Mohammad Ali Rajaʾi (born 1933, Qazvīn, Iran—died August 30, 1981, Tehrān) was an Iranian politician who was prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1980 to 1981. Born into poverty, Rajaʾi enlisted in the Iranian Air Force at age 16 and later earned a teacher’s diploma from Tehrān’s Teachers’ College. In 1960 he joined the Iranian Liberation Movement and was arrested three times by the government of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi for his political activities. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Association of Islamic Teachers, and, following the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, he headed the Ministry of Education. Noted for his persistence and determination, Rajaʾi became a leading member of the clergy-dominated Islamic Republican Party (IRP), a major supporter of the revolution’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
