Early Life and His Career
He moved to Tehran in 1921 following his disagreements with some of the political groups in Tabriz. He joined the Ministry of Justice, which sent him all over the country, generally as a trouble-shooter. His last provincial assignment was as the head of the Department of Justice for the southwestern province of Khuzestan. He had political problems caused by the presence of the Iranian Arab chieftain Shaykh Khazal. The Shaykh, though an Iranian citizen, and an appointee of the Iranian government, was acting virtually as an independent ruler. Kasravi was assigned to that post not only because of his proven competence, but also because of his proficiency in Arabic. Kasravi clashed not only with the Shaykh, but also with the army officers heading the army sent from Tehran to restore control over the region. (The commanding officer was one Fazlollah Zahedi, who some years later became prime minister after the overthrow of Mosaddaq.). The Ministry of Justice, at the behest of the Ministry of War, recalled Kasravi to Tehran.
In the mid 1920s at the time of Ali Akbar Davar’s reorganization of the ministry, he rose to be chief of the Courts of First Instance for the District of Tehran. In that post he constantly annoyed Davar with his manner of administering justice and frequently ruling against the interests of the power elite. One case for example: The Royal Court wanted to confiscate some villages near Tehran (Evin), to hand over to a fractious mullah. The farmers sought judicial assistance and Kasravi found for the peasants—unprecedented in Iran. The same day he went to Evin to make sure that his decree was enforced.
The Minister of Court, TaymoortAsh, who had been his admirer from the time Orientalists in Europe had complimented him on Kasravi’s scholarship, summoned him to Court to reprimand him. Instead Kasravi lectured him on the social justice the Shah was supposed to be establishing in Iran and how taking land from the farmers who worked it was contrary to that aim. He added that the Royal Court’s lawyer was incompetent and that the Shah should be ashamed to send such poorly prepared cases to court. Forced out of the ministry because of such behavior, Kasravi published a book named Ayeen (Creed) and at about the same time started publishing a monthly journal called Peymaan (Pledge).
He then opened a law practice, which he kept until shortly before his death, when his license was revoked for no expressed reason. As a lawyer, he was involved in the two most celebrated trials of this (or any) century in Iran, serving as council for the defense. The first was the 1938 trial, in a kangaroo court, of the "Fifty-Three", a group of young intellectuals arrested on charges relating to communism. (The name refers to the number of those originally arrested, and is still used, even though five of them were released, and only 48 tried.) With three exceptions, they were all condemned. In the second trial in 1942, a group of police officials were tried for the torture and murder of political prisoners during Reza Shah’s reign (1925-1941).
Kasravi’s career also included some high-school and university teaching. At the University of Tehran, when a new law established professorial ranks, Kasravi was denied a professorship because he refused to retract his criticism of some classical Persian poets.
His Researches:
Throughout these years, Kasravi continued his scholarly research. In fact, he was one of a small group of young Iranian scholars who dominated the scholarly scene in the 1920s and 1930s, using Western research methods. Others included Said Nafisi, Abbas Eqbal, Mojtaba Minovi, M.T. Bahar, and S. Rezazadeh Shafaq. Kasravi’s major specialty was history, in which he soon gained an international reputation. His masterpiece is his seven-volume history of Iran’s Constitutional Revolution (now available in a two-volume edition). Kasravi was at times praised for his scholarly work on history and language, but he was also attacked for his views on religion and literature. For example, his condemnation of major Iranian poets as advocates of wine drinking and carefree living, which he deemed detrimental to society, aroused the anger of the literati. At the same time, he wrote a number of works advocating his own beliefs, which gained him some following. He also published works on linguistics. He was an early advocate of Persian language reform, which (unlike others) he approached methodically, and on which he published extensively.
In the early 1930s, Kasravi had also begun a new career as a social thinker. Towards the end of his life, Kasravi devoted his time primarily to writing and advocating his reformist ideas. From then until his death, he studied Iran’s social problems in detail, and suggested solutions for them. He also discussed Middle Eastern and world problems. In time, he developed a comprehensive ideology covering all aspects of society and culture. This was his central concern during this period, but he did not give up his scholarship. In fact, his major scholarly work, of more than 2400 pages (in the original edition), the history of the Constitutional Revolution, was written during these years, as were numerous articles on Persian grammar and on language reform, as well as other subjects.
Kasravi first presented his social views in a two-volume book, Ayeen (‘Creed’), in 1933-34. This was the first critical study in Iran of Westernization / modernization / industrialization, written at a time when Westernization was extremely popular in the country, and was being promoted by the government.
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