Fakhreddin Shadman

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fakhreddin Shadman
Born
Fakhreddin Shadman Valari

1907
Tehran,
Charles Kingsley Webster
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian
Sub-discipline
  • History of Islam
  • History of Iran
InstitutionsUniversity of Tehran

Fakhreddin Shadman, also known as Fakhreddin Shadman Valari, (1907–1967) was one of the leading scholars, writers and statesmen in the Pahlavi Iran. He was a faculty member at the University of Tehran. He also held various cabinet posts in 1948 and in 1953–1954.

Early life and education

Shadman was born in Tehran in 1907 into a family composed of clerics.[1] His father, Hājj Sayyed Abu Torab, was a cleric.[1] He was the eldest child of his parents and had five brothers and one sister.[1]

Shadman completed his secondary education at the Darolfonun school in Tehran.

Charles Kingsley Webster was his advisor,[3] and his thesis was entitled The Relations of Britain and Persia, 1800-15.[4]

Career

Following his graduation Shadman joined the Iranian judiciary system[1] and served as the deputy public prosecutor of Tehran.[5] Between 1932 and 1935 he worked at the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.[1] During his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science he also taught Persian there and also, at the School of Oriental and African Studies.[1] During World War II he left Britain for the United States where he worked as a visiting scholar at Harvard University.[1]

He returned to Iran and began to work at various state institutions.[1] On 15 June 1948 he was appointed minister of national economy to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Abdolhossein Hazhir.[6] In 1950 he joined the University of Tehran where he became a professor of the history of Iran and Islam.[2] Shadman was appointed minister of economy in 1953 and then minister of justice in 1954 to the cabinet headed by Fazlollah Zahedi.[1] He continued to serve as minister of national economy in the next cabinet formed by Hossein Ala' in the spring of 1955 when Zahedi resigned from office.[7] Retiring from politics Shadman taught at the University of Tehran until 1967.[1] He was also the administrator of Imam Reza Shrine Properties, a member of the Iranian Academy and the Cultural Council of the Imperial Court of Iran and a board member of Pahlavi Library.[5]

Shadman was one of the individuals who contributed to the establishment of the Oil College in Abadan, known as Petroleum University of Technology.[5]

Views

Shadman was a nationalist and one of the early Iranian scholars who emphasized the negative effects of the modernization on the Iranian society.[2] He adopted Martin Heidegger's notion that in each historical period there is a truth "which obscures competing truths."[8] Based on this he argued that the Western-origin views should be avoided to maintain the spiritual origins and political unity of Iran.[8] His views are regarded as the basis for the nationalistic approach of the Islamic left figures.[8]

Personal life and death

Shadman married Farangis Namazi in London in 1941.[1] In 1967 he was diagnosed with cancer and went to London for treatment.[1] He died there on 26 August 1967 and was buried in Mashhad near the shrine of Imam Reza shrine.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ali Gheissari (1 January 2000). "Shadman, Sayyed Fakhr-al-Din". Encyclopædia Iranica.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-429-97408-3
    .
  3. S2CID 192304896
    .
  4. doi:10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_11039
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-7936-0007-3
    .
  6. JSTOR 4322013
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-78673-164-7
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-226-07758-1
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fakhreddin_Shadman&oldid=1220170737"