Mutahhari participated in both Tabatabaʾi’s classes on the...

Mutahhari participated in both Tabatabaʾi’s classes on the Shifaʿ of Abu ʿAli Sina from 1950 to 1953, and the Thursday evening meetings that took place under his direction. The subject of these meetings was materialist philosophy, a remarkable choice for a group of traditional scholars. Mutahhari himself had first conceived a critical interest in materialist philosophy, especially Marxism, soon after embarking on the formal study of the rational sciences.

Ac­cording to his own recollections, in about 1946 he began to study the Persian translations of Marxist literature published by the Tudeh party, the major Marxist organization in Iran and at that time an important force in the political scene. In addition, he read the writings of Taqi Arani, the main theoretician of the Tudeh…