Ruhollah Khomeini
Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini[b] (17 May 1900 or 24 September 1902[a] – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian Islamic revolutionary, politician, and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and ended the Iranian monarchy.
For other people named Khomeini, see Khomeini (name).
Ruhollah Khomeini
- Abolhassan Banisadr
- Mohammad-Ali Rajai
- Ali Khamenei
- Mehdi Bazargan
- Mohammad-Ali Rajai
- Mohammad-Javad Bahonar
- Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani
- Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1985–1989)
Position established (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah of Iran)
Eminent marji' al-taqlid, Ayatullah al-Uzma Imam Khumayni[4]
Imam Khomeini[5]
Ayatullah al-Uzma Ruhollah Khomeini[5]
Born in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran's Markazi province, his father was murdered in 1903 when Khomeini was two years old. He began studying the Quran and Arabic from a young age and was assisted in his religious studies by his relatives, including his mother's cousin and older brother. Khomeini was a high ranking cleric in Twelver Shi'ism, an ayatollah, a marja' ("source of emulation"), a Mujtahid or faqīh (an expert in sharia), and author of more than 40 books. His opposition to the White Revolution resulted in his state-sponsored expulsion to Bursa in 1964. Nearly a year later, he moved to Najaf, where speeches he gave outlining his religiopolitical theory of Guardianship of the Jurist were compiled into Islamic Government.
He was Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1979 for his international influence, and Khomeini has been described as the "virtual face of Shia Islam in Western popular culture", where he was known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iran hostage crisis, his fatwa calling for the murder of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, and for referring to the United States as the "Great Satan" and the Soviet Union as the "Lesser Satan". Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's first supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. Most of his period in power was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.
The subject of a pervasive cult of personality, Khomeini is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran and by his supporters internationally. His funeral was attended by up to 10 million people, or 1/6 of Iran's population, the largest funeral at the time and one of the largest human gatherings in history. In Iran, his gold-domed tomb in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahrāʾ cemetery has become a shrine for his adherents, and he is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians regularly punished for insulting him. His supporters view him as a champion of Islamic revival, anti-racism and anti-imperialism. Critics accuse him of human rights violations (including his ordering of attacks against demonstrators, and execution of thousands of political prisoners, war criminals and prisoners of the Iran–Iraq War), as well as for using child soldiers extensively during the Iran–Iraq War for human wave attacks—estimates are as high as 100,000 for the number of children killed.
In 1929[303][304] (or possibly 1931),[305] Khomeini married Khadijeh Saqafi,[306] the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. Some sources claim that Khomeini married Saqafi when she was ten years old,[307][308][309] while others claim she was fifteen years old.[310] By all accounts their marriage was harmonious and happy.[306] She died on 21 March 2009, at the age of 93.[305][311] They had seven children, though only five survived infancy. His daughters all married into either merchant or clerical families, and both his sons entered into religious life. Mostafa, the elder son, died in 1977 while in exile in Najaf, Iraq with his father and was rumored by supporters of his father to have been murdered by SAVAK.[312] Ahmad Khomeini, who died in 1995 at the age of 50, was also rumoured to be a victim of foul play, but at the hands of the regime.[313] Perhaps his "most prominent daughter",[314] Zahra Mostafavi, is a professor at the University of Tehran, and still alive.
Khomeini's fifteen grandchildren include:
Khomeini was a writer and speaker (200 of his books are online)[320] who authored commentaries on the Qur'an, on Islamic jurisprudence, the roots of Islamic law, and Islamic traditions. He also released books about philosophy, gnosticism, poetry, literature, government and politics.[321]
His books include: