Musa Al-Sadr Grand Ayatollah |
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Born |
Musa Al-Sadr Al-Sharaffeddine موسى بن صدر الدين بن إسماعيل بن صدر الدين بن صالح شرف الدين 4 June 1928 Qom, Iran |
Disappeared | 31 August 1978 (aged 50) Libya |
Alma mater |
University of Tehran Hawza 'Ilmiyya Qom |
Known for | co-founding Amal Movement |
Parent(s) | Sadr al-Din al-Sadr |
Relatives |
Ismail as-Sadr (grandfather) Muhammad al-Sadr (cousin) Sadeq Tabatabaei (nephew) |
Sayyid Musa al-Sadr (Persian: Seyyed Musā Sadr ; سید موسى صدر, Arabic: السيد موسى الصدر; 4 June 1928 – disappeared in Libya on 31 August 1978) was a Lebanese-Iranian philosopher and Shi'a religious leader from a long line of distinguished clerics tracing their ancestry back to Jabal Amel. Born in the Cheharmardan neighborhood of Qom, Iran, he underwent both seminary and secular studies in Iran. He left Qom for Najaf to study theology and returned to Iran after the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état.
Some years later, Sadr went to Tyre, Lebanon as the emissary of Ayatollahs Broujerdi and Hakim. Due to the lasting influence of his political and religious leadership in Lebanon, he has been referred to by Fouad Ajami as a "towering figure in modern Shi'i political thought and praxis". He gave the Shia population of Lebanon "a sense of community". In Lebanon, he founded and revived many organizations including schools, charities, and the Amal Movement.
On 25 August 1978, Sadr and two companions departed for Libya to meet with government officials at the invitation of Muammar Gaddafi. The three were last seen on 31 August. They were never heard from again. Many theories exist around the circumstances of his disappearance, none of which have been proven.
Musa al-Sadr came from a long line of distinguished clerics tracing their ancestry back to Jabal Amel. His great-great-grandfather S. Salih b. Muhammad Sharafeddin, a high-ranking cleric, was born in Shhour, a village near Tyre (in modern-day Lebanon). Following a frantic turn of events related to an anti-Ottoman uprising, he left for Najaf Sharafeddin's son, Sadreddin, left Najaf for Isfahan, which was then the most important centre of religious learning in Iran. He returned to Najaf shortly before his death in 1847. The youngest of his five sons, Ismail (as-Sadr), was born in Isfahan, in Qajar ruled Iran, and eventually became a leading mujtahid. The second son of this Ismail, also known by the name Sadreddin, born in Ottoman Iraq, also decided to settle permanently in Iran. He would become Musa al-Sadr's father. While living in Iran, Sadreddin married a daughter of Ayatollah Hussein Tabatabaei Qomi, an important Iranian religious leader, who would become Musa al-Sadr's mother.