Profile Text
Birth Name: Mahmoud Sabbaghian
Place of Birth: Aradan, Imperial State of Iran (now Iranian)
Date of Birth: 28 October, 1956
Ethnicity: Persian Iranian
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدینژاد) is an Iranian politician. He was President of Iran , from 3 August, 2005 to 3 August, 2013. He has also been Governor General of Ardabil, from 28 November, 1993 to 29 October, 1997, Mayor of Tehran, from 20 May, 2003 to 28 June, 2005, (Acting) Minister of Intelligence, from 25 July, 2009 to 3 September, 2009, (Acting) Minister of Petroleum, from 16 May, 2011 to 2 June, 2011, Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement, from 30 August, 2012 to 3 August, 2013, and a Member of Expediency Discernment Council, since 3 August, 2013. He is a principlist and nationalist.
Mahmoud is the son of Khanom and Ahmad Saborjhian/Sabbaghian, who was a grocer, barber, and shopkeeper. “Sabor” is Persian for thread-painter. His father was a religious Shia Muslim, and teacher of the Quran. His mother was a Sayyida , an honorific for people who are said to be direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad. He is the brother of politicans Davoud Ahmadinejad and Parvin Ahmadinejad, who was a Member of City Council of Tehran, from 29 April, 2007 to 3 September, 2013. His family moved to Tehran when he was one. His family changed their names from Saborjhian/Sabbaghian to Ahmadinejad, using “Ahmad” after his father’s name and “nejad” meaning “race” in Persian, with Ahmadinejad meaning “the lineage of Ahmad.”
He is married to teacher Azam al-Sadat Farahi, with whom he has three children.
Mahmoud was sometimes said to have had Jewish heritage, usually because of mistranslations of his original name; claims that “Sabourjian,” meaning “weaver of the sabour,” referred to a Jewish prayer shawl. There is no such meaning of the word “sabour” in the Persian or Persian Jewish dialects.
Sources: https://www.theguardian.com https://www.telegraph.co.uk https://www.worldjewishcongress.org