Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, researcher of Iran's borders and islands, dies at 80

Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, a professor of political geography and one of the best-known researchers of Iran's borders and of Iran's islands in the Persian Gulf, died on Thursday 15 October 2026 in London at the age of 80 after a period of illness. Scholarly guardianship of Iran's territorial integrity was the constant concern of his research.

Mojtahedzadeh was born on 9 February 1946 in Nur, Mazandaran. He graduated in human and economic geography from the University of Tehran and then, during the monarchy, went to Britain to continue his studies: he earned a master's degree in political geography from the University of Manchester and a doctorate in political geography from the University of Oxford, and later received another doctorate in the same field from the University of London.

Research on the three islands and the Strait of Hormuz

Mojtahedzadeh's name is bound up with research on Iran's sovereignty over the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa. His books "The Islands of Tunb and Abu Musa" (1995) and "The United Arab Emirates and the Iranian Islands of Tunb and Abu Musa" (2007) are considered among his most important works in the documented defence of Iran's right to these islands. He also wrote books on the "political geography of the Strait of Hormuz" (1991), "security and territoriality in the Persian Gulf" (1999) and "border politics and Iran's international boundaries" (2007), and published more than 20 books in Persian, English and Arabic on the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf. Defending the historic name "Persian Gulf" was likewise a constant part of his scholarly and media work.

From London to Tarbiat Modares University

For years Mojtahedzadeh was a senior researcher at the Centre for Geopolitics and International Boundaries at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, and he headed the Euroswiss research foundation in London. From the 1990s he taught political geography and geopolitics at the University of Tehran and Tarbiat Modares University, and from 2004 he was a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

At a time when the Islamic Republic has turned the Strait of Hormuz and the waters of the Persian Gulf into a battlefield and a theatre of attacks on shipping, the death of a researcher who spent his life documenting Iran's historical and legal rights in those very waters is a reminder of the gap between guarding Iran's national interests and the regime's adventurism.

With more than 20 books, Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh was one of the best-documented defenders of Iran's right to the islands of Tunb and Abu Musa and to the name of the Persian Gulf.