Last year, in February 2020, Seyyed Hadi Khosroshahi, an 81-year-old, Iranian cleric died of coronavirus in Iran. He was an active author, translator, journalist, politician and historian in Qom seminary in Iran. He has written more than 80 volumes of books in Persian and Arabic, in addition to hundreds of articles in newspapers, Islamic journals and magazines in Iran and some Arab countries. Some of his books have unique documents about the history of the Islamic movement that led to the Islamic revolution in 1979. Khosroshahi was the first Iranian Ambassador to the Vatican from the late leader of Iran, Ayatullah Khomeini. Once Mohammad Reza Hakimi has called Khosroshahi a "diligent guardian of culture."

Life and Education

Khosroshahi was born in Tabriz, a beautiful city in Iran, in a religious and pious family in which Islamic studies were (and is) very serious and they had a lineage of Jurisprudence from the last three centuries until now. Khosroshahi was a black-turbaned cleric carrying the title of "Sayyid," meaning a descendent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

When he was only a young cleric, the dictatorship in Iran was severe and there were some anti-government movements, such as Fadā'iyān-e Islam (Devotees of Islam) which Khosroshahi had relations with them to know their manifest but never joined it. 

He passed his primary education in Tabriz and after the death of his father, in 1953, at the age of 16, he went to Qom and started at the Islamic Seminary School. He studied jurisprudence, logic, philosophy and exegesis of the Qom and was very active in communication with Muslim activists in Iran and Arab countries by writing them some letters. After about 15 years in Qom, he obtained the degree of ijtihad and permission to narrate Islamic Hadiths when he was just a young clergyman and went to Najaf for a few years for more education. In Qom, he was a student of some great scholars, such as Imam Khomeini and Allamah  Tabatabai.

Because of religious activities, Khosroshahi was arrested several times and was sent into exile by Pahlavi Regime. After these events, Khosroshahi changed his normal path to jurisprudence, preferring to help the anti-regime movements by reflecting their liberal ideas in his books, articles and lectures. He had heard about Islamic movements in Egypt and then learned the Arabic language and translated remarkable works of contemporary Arab authors, such as Seyyed Qutb and Seyyed Jamal. He became the only voice of Arab thinkers in Iran by introducing their works and activities.

Among the works, he translated from the Arabic Language to Persian, which had a very great impact on young Iranian readers’ minds, was "Imam Ali, the voice of human justice" by Professor George Jordan, a Christian author and poet from Lebanon. This translation that was in 5 volumes and 3,000 pages has been published tens of times from its first publication in 1955 until now in Iran.

Khosroshahi was the first Iranian scholar who introduced “Seyyed Jamaluddin Hoseini (Afghani),” a famous Iranian Muslim thinker who lived in Egypt, to Iranians by translating his books and wrote essays and articles about him and his movement. He published the result of his research about Seyyed Jamal in 10 volumes, in more than 3000 pages. Syeed Jamal wanted to unite Muslims against colonialist Britain in the first decade of the 20th century.

During his life, Khosroshahi could gather a unique, worthy and wonderful collection of historical documents about Islamic movements in Iran, Iraq and other Muslim countries titled, "Contemporary Islamic Movements", including some rare books, letters, fatwas, declarations and manifests, in 20 volumes. Iranian part of that collection was published separately in a series called "Documents of the Islamic Movement of Iran" in 10 volumes that became rapidly one of the authentic documented sources in the field.

In his long time of education and research, Khosroshahi used to record, gather and publish various works of some of his eminent teachers in the Seminary School of Qom and Najaf that the "Collection works of Allamah Tabatabai" in 24 volumes is one of them. In addition to his writings and translations, Khosoroshahi revival tens of books for last Muslim authors and jurisprudents, such as Ayatollah Kashif al-Qita, Haj Siraj Ansari, Seyyed Mohammad Mohit Tabatabai, Seyyed Gholamreza Saeedi and Mohammad Nakhshab.

Most of Khosrowshahi's books and works on cultural, social and political issues has had a great impact on the enlightenment of the young contemporary generation in Iran and it was even the only hearable voice of Arab thinkers in Persia. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Khosroshahi had a vast endeavour to deepen friendship and rapprochement among Shiites and Sunnis communities. By participating in Islamic conferences and congresses in European and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, Italy, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Khosroshahi explained the real goals of the newborn Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, Khosroshahi was active in deepening rapprochement among Islamic denominations since he was a young cleric. His correspondence with Allama Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Qomi, the founder of the Cairo “Dar al-Taqrib”, is a testament to this valuable effort for 50 years.

Before the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Khosrowshahi established a "Center for Islamic Studies” in Qom, in 1973, and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he established the "European Islamic Cultural Center" in Rome, Italy in 1982.