Teacher and writer. Iran's most prominent and controversial intellectual, with leftwing ideas, whose teaching challenged the orthodoxy of both the Shah and the Islamic regime. He promoted social change, dialectical materialism and the view that everything could be explained according to scientific principles. His Introduction To Sociology, first published in 1965, has been reprinted 80 times. He spoke several languages and was a great orator in Persian. Amir who believed in freedom of expression was born in Tehran.