Sayed Ammar Nakshawani was born in 1981 and is the grandson of Murtadha Nakshawani. He attended University College London and obtained his BSc in Psychology and Law in 2003, and also completed a one-year diploma course at the London School of Economics. He thereafter obtained his MA from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and his doctorate from the University of Exeter. He has also studied at the Islamic seminaries of Damascus, Syria from 2009 to 2011. He is a professor and the Imam Ali Chair of Shia Studies at Hartford Seminary and is listed as one of the The 500 Most Influential Muslims.