Jafar Behbahanian was born in 1902 and died on Saturday in Basel. He originally came from Persia, today’s Iran.
He studied in Beirut before becoming an administrator of the royal private estate in his native country. He also served as a vice court minister there from 1967 to 1978.
When the Islamic Revolution began in 1978, Behbahanian fled to Switzerland and finally settled in Basel.
He had felt very welcome in Switzerland, his wife told the Swiss News Agency a few years ago, on the occasion of his 110th birthday.
Her husband had always lived a very healthy life, she said. He neither drank nor smoked but had worked liked mad.
The couple, who lived in a home in a residential area of Basel, travelled extensively even into Behbahanian’s old age.
But after each trip, her husband had always loved coming back to Basel, said his wife, who is 36 years his junior.
She described him as a man with a positive attitude towards life, who had never complained about anything.
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