Islam, Dialogue and Civil Society
Biographical Note
Seyyed Muhammad Khatami was elected President of the Islamic Republic of
Iran on May 23, 1997, with over two-thirds of the popular vote. He was
born in 1942 into a middle-class clerical family in the town of Ardakan,
located in the province of Yazd in central Iran. His father, Grand
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was widely respected for his piety and
progressive views.
At the age of nineteen, Khatami left Ardakan to pursue religious
studies in Qom until 1965, when he entered the University of Isfahan to
study philosophy. From this time onward, he became active in Islamic
politics. In 1969, he began graduate studies in education at the
University of Tehran. Two years later, he returned to Qom to pursue
further religious studies in Islamic law, jurisprudence, and philosophy.
It was in Qom that he became more immersed in political activity. In
1978, on the eve of the Iranian revolution, he was chosen to lead the
Hamburg Islamic Institute in Germany, which played a pivotal role in
organizing revolutionary activity among the Iranian Diaspora. From 1982
to 1992, he served as minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance. In 1992
he was appointed assistant to the President and head of the National
Library of Iran, a position he held until his election to the
Presidency.
Mr. Khatami is familiar with English, Arabic, and German. He has
published several books and articles, including: Bim-e Mowj (Fear of
the Wave), 1993, and Az Donya-ye Shahr ta Shahr-e Donya (From the
City-World to the World-City), 1994. He is particularly interested in
the works of Farabi, Molla-Sadra, Sheykh Ansari, and Hafez. He is
married and has three children.