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Morteza Motahhari

Iranian politician (1919-1979)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ1397229 ↗
Source-derived summary

Morteza Motahhari (Persian: مرتضی مطهری, romanized: Mortezā Motahharī; 31 January 1919 – 1 May 1979) was an Iranian Twelver Shia scholar, philosopher, and lecturer. Motahhari is considered to have an important influence on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, among others. He was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association (Jāme'e-ye Rowhāniyat-e Mobārez). He was a disciple of Ruhollah Khomeini during the Shah's reign and formed the Council of the Islamic Revolution at Khomeini's request. He was chairman of the council at the time of his assassination.

Biography

Early life

Motahhari was born in Fariman. His year of birth is uncertain; some sources give it as 1919 and others as 1920. He attended the Hawza of Qom from 1944 to 1952 and then left for Tehran. His grandfather was an eminent religious scholar in the Sistan province and since he traveled with his family to Khorasan Province, there is little information about his origin as Sistanian. His father Shaykh Mohammad Hosseini was also an eminent figure in Fariman, respected by the people.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Morteza Motahhari” is iranian politician (1919-1979). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Morteza, Motahhari and Iranian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1919, 1979, 1920, 1944—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1919-01-31. For this dossier, Morteza, Motahhari and Iranian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “iranian politician (1919-1979)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1397229. VIAF identifies the subject as 305116201. The Library of Congress control number is n82085832. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1979, 1920 and 1944.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Morteza Motahhari”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Morteza Motahhari primary sources, Morteza Motahhari archive and Morteza research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Morteza Motahhari”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Morteza Motahhari” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.