Seyed Mohammad Razavi

Seyed Mohammad Razavi was born in Rafsanjan in 1931. After completing his early education in Rafsanjan and Kerman, he entered the University of Tehran and graduated in law in 1953. Following the coup of 19 August and as a result of his political activities, he was exiled for a time to Kharg Island. After this period, he left for France to continue his education.

Razavi pursued advanced studies in political science at the University of Paris. During his time in France, he became acquainted with Jean-Jacques Chevallier, the distinguished historian of political thought; this encounter contributed to his serious commitment to the study of political thought. He later continued his research at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1964, he defended his dissertation on the conservative school of thought and subsequently returned to Iran.

Razavi joined the faculty of the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Law and Political Science and devoted most of his academic life to teaching political thought and educating students. In 1978, he accepted the deanship of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, but later stepped away from administrative responsibilities and gave priority to teaching. He retired in 1999, though his scholarly connection with students and researchers in political science continued.

Razavi’s standing in Iranian political science rests above all on his role as a teacher. Among the later figures in Iranian political science and political thought who studied under him were Davood Feirahi, Mohammad Javad Gholamreza Kashi, Homeira Moshirzadeh, Farhang Rajai, and Abolfazl Delavari. Delavari, recalling Razavi’s classes, emphasized the breadth of his knowledge, the depth of his insight, and the currency of his scholarship.

Despite his wide-ranging educational influence, Razavi published relatively few written works. Among his available works is Lectures on Scientific Knowledge, Value, and Power in Political Science, edited by Abolfazl Delavari. Epistemology in political science, the concepts of value and power, and the history of political thought were central themes in his teaching and research.

In 2019, the Iranian Political Science Association and academic institutions held a ceremony in his honor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran, describing him as the “great teacher of political thought.” A collection of essays entitled The Thought-Leader of the Political Sphere was also compiled in his honor. Seyed Mohammad Razavi died in Tehran on 16 November 2022.