Mohammad Khatami was born on October 14, 1943, in the small desert town of Ardakan, in Yazd Province, central Iran. He was born into a devout Sayyid family — descendants of the Prophet Muhammad — known for their religious scholarship. His father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was the Friday prayer leader of Yazd and a respected cleric loyal to the ideals of the Islamic Revolution. The young Mohammad grew up in a household that valued both religious devotion and intellectual inquiry.
After completing his primary education in Ardakan, Khatami pursued seminary studies in Qom, one of the most important centers of Shi’a learning. There, he studied Islamic jurisprudence, philosophy, and theology, while simultaneously developing an interest in modern philosophy and political thought. To complement his religious training, Khatami later earned a master’s degree in Western philosophy from the University of Isfahan. This dual exposure to Islamic theology and Western intellectual traditions would later define his philosophical approach to politics — an effort to bridge faith and reason, Islam and democracy.
In 1974, Khatami married Zohreh Sadeghi, daughter of a professor of religious law and niece of the prominent Lebanese-Iranian cleric Musa al-Sadr. The couple have three children: Laila (born 1975), Narges (born 1980), and Emad (born 1988). His family life remained relatively private, and throughout his political career, he was known for his modesty and personal integrity.
