Abol-Ghasem Kashani
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Ayatollah Seyyed Abol-Ghasem Mostafavi Kashani (آیتالله سید ابوالقاسم مصطفوی کاشانی in Persian) (1884 - March 1961) was born in Tehran, Iran.
His father, Ayatollah Hajj Seyyed Mostafa Kashani (آیتالله حاج سید مصطفی کاشانی), was a great clergyman of Shiism in his period. Abol-Ghasem was raised in an extremely pious family. He began the study of Quran recitation after learning to read and write. Kashani went on to Seminary school and learned literature, the Arabic language, logic, semantics and speech, jurisprudence and principles when he was 16. He traveled to Iraq in order to learn more about the Quran. He continued his education at the Holy Najaf Seminary and received his degree in Jurisprudence at the age of 25.
Kashani had held liberal thoughts since childhood and hated oppression, despotism and colonization and worked to oppose them. Because of his nationalist thoughts, Ayatollah Kashani had a very difficult political career. He was arrested by the British and Soviets during their joint occupation of Iran during the Second World War and sent into exile. But he never stopped fighting against the foreign powers and their attempts to take advantage of the natural resources of Iran. He started a massive movement against Britain's Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, whose unfair policies left little oil money for Iran. The nationalization of the Iranian oil industry is one of the greatest achievements of Ayatollah Kashani's political life.
Ayatollah Kashani played an instrumental role in the royalist coup of August 1953. Although initially siding with the nationist prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, Kashani later betrayed Mossadegh and supported the coup that overthrew Iran's democratically-elected government and brought the country under the iron-fist of Mohammad Reza Shah.
Ayatollah Kashani died in Tehran in 1961.fr:Abou al-Kassem Khashani