right|thumb|Dr. Ali Shariati
'''Ali Shariati''' (Persian: '''علی شريعتی‎)''' (sociologist and revolutionary, well known and respected for his work in the field of sociology of religion. He is known as one of the most original and influential Iranian social thinkers of the 20th century. 
==Biography==
Ali Shariati was born in 1933 in Kahak (a village in Mazinan), a suburb of Sabzevar, north-east of Iran. His father, Mohammad-Taghi, was an Islamic scholar, founder of the Center for Propagation of Islamic Truths in the province of Khorasan in a time when Marxism was on rise in Iran. He would later be criticized by his son for his beliefs.  

In his years at the Teacher's Training College, Shariati came into contact with young people who were from the less privileged economic classes of the society, and for the first time saw the poverty and hardship that existed in Iran during that period. At the same time he was exposed to many aspects of Western philosophical and political thought. He attempted to explain and provide solutions for the problems faced by Muslim societies through traditional Islamic principles interwoven with and understood from the point of view of modern sociology and philosophy. Shariati was also deeply influenced by Moulana Rumi and Muhammad Iqbal.

In 1952 he became a high-school teacher and founded the Islamic Students' Association, which led to his arrest after a demonstration.  In 1953, the year of Mossadeq's overthrow by the CIA and allied Iranians, he became a member of the National Resistance Movement. He received his bachelor's degree from the Shah's police, along with 16 others members of the National Resistance Movement.

Ali Shariati then managed to obtain a scholarship for France, where he continued his graduate studies at the University of Paris. There he was considered a brilliant student and elected best students in letters in 1958. He worked towards earning his doctorate in sociology, leaving Paris before he was able to complete his studies in 1964. During this period in Paris, Shariati started collaborating with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1959. The next year, he began to read Frantz Fanon and translated an anthology of his work in Persian.<ref> [http://www.lexpress.fr/info/monde/dossier/islamisme/dossier.asp?ida=436714 «La jeune génération est un enjeu»], interview with Gilles Kepel in ''L'Express'', 26 January 2006  </ref>.  Shariati would introduce Fanon's thought in Iranian revolutionary emigrees circles. He was arrested in Paris during a demonstration in honour of Patrice Lumumba, on January 17, 1961.

The same year he joined Ebrahim Yazdi, Mostafa Chamran and Sadegh Qotbzadeh in founding the Freedom Movement of Iran abroad. 

In 1962 he continued studying sociology and history of religions, and followed the courses of Islamic scholar Louis Massignon, Jacques Berque and the sociologist Georges Gurvitch. He also came to know the philosopher of Jean-Paul Sartre that same year, and published in Iran Jalal Al-e Ahmad's book ''Gharbzadegi'' (or ''Occidentosis'') .

He then returned to Iran in 1964 where he was arrested and imprisoned by the Imperial Iranian authorities for engaging in subversive political activities while in France. He was  released after few weeks, at which point he began teaching at the University of Mashhad. 

Shariati then went to Tehran where he began lecturing at the Hosseiniye Ershad Institute. These lectures proved to be hugely popular among his students and were spread by word of mouth throughout all economic sectors of the society, including the middle and upper classes where interest in Shariati's teachings began to grow immensely.

Shariati's continued success again aroused the interest of the Imperial authorities and arrested him, as well as many of his students. Widespread pressure from the populace and international outcry eventually led to his release after eighteen month in solitary confinement, and he was released on March 20, 1975. 

Shariati was allowed to leave the country for England. Three weeks later he died in Southampton of what his supporters believe was an assassination by the Shah's secret service (though it was ruled a simple heart attack by the British coroner).<ref>''An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati'' by Ali Rahnema, ISBN 1860641180</ref>

==Views==
Shariati's worldview was shaped by the Marxism and Third Worldism he encountered as a student in Paris - ideas that class war and revolution would bring about a just and  classless society. He is also said to have adopted the idea of ''Gharbzadegi'' from Jalal Al-e Ahmad and given it "its most vibrant and influential second life." <ref>The Mantle of the Prophet : Religion and Politics in Iran by Roy Mottahedeh, p.330</ref> 

thumb|right|Ali Chariati
'''Ali Chariati''', ou '''Ali Shariati'''  est un sociologue, philosophe et un militant politique iranien né près de Sabzevar le 23 novembre 1933 et mort à Southampton le 19 juin 1977. Il est surtout connu pour ses études sociologiques sur les religions.

==Biographie==
*1933 : Naissance à Mazinan au nord-est de l’Iran.
*1948 : Devient membre du Centre de la Propagation des Vérités islamiques fondé par son père Mohammad-Taghi, le grand exégète du Coran, un clerc éclairé devenu enseignant laïc.
*1952 : Fin du 1 cycle des études secondaires, devient enseignant aux lycées, et fonde l’association islamique des élèves, arrêté suite à une manifestation anti-gouvernementale.
*1953 : Membre du Mouvement de la Résistance Nationale.
*1954 : Baccalauréat en lettres, traduit de l’arabe un livre de Kashif al-qetâ’:  les archétypes moraux en islam.
*1955 : Faculté de Lettres de Mashhad, traduction de « Abû-Zar al-Qaffârî, Un socialiste théiste », d’un auteur égyptien Jodat al-Sahhâr, rédaction d’un traité sur l’« Histoire de l’évolution de la philosophie ».
*1957 : arrêté avec 16 autres membres du M.R.N à Machhad.
*FLN.
*1960 : Connaissance de Fanon et traduction d’une anthologie de son œuvre.
*Front National et son organe théorique « La Pensée du Front » où il présente Fanon pour la première fois dans la littérature révolutionnaire persane; arrestation à Paris suite à la manifestation des étudiants devant l’ambassade de Belgique lors du martyre de Patrice Lumumba, le 17 janvier, dialogue avec Guioze (intellectuel togolais) à la prison de la Cité.
*histoire des religions, suit les cours de Louis Massignon, Berque et Georges Gurvitch, fait la connaissance de Jean-Paul Sartre et du milieu intellectuel français, publication en Iran de l’« Occidentalité » de Jalal Al-Ahmad.
*1965-1972 : Professeur d’histoire à l’Université de Machhad, après une période d’enseignement dans les écoles, publication de ses cahiers intimes « Désert » et de son «Islamologie », une série de discours et de conférence à travers le pays et les Universités et surtout à Téhéran dans le centre culturel et religieux de Hosseiniyeh Ershâd, fermé par l’ancien régime (à la demande du clergé conservateur), interdiction de publication et de toute intervention publique.
*1963 : Obtention d’un Doctorat ès Lettres à la Sorbonne sous la direction de Gilbert Lazard.
*1964 : Retour en Iran, arrêté à la frontière et incarcéré à Téhéran.
*Shah, dans les cellules d’isolement, libération après les accords d’Alger et assignation à résidence.
*1977 : le 17 mai 1977, après avoir réussi à quitter l’Iran sous son second nom de famille, son épouse, prise en otage, se voit interdite de sortie à l’aéroport. Le 19 juin Shariati est assassiné par la Savak à Southampton en Angleterre. 

Généralement considéré comme l'idéologue de la laïcisme et d' occidentalisme.

==Bibliographie==

* Pouran Shariat-Razavi, ''Tarikh az yek zendegi'' (« Portrait d’une vie »), Téhéran, éd. Chapakhsh, 3e tirage, 1996.
* Ali Rahnemā, ''An islamic utopian : A political biography of Ali Shariati'', I.B.Tauris, Londres, 1998.

==Lien externe==