Ali Qoddusi (also Ghoddosi or Qodusi) (1927–1981) was an Iranian cleric and a major actor in the 1979 revolution.

Qoddusi was born in 1927 in the province of Hamadan. He joined the Qom seminaries in 1944 and studied with, among others, grand ayatollah

Hossein Borujerdi Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tababataei Borujerdi (Luri/ fa, آیت الله العظمی سید حسین طباطبایی بروجردی; 23 March 1875 – 30 March 1961) was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 t ...

. His particular interests in his studies were ethics (akhlaq) and spirituality. Organizationally, he was eager to modernize the educational system of the hawza and to make the hawza again politically relevant. In 1964, he co-founded the

Haqqani School Haghani school (also Haqqani) is a Shi'i school of thought in Iran based in the holy city of Qom and formerly headed by Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, an influential theologian. The Haghani Circle has its origin in the Haghani seminary, fo ...

, a Shiite seminary in Qom, from which many of the Islamic Republic's political elites were later recruited. Qoddusi was active in the struggle against the Shah, in particular in 1963 when the Shah sought to condemn

Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

to death, but then instead decided to merely exile him. In 1966, Qoddusi was imprisoned for a short time in Qezel Qaleh Prison. In the 1970s, Qoddusi became the director of the

, where in 1973/74 he opened a women's section for the training of female religious authorities. The women's section became known as

Maktab-e Tawhid Maktab-e Tawhid (also Maktab-e Tawhīd) was a Shi'i seminary for women, established in Qom, Iran's clerical center in 1975, as a wing of the Haghani school. The founding of the seminary followed similar institutions in Qom, Fasa, Shiraz and Isfah ...

. Ayatollah Qoddusi was married to Najma Sādāt Tabātabā'ī, the daughter of

Allameh Tabatabai Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i or Sayyid Mohammad Hossein Tabataba'i (16 March 1903 – 15 November 1981) was an Iranian scholar, theorist, philosopher and one of the most prominent thinkers of modern Shia Islam. He is perhaps best known for his ''T ...

.Interview with Daughter of Allamah Tabataba’i
/ref> Together they had two daughters and four sons, one of whom, Muhammad Hasan, died in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

. After the revolution,

appointed Qoddusi as Attorney General. Shortly after, he was killed in a bomb explosion in his office on September 5, 1981.

References

Biographies

* Biography of Martyr Ayatollah Ali Quddusi and Yare Quddusian, a Look at Martyr Quddusi’s Life, Islamic Revolution Document Center. {{DEFAULTSORT:Qoddusi, Ali 1927 births 1981 deaths Iranian Shia clerics Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom members Burials at Fatima Masumeh Shrine

See also

References

Biographies