Seyyed Hasan Taqizadeh: A Seasoned Intellectual-Statesman

Taqizadeh’s life captures the tumultuous politics of 20th century Iran better than any other intellectual-statesman. A protagonist of the Constitutional Revolution, he went on to serve as Majles deputy, foreign minister, governor, ambassador, and senator. This paper will assess the political evolution of Taqizadeh by examining his ideas for cooperating first with Reza Shah’s and then with Mohammad-Reza Shah’s state. It will be argued that as a tenacious defender of modernity and progress, Taqizadeh’s ideas informed his political praxis. The research is based on eighteen volumes of his writings recently published in Iran.