Sharif-Emami was born in Tehran on 17 June 1912 to a clerical family and his father was a mullah. After high school, Sharif-Emami was sent (along with thirty other young men) to Germany where he studied for eighteen months, returning to Iran in 1930 to work with state railroad organization until the Anglo-Soviet Invasion. Years later he was sent to Sweden for technical training, returning in 1939 when he received a degree in engineering.