Law Quarterly

Law Quarterly

“Living Through Love”: In Memoriam Mahmoud Shahabi,

Document Type : Editor-in-Chief Lecture

Author
Mahmoud Kazemi
Associate Professor, Islamic and Private Law Department, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22059/jlq.2026.109073
Abstract
The fourth of Mordad marks the fortieth anniversary of the passing of Professor Mahmoud Shahabi Khorasani, one of the luminaries of Iranian letters and thought, and of philosophy, theology (kalām), jurisprudence (fiqh), and legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh). He was among those eminent scholars whose intellectual careers took shape at the point of convergence between the traditional pedagogy of the Hawza and the new system of modern university education in Iran. Distinguished in jurisprudence and its principles, philosophy and theology, history and literature, and mysticism (irfān), he was an original thinker and a mujtahid who left a substantial scholarly corpus. After years of study in the Hawza of Mashhad and Isfahan, he began his teaching career at the Sepahsalar School in Tehran. He subsequently joined the University of Tehran, teaching first at the Faculty of Theology; following the establishment of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, he held a chair there, where he taught “Principles of Jurisprudence” (uṣūl al-fiqh) and “Maxims of Jurisprudence”( qawā’id-e fiqh ) and attained the rank of distinguished professor of the University of Tehran. His many years at the Faculty of Law, beyond teaching jurisprudence and its principles to successive generations of students of law and theology, contributed significantly to the training of a number of Iran’s leading professors, jurists, and judges. In this respect, Shahabi’s stature cannot be confined to the scope of his scholarly writings; his legacy is a lasting one in education, ethics, and mysticism, and he was also one of the pillars of the Faculty’s institutional character. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of this eminent professor’s passing, and in recognition of his standing, this article offers a concise review of the various dimensions of his life (scholarly, ethical, and mystical). It further seeks to reassess his place in the history of legal education in Iran and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tehran.
Keywords
Mahmoud Shahabi Khorasani
University of Tehran
Faculty of Law and Political Science
jurisprudence (fiqh)
principles of jurisprudence
legal maxims (qawā&‌‌‌rsquo
id fiqhiyya)
legal education
history of Iranian law
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Law Quarterly
Volume 56, Issue 2
Summer 2026
Pages 169-184