Ebrahim Raisi stood near the peak of authority in the Islamic Republic and was widely expected to go to the ultimate top.
A remarkable sequence of events changed his fortunes.
His death in a helicopter crash on Sunday has upended rising speculation about who may eventually succeed the 85-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose own health has long been the subject of intense curiosity.
The untimely death of Iran’s hardline president is not expected to affect Iranian policy or shake the Islamic Republic in any significant way.
However, it will put to the test a system in which conservative hardliners now hold sway over all branches of government, elected or not.
