Shariati, Ali (1933-77)

Born in Mazinan, a desert village in the northeastern province of Iran, Ali Shariati was a leading Iranian sociologist and Muslim intellectual, who published a number of influential books and a great volume of lectures, talks, and occasional articles. He contributed to the sociology of religion, but apart from his On the Sociology of Islam (1980a), his work is not widely known in western social science. Shariati, who was greatly influenced by his father, a scholar and religious teacher, attended a teacher's training college and came into contact with young people from poor social backgrounds. As a student he became active in the nationalist movement of Mohammad Mossadeq, and, having received his bachelor's degree in 1959 from Mashhad University, he pursued graduate study in France, receiving his doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1964. On returning to Iran, he was briefly imprisoned on charges relating to his political activities in France. He began teaching at Mashhad University as an assistant professor of Islamic history, where his original interpretations of problems facing Muslim societies gained him a wide student audience. In 1967 at the invitation of Ayatollah Motahhari, he transferred to Tehran where he lectured at the Housseiniye Ershad Religious Institute, attracting even larger audiences. He was again imprisoned but popular and international pressure eventually secured his release in 1975. He remained, however, under close surveillance by SAVAK (the Iranian Security Agency). Shariati had many enemies but he was supported by Ayatollah Khomeini, and consequently he had a significant impact on the Iranian Revolution. Because his movements were severely restricted, he migrated to England, but he was found dead in his apartment three weeks later in June 1977. It was generally assumed that he had been murdered by SAVAK agents (Rahnema 2004)