Javad Tabatabai

Seyyed Javad Tabatabai (Persian: سید جواد طباطبایی; 14 December 1945 – 28 February 2023) was an Iranian philosopher and political scientist.

After returning to Iran, Tabatabai was Professor and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran.

[4] He continued his research in other countries such as France, England, Germany and the United States: he was a guest fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, as well as at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University.

Tabatabai's career-long research revolved around this question: “What conditions made modernity possible in Europe and led to its abnegation in Iran?” He answered this question by adopting a “Hegelian approach” that privileged a philosophical reading of history on the assumption that philosophical thought is the foundation and essence of any political community and the basis for any critical analysis of it as well.

[1] Tabatabai defended Persian as Iran's national language and argued that the histories of Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan contained many forgeries and fabrications.