Morteza Moallem was born in the Oudlajan district of Tehran, Iran, in 1891 in a devoted ‎Jewish family. He went to Alliance School for his elementary and high school studies. While teaching ‎French in Alliance school for four years, he was also employed as a clerk by the French embassy for ‎two years due to his knowledge of the French language. He also taught in San Luis School and ‎the Tehran American School. He began teaching French at an all-Girls school from 1928.‎

Morteza Moallem was interested in medicine. He studied in the School of Medicine (known then as ‎Dar al-Funoon). He was soon recognized for his gift in medicine and his unique ability to diagnose ‎illnesses. Morteza Moallem obtained his medical degree when he was 28 and was awarded the Royal ‎Decree of “Royal Physician” from Ahmad Shah Qajar. This would be the first time a member of the ‎Semite community, who were a minority, received such an accolade. It became a source of ‎community pride. Dr. Morteza Moallem established his medical office in Reza-Qoli Khan Tekyeh in ‎Sirous Street, where he examined his patients. He was employed by the Ministry of Health after a ‎few years and became the head of the military clinic of the Eastern border, known as Astane Quds, ‎and the Western border, which included Qasr-e Shirin and Kermanshah. When he was relocated to ‎Tehran while working for the Ministry of Health, he opened his private office in Sirous Street.‎

For more than four decades, Dr. Morteza Moallem stayed in his private office late into the night to examine the ‎surge of patients who had come to consult him. He was a committed and significant member of the ‎Kheyrkhah Foundation and the administrator of Dr. Sapir hospital. Dr. Moallem served in Bu Ali ‎Hospital for the Disabled and other clinics around the country as well. His research resulted in a ‎novel method for preventing Leishmaniasis. He inoculated healthy people with the mucus obtained ‎from patients with Leishmaniasis. This was especially practiced in developing or poorly developed ‎regions, where Leishmaniasis was prevalent.‎

Morteza Moallem began his social activities at Bet Safer (i.e. Committee of Jewish school), also ‎known as Hebra (mo). He became an active member of the Tehran Jewish ‎Committee, where he served as a consultant. He was keen on promoting hygiene and eliminating ‎poverty in the [Jewish] community. He was, therefore, promoted to the community Arbitration ‎Committee and appointed as administrator of Sapir Hospital (also known as Kurosh Kabir i.e. Cyrus the Great) and the Kheyrkhah Foundation.‎

Dr. Morteza Moallem married Hakimeh Moallem in 1925. His wife had a diploma in midwifery and ‎was also an active member of the community. They had two children, Dr. Shaker Moallem and Dr. ‎Hamid Moallem, both of whom are specialized physicians and, like their father, active and significant ‎members of the community.‎

Dr. Moallem was admitted into the founding committee of Kurosh School when it was to be ‎established in 1932. He participated in the first meeting of the committee, next to Haj Samuel ‎Hai‎, Habib Levi, Eshagh Hakim, and Dr. Enayat Montakhab. He was a tireless member there and ‎contributed greatly to the development of the Kurosh Cultural Complex.‎

Dr. Morteza Moallem was an honorable, self-possessed, respectful, and organized person. He was ‎an astute physician and fluent in French. He began translating French sources from his youth, which ‎was both a source of income and a tool for expanding his knowledge and understanding of the ‎French literature. He translated the lessons of the School of Medicine and would continuously ‎consult French linguists for Persian equivalents to French words.‎

Although Dr. Moallem was extremely occupied with his medical practice, yet he maintained an active ‎role in various social areas and managed to publish a Persian-French dictionary. His incentive was ‎the lack of any reliable and comprehensive source. He used notes to collect vocabularies, because it ‎enabled him to update, upgrade, correct, and add or remove his entries. When he retired from his job at ‎the Ministry of Health in 1955, he found new time to invest in his social activities and completing his ‎dictionary. He was occupied for more than sixteen hours a day. He even did the typography of his ‎book himself, which was a heavy responsibility to accept.‎

The Persian-French dictionary was eventually published in two large volumes in 1970 by Amir Kabir ‎publications with a recommendation from Mohammad Moien, who was a prominent Iranian scholar ‎of Persian literature and Iranian Studies. However, according to Dr. Moallem, the fee that he was paid was a ‎‎[meagre] 12 volumes of his own book, which had taken years and much effort to complete. The book was soon praised by the Jewish Society and by ‎government authorities.‎

During his elderly age, he decided to prepare a comprehensive Persian-French dictionary, for which ‎he worked day and night. He had filled an entire room with notes categorized in boxes. This was a ‎relatively valuable collection. He was in a rush to publish his new book, but death did not lend him ‎the time. Although the book was ready, the publication failed.‎

Other works of Dr. Moallem include, “Persian idioms translated to French” and “Persian proverbs ‎translated to French”. Dr. Moallem’s dictionary was printed for the second time in 1983. To this day, ‎Dr. Moretza Moallem’s Persian-French dictionary remains one of the most comprehensive dictionaries ‎accessible to Farsi speakers. Most orientalists and Persian language specialists around the world ‎have accredited the book and it is used extensively by Iranian students and translators.‎

Dr. Morteza Moallem passed away in 1980, aged 89, having fulfilled his life as a savant, a writer, ‎and a person who honorably served the people.‎

Founding committee of Kurosh School, January 1936. Sitting from the right side: Haj Shemoel Hai, Dr. Morteza Moallem, Dr. Montakhab (chairman of the Kurosh Committee), Eshagh Hakim, and Haj Meeir Halimi.

Standing from the right side: Eshagh Matloob (school headmaster), Davoud Moradpour, Eshagh Berokhim, Afar and Naser Akhtarzad (secretaries of the committee)

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A picture of Dr. Morteza Moallem with physicians of Sapir Hospital (which belonged to the Kheyrkhah Foundation) on the opening ceremony of the ‎maternity ward, 18th December 1953, Tehran, Iran.‎

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Arbitration Committee of the Tehran Jewish Committee, Tehran, 1971. From the left side: Ebrahim Shofet, ‎Abdollah Zargarian, Jamshid Bekhrad, Eliãs Ghodsian, Ebrahim Eshaghpour, Dr. Morteza Moallem, Abdollah ‎Nassi, Masoud Harunian, Ataollah Yomtoob, Haghnazar Farahnik.

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