état. Kashani protected the violent Islamist groupFada'iyan-e Islam, led byNavvab Safavi, after their expulsion from theQom seminary byAyatollah Hosein Borujerdi in 1950. The group then engaged in public assassinations in Tehran in the early 1950s.[10] On 17 February 1956, a month after the execution of the Navvab Safavi due to his killing of senior figures Kashani confessed to an army prosecutor his role in these murders stating "I issued theFatwa to killRazmara, for I was a qualifiedMojtahed."[11] Then Kashani was detained and following his release from the prison he retired from politics.[11] He died on 13 March 1962.[11]
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