Sayyid Mahmoud Alaei Taleghani (Persian: سید محمود طالقانی, pronunciationⓘ, also romanized as Mahmūd Tāleqānī; 5 March 1911 – 9 September 1979) was an Iranian theologian, Muslim reformer, democracy advocate, a senior Shia Islamic scholar and thinker of Iran, and a leader in his own right of the movement against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

[7] Taleghani was born to a religious family in the village of Galird of Taleqan County in Alborz Province on 5 March 1911.

[8] His father Abu'l-Hasan Taleghani, who had published a magazine called Balagh in the context of the Kashf-e hijab protests at the time of Reza Shah,[9] taught him Islamic sciences.

[10][11] In 1938, he went to Tehran to preach and lecture on Islam and was arrested and imprisoned the next year for opposing the regime of Reza Shah.

He was imprisoned on several occasions over the decades, "as a young preacher, as a mid-ranking cleric, and as a senior religious leader just before the revolution,"[14] and served a total of a dozen years in prison.

During the Islamic Revolution he became chairman of the "secretive" Revolutionary Council, Iran's chief ruling body – a fact not revealed until his death.

[15] In order of Ayatollah Khomeini, he was the first Imam for Friday prayer in Tehran after the fall of Iran's interim government, In the late July 1979.

Also, Islam is seen in his sermons and writings as a religion that set up progressive rules in societal and individual life.

[25] His tafsir, or Quranic commentary, was innovative in language and clearly designed to appeal to a wide audience, with the use of narrations and juridical reports.

[28] His mysterious death and lifetime achievements were the occasion of huge crowds and much emotion before and during his funeral,[13] and was said to be "a blow to moderation and progressive thought" in the revolution.