Ali M. Ansari

Ali Massoud Ansari is a British-Iranian historian and one of the leading academic voices on modern Iran in the English-speaking world. Born in Rome in 1967, he is a member of the extended Pahlavi family — his father, Mohammad Ali Massoud Ansari, is a cousin of Farah Pahlavi, the last Empress of Iran.

Ansari was educated at University College London (BA), King's College London (MA), and the School of Oriental and African Studies (PhD, 1998), where his doctoral dissertation examined 'Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Myth of Imperial Authority.' He is Professor of Modern History with reference to the Middle East at the University of St Andrews, where he founded and directs the Institute for Iranian Studies. He also serves as President of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI, and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

His extensive bibliography includes Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (2003), Confronting Iran (2006), The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (2012), Iran: A Very Short Introduction (2014), and Iran, Islam and Democracy (3rd ed., 2019). He is a regular commentator on Iranian affairs for the BBC, The Guardian, and The Independent.

His brother, Ahmad Ali Masoud Ansari, was a confidant of the Pahlavi court who later published controversial memoirs alleging fraud and feuds within the royal family, including claims that Reza Pahlavi was funded by Saudi Arabia and the CIA.