Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On October 28, 1926 AD, the great Iranian reformer and religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, was the target of an assassination attempt by agents of the British-installed Reza Khan Pahlavi, who has earned notoriety for his enmity of the ulema and of Islamic injunctions. The enmity of Pahlavi regime with Ayatollah Modarres was because of the latter's active role in alerting people and in revealing the conspiracies of Reza Khan and its chief backer, the British regime. Ayatollah Modarres in 1938 was poisoned in Kashmar on the orders of Reza Khan and attained martyrdom.
On October 7, 1928 AD, troops stormed the house of prominent leader of Iran's Constitutional Movement, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, and arrested him along with his family and friends on the orders of the British-installed dictator, Reza Khan Pahlavi. The Ayatollah, who in 1925 had unsuccessfully opposed the dissolution of the Qajarid dynasty by the Pahlavi upstart and was a fearless critic of the new regime’s anti-Islamic and anti-national policies, was exiled to Khaf and then to Kashmar.
On November 30, 1938 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarris was martyred through poisoning by agents of the despotic British-installed Pahlavi ruler, Reza Khan, in the city of Kashmar, Khorasan, at the age of 68, for his untiring efforts to safeguard freedom and liberties in Iran. He was born in vicinity of the city of Ardestan in central Iran, and following completion of his preliminary studies, left for the holy city of Najaf in Iraq, to attend the classes of prominent ulema, such as Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi. On returning to Iran, Ayatollah Modarris started his struggles against the despotic regime and its colonial masters. He was elected to the parliament as a result and lobbied for implementation of Islamic laws in the country, a factor that angered Reza Khan, who exiled him from Tehran.