Ruhollah Khomeini

Iranian politician and religious leader (1900-1989)

"Khomeini" redirects here. For other people with the name, see Khomeini (name).

Not to be confused with his successor, Ali Khamenei.

The Ayatollah
Sayyid

Ruhollah Khomeini

روح‌الله خمینی
File:Portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini By Ali Kaveh (cropped).jpg

Khomeini c. 1980s

1st Supreme Leader of Iran
In office
3 December 1979 – 3 June 1989
President|

* Abolhassan Banisadr
* Mohammad-Ali Rajai
* Ali Khamenei

Prime Minister|

* Mehdi Bazargan
* Mohammad-Ali Rajai
* Mohammad-Javad Bahonar
* Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani
* Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Deputy| Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1985–1989)
Preceded by| Office established
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah
Succeeded by| Ali Khamenei
Personal details
Born| (1900-05-17)17 May 1900[1]
Khomeyn, Sublime State of Persia
Died| 3 June 1989(1989-06-03) (aged 89)
Tehran, Iran
Resting place| Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini
Nationality| Iranian
Spouse|

Khadijeh Saqafi

(m. 1929)​

Children|

* Mostafa
* Zahra
* Sadiqeh
* Farideh
* Ahmad

Signature| Ruhollah Khomeini's signature
Website| www.imam-khomeini.ir
Title| Grand Ayatollah
Notable idea(s)| New advance of Guardianship
Notable work(s)|

* Forty Hadith
* Kashf al-Asrar
* Tahrir al-Wasilah
* Islamic Government

Alma mater| Qom Seminary
Religious life
Religion| Islam
Denomination| Twelver Shīʿā[2][3][4]
Jurisprudence| Usuli
Muslim leader
Teacher| Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi

Styles of
Ruhollah Khomeini

File:Emblem of Iran.svg
Reference style| Eminent marji' al-taqlid, Ayatullah al-Uzma Imam Khumayni[5]
Spoken style| Imam Khomeini
Religious style| Ayatullah al-Uzma Ruhollah Khomeini

Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian Shia clergy and political leader who served as the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1979 until his death.[6][7] He was the principal leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, abolished the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy, and established an Islamic republic governed according to his doctrine of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurist), in which a senior Islamic jurist holds ultimate political and religious authority.[8]

Khomeini held the newly created office of Supreme Leader, a lifelong position that placed him above the president, parliament, judiciary, armed forces, state media, and numerous other institutions.[8] Much of his decade in power was dominated by the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), which began with Iraq’s invasion of Iran in September 1980 and ended when Khomeini accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 in July 1988, an act he publicly described as “more deadly than drinking poison”.[7] He died of cancer on 3 June 1989 at the age of 89; the Assembly of Experts designated then-President Ali Khamenei as his successor the following day.[7]

Under Khomeini’s leadership the Islamic Republic repealed pre-revolutionary family-protection laws, lowered the female marriage age, restored polygamy and temporary marriage, made veiling compulsory for women (enforced by fines, imprisonment and lashes), carried out thousands of political executions (including the mass executions of prisoners in 1988), supported the 444-day hostage-taking of United States embassy personnel in Iran (1979–1981), and in February 1989 issued a fatwa declaring author Salman Rushdie and his publishers subject to death for apostasy and blasphemy.[9][10][11]

In 1979, Time magazine named Khomeini its Man of the Year (later renamed Person of the Year) for the revolution’s global impact, a choice that provoked strong public backlash in the United States.[12] Khomeini is regarded by supporters as the founder of modern political Shia Islam and by critics as the architect of a theocratic state responsible for widespread human rights violations.[13] Within Iran he is officially titled “Imam Khomeini”, his portrait and name appear throughout public space, and laws continue to criminalize insults against him.[14]

## Contents

* 1 Early years
* 1.1 Background
* 1.2 Childhood
* 1.3 Education and lecturing
* 1.4 Political aspects
* 2 Early political activity
* 2.1 Background
* 2.2 Opposition to the White Revolution
* 2.3 Opposition to capitulation
* 3 Life in exile
* 3.1 Khomeini's contact with the US
* 4 Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
* 4.1 Return to Iran
* 4.2 Islamic constitution
* 4.3 Hostage crisis
* 4.4 Relationship with Islamic and non-aligned countries
* 4.5 Iran–Iraq War
* 4.6 Fatwa against chemical weapons
* 4.7 Rushdie fatwa
* 5 Life under Khomeini
* 5.1 Women and child rights
* 5.2 LGBTQ rights
* 5.3 Emigration and economy
* 5.4 Suppression of opposition
* 5.5 Minority religions
* 5.6 Ethnic minorities
* 6 Death and funeral
* 6.1 Succession
* 6.2 Anniversary
* 7 Legacy
* 8 Appearance and habits
* 9 Family and descendants
* 10 Bibliography
* 11 See also
* 12 Notes
* 13 References
* 13.1 Citations
* 13.2 Sources
* 14 External links
* 14.1 Selected bibliography

## Early years[edit | edit source]

### Background[edit | edit source]

File:Ruhollah Khomeini birthplace 5.jpg

Ruhollah Khomeini's birthplace at Khomeyn

Ruhollah Khomeini came from a lineage of small land owners, clerics, and merchants.[15] His ancestors migrated towards the end of the 18th century from their original home in Nishapur, Khorasan province, in northeastern part of Iran, for a short stay, to the Kingdom of Awadh, a region in the modern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, whose rulers were Twelver Shia Muslims of Persian origin.[16][17][18] During their rule they extensively invited, and received, a steady stream of Persian scholars, poets, jurists, architects, and painters.[19] The family eventually settled in the small town of Kintoor, near Lucknow, the capital of Awadh.[20][21][22][6] Ayatollah Khomeini's paternal grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, was born in Kintoor.[21][6] He left Lucknow in 1830, on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Ali in Najaf, Ottoman Iraq (now Iraq) and never returned.[20][6] According to Moin, this migration was to escape from the spread of British power in India.[6]: 18 In 1834 Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi visited Persia, and in 1839 he settled in Khomein.[21] Although he stayed and settled in Iran, he continued to be known as Hindi, indicating his stay in India, and Ruhollah Khomeini even used Hindi as a pen name in some of his ghazals.[20] Khomeini's grandfather, Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari was the cleric issuing a fatwa to forbid usage of Tobacco during the Tobacco Protest.[23][6]

### Childhood[edit | edit source]

According to his birth certificate, Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, whose first name means "spirit of Allah", was born on 17 May 1900 in Khomeyn, Markazi Province although his brother Mortaza (later known as Ayatollah Pasandideh) gives his birth date of 24 September 1902, the birth anniversary of Muhammad's daughter, Fatima.[24] He was raised by his mother, Hajieh Agha Khanum, and his aunt, Sahebeth, following the murder of his father, Mustapha Musavi, over two years after his birth in 1903.[25]

Ruhollah began to study the Qur'an and elementary Persian at the age of six.[26] The following year, he began to attend a local school, where he learned religion, noheh khani (lamentation recital), and other traditional subjects.[6] Throughout his childhood, he continued his religious education with the assistance of his relatives, including his mother's cousin, Ja'far,[6] and his elder brother, Morteza Pasandideh.[27]

### Education and lecturing[edit | edit source]

After World War I arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Isfahan, but he was attracted instead to the seminary in Arak. He was placed under the leadership of Ayatollah Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi.[6]: 22 In 1920, Khomeini moved to Arak and commenced his studies.[28] The following year, Ayatollah Haeri Yazdi transferred to the Islamic seminary in the holy city of Qom, southwest of Tehran, and invited his students to follow. Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved,[27] and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom.[6]: 28 . Khomeini's studies included Islamic law (sharia) and jurisprudence (fiqh),[26] but by that time, Khomeini had also acquired an interest in poetry and philosophy (irfan). So, upon arriving in Qom, Khomeini sought the guidance of Mirza Ali Akbar Yazdi, a scholar of philosophy and mysticism. Yazdi died in 1924, but Khomeini continued to pursue his interest in philosophy with two other teachers, Javad Aqa Maleki Tabrizi and Rafi'i Qazvini.[6]: 42 [29] However, perhaps Khomeini's biggest influences were another teacher, Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Shahabadi,[30] and a variety of historic Sufi mystics, including Mulla Sadra and Ibn Arabi.[29]

Khomeini studied ancient Greek philosophy and was influenced by both the philosophy of Aristotle, whom he regarded as the founder of logic,[31] and Plato, whose views "in the field of divinity" he regarded as "grave and solid".[32] Among Islamic philosophers, Khomeini was mainly influenced by Avicenna and Mulla Sadra.[31]

Apart from philosophy, Khomeini was interested in literature and poetry. His poetry collection was released after his death. Beginning in his adolescent years, Khomeini composed mystic, political and social poetry. His poetry works were published in three collections: The Confidant, The Decanter of Love and Turning Point, and Divan.[33] His knowledge of poetry is further attested by the modern poet Nader Naderpour (1929–2000), who "had spent many hours exchanging poems with Khomeini in the early 1960s". Naderpour remembered: "For four hours we recited poetry. Every single line I recited from any poet, he recited the next."[34]

Ruhollah Khomeini was a lecturer at Najaf and Qom seminaries for decades before he was known on the political scene. He soon became a leading scholar of Shia Islam.[35] He taught political philosophy,[36] Islamic history and ethics. Several of his students – for example, Morteza Motahhari – later became leading Islamic philosophers and also marja'. As a scholar and teacher, Khomeini produced numerous writings on Islamic philosophy, law, and ethics.[37] He showed an exceptional interest in subjects like philosophy and mysticism that not only were usually absent from the curriculum of seminaries but were often an object of hostility and suspicion.[38]

Inaugurating his teaching career at the age of 27 by giving private lessons on irfan and Mulla Sadra to a private circle, around the same time, in 1928, he also released his first publication, Sharh Du'a al-Sahar (Commentary on the Du'a al-Baha), "a detailed commentary, in Arabic, on the prayer recited before dawn during Ramadan by Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq", followed, some years later, by Sirr al-Salat (Secret of the Prayer), where "the symbolic dimensions and inner meaning of every part of the prayer, from the ablution that precedes it to the salam that concludes it, are expounded in a rich, complex, and eloquent language that owes much to the concepts and terminology of Ibn 'Arabi. As Sayyid Fihri, the editor and translator of Sirr al-Salat, has remarked, the work is addressed only to the foremost among the spiritual elite (akhass-i khavass) and establishes its author as one of their number."[39] The second book has been translated by Sayyid Amjad Hussain Shah Naqavi and released by BRILL in 2015, under the title "The Mystery of Prayer: The Ascension of the Wayfarers and the Prayer of the Gnostics Archived 6 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine".

### Political aspects[edit | edit source]

His seminary teaching often focused on the importance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day, and he worked against secularism in the 1940s. His first political book, Kashf al-Asrar (Uncovering of Secrets)[40][6]: 60 published in 1942, was a point-by-point refutation of Asrar-e hezar sale (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kasravi,[41] as well as a condemnation of innovations such as international time zones,[42]

Prior to the International Time Zone system, every locality had its own time with 12 noon set to match the moment in that city when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. This was natural for an era when travel was relatively slow and infrequent but would have played havoc with railway timetables and general modern long-distance communications. In the decades after 1880 governments around the world replaced local time with 24 international time zones, each covering 15 degrees of the earth's longitude (with some exceptions for political boundaries. and the banning of hijab by Reza Shah. In addition, he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatullah Hasan Mudarris, the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during the 1920s. Khomeini became a marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi.

Khomeini also valued the ideals of Islamists such as Sheikh Fazlollah Noori and Abol-Ghasem Kashani. Khomeini saw Fazlollah Nuri as a "heroic figure", and his own objections to constitutionalism and a secular government derived from Nuri's objections to the 1907 constitution.[43][44][45][46][47]

## Early political activity[edit | edit source]

### Background[edit | edit source]

File:خمینی در نماز.JPG

Khomeini in prayer

Most Iranians had a deep respect for the Shi'a clergy or Ulama,[48] and tended to be religious, traditional, and alienated from the process of Westernization pursued by the Shah. In the late 19th century the clergy had shown themselves to be a powerful political force in Iran initiating the Tobacco Protest against a concession to a foreign (British) interest.

At the age of 61, Khomeini found the arena of leadership open following the deaths of Ayatollah Sayyed Husayn Borujerdi (1961), the leading, although quiescent, Shi'ah religious leader; and Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani (1962), an activist cleric. The clerical class had been on the defensive ever since the 1920s when the secular, anti-clerical modernizer Reza Shah Pahlavi rose to power. Reza's son Mohammad Reza Shah, instituted a "White Revolution", which was a further challenge to the Ulama.[49]

### Opposition to the White Revolution[edit | edit source]

In January 1963, the Shah announced the "White Revolution", a six-point programme of reform calling for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests, electoral changes to enfranchise women and allow non-Muslims to hold office, profit-sharing in industry, and a literacy campaign in the nation's schools. Some of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, especially by the powerful and privileged Shi'a ulama (religious scholars), and as Westernizing trends by traditionalists. Khomeini viewed them as "an attack on Islam".[50] Ayatollah Khomeini summoned a meeting of the other senior marjas of Qom and persuaded them to decree a boycott of the referendum on the White Revolution. On 22 January 1963, Khomeini issued a strongly worded declaration denouncing both the Shah and his reform plan. Two days later, the Shah took an armored column to Qom, and delivered a speech harshly attacking the ulama as a class.

Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programmes, issuing a manifesto that bore the signatures of eight other senior Shia religious scholars. Khomeini's manifesto argued that the Shah had violated the constitution in various ways, he condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of submission to the United States and Israel. He also decreed that the Nowruz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (which fell on 21 March 1963) be canceled as a sign of protest against government policies.

On the afternoon of 'Ashura (3 June 1963), Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feyziyeh madrasah drawing parallels between the Sunni Muslim caliph Yazid, who is perceived as a 'tyrant' by Shias, and the Shah, denouncing the Shah as a "wretched, miserable man," and warning him that if he did not change his ways the day would come when the people would offer up thanks for his departure from the country.

On 5 June 1963 (15 of Khordad) at 3:00 am, two days after this public denunciation of the Shah, Khomeini was detained in Qom and transferred to Tehran.[51] Following this action, there were three days of major riots throughout Iran and the deaths of some 400 people. That event is now referred to as the Movement of 15 Khordad.[6]: 112 Khomeini remained under house arrest until August.[52][53]

### Opposition to capitulation[edit | edit source]

On 26 October 1964, Khomeini denounced both the Shah and the United States. This time it was in response to the "capitulations" or diplomatic immunity granted by the Shah to American military personnel in Iran.[54][55] What Khomeini labeled a capitulation law, was in fact a "status-of-forces agreement", stipulating that U.S. servicemen facing criminal charges stemming from a deployment in Iran, were to be tried before a U.S. court martial, not an Iranian court. Khomeini was arrested in November 1964 and held for half a year. Upon his release, Khomeini was brought before Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur, who tried to convince him to apologize for his harsh rhetoric and going forward, cease his opposition to the Shah and his government. When Khomeini refused, Mansur slapped him in the face in a fit of rage. Two months later, Mansur was assassinated on his way to parliament. Four members of the Fadayan-e Islam, a Shia militia sympathetic to Khomeini, were later executed for the murder.[56]

## Life in exile[edit | edit source]

Further information: Iranian Revolution § 1970s: Pre-revolutionary conditions and events inside Iran, and Ruhollah Khomeini's life in exile

File:خمینی در ترکیه.JPG

Khomeini in exile at Bursa, Turkey without clerical dress

Khomeini spent more than 14 years in exile, mostly in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf. Initially, he was sent to Turkey on 4 November 1964 where he stayed in Bursa in the home of Colonel Ali Cetiner of the Turkish Military Intelligence.[57] In October 1965, after less than a year, he was allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, where he stayed until 1978, when he was expelled[58] by then-Vice President Saddam Hussein. By this time discontent with the Shah was becoming intense and Khomeini visited Neauphle-le-Château, a suburb of Paris, France, on a tourist visa on 6 October 1978.[37][59][60]

File:Khomeini's House in Iraq-Najaf Ashraf by Samenp.jpg

The Entrance of Khomeini's House in Najaf, Iraq

By the late 1960s, Khomeini was a marja-e taqlid (model for imitation) for "hundreds of thousands" of Shia, one of six or so models in the Shia world.[61] While in the 1940s Khomeini accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Persian Constitution of 1906 – as evidenced by his book Kashf al-Asrar – by the 1970s he had rejected the idea. In early 1970, Khomeini gave a series of lectures in Najaf on Islamic government, later published as a book titled variously Islamic Government or Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih).

This was his best known and most influential work, and laid out his ideas on governance (at that time):

* That the laws of society should be made up only of the laws of God (Sharia), which cover "all human affairs" and "provide instruction and establish norms" for every "topic" in "human life."[62]
* Since Shariah, or Islamic law, is the proper law, those holding government posts should have knowledge of Sharia. Since Islamic jurists or faqih have studied and are the most knowledgeable in Sharia, the country's ruler should be a faqih who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice,[63] (known as a marja'), as well as having intelligence and administrative ability. Rule by monarchs and/or assemblies of "those claiming to be representatives of the majority of the people" (i.e. elected parliaments and legislatures) has been proclaimed "wrong" by Islam.[64]
* This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice, corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, innovation and deviation of Islam and Sharia law; and also to destroy anti-Islamic influence and conspiracies by non-Muslim foreign powers.[65]

A modified form of this wilayat al-faqih system was adopted after Khomeini and his followers took power, and Khomeini was the Islamic Republic's first "Guardian" or "Supreme Leader". In the meantime, however, Khomeini was careful not to publicize his ideas for clerical rule outside of his Islamic network of opposition to the Shah which he worked to build and strengthen over the next decade. In Iran, a number of actions of the Shah including his repression of opponents began to build opposition to his regime.

File:Imam in Paris.jpg

Ayatollah Khomeini in front of his house at Neauphle-le-Chateau in a media conference

Cassette copies of his lectures fiercely denouncing the Shah as (for example) "the Jewish agent, the American serpent whose head must be smashed with a stone",[66] became common items in the markets of Iran,[67] helping to demythologize the power and dignity of the Shah and his reign. Aware of the importance of broadening his base, Khomeini reached out to Islamic reformist and secular enemies of the Shah, despite his long-term ideological incompatibility with them.

After the 1977 death of Ali Shariati (an Islamic reformist and political revolutionary author/academic/philosopher who greatly assisted the Islamic revival among young educated Iranians), Khomeini became the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah. Adding to his mystique was the circulation among Iranians in the 1970s of an old Shia saying attributed to the Imam Musa al-Kadhem. Prior to his death in 799, al-Kadhem was said to have prophesied that "A man will come out from Qom and he will summon people to the right path".[68] In late 1978, a rumour swept the country that Khomeini's face could be seen in the full moon. Millions of people were said to have seen it and the event was celebrated in thousands of mosques.[69] He was perceived by many Iranians as the spiritual as well as political leader of the revolt. Additionally, the episode with Khomeini's face in the moon showed that in late 1978 he was increasingly regarded as a messianic figure in Iran.[70]

As protests grew, so did his profile and importance. Although several thousand kilometers away from Iran in Paris, Khomeini set the course of the revolution, urging Iranians not to compromise and ordering work stoppages against the regime.[71] During the last few months of his exile, Khomeini received a constant stream of reporters, supporters, and notables, eager to hear the spiritual leader of the revolution.[6]: 203

While in exile, Khomeini developed what historian Ervand Abrahamian described as a "populist clerical version of Shii Islam". Khomeini modified previous Shii interpretations of Islam in a number of ways that included aggressive approaches to espousing the general interests of the mostazafin, forcefully arguing that the clergy's sacred duty was to take over the state so that it could implement shari'a, and exhorting followers to protest.[72]

Despite their ideological differences, Khomeini also allied with the People's Mujahedin of Iran during the early 1970s and started funding their armed operations against the Shah.[73]

### Khomeini's contact with the US[edit | edit source]

Further information: Jimmy Carter's engagement with Ruhollah Khomeini

According to the BBC, Khomeini's contact with the US "is part of a trove of newly declassified US government documents—diplomatic cables, policy memos, meeting records". The documents suggest that the Carter administration helped Khomeini return to Iran by preventing the Iranian army from launching a military coup, and that Khomeini told an American in France to convey a message to Washington that "There should be no fear about oil. It is not true that we wouldn't sell to the US."[74]

According to a 1980 CIA study, "in November 1963 Ayatollah Khomeini sent a message to the United States Government through [Tehran University professor] Haj Mirza Khalil Kamarei", where he expressed "that he was not opposed to American interests in Iran", "on the contrary, he thought the American presence was necessary as a counterbalance to Soviet and possibly British influence".

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied the report, and described the documents as "fabricated". Other Iranian politicians including Ebrahim Yazdi (Khomeini's spokesman and adviser at the time of the revolution) have questioned the BBC's documents.[75] The Guardian wrote that it "did not have access to the newly declassified documents and was not able to independently verify them," however it did confirm Khomeini's contact with the Kennedy administration and support for US interest in Iran particularly oil through a CIA analysis report titled "Islam in Iran".[75]

According to the BBC, "these document show that in his long quest for power, he [Khomeini] was tactically flexible; he played the moderate even pro-American card to take control but once change had come he put in place an anti-America legacy that would last for decades."[76]

## Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran[edit | edit source]

### Return to Iran[edit | edit source]

Main article: Ruhollah Khomeini's return to Iran

File:Imam Khomeini in Mehrabad.jpg

Arrival of Khomeini on 1 February 1979. When asked about his feelings of returning from exile in the plane, he replied Hich; "None."

Khomeini was not allowed to return to Iran during the Shah's reign (as he had been in exile). On 16 January 1979, the Shah left the country for medical treatment (ostensibly "on vacation"), never to return.[77] Two weeks later, on Thursday, 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran, welcomed by a joyous crowd estimated (by the BBC) to be of up to five million people.[77] On his chartered Air France flight back to Tehran, he was accompanied by 120 journalists,[78][79] including three women.[79] One of the journalists, Peter Jennings, asked: "Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in Iran?"[80] Khomeini answered via his aide Sadegh Ghotbzadeh: "Hichi" (Nothing).[80] This statement—much discussed at the time[81] and since[82]—was considered by some reflective of his mystical beliefs and non-attachment to ego.[83] Others considered it a warning to Iranians who hoped he would be a "mainstream nationalist leader" that they were in for disappointment.[6]: 199 To others, it was a reflection of an unfeeling leader incapable or unconcerned with understanding the thoughts, beliefs, or the needs of the Iranian populace.[82]

Khomeini adamantly opposed the provisional government of Shapour Bakhtiar, promising "I shall kick their teeth in. I appoint the government."[84][85] On 11 February (Bahman 22), Khomeini appointed his own competing interim prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan, demanding, "since I have appointed him, he must be obeyed." It was "God's government," he warned, disobedience against him or Bazargan was considered a "revolt against God."[6]: 204

During his time as a student and teacher, Khomeini had developed an "unorthodox personal philosophy" that drew from an obscure interpretation of Shia Islam which proposed that all power should derive from "a divinely appointed religious leader." Khomeini had first promised Iranians a new era where freedom of expression and the nation’s oil wealth would be used for the benefit of the Iranian people, but once in Tehran, he implemented a radical Islamic agenda that went at odds with the desire of most of the Iranian public. Khomeini told Revolutionary Council that the new government would be "a government based on the Sharia", and that opposing this new government would mean also opposing the Sharia of Islam, and that "Revolt against God’s government is a revolt against God, and revolt against God is Blasphemy".[86]

As Khomeini's movement gained momentum, soldiers began to defect to his side and Khomeini declared ill fortune on troops who did not surrender.[6]: 205-206 On 11 February, as revolt spread and armories were taken over, the military declared neutrality and the Bakhtiar regime collapsed.[6]: 206 On 30 and 31 March 1979, a referendum to replace the monarchy with an Islamic Republic passed with 98% voting in favour of the replacement,[87] with the question: "should the monarchy be abolished in favour of an Islamic Government?"

### Islamic constitution[edit | edit source]

While in Paris, Khomeini had "promised a democratic political system" for Iran, but once in power, he advocated for the creation of theocracy[88] based on the Velayat-e faqih. This led to the purge or replacement of many secular politicians in Iran, with Khomeini and his close associates taking the following steps: Establishing Islamic Revolutionary courts; replacing the previous military and police force; placing Iran's top theologians and Islamic intellectuals in charge of writing a theocratic constitutions, with a central role for Velayat-e faqih; creating the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) through Khomeini's Motjaheds with the aim of establishing a theocratic government and tearing down any secular opposition ("as Khomeini's competitors in the religious hierarchy"); replacing all secular laws with Islamic laws; neutralising or punishing top theologians that had conflicting ideas with Khomeini including Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, Hassan Tabatabaei Qomi, and Hossein Ali Montazeri.[89]

Opposition groups claimed that Khomeini's provisional constitution for the Islamic Republic did not first include the post of supreme Islamic clerical ruler.[90] The Islamic government was defined by Khomeini in his book Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih (Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist) which was published while Khomeini was in exile in 1970, smuggled into Iran, and distributed to Khomeini's supporters. This book included Khomeini's notion of wilayat al-faqih (Governance of the Jurist) as well as the reasoning and in his view, the necessity of it in running an Islamic state.

File:خمینی و مردم.JPG

Khomeini with people

Khomeini and his supporters worked to suppress some former allies and rewrote the proposed constitution. Some newspapers were closed, and those protesting the closings were attacked.[91] Opposition groups such as the National Democratic Front and Muslim People's Republican Party were attacked and finally banned.[92] Through popular support, Khomeini supporters gained an overwhelming majority of the seats in the Assembly of Experts[93] which revised the proposed constitution. The newly proposed constitution included an Islamic jurist Supreme Leader of the country, and a Council of Guardians to veto un-Islamic legislation and screen candidates for office, disqualifying those found un-Islamic.

In November 1979, the new constitution of the Islamic Republic was adopted by national referendum.[94][95] Khomeini himself became instituted as the Supreme Leader (Guardian Jurist), and officially became known as the "Leader of the Revolution." On 4 February 1980, Abolhassan Banisadr was elected as the first president of Iran. Critics complain that Khomeini had gone back on his word[96] to advise, rather than rule the country.[97]

### Hostage crisis[edit | edit source]

Main article: Iran hostage crisis

On 22 October 1979, the United States admitted the exiled and ailing Shah into the country for cancer treatment. In Iran, there was an immediate outcry, with both Khomeini and leftist groups demanding the Shah's return to Iran for trial and execution.

On 4 November, a group of Iranian college students calling themselves the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, took control of the American Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 embassy staff hostage for 444 days – an event known as the Iran hostage crisis. In the United States, the hostage-taking was seen as a flagrant violation of international law and aroused intense anger and anti-Iranian sentiments.[98][99]

In Iran, the takeover was immensely popular and earned the support of Khomeini under the slogan "America can't do a damn thing against us."[100] The seizure of the embassy of a country he called the "Great Satan"[101] helped to advance the cause of theocratic government and outflank politicians and groups who emphasized stability and normalized relations with other countries. Khomeini is reported to have told his president: "This action has many benefits ... this has united our people. Our opponents do not dare act against us. We can put the constitution to the people's vote without difficulty, and carry out presidential and parliamentary elections."[102] The new constitution was successfully passed by referendum a month after the hostage crisis began.

The crisis had the effect of splitting of the opposition into two groups – radicals supporting the hostage taking, and the moderates opposing it.[102][103] On 23 February 1980, Khomeini proclaimed Iran's Majlis would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages, and demanded that the United States hand over the Shah for trial in Iran for crimes against the nation. Although the Shah died a few months later, during the summer, the crisis continued. In Iran, supporters of Khomeini named the embassy a "Den of Espionage", publicizing details regarding armaments, espionage equipment and many volumes of official and classified documents which they found there.

### Relationship with Islamic and non-aligned countries[edit | edit source]

Khomeini believed in Muslim unity and solidarity and the export of his revolution throughout the world. He believed Shia and (the significantly more numerous) Sunni Muslims should be "united and stand firmly against Western and arrogant powers."[104] "Establishing the Islamic state world-wide belong to the great goals of the revolution."[105] He declared the birth week of Muhammad (the week between 12th to 17th of Rabi' al-awwal) as the Unity week. Then he declared the last Friday of Ramadan as Quds Day in 1981.[106]

### Iran–Iraq War[edit | edit source]

Main article: Iran–Iraq War

File:KhomeiniRajai32.jpg

Ruhollah Khomeini with Ahmad Khomeini and Mohammad-Ali Rajai

Shortly after assuming power, Khomeini began calling for Islamic revolutions across the Muslim world, including Iran's Arab neighbor Iraq,[107] the one large state besides Iran with a Shia majority population. At the same time Saddam Hussein, Iraq's secular Arab nationalist Ba'athist leader, was eager to take advantage of Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan, and to undermine Iranian Islamic revolutionary attempts to incite the Shi'a majority of his country.

In September 1980, Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran, beginning the Iran–Iraq War (September 1980 – August 1988). A combination of fierce resistance by Iranians and military incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and, despite Saddam's internationally condemned use of poison gas, Iran had by early 1982 regained almost all of the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Khomeini's stature and allowing him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership. After this reversal, Khomeini refused an Iraqi offer of a truce, instead demanding reparations and the toppling of Saddam Hussein from power.[108][109][110] In 1982, there was an attempted military coup against Khomeini.[111] The Iran–Iraq War ended in 1988, with 320,000–720,000 Iranian soldiers and militia killed.[112]

Although Iran's population and economy were three times the size of Iraq's, the latter was aided by neighboring Persian Gulf Arab states, as well as the Soviet Bloc and Western countries. The Persian Gulf Arabs and the West wanted to be sure the Islamic revolution did not spread across the Persian Gulf, while the Soviet Union was concerned about the potential threat posed to its rule in central Asia to the north. However, Iran had large amounts of ammunition provided by the United States of America during the Shah's era and the United States illegally smuggled arms to Iran during the 1980s despite Khomeini's anti-Western policy (see Iran–Contra affair).

During war Iranians used human wave attacks (people walking to certain death including child soldiers)[113][114] on Iraq, with his promise that they would automatically go to paradise—al Janna— if they died in battle,[114] and his pursuit of victory in the Iran–Iraq War that ultimately proved futile.[115][116] By March 1984, two million of Iran's most educated citizens had left the country[117] This included an estimated one and a half million that had fled Iran, victims of political executions, and the hundreds of thousands of "martyrs" from Khomeini's bloody "human wave " attacks on Iraq.[118]

In July 1988, Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. Despite the high cost of the war – 450,000 to 950,000 Iranian casualties and US$300 billion[119] – Khomeini insisted that extending the war into Iraq in an attempt to overthrow Saddam had not been a mistake. In a "Letter to Clergy" he wrote: "... we do not repent, nor are we sorry for even a single moment for our performance during the war. Have we forgotten that we fought to fulfill our religious duty and that the result is a marginal issue?"[120]

### Fatwa against chemical weapons[edit | edit source]

In an interview with Gareth Porter, Mohsen Rafighdoost, the eight-year war time minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, disclosed how Khomeini had opposed his proposal for beginning work on both nuclear and chemical weapons by a fatwa which had never been made public in details of when and how it was issued.[121]

### Rushdie fatwa[edit | edit source]

See also: The Satanic Verses controversy

Fatwa issued 14 February 1989

> I would like to inform all the intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an, as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, have been declared madhur el dam [those whose blood must be shed]. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no-one will dare to insult Islam again. Whoever is killed in this path will be regarded as a martyr.[122]

In early 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author. Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, was alleged to commit blasphemy against Islam and Khomeini's juristic ruling (fatwā) prescribed Rushdie's assassination by any Muslim. The fatwā required not only Rushdie's execution, but also the execution of "all those involved in the publication" of the book.[123]

Khomeini's fatwā was condemned across the Western world by governments on the grounds that it violated the universal human rights of free speech and freedom of religion. The fatwā has also been attacked for violating the rules of fiqh by not allowing the accused an opportunity to defend himself, and because "even the most rigorous and extreme of the classical jurist only require a Muslim to kill anyone who insults the Prophet in his hearing and in his presence."[124]

Though Rushdie publicly regretted "the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam",[125] the fatwa was not revoked.

The fatwa was followed by a number of deaths, including the lethal stabbing of Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the book, in 1991. Rushdie himself and two other translators of the book survived murder attempts, the last – in Rushdie's case – in August 2022. The controversy, and subsequent unrest associated with the fatwa has been linked to surges in sales for Rushdie's work.[126][127]

## Life under Khomeini[edit | edit source]

In a speech on 1 February 1979 delivered to a huge crowd after returning to Iran from exile, Khomeini made a variety of promises to Iranians for his coming Islamic regime: a popularly elected government that would represent the people of Iran and with which the clergy would not interfere. He promised that "no one should remain homeless in this country," and that Iranians would have free telephone, heating, electricity, bus services and free oil at their doorstep.[128]

Under Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women by Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other Islamic groups.[129] Women were required to cover their hair, and men were forbidden to wear shorts. Alcoholic drinks, most Western movies, and the practice of men and women swimming or sunbathing together were banned.[130] The Iranian educational curriculum was Islamized at all levels with the Islamic Cultural Revolution; the "Committee for Islamization of Universities"[131] carried this out thoroughly. The broadcasting of any music other than martial or religious on Iranian radio and television was banned by Khomeini in July 1979.[130] The ban lasted 10 years (approximately the rest of his life).[132]

According to Janet Afari, "the newly established regime of Ayatollah Khomeini moved quickly to repress feminists, ethnic and religious minorities, liberals, and leftists – all in the name of Islam."[133]

### Women and child rights[edit | edit source]

Khomeini took on extensive and proactive support of the female populace during the ouster of Shah and his subsequent homecoming, advocating for mainstreaming of women into all spheres of life and even hypothesizing about a woman head of state.[134] However, once he returned, his stances on women's rights exhibited drastic changes.[134] Khomeini revoked Iran's 1967 divorce law, considering any divorce granted under this law to be invalid.[134] Nevertheless, Khomeini supported women's right to divorce as allowed by Islamic law.[135] Khomeini reaffirmed the traditional position of rape in Islamic law in which rape by a spouse was not equivalent to rape or zina, declaring "a woman must surrender to her husband for any pleasure".[136][137]

A mere three weeks after assuming power, under the pretext of reversing the Shah's affinity for westernization and backed by a vocal conservative section of Iranian society, he revoked the divorce law.[134] Under Khomeini the minimum age of marriage was lowered to 15 for boys and 13 for girls;[138] nevertheless, the average age of women at marriage continued to increase.[138]

Laws were passed that encouraged polygamy, made it impossible for women to divorce men, and treated adultery as the highest form of criminal offense.[139][138] Women were compelled to wear veils and the image of Western women was carefully reconstructed as a symbol of impiety.[134] Morality and modesty were perceived as fundamental womanly traits that needed state protection, and concepts of individual gender rights were relegated to women's social rights as ordained in Islam.[134] Fatima was widely presented as the ideal emulatable woman.[134]

At the same time, amidst the religious orthodoxy, there was an active effort to rehabilitate women into employment. Female participation in healthcare, education and the workforce increased drastically during his regime.[134]

Reception among women of his regime has been mixed. Whilst a section were dismayed at the increasing Islamisation and concurrent degradation of women's rights, others did notice more opportunities and mainstreaming of relatively religiously conservative women.[134]

### LGBTQ rights[edit | edit source]

Shortly after his accession as supreme leader in February 1979, Khomeini imposed capital punishment on homosexuals. Between February and March, sixteen Iranians were executed due to offenses related to sexual violations.[140] Khomeini also created the "Revolutionary Tribunals". According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, Khomeini encouraged the clerical courts to continue implementing their version of the Shari'a. As part of the campaign to "cleanse" the society,[141] these courts executed over 100 drug addicts, prostitutes, homosexuals, rapists, and adulterers on the charge of "sowing corruption on earth."[142] According to author Arno Schmitt, "Khomeini asserted that 'homosexuals' had to be exterminated because they were parasites and corruptors of the nation by spreading the 'stain of wickedness.'"[143] In 1979, he had declared that the execution of homosexuals (as well as prostitutes and adulterers) was reasonable in a moral civilization in the same sense as cutting off decayed skin.[144]

Being transgender, however, was designated by Khomeini as a sickness that was able to be cured through gender-affirming surgery.[145] Since the mid-1980s, the Iranian government has legalized the practice of sex reassignment surgery (under medical approval) and the modification of pertinent legal documents to reflect the reassigned gender. In 1983, Khomeini passed a fatwa allowing gender reassignment operations as a cure for "diagnosed transsexuals", allowing for the basis of this practice becoming legal. [146][147]

### Emigration and economy[edit | edit source]

Khomeini is said to have stressed "the spiritual over the material".[148][149] Six months after his first speech he expressed exasperation with complaints about the sharp drop in Iran's standard of living, saying that: "I cannot believe that the purpose of all these sacrifices was to have less expensive melons."[150] On another occasion emphasizing the importance of martyrdom over material prosperity, he said: "Could anyone wish his child to be martyred to obtain a good house? This is not the issue. The issue is another world."[151] He also reportedly answered a question about his economic policies by declaring that 'economics is for donkeys'.[152][note 1] This disinterest in economic policy is said to be "one factor explaining the inchoate performance of the Iranian economy since the revolution."[148] Other factors include the long war with Iraq, the cost of which led to government debt and inflation, eroding personal incomes, and unprecedented unemployment,[153] ideological disagreement over the economy, and "international pressure and isolation" such as US sanctions following the hostage crisis.[154]

Due to the Iran–Iraq War, poverty is said to have risen by nearly 45% during the first 6 years of Khomeini's rule.[155] Emigration from Iran also developed, reportedly for the first time in the country's history.[156] Since the revolution and war with Iraq, an estimated "two to four million entrepreneurs, professionals, technicians, and skilled craftspeople (and their capital)" have emigrated to other countries.[157][158]

### Suppression of opposition[edit | edit source]

In a talk at the Fayzieah School in Qom on 30 August 1979, Khomeini warned pro-imperialist opponents: "Those who are trying to bring corruption and destruction to our country in the name of democracy will be oppressed. They are worse than Bani-Ghorizeh Jews, and they must be hanged. We will oppress them by God's order and God's call to prayer."[159]

However, in 1983, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped him by providing a list of Soviet KGB agents and collaborators operating in Iran to Khomeini, who then executed up to 200 suspects and closed down the Communist Tudeh Party of Iran.[160][161]

The Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family left Iran and escaped harm, but hundreds of former members of the overthrown monarchy and military met their ends in firing squads, with exiled critics complaining of "secrecy, vagueness of the charges, the absence of defense lawyers or juries", or the opportunity of the accused "to defend themselves."[162] In later years these were followed in larger numbers by the erstwhile revolutionary allies of Khomeini's movement—Marxists and socialists, mostly university students—who opposed the theocratic regime. From 1980 to 1981, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and other opposition groups (including leftist and moderate groups) rallied against the takeover of the Islamic Republic Party through large demonstrations. Acting on the orders of Khomeini, the Islamic Republic responded by shooting demonstrators, including children.[163][164] The 1981 Hafte Tir bombing escalated the conflict, leading to increasing arrests, torture, and executions of thousands of Iranians. Targets also included "innocent, non political civilians, such as members of the Baha’i religious minority, and others deemed problematic by the IRP."[165][166][163] The number of those executed between 1981 and 1985's "reign of terror" is reported to be between 8,000 and 10,000.[164]

In the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, following the People's Mujahedin of Iran unsuccessful operation Forough-e Javidan against the Islamic Republic, Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner (mostly but not all Mujahedin) and kill those judged to be apostates from Islam (mortad) or "waging war on God" (moharebeh). Almost all of those interrogated were killed, around 30,000 of them.[167][168] Because of the large number, prisoners were loaded into forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes in half-hour intervals.[169]

### Minority religions[edit | edit source]

See also: Persecution of Baháʼís

Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are officially recognized and protected by the government. Shortly after Khomeini's return from exile in 1979, he issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except those of the Baháʼí Faith) be treated well.[170][171] In power, Khomeini distinguished between Zionism as a secular political party that employs Jewish symbols and ideals and Judaism as the religion of Moses.[172]

Senior government posts were reserved for Muslims. Schools set up by Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians had to be run by Muslim principals.[173] Conversion to Islam was encouraged by entitling converts to inherit the entire share of their parents (or even uncle's) estate if their siblings (or cousins) remain non-Muslim.[174] Iran's non-Muslim population has decreased. For example, the Jewish population in Iran dropped from 80,000 to 30,000.[175] The Zoroastrian population has also decreased, due to suffering from renewed persecution and the revived legal contrasts between a Muslim and Zoroastrian, which mirrors the laws that Zoroastrians experienced under earlier Islamic regimes.[176] The view that Zoroastrians are najis ("unclean") has also been renewed.[176]

Four of the 270 seats in parliament were reserved for each three non-Muslim minority religions, under the Islamic constitution that Khomeini oversaw. Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. Sunni Muslims make up 9% of the entire Muslim population in Iran.[177]

One non-Muslim group treated differently were the 300,000 members of the Baháʼí Faith. Starting in late 1979 the new government systematically targeted the leadership of the Baháʼí community by focusing on the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) and Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSAs); prominent members of NSAs and LSAs were often detained and even executed.[178] "Some 200 of whom have been executed and the rest forced to convert or subjected to the most horrendous disabilities."[179]

Like most conservative Muslims, Khomeini believed Baháʼí to be apostates.[note 2] He claimed they were a political rather than a religious movement,[180][181] declaring:

> the Baháʼís are not a sect but a party, which was previously supported by Britain and now the United States. The Baháʼís are also spies just like the Tudeh [Communist Party].[182]

### Ethnic minorities[edit | edit source]

Main article: Ethnic minorities in Iran

After the Shah left Iran in 1979, a Kurdish delegation traveled to Qom to present the Kurds' demands to Khomeini. Their demands included language rights and the provision for a degree of political autonomy. Khomeini responded that such demands were unacceptable since it involved the division of the Iranian nation.[183] In a speech during the same year, Khomeini hinted that the new government's attitutes were to curb contrasts instead of accepting them. Khomeini is quoted saying: "Sometimes the word minorities is used to refer to people such as Kurds, Lurs, Turks, Persians, Baluchis, and such. These people should not be called minorities because this term assumes there is a difference between these brothers."[184] The following months saw numerous clashes between Kurdish militia groups and the Revolutionary Guards.[183] The referendum on the Islamic Republic was massively boycotted in Kurdistan, where it was thought 85 to 90% of voters abstained. Khomeini ordered additional attacks later on in the year, and by September most of Iranian Kurdistan was under direct martial law.

## Death and funeral[edit | edit source]

See also: Death and state funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini and Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini

File:Funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini, 4 June 1989 (5).jpg

Mourning men in residence of Khomeini around his seat area, Jamaran, 4 June 1989.

Khomeini's health declined several years prior to his death. After spending eleven days in Jamaran hospital, Ruhollah Khomeini died on 3 June 1989 after suffering five heart attacks in just ten days,[185] at the age of 86 just before midnight. He was succeeded as Supreme Leader by Ali Khamenei. Large numbers of Iranians took to the streets to publicly mourn his death and in the scorching summer heat, fire trucks sprayed water on the crowds to cool them.[186] At least 10 mourners were trampled to death, more than 400 were badly hurt and several thousand more were treated for injuries sustained in the ensuing pandemonium.[187][188]

According to Iran's official estimates, 10.2 million people lined the 32-kilometre (20 mi) route to Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on 11 June 1989, for the funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Western agencies estimated that 2 million paid their respects as the body lay in state.[189]

Figures about Khomeini's initial funeral attendance which took place on 4 June range around 2.5–3.5 million people.[190][191] Early the following day, Khomeini's corpse was flown in by helicopter for burial at the Behesht-e Zahra. Iranian officials postponed Khomeini's first funeral after a huge mob stormed the funeral procession, destroying Khomeini's wooden coffin in order to get a last glimpse of his body or touch of his coffin. In some cases, armed soldiers were compelled to fire warning shots in the air to restrain the crowds.[192] At one point, Khomeini's body fell to the ground, as the crowd ripped off pieces of the death shroud, trying to keep them as if they were holy relics. According to journalist James Buchan:

> Yet even here, the crowd surged past the makeshift barriers. John Kifner wrote in The New York Times that the "body of the Ayatollah, wrapped in a white burial shroud, fell out of the flimsy wooden coffin, and in a mad scene people in the crowd reached to touch the shroud". A frail white leg was uncovered. The shroud was torn to pieces for relics and Khomeini's son Ahmad was knocked from his feet. Men jumped into the grave. At one point, the guards lost hold of the body. Firing in the air, the soldiers drove the crowd back, retrieved the body and brought it to the helicopter, but mourners clung on to the landing gear before they could be shaken off. The body was taken back to North Tehran to go through the ritual of preparation a second time.[193]

The second funeral was held under much tighter security five hours later. This time, Khomeini's casket was made of steel, and in accordance with Islamic tradition, the casket was only to carry the body to the burial site. In 1995, his son Ahmad was buried next to him. Khomeini's grave is now housed within a larger mausoleum complex.

### Succession[edit | edit source]

Main article: 1989 Iranian Supreme Leader election

File:President Ali Khamenei visit to Ruhollah Khomeini - August 13, 1986.jpg

Khomeini and his successor, Ali Khamenei

Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, a former student of Khomeini and a major figure of the Revolution, was chosen by Khomeini to be his successor as Supreme Leader and approved as such by the Assembly of Experts in November 1985.[194] The principle of velayat-e faqih and the Islamic constitution called for the Supreme Leader to be a marja (a grand ayatollah), and of the dozen or so grand ayatollahs living in 1981 only Montazeri qualified as a potential Leader (this was either because only he accepted totally Khomeini's concept of rule by Islamic jurists,[195][196][unacceptable source?] or, as at least one other source stated, because only Montazeri had the "political credentials" Khomeini found suitable for his successor).[197] The execution of Mehdi Hashemi in September 1987 on charges of counterrevolutionary activities was a blow to Ayatollah Montazeri, who knew Hashemi since their childhood.[198] In 1989 Montazeri began to call for liberalization, freedom for political parties. Following the execution of thousands of political prisoners by the Islamic government, Montazeri told Khomeini: "Your prisons are far worse than those of the Shah and his SAVAK."[199] After a letter of his complaints was leaked to Europe and broadcast on the BBC, a furious Khomeini ousted him in March 1989 from his position as official successor.[200] His portraits were removed from offices and mosques.[201]

To deal with the disqualification of the only suitable marja, Khomeini called for an 'Assembly for Revising the Constitution' to be convened. An amendment was made to Iran's constitution removing the requirement that the Supreme Leader be a Marja[195] and this allowed Ali Khamenei, the new favoured jurist who had suitable revolutionary credentials but lacked scholarly ones and who was not a Grand Ayatollah, to be designated as successor.[202][203] Ayatollah Khamenei was elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on 4 June 1989. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri continued his criticism of the regime and in 1997 was put under house arrest for questioning what he regarded to be an unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader.[204][205]

### Anniversary[edit | edit source]

The anniversary of Khomeini's death is a public holiday.[206][207][208] To commemorate Khomeini, people visit his mausoleum placed on Behesht-e Zahra to hear sermons and practice prayers on his death day.[209]

## Legacy[edit | edit source]

Khomeini’s political doctrine of velayat-e faqih (absolute guardianship of the Islamic jurist) became the constitutional foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and remains the central principle defining the powers of the Supreme Leader.[8]

Political factions inside Iran have since competed to present themselves as the authentic interpreters of Khomeini’s ideas, with adherence to his ideology serving as the primary criterion for legitimacy within the system.[210]

Khomeini’s pre-revolutionary writings and lectures evolved over time. In 1942 he stated that monarchy was permissible provided sharia was observed.[211] By 1970 he rejected monarchy entirely and argued that only rule by a leading Islamic jurist could guarantee proper application of sharia.[212] After 1979 he further declared that the ruling jurist could suspend primary ordinances of sharia (including prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage) if required by the interests of the Islamic state.[213] Most senior Shia clerics in the 1970s and early 1980s, including several grand ayatollahs, rejected the absolute form of velayat-e faqih that was enacted in the 1979 constitution.[214] Khomeini drew significant ideological influence from the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb; Qutb’s books were widely translated into Persian by senior Iranian revolutionaries (including Ali Khamenei) and in 1984 the Islamic Republic issued a postage stamp honoring Qutb’s execution.[215] Internationally, Khomeini promoted the export of the Islamic revolution and supported a range of armed groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Shia militias in Iraq. The Islamic Republic under his leadership was accused by numerous governments and human-rights organizations of involvement in hostage-taking, assassinations of dissidents abroad, and bombings attributed to Hezbollah.[216] The United States, European Union, and several other countries continue to designate organizations founded with Iranian assistance during Khomeini’s rule as terrorist organizations.[217] Inside Iran, Khomeini’s image remains omnipresent in public spaces, and laws continue to criminalize insults against him.[14] His tomb complex in southern Tehran functions as a major pilgrimage site.[218] Public criticism of Khomeini or questioning of his legacy is punishable by imprisonment or flogging.[219] Khomeini’s policies and the system he established have been credited by supporters with ending monarchic rule and foreign domination, and criticized by human-rights organizations, exiled opposition groups, and many Iranian citizens for systematic repression, mass executions, compulsory veiling, gender apartheid, persecution of religious minorities (particularly Baha’is), and the suppression of free expression.[13][220]

## Appearance and habits[edit | edit source]

Khomeini was described as "slim", but athletic and "heavily boned".[221]

He was known for his punctuality:

> He's so punctual that if he doesn't turn up for lunch at exactly ten past everyone will get worried, because his work is regulated in such a way that he turned up for lunch at exactly that time every day. He goes to bed exactly on time. He eats exactly on time. And he wakes up exactly on time. He changes his cloak every time he comes back from the mosque.[222]

Khomeini was also known for his aloofness and austere demeanor. He is said to have had "variously inspired admiration, awe, and fear from those around him."[223] His practice of moving "through the halls of the madresehs never smiling at anybody or anything; his practice of ignoring his audience while he taught, contributed to his charisma."[224]

Khomeini adhered to traditional beliefs of Islamic hygienical jurisprudence holding that things like urine, excrement, blood, wine, and also non-Muslims were some of eleven ritualistically "impure" things that physical contact with which while wet required ritual washing or Ghusl before prayer or salat.[225][226] He is reported to have refused to eat or drink in a restaurant unless he knew for sure the waiter was a Muslim.[227]

## Family and descendants[edit | edit source]

Main article: Khomeini family

File:خمینی و نوه‌ها.JPG

Khomeini with son (Ahmad) and grandsons (Hassan and Yaser)

In 1929,[228] Khomeini married Khadijeh Saqafi,[229] the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. Some sources claim that Khomeini married Saqafi when she was ten years old,[230][231][232] while others claim she was fifteen years old.[233] By all accounts their marriage was harmonious and happy.[229] She died in 2009.[234] 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.[6]: 184-5 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.[235] Perhaps his "most prominent daughter",[236] Zahra Mostafavi, is a professor at the University of Tehran, and still alive.

Khomeini's fifteen grandchildren include:

* Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter, married to Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the main reformist party in the country, and is considered a pro-reform character herself.
* Hassan Khomeini, Khomeini's elder grandson Sayid Hasan Khomeini, son of the Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, is a cleric and the trustee of the Mausoleum of Khomeini and also has shown support for the reform movement in Iran,[237] and Mir-Hossein Mousavi's call to cancel the 2009 election results.[236]
* Husain Khomeini (Sayid Husain Khomeini), Khomeini's other grandson, son of Sayid Mustafa Khomeini, is a mid-level cleric who is strongly against the system of the Islamic republic. In 2003, he was quoted as saying: "Iranians need freedom now, and if they can only achieve it with American interference I think they would welcome it. As an Iranian, I would welcome it."[238] In that same year Husain Khomeini visited the United States, where he met figures such as Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah and the pretender to the Sun Throne. Later that year, Husain returned to Iran after receiving an urgent message from his grandmother. According to Michael Ledeen, quoting "family sources", he was blackmailed into returning.[239] In 2006, he called for an American invasion and overthrow of the Islamic Republic, telling Al-Arabiyah television station viewers, "If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison [doors open].[240]
* Another of Khomeini's grandchildren, Ali Eshraghi, was disqualified from the 2008 parliamentary elections on grounds of being insufficiently loyal to the principles of the Islamic revolution, but later reinstated.[241]

## Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Khomeini was a prolific writer and speaker (200 of his books are online)[242] 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.[243]

His books include:

* Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih (Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist)
* The Little Green Book: A sort of manifesto of Khomeini's political thought
* Forty Hadith[244] (Forty Traditions)
* Adab as Salat[245] (The Disciplines of Prayers)
* Jihade Akbar[246] (The Greater Struggle)
* Tahrir al-Wasilah
* Kashf al-Asrar

## See also[edit | edit source]

* Khomeinism
* Political thought and legacy of Ruhollah Khomeini
* Islamic Government (book by Khomeini)
* Muhammad Kazim Khurasani
* Mirza Husayn Tehrani
* Abdallah Mazandarani
* Mirza Ali Aqa Tabrizi
* Mirza Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabai
* Seyyed Abdollah Behbahani
* Fazlullah Nouri
* Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim
* Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr
* Islamic fundamentalism in Iran
* Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order
* Exiles of Imam Khomeini
* Ideocracy
* List of cults of personality
* Ruhollah Khomeini's letter to Mikhail Gorbachev
* Ruhollah Khomeini's residency (Jamaran)
* 1979 Iranian Revolution conspiracy theory

## Notes[edit | edit source]

1. ^ The original quote which is part of a speech made in 1979 can be found here:

> I cannot imagine and no wise person can presume the claim that we spared our bloods so watermelon becomes cheaper. No wise person would sacrifice his young offspring for [say] affordable housing. People [on the contrary] want everything for their young offspring. Human being wants economy for his own self; it would therefore be unwise for him to spare his life in order to improve economy [...] Those who keep bringing up economy and find economy the infrastructure of everything -not knowing what human[ity] means- think of human being as an animal who is defined by means of food and clothes[...] Those who find economy the infrastructure of everything, find human beings animals. Animal too sacrifices everything for its economy and economy is its sole infrastructure. A donkey too considers economy as its only infrastructure. These people did not realize what human being [truly] is.

2. ^ For example, he issued a fatwa stating:

> It is not acceptable that a tributary [non-Muslim who pays tribute] changes his religion to another religion not recognized by the followers of the previous religion. For example, from the Jews who become Baháʼís nothing is accepted except Islam or execution.

From Poll Tax, 8. Tributary conditions, (13), Tahrir al-Vasileh, volume 2, pp. 497–507, Quoted in A Clarification of Questions: An Unabridged Translation of Resaleh Towzih al-Masael by Ayatollah Syed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini, Westview Press/ Boulder and London, c1984, p.432

## References[edit | edit source]

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178. ^ "A Faith Denied: The Persecution of the Baháʼís of Iran" (PDF). Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
179. ^ Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran, by Said Amir Arjomand, Oxford University Press, 1988, p.169
180. ^ Cockroft, James (23 February 1979). "Iran's Khomeini". Seven Days.
181. ^ "U.S. Jews Hold Talks With Khomeini Aide on Outlook for Rights". The New York Times. 13 February 1979.
182. ^ Kayhan International, 30 May 1983; see also Firuz Kazemzadeh, 'The Terror Facing the Baháʼís' New York Review of Books, 1982, 29 (8): 43–44.
183. ^ a b Gérard Chaliand, A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan, Interlink Books, 1993. (p. 212–213)
184. ^ Castellino, Joshua; Cavanaugh, Kathleen A. (2013-04-25). "Minority Identities in the Middle East: Ethno-national and Other Minorities": 163. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679492.003.0003 - via Oxford University Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
185. ^ "Sarasota Herald-Tribune – Google News Archive Search".
186. ^ Pink/Gölz, "Die Drohung der ungewissen Zukunft: Der Tod Nassers und Khomeinis als Epochenbruch.", In: Helden müssen sterben: Von Sinn und Fragwürdigkeit des heroischen Todes. Hg. von Cornelia Brink, Nicole Falkenhayner and Ralf von den Hoff, 231–45. Baden-Baden: Ergon, 2019, p. 239f.
187. ^ Moin, Khomeini (2000), p. 312
188. ^ In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade by Robin Wright, (1989), p. 204
189. ^ "Largest percentage of population to attend a funeral". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
190. ^ Moseley, Ray (7 June 1989). "Mourners Rip Shroud, Khomeini's Body Falls – Chicago Tribune". Articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
191. ^ "Iranians – Introduction, Location, Language, Folklore, Religion, Major holidays, Rites of passage, Relationships, Living conditions". Every Culture. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
192. ^ Pink/Gölz, "Die Drohung der ungewissen Zukunft: Der Tod Nassers und Khomeinis als Epochenbruch.", In: Helden müssen sterben: Von Sinn und Fragwürdigkeit des heroischen Todes. Hg. von Cornelia Brink, Nicole Falkenhayner and Ralf von den Hoff, 231–45. Baden-Baden: Ergon, 2019, p. 240f.
193. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral: The funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini was not a tragedy but a gruesome farce, James Buchan, New Statesman, 12 March 2009
194. ^ Mackey, Iranians, (1998), p. 353
195. ^ a b Roy, Olivier, The Failure of Political Islam, translated by Carol Volk Harvard University Press, 1994, pp. 173–74. Quoted in The Islamic Republic Will Be Run By the Most Learned Jurist
196. ^ Mackay, Iranians, (1998), p.353
197. ^ Moin, Khomeini, (2000), p. 293
198. ^ Keddie, Nikki R.; Yann Richard (2003). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 260\. ISBN 978-0-300-09856-3.
199. ^ Ahmad Khomeini's letter, in Resalat, cited in The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution, rev. ed. by Shaul Bakhash, p.282
200. ^ "Translation of Ayatollah Khomeini's Letter Dismissing Montazeri". printed in Abrar. Iran Virtual Library. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
201. ^ Behnegarsoft.com. "الف – بخشنامه موسوي درباره عكس‌ منتظري/تصویر". alef.ir. Archived from the original on 26 December 2009.
202. ^ Moin, Khomeini (2000) p. 293
203. ^ Mackey, Sandra, The Iranians (1996), p. 353
204. ^ Profile: Iran's dissident ayatollah BBC News
205. ^ Leader Khamenei[permanent dead link] PBS
206. ^ "Calendar center of Geophysics institute of Tehran University, 1395 Calendar" (in Persian)" (PDF). calendar.ut.ac.
207. ^ Chase's Calendar of Events 2019: The Ultimate Go-to Guide for Special Days ... Bernan Press. 30 September 2018. p. 307\. ISBN 978-1-64143-263-4.
208. ^ Trawicky, Bernard (30 April 2009). Anniversaries and Holidays. American Library Association. p. 95\. ISBN 978-0-8389-1004-7.
209. ^ Cavendish, Marshall (September 2006). World and Its Peoples, Volume 1. Marshall Cavendish. p. 529\. ISBN 978-0-7614-7571-2.
210. ^ Arjomand, Said Amir (2009). After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors. Oxford University Press. pp. 33–45. ISBN 978-0-19-539179-4.
211. ^ Khomeini, Ruhollah (1942). Kashf al-Asrar (in Persian). Qom. pp. 185–188.
212. ^ Khomeini, Ruhollah (2005) [1970]. Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist. Alhoda UK. ISBN 978-964-335-499-5. `{{cite book}}`: Check `|isbn=` value: checksum (help)
213. ^ Sachedina, Abdulaziz (2001). "The Rule of the Religious Jurist in Iran". In Esposito; Ramazani (eds.). Iran at the Crossroads. Palgrave. pp. 133–136.
214. ^ Roy, Olivier (1994). The Failure of Political Islam. Harvard University Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-0-674-29141-6.
215. ^ Unal, Yusuf (November 2016). "Sayyid Qutb in Iran: Translating the Islamist Ideologue in the Islamic Republic". Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies. 1 (2): 35–60. doi:10.2979/jims.1.2.04.
216. ^ Ranstorp, Magnus (1997). Hizb’allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis. St. Martin’s Press. pp. 54–117. ISBN 978-0-312-16291-2. `{{cite book}}`: Check `|isbn=` value: checksum (help)
217. ^ Country Reports on Terrorism 2021 – Iran (Report). United States Department of State. 2022. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023.
218. ^ Chehabi, Houchang E. (2010). "The Khomeini Era in Iran". The Iran Primer. United States Institute of Peace Press.
219. ^ World Report 2023: Iran (Report). Human Rights Watch. 2023.
220. ^ Iran: Human Rights Abuses Against the Baha’i Community (Report). Amnesty International. 2008. Archived from the original on 1 September 2023.
221. ^ Taheri, Amir (1986). The spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic revolution (1st U.S ed.). Bethesda, Md.: Adler & Adler. ISBN 978-0-917561-04-7.
222. ^ According to a daughter quoted in In the Name of God by Robin Wright, 1989, p.45
223. ^ Brumberg, Reinventing Khomeini (2001), p.53
224. ^ Mackay, Iranians (198?) p.224
225. ^ fatwa No. 83 from A Clarification of Questions: An Unabridged Translation of Resaleh Towzih al-Masael, by Ayatollah Syed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini, Translated by J. Borujerdi, with a Foreword by Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Westview Press/ Boulder and London c1984, p.48.
226. ^ Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, One World, Oxford, 1985, 2000, p.383
227. ^ Personal communications from Dr. Mansur Farhang, a biographer and supporter of Khomeini who was the former Iranian representative at the United Nations, with Ervand Abrahamian. Quoted in Abrahamian, Ervand, Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic University of California Press, (1993)
228. ^ "Imam Khomeini Official Website | سایت امام خمینی". Imam-khomeini.ir. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
229. ^ a b Taheri, The Spirit of Allah (1985), p. 90-1
230. ^ Thomas M. Leonard (2005). Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Routledge. p. 909\. ISBN 978-1-57958-388-0.
231. ^ Diane Morgan (2005). Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice. Praeger. p. 165\. ISBN 978-0-313-36025-1.
232. ^ Ervand Abrahamian (2005). Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic. UNIV OF CALIFORNIA. pp. 8. ISBN 978-0-520-08503-9.
233. ^ "Despite Outrage, No End in Sight For Child Marriage in Iran". RFE/RL.
234. ^ "Wife of founder of Iran's Islamic republic dies". Associated Press. 23 March 2009. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009.
235. ^ Fisk, Robert (5 June 1995). "Love the revolution, shame about reality". The Independent. London. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
236. ^ a b "Khamenei vs. Khomeini" by Ali Reza Eshraghi, 20 August 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
237. ^ Grandchildren of the revolution. By von Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Roula Khalaf 4 March 2009 Archived 5 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
238. ^ "Make Iran Next, Says Ayatollah's Grandson", Jamie Wilson, 10 August 2003, The Observer
239. ^ Ledeen, Michael A. (6 January 2004). "Veiled Threats Lure Ayatollah's Grandson Home By Michael A. Ledeen, 6 January 2004". Aei.org. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
240. ^ PHILIP SHERWELL (19 June 2006). "Ayatollah's grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 25 June 2006. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
241. ^ "Khomeini grandson returns to poll, 13 February 2008". BBC News. 13 February 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
242. ^ "World: Middle East Ayatollah Khomeini on the Web". BBC News. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
243. ^ "The Works and Declarations of Imam Khomeini". Imamreza.net. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
244. ^ "Forty Hadith, An Exposition, Second Revised Edition". Al-Islam.org. 25 February 2016. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2005.
245. ^ "Adab as-Salat: The Disciplines of the Prayer Second Revised Edition". Al-Islam.org. 12 October 2013.
246. ^ "Journal Articles". al-islam.org.

### Sources[edit | edit source]

* Ansari, Hamid. The Narrative of Awakening. The Institute for Compilation and publication of the work of Imam Khomeini. Archived from the original on 14 May 2015.
* Bakhash, Shaul (1984). The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution. New York: Basic Books.
* Brumberg, Daniel (2001). Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-07758-6.
* Choksy, Jamsheed K. (2015). "Zoroastrianism ii. Historical Review: from the Arab Conquest to Modern Times". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
* Dabashi, Hamid (2006). Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-4128-0516-3.
* Daniel, Elton L. (2001). The History of Iran. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30731-8.
* DeFronzo, James (2007). Revolutions And Revolutionary Movements. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-4354-9.
* Harney, Desmond (1998). The priest and the king: an eyewitness account of the Iranian revolution. I.B. Tauris.
* Hoveyda, Fereydoun (2003). The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-97858-3.
* Karsh, Efraim (2007). Islamic Imperialism: A History. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12263-3.
* Keddie, Nikkie R. (2003). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09856-1.
* Khomeini, Ruhollah; Algar, Hamid (2002). Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist. Alhoda UK. ISBN 964-335-499-7.
* Khomeini, Ruhollah (1981). Algar, Hamid (ed.). Islam and Revolution: Writing and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press.
* Khomeini, Ruhollah (1980). Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini: political, philosophical, social, and religious. Bantam.
* Lee, James (1984). The Final Word!: An American Refutes the Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini. Philosophical Library. ISBN 0-8022-2465-2.
* Mackey, Sandra (1996). The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94005-7.
* Milani, Mohsen M. (1994). The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-8476-1.
* Molavi, Afshin (2005). The Soul of Iran: a Nation's Journey to Freedom. New York: Norton paperbacks.
* Rāhnamā, 'Ali (1994). Pioneers of Islamic Revival. Macmillan. ISBN 1-85649-254-0.
* Reich, Bernard (1990). Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26213-6.
* Schirazi, Asghar (1997). The Constitution of Iran. New York: Tauris.
* Taheri, Amir (1985). The Spirit of Allah. Adler & Adler.
* Willett, Edward C. (2004). Ayatollah Khomeini. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8239-4465-4.
* Wright, Robin (1989). In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-67235-5.
* Wright, Robin (2000). The Last Revolution. New York: Knopf.

## External links[edit | edit source]

Justapedia supports:

* File:Commons-logo.svgMedia from Commons
* File:Wikiquote-logo.svgQuotations from Wikiquote

* Imam Khomeini's Official Website
* Documentary: Imam Khomeini P1 (Free Press TV documentary)
* Imam Khomeini – Reformer of the Century (English Subtitles – Press TV Documentary)
* The New York Times article on Khomeini's poetry
* Documentary about the life of Ruhollah Khomeini on YouTube
* Documentary: The man who changed the world on YouTube
* Documentary: I knew Khomeini on YouTube
* Rouhollah Khomeini's Website
* Who Is Imam Khomeini?

### Selected bibliography[edit | edit source]

* Syed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini – Islamic Government (Hukumat-i Islami)
* Syed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini – The Last Will...
* Books by and or about Rouhollah Khomeini
* Letter by Ayatollah Khomeini to Mikhail Gorbachev, dated 1 January 1989. Kayhan
* Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic, 1993 by the Regents of the University of California

Political offices

Preceded by

New title

|  Supreme Leader of Iran
1979–1989  | Succeeded by

Ali Khamenei

Military offices
Preceded by

Abolhassan Banisadr

|  Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces
1981–1989  | Succeeded by

Ali Khamenei

* v
* t
* e

Ruhollah Khomeini

Politics|

* 1963 demonstrations in Iran
* Life in exile
* Neauphle-le-Château
* Return to Iran
* Iranian Revolution
* Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution
* Iranian Cultural Revolution
* Supreme Council
* Council of the Islamic Revolution
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* 1979 Referendum
* Engagement with Jimmy Carter
* Iranian Revolution conspiracy theory
* America can't do a damn thing against us
* Supreme Leader of Iran
* Iran–Iraq War
* Israeli support
* The Satanic Verses controversy

File:Roollah-khomeini.jpg

Positions|

* Anti-Zionism
* Shiite clericalism
* Death to America
* Great Satan
* Little Satan
* Sex segregation
* compulsory hijab
* Islamic democracy
* Imam's Line
* Letter to Gorbachev
* Khomeini's 8-article command

Books|

* Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (Velayat-e faqih)
* Tahrir al-Wasilah
* Kashf al-Asrar
* Forty Hadith of Ruhullah Khomeini
* Islam and Revolution
* The Greatest Jihad

Family|

* Khadijeh Saqafi (wife)
* Mostafa Khomeini (son)
* Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini (daughter)
* Farideh Mostafavi Khomeini (daughter)
* Ahmad Khomeini (son)
* Hussein Khomeini (grandson)
* Hassan Khomeini (grandson)
* Zahra Eshraghi (granddaughter)
* Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi (grandfather)

Related|

* Jamaran Hussainiya
* Mausoleum
* Death and state funeral
* Alef-Laam Khomeini
* Fajr decade
* Refah School
* Homafaran Allegiance
* Imam Khomeini International Airport
* Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order

Category:Ruhollah Khomeini

* v
* t
* e

Commanders-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces

Qajar Iran|

* Mozaffar ad-Din Shah (1906–07)
* Mohammad Ali Shah (1907–09)
* Alireza Khan (1909–10)
* Abolqasem Khan (1910–14)
* Ahmad Shah (1914–25)
* Reza Khan (1925)

Pahlavi Iran|

* Reza Shah (1925–41)
* Mohammad Reza Shah (1941–52)
* Mosaddegh (1952–53)
* Mohammad Reza Shah (1953–79)

Islamic Republic|

* Banisadr (1980–81)
* Khomeini (1981–89)
* Khamenei (1989–present)

Italics indicate interim officeholder

* v
* t
* e

Cold War

* USA
* USSR
* NATO
* Warsaw Pact
* ANZUS
* SEATO
* METO
* Rio Pact
* Non-Aligned Movement

1940s|

* Morgenthau Plan
* Hukbalahap Rebellion
* Jamaican political conflict
* Dekemvriana
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* Cursed soldiers
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* Operation Downfall
* Potsdam Conference
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* Division of Korea
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* Operation Blacklist Forty
* Iran crisis of 1946
* Greek Civil War
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* Turkish straits crisis
* Restatement of Policy on Germany
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* Operation Valuable

1950s|

* Bamboo Curtain
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* Egyptian revolution of 1952
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* East German uprising of 1953
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* Poznań protests of 1956
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* Arab Cold War
* Syrian Crisis of 1957
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* Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution
* Kitchen Debate
* Sino-Soviet split

1960s|

* Congo Crisis
* Simba rebellion
* 1960 U-2 incident
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* 1960 Turkish coup d'état
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* First Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Berlin Crisis of 1961
* Berlin Wall
* Annexation of Goa
* Papua conflict
* Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
* Sand War
* Portuguese Colonial War
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* El Porteñazo
* Sino-Indian War
* Communist insurgency in Sarawak
* Ramadan Revolution
* Eritrean War of Independence
* North Yemen Civil War
* 1963 Syrian coup d'état
* Assassination of John F. Kennedy
* Aden Emergency
* Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964
* Shifta War
* Mexican Dirty War
* Tlatelolco massacre
* Guatemalan Civil War
* Colombian conflict
* 1964 Brazilian coup d'état
* Dominican Civil War
* Rhodesian Bush War
* Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966
* Transition to the New Order (Indonesia)
* Domino theory
* ASEAN Declaration
* 1966 Syrian coup d'état
* Cultural Revolution
* Argentine Revolution
* South African Border War
* Korean DMZ Conflict
* 12-3 incident
* Greek junta
* 1967 Hong Kong riots
* Years of Lead (Italy)
* Six-Day War
* War of Attrition
* Dhofar Rebellion
* Al-Wadiah War
* Nigerian Civil War
* Protests of 1968
* May 68
* Prague Spring
* USS Pueblo incident
* 1968 Polish political crisis
* Communist insurgency in Malaysia
* Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
* 17 July Revolution
* 1968 Peruvian coup d'état
* 1969 Sudanese coup d'état
* 1969 Libyan coup d'état
* Goulash Communism
* Sino-Soviet border conflict
* Communist rebellion in the Philippines

1970s|

* Détente
* Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
* Black September
* Alcora Exercise
* Corrective Movement (Syria)
* Western Sahara conflict
* Cambodian Civil War
* Communist insurgency in Thailand
* Koza riot
* Realpolitik
* Ping-pong diplomacy
* 1971 JVP insurrection
* Corrective Revolution (Egypt)
* 1971 Turkish military memorandum
* 1971 Sudanese coup d'état
* Four Power Agreement on Berlin
* Bangladesh Liberation War
* 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
* North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972
* Yemenite War of 1972
* Munich massacre
* 1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état
* 1973 Afghan coup d'état
* 1973 Chilean coup d'état
* Yom Kippur War
* 1973 oil crisis
* Carnation Revolution
* Spanish transition to democracy
* Metapolitefsi
* Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
* Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Turkish invasion of Cyprus
* Angolan Civil War
* Mozambican Civil War
* Oromo conflict
* Ogaden War
* 1978 Somali coup d'état attempt
* Western Sahara War
* Ethiopian Civil War
* Lebanese Civil War
* Sino-Albanian split
* Third Indochina War
* Cambodian–Vietnamese War
* Operation Condor
* Dirty War (Argentina)
* 1976 Argentine coup d'état
* Egyptian–Libyan War
* German Autumn
* Korean Air Lines Flight 902
* Nicaraguan Revolution
* Uganda–Tanzania War
* NDF Rebellion
* Chadian–Libyan conflict
* Yemenite War of 1979
* Grand Mosque seizure
* Iranian Revolution
* Saur Revolution
* Sino-Vietnamese War
* New Jewel Movement
* 1979 Herat uprising
* Seven Days to the River Rhine
* Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s|

* Salvadoran Civil War
* Soviet–Afghan War
* 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts
* Gera Demands
* Peruvian Revolution
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1980 Turkish coup d'état
* Ugandan Bush War
* Gulf of Sidra incident
* Casamance conflict
* Falklands War
* 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
* Ndogboyosoi War
* United States invasion of Grenada
* Able Archer 83
* Star Wars
* 1985 Geneva Summit
* Iran–Iraq War
* Somali Rebellion
* Reykjavík Summit
* 1986 Black Sea incident
* South Yemen Civil War
* Toyota War
* 1987 Lieyu massacre
* Operation INFEKTION
* 1987–1989 JVP insurrection
* Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
* 1988 Black Sea bumping incident
* 8888 Uprising
* Solidarity (Soviet reaction)
* Contras
* Central American crisis
* RYAN
* Korean Air Lines Flight 007
* People Power Revolution
* Glasnost
* Perestroika
* Bougainville conflict
* First Nagorno-Karabakh War
* Afghan Civil War
* United States invasion of Panama
* 1988 Polish strikes
* 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
* Revolutions of 1989
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* Fall of the inner German border
* Velvet Revolution
* Romanian Revolution
* Peaceful Revolution

1990s|

* Mongolian Revolution of 1990
* Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident
* Gulf War
* Min Ping Yu No. 5202
* German reunification
* Yemeni unification
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
* Dissolution of the Soviet Union
* 1991 August Coup

Frozen conflicts|

* Abkhazia
* China-Taiwan
* Korea
* Kosovo
* Nagorno-Karabakh
* South Ossetia
* Transnistria
* Sino-Indian border dispute
* North Borneo dispute

Foreign policy|

* Truman Doctrine
* Containment
* Eisenhower Doctrine
* Domino theory
* Hallstein Doctrine
* Kennedy Doctrine
* Peaceful coexistence
* Ostpolitik
* Johnson Doctrine
* Brezhnev Doctrine
* Nixon Doctrine
* Ulbricht Doctrine
* Carter Doctrine
* Reagan Doctrine
* Rollback
* Kinmen Agreement

Ideologies|

| Capitalism|

* Liberalism
* Chicago school
* Keynesianism
* Libertarianism
* Monetarism
* Neoclassical economics
* Reaganomics
* Supply-side economics
* Democratic capitalism

|

Socialism|

* Communism
* Marxism–Leninism
* Castroism
* Eurocommunism
* Guevarism
* Hoxhaism
* Juche
* Ho Chi Minh Thought
* Maoism
* Trotskyism
* Stalinism
* Titoism

Other|

* Imperialism
* Anti-imperialism
* Nationalism
* Ultranationalism
* Chauvinism
* Ethnic nationalism
* Racism
* Zionism
* Anti-Zionism
* Fascism
* Neo-Nazism
* Islamism
* Totalitarianism
* Authoritarianism
* Autocracy
* Liberal democracy
* Illiberal democracy
* Guided democracy
* Social democracy
* Third-Worldism
* White supremacy
* White nationalism
* White separatism
* Apartheid

Organizations|

* NATO
* SEATO
* METO
* EEC
* Warsaw Pact
* Comecon
* Non-Aligned Movement
* ASEAN
* SAARC
* Safari Club

Propaganda|

| Pro-communist|

* Active measures
* Izvestia
* Pravda
* TASS
* Soviet Life

|

Pro-Western|

* Amerika
* Crusade for Freedom
* Paix et Liberté
* Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
* Radio Free Asia
* Red Scare
* Voice of America

Technological
competition|

* Arms race
* Nuclear arms race
* Space Race

Historians|

* Gar Alperovitz
* Thomas A. Bailey
* Michael Beschloss
* Archie Brown
* Warren H. Carroll
* Adrian Cioroianu
* John Costello
* Michael Cox
* Nicholas J. Cull
* Willem Drees
* Robert D. English
* Herbert Feis
* Robert Hugh Ferrell
* André Fontaine
* Anneli Ute Gabanyi
* John Lewis Gaddis
* Lloyd Gardner
* Timothy Garton Ash
* Gabriel Gorodetsky
* Fred Halliday
* Jussi Hanhimäki
* John Earl Haynes
* Patrick J. Hearden
* Tvrtko Jakovina
* Tony Judt
* Harvey Klehr
* Gabriel Kolko
* Walter LaFeber
* Walter Laqueur
* Melvyn P. Leffler
* Geir Lundestad
* Mary Elise Sarotte
* Vojtech Mastny
* Jack F. Matlock Jr.
* Thomas J. McCormick
* Timothy Naftali
* Marius Oprea
* David S. Painter
* William B. Pickett
* Ronald E. Powaski
* Yakov M. Rabkin
* Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
* Ellen Schrecker
* Giles Scott-Smith
* Shen Zhihua
* Athan Theoharis
* Andrew Thorpe
* Vladimir Tismăneanu
* Patrick Vaughan
* Alex von Tunzelmann
* Odd Arne Westad
* William Appleman Williams
* Jonathan Reed Winkler
* Rudolph Winnacker
* Ken Young

Espionage and
intelligence|

* List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States
* Soviet espionage in the United States
* Russian espionage in the United States
* American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation
* CIA and the Cultural Cold War
* CIA
* SS (MI5)
* United States involvement in regime change
* SIS (MI6)
* MVD
* Soviet involvement in regime change
* KGB
* Stasi

See also|

* Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
* Soviet Union–United States relations
* USSR–USA summits
* Russia–NATO relations
* War on terror
* Brinkmanship
* Second Cold War
* Russian Revolution

* Category
* Commons
* Timeline
* List of conflicts

* v
* t
* e

Time Persons of the Year

1927–1950|

* Charles Lindbergh (1927)
* Walter Chrysler (1928)
* Owen D. Young (1929)
* Mohandas Gandhi (1930)
* Pierre Laval (1931)
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932)
* Hugh S. Johnson (1933)
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934)
* Haile Selassie (1935)
* Wallis Simpson (1936)
* Chiang Kai-shek / Soong Mei-ling (1937)
* Adolf Hitler (1938)
* Joseph Stalin (1939)
* Winston Churchill (1940)
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
* Joseph Stalin (1942)
* George Marshall (1943)
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944)
* Harry S. Truman (1945)
* James F. Byrnes (1946)
* George Marshall (1947)
* Harry S. Truman (1948)
* Winston Churchill (1949)
* The American Fighting-Man (1950)

1951–1975|

* Mohammed Mosaddeq (1951)
* Elizabeth II  (1952)
* Konrad Adenauer (1953)
* John Foster Dulles (1954)
* Harlow Curtice (1955)
* Hungarian Freedom Fighters (1956)
* Nikita Khrushchev (1957)
* Charles de Gaulle (1958)
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1959)
* U.S. Scientists: George Beadle / Charles Draper / John Enders / Donald A. Glaser / Joshua Lederberg / Willard Libby / Linus Pauling / Edward Purcell / Isidor Rabi / Emilio Segrè / William Shockley / Edward Teller / Charles Townes / James Van Allen / Robert Woodward (1960)
* John F. Kennedy (1961)
* Pope John XXIII (1962)
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)
* Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)
* William Westmoreland (1965)
* The Generation Twenty-Five and Under (1966)
* Lyndon B. Johnson (1967)
* The Apollo 8 Astronauts: William Anders / Frank Borman / Jim Lovell (1968)
* The Middle Americans (1969)
* Willy Brandt (1970)
* Richard Nixon (1971)
* Henry Kissinger / Richard Nixon (1972)
* John Sirica (1973)
* King Faisal (1974)
* American Women: Susan Brownmiller / Kathleen Byerly / Alison Cheek / Jill Conway / Betty Ford / Ella Grasso / Carla Hills / Barbara Jordan / Billie Jean King / Susie Sharp / Carol Sutton / Addie Wyatt (1975)

1976–2000|

* Jimmy Carter (1976)
* Anwar Sadat (1977)
* Deng Xiaoping (1978)
* Ayatollah Khomeini (1979)
* Ronald Reagan (1980)
* Lech Wałęsa (1981)
* The Computer (1982)
* Ronald Reagan / Yuri Andropov (1983)
* Peter Ueberroth (1984)
* Deng Xiaoping (1985)
* Corazon Aquino (1986)
* Mikhail Gorbachev (1987)
* The Endangered Earth (1988)
* Mikhail Gorbachev (1989)
* George H. W. Bush (1990)
* Ted Turner (1991)
* Bill Clinton (1992)
* The Peacemakers: Yasser Arafat / F. W. de Klerk / Nelson Mandela / Yitzhak Rabin (1993)
* Pope John Paul II (1994)
* Newt Gingrich (1995)
* David Ho (1996)
* Andrew Grove (1997)
* Bill Clinton / Ken Starr (1998)
* Jeff Bezos (1999)
* George W. Bush (2000)

2001–present|

* Rudolph Giuliani (2001)
* The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper / Coleen Rowley / Sherron Watkins (2002)
* The American Soldier (2003)
* George W. Bush (2004)
* The Good Samaritans: Bono / Bill Gates / Melinda Gates (2005)
* You (2006)
* Vladimir Putin (2007)
* Barack Obama (2008)
* Ben Bernanke (2009)
* Mark Zuckerberg (2010)
* The Protester (2011)
* Barack Obama (2012)
* Pope Francis (2013)
* Ebola Fighters: Dr. Jerry Brown / Dr. Kent Brantly / Ella Watson-Stryker / Foday Gollah / Salome Karwah (2014)
* Angela Merkel (2015)
* Donald Trump (2016)
* The Silence Breakers (2017)
* The Guardians: Jamal Khashoggi / Maria Ressa / Wa Lone / Kyaw Soe Oo / Staff of The Capital (2018)
* Greta Thunberg (2019)
* Joe Biden / Kamala Harris (2020)
* Elon Musk (2021)

*[c.]: circa
*[m.]: married
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