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Al-Mussavi Ruhollah Al-Khomeini

(b. Khomein, Persia, 25 Sept. 1902; d. 3 Jun. 1989) Iranian; Leader-Guardian 1979 – 89 Khomeini was born a Sayeed (descendant of Prophet Mohammed), the son and grandson of mullahs. Educated at Qom's theological seminary, he became a distinguished religious scholar and mujtahid (authority on divine law), later teaching there. His first major work, published in 1941, was a factor in the murder of the anticlerical author, Kashravi, by an Islamist terrorist in 1945. Hojjatoleslam Khomeini led a delegation of mullahs to the Shah (Pahlavi) to ask for the terrorist's pardon. During the 1950s, Khomenei rose to the rank of Ayatollah. He had a large and devoted following, including Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Khamenei, Montazeri, and Motahari, which formed the Islamic revolutionary movement under his leadership. Khomeini launched their campaign against the Shah's regime in 1962 by assailing its new anti-Islamic electoral legislation. By now convinced that no compromise with the Shah was possible, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini publicly denounced him, attacked his "White Revolution" for conflicting with Islamic values and issued a fatwa forbidding collaboration with his regime. He was arrested in the June riots of 1963, rearrested after anti-American agitation in 1964, then exiled for the next fifteen years.

By now Khomeini was a charismatic figure who used his period of exile to transform Shi'i Islam from quietism into an activist political movement, to devise a revolutionary system of Islamic government and launch a revolution to overthrow the Shah. Many militant followers recognized his charisma by calling him Imam Khomeini — suggesting a divinely guided, infallible leader — from 1970 onwards. In 1977, Khomeini issued a public fatwa "deposing" the Shah and "abrogating" the constitution. He also sent a secret message to Motahari and the radical mullahs ordering the revolution to begin. The first mass demonstration — the principal revolutionary tactic — took place at Qom in January 1978. Khomeini's expulsion to France in 1978 gave access to the world's media, which he skilfully manipulated to discredit the Shah and undermine the legitimacy of his regime. In January the Shah fled, Khomeini formed the Islamic Revolutionary Committee — the provisional government — and returned to Iran in February 1979. The system of Islamic government devised by Khomeini in 1969, and centred on the guardianship of the people by the just and pious jurisconsult in the absence of the occulted twelfth Imam, was established by the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran of 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini held this guardian-leadership, with its transnational applicability, throughout the war with Iraq until his death in 1989.

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Biography: Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini

Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (1902-1989) was the founder and supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The only leader in the Muslim world who combined political and religious authority as a head of state, he took office in 1979.

Ayatollah Khomeini was born on September 24, 1902, according to most sources. The title Ayatollah (the Sign of God) reflected his scholarly religious standing in the Shia Islamic tradition. His first name, Ruhollah (the Spirit of God), is a common name in spite of its religious meaning, and his last name is taken from his birthplace, the town of Khomein, which is about 200 miles south of Tehran, Iran's capital city. His father, Mustapha Musavi, was the chief cleric of the town where he was murdered only five months after the birth of Ruhollah. The child was raised by his mother (Hajar) and aunt (Sahebeh), both of whom died when Ruhollah was about 15 years old.

A Religious Scholar

Ayatollah Khomeini's life after childhood went through three distinct phases. The first phase, from 1908 to 1962, was marked mainly by training, teaching, and writing in the field of Islamic studies. At the age of six he began to study the Koran, Islam's holy book, and also elementary Persian. Subsequently he was taught Islamic jurisprudence by his older brother, Morteza Pasandideh, who was also an ayatollah in the holy city of Qom in Iran. He completed his studies in Islamic law, ethics, and spiritual philosophy under the supervision of Ayatollah Abdul Karim Haeri-ye Yazdi, first in Arak, a town near Khomein, and later in Qom, where he also got married and had two sons and three daughters. His older son, Hajj Mustafa, died (allegedly killed by the Shah's security agents), but the younger one, Ahmad, was relatively active in revolutionary politics in Tehran.

Although during this scholarly phase of his life Khomeini was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings revealed that he firmly believed from the beginning in political activism by clerics. Three factors support this suggestion. First, his interest in Islamic studies surpassed the bounds of traditional subjects of Islamic law (Sharia), jurisprudence (Figh), and principles (Usul) and the like. He was keenly interested in philosophy and ethics. Second, his teaching focused often on the overriding relevance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day. Third, he was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His now well-known book, Kashf-e Assrar (Discovery of Secrets) was a point by point refutation of Assrar-e Hezar Saleh (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kassravi.

Preparation for Political Leadership

The second phase of Khomeini's life, from 1962 to 1979, was marked by political activism. During this phase he carried his lifelong fundamentalist interpretation of Shia Islam to its logical and practical conclusions. Logically, in the 1970s, as contrasted with the 1940s, he no longer accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Iranian Constitution of 1906-1907, an idea that was clearly evidenced by his book Kashf-e Assrar. In his Islamic Government (Hokumat-e Islami) - which is a collection of his lectures in Najaf (Iraq) published in 1970 - he rejected both the Iranian Constitution as an alien import from Belgium and monarchy in general. He believed that the government was an un-Islamic and illegitimate institution usurping the legitimate authority of the supreme religious leader (Faqih), who should rule as both the spiritual and temporal guardian of the Muslim community (Umma). Practically, he launched his crusade against the shah's regime in 1962, which led to the eruption of a religiopolitical rebellion on June 5, 1963. This date (15th of Khurdad in the Iranian solar calendar) is regarded by the revolutionary regime as the turning point in the history of the Islamic movement in Iran. The shah's bloody suppression of the uprising was followed by the exile of Khomeini in 1964, first to Iraq until expelled in 1978 and then to France.

Radicalization of Khomeini's religiopolitical ideas and his entry into active political opposition in the second phase of his life reflected a combination of circumstances. First, the deaths of the leading, although quiescent, Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Burujerdi (1961), and of the activist cleric Ayatollah Abul Qassem Kashani (1962) left the arena of leadership open to Khomeini, who had attained a prominent religious standing by the age of 60. Second, although ever since the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi to power in the 1920s the clerical class had been on the defensive because of his secular and anticlerical policies and those of his son, Muhammad (Mohammad) Reza Shah, these policies reached their peak in the early 1960s. The shah's so-called White Revolution (1963) in particular was considered by the religious leaders as detrimental to not only the Shia cultural tradition, but also to their landed and educational interests. And third, the shah's granting of diplomatic privileges and immunities to the American military personnel and their dependents (1964) was viewed as degrading to the Iranian sense of national independence.

Founding the Islamic Republic of Iran

The third phase of Khomeini's life began with his return to Iran from exile on February 1, 1979 - Muhammad Reza Shah had been forced to abdicate two weeks earlier. On February 11 revolutionary forces allied to Khomeini seized power in Iran. The hallmark of this phase was the emergence of Khomeini as the founder and the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Throughout this phase, Khomeini was preoccupied with the fundamental goal of engineering an ideal Islamic society in Iran. From the perspective of Khomeini and his leading disciples, the Iranian Revolution went through three major periods. The first one began with Khomeini's appointment of Mehdi Bazargan as the head of the "provisional government" on February 5, 1979, and ended with his fall on November 6, two days after the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. This, according to Khomeini, marked the beginning of the second revolution, which was in his view better than the first one that had resulted in the departure of the shah (January 16, 1979). The hallmark of this so-called second revolution was the elimination of mainly nationalist forces from politics. As early as August 20, 1979, 22 opposition newspapers were ordered closed. In terms of foreign policy, the landmarks of the second revolution were the destruction of U.S.-Iran relations and the Iranian defense against the Iraqi invasion of the Shatt-al-Arab (September 22, 1980). The admission of the shah to the United States on October 22, 1979; Khomeini's instruction to Iranian students on November 1 to "expand with all their might their attacks against the United States" in order to force the extradition of the shah; and the seizure of the American embassy on November 4 led to 444 days of agonizing dispute between the United States and Iran until the release of the hostages on January 21, 1981.

The so-called third revolution began with Khomeini's dismissal of President Abul Hassan Bani-Sadr on June 22, 1981. In retrospect, the fate of Bani-Sadr, as that of Bazargan, reflected Khomeini's singleminded determination to eliminate from power any individual or group that could stand in the way of his engineering the ideal Islamic Republic of Iran which he had formally proclaimed on April 1, 1979, and which he called "the first day of the Government of God." This government, however, had yet to be molded thoroughly according to his fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. In terms of foreign policy, the main characteristics of the third revolution were the continuation of the Iraq-Iran war, increasing rapprochement with the Soviet Union, and expanded efforts to export the "Islamic revolution."

In the opinion of this author, the revolution began going through yet a fourth phase in late 1982. Domestically, the clerical class had consolidated its control, prevented land distribution, and promoted the role of the private sector in the economy. Internationally, Iran sought a means of ending its pariah status and tried to distance itself from terrorist groups. It expanded commercial relations with Western Europe, China, Japan, and Turkey; reduced interaction with the Soviet Union; and claimed that the door was open for reestablishing relations with the United States. Late in 1985 a special 60-member assembly of religious figures designated as Khomeini's eventual successor for the office of "Supreme Jurisprudent", a close ally - Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri (born 1922).

In November of 1986 President Reagan acknowledged that the United States had secretly supplied some arms to Iran. The disclosure and subsequent handling of the purchase money led to a lengthy congressional investigation and the appointment of an independent counsel to see if federal statutes had been violated.

In 1988, Khomeini and Iran accepted the United Nation's call for a cease-fire with Iraq. On February 14, 1989, Khomeini sentenced writer Salman Rushdie to death, without a trial, in a legal ruling called a fatwa. Khomeini deemed Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses to be blasphemous because of its unflattering portrait of Islam. Before his death from cancer in Iran on June 3, 1989, Khomeini designated President Ali Khamenei to succeed him. Khomeini is still a revered figure to Iranians. Each year on the anniversary of his death, hundreds of thousands of people attend a ceremony at his shrine at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery.

Further Reading

The main sources of biographical information on Khomeini are in Persian. Two of these are Hamid Rouhani, Nehzat-e Imam Khomeini (1977) and volumes 3, 7, and 8 of 11 volumes by Ali Davani, Nehzat-e Rouhaniyun-e Iran (1981). For relevant detailed accounts of the revolutionary periods in English, see Shaul Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (1984) and Dilip Hiro, Iran Under the Ayatollahs (1985). On the foreign policy of Iran since the revolution see this author's, "Khumayni's Islam in Iran's Foreign Policy" in Adeed Dawisha (editor), Islam in Foreign Policy (1983); "Iran's Islamic Revolution and the Persian Gulf," Current History (January 1985); and "Iran: Burying the Hatchet," Foreign Policy (Fall 1985). For a concise treatment of Khomeini's life and especially of his political ideas, see Farhang Rajaee, Islamic Values and World View: Khomeyni on Man, the State and International Politics (1983) and Amir Taheri, The Spirit of Allah (1985). A grim picture of the 14-month ordeal of the American captives is told in Moorhead Kennedy, The Ayatollah in the Cathedral: Reflections of a Hostage (1986). See also: "Assaying the Khoneini Legacy" by G. H. Jansen in World Press Review, August 1, 1989, vol. 36, no. 8; and Religion and Politics in Iran ed. by Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (1983). For more on the Rushdie sentence, see: "The Rushdie Affair" by Lewis Vernard in American Scholar, Spring 1991, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 185-196; and "The Satanic Fatwa," by Djalal Gandjeih in Utne Reader, September 1994, pp. 131-133.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ruhollah Khomeini

(born May 17, 1900?, Khomeyn, Iran — died June 3, 1989, Tehran) Shi'ite cleric and leader of Iran (1979 – 89). He received a traditional religious education and settled in Qom c. 1922, where he became a Shi'ite scholar of some repute and an outspoken opponent first of Iran's ruler, Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1926 – 41), and then of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1941 – 79). Popularly recognized as a grand ayatollah in the early 1960s, he was imprisoned and then exiled (1964) for his criticism of the government. He settled first in Iraq — where he taught at the shrine city of Al-Najaf for some years — and then, in 1978, near Paris, where he continued to speak out against the shah. During that time he also refined his theory of velayat-e faqih ("government of the jurist"), in which the Shi'ite clergy — traditionally politically quiescent in Iran — would govern the state. Iranian unrest increased until the shah fled in 1979; Khomeini returned shortly thereafter and was eventually named Iran's political and religious leader (rahbar). He ruled over a system in which the clergy dominated the government, and his foreign policies were both anti-Western and anticommunist. During the first year of his leadership, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran — greatly exacerbating tensions with the U.S. — and the devastating Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 90) began.

For more information on Ruhollah Khomeini, visit Britannica.com.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah

(khōmā'nē) , 1900–1989, Iranian Shiite religious leader. Educated in Islam at home and in theological schools, in the 1950s he was designated ayatollah, a supreme religious leader, in the Iranian Shiite community. Khomeini's criticisms of Reza Shah Pahlevi led to his exile in 1964. Settling in Iraq, Khomeini continued his outspoken denunciations, developing a strong religious and political following abroad, until forced to leave (1978) by Saddam Hussein; he then moved to France. Following the revolution that deposed Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, Khomeini returned triumphantly to Iran in 1979, declared an Islamic republic, and began to exercise ultimate authority in the nation. His conservative ideology opposed pro-Western tendencies. Khomeini's rule was marked by the Iran hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War.

Bibliography

See biography by B. Moin (2000).

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Ruhollah Khomeini

1902 - 1989

Leader of the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was born in Khomein, central Iran, in 1902. His early religious education was in Khomein as a student of Akhund Molla Abolqasem, Aqa Shaykh Jaʿfar, Mirza Mahmud Eftekhar al-Olama, Mirza Mehdi Daʿi, Aqa Najafi, his brother-in-law, and Ayatollah Morteza Pasandideh, his older brother. Khomeini left for Arak, a religious center in central Iran, in 1920. In 1922, when Ayatollah Abd al-Karim Haʿeri left Arak for Qom and founded the Feyziyeh religious seminary, Khomeini accompanied him to study there. In 1929, Khomeini went to Tehran to marry Khadijeh Saqafi, the daughter of a prominent ayatollah. Their first son, Mostafa, was born in 1930 and died under mysterious circumstances in 1977 in Iraq; three daughters, Sediqeh, Farideh, and Fahimeh, and another son, Ahmad, who died in 1995, followed.

Ayatollah Haʿeri died in 1937, and by that time Khomeini, who had completed his formal education in 1928, had established himself as one of the more active and prominent religious scholars of Qom. Haʿeri was succeeded by Ayatollah Hosayn Borujerdi. Khomeini also studied with Borujerdi, serving as his special assistant. Borujerdi's primary preoccupation, however, was the expansion and strengthening of the Feyziyeh and preserving its autonomy from governmental supervision. To do so, Borujerdi generally assumed an apolitical and quietist stance throughout his tenure as director. In deference to his mentor, Khomeini did not openly participate in the political movement over oil nationalization in the early 1950s. Following the death of Borujerdi in 1962, however, activist ulama at the Feyziyeh openly pursued an oppositional stance regarding Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's policy of alliance with Western countries, secularization, and centralization of the state.

Khomeini's first direct involvement with the country's political affairs took place in October 1962, when the government drafted a law that would grant diplomatic immunity to U.S. military personnel stationed in Iran. Khomeini expressed his opposition in sermons that became increasing stri-dent in their criticism of the shah's foreign policies, including his tacit support of Israel, which pious Muslims opposed because of the way it had been created out of Palestine. Khomeini's criticisms increased after the shah launched the White Revolution in January 1963. Khomeini was arrested, along with several other prominent clergymen, on 5 June 1963 after delivering a fiery sermon denouncing the shah for taking a pro-Zionist, pro-U.S., and anti-Islamic stance. His arrest sparked several days of demonstrations in Qom and several other cities, which were suppressed forcibly and with scores of deaths. Khomeini was incarcerated in Tehran and released under pressure from other prominent clerics in early 1964. That July, he again was in the vanguard of the religious opposition decrying final passage of the bill granting diplomatic immunity to all U.S. military representatives and their families. Khomeini was imprisoned and subsequently exiled to Turkey. In 1965, he was allowed to take up residence in al-Najaf, Iraq, a Shiʿite shrine city with Shiʿite Islam's most important religious seminary. In exile, Khomeini continued to draw supporters from among Iranian clerics and the bazaar middle class, and he continued to criticize the shah's policies, notably in 1971 when the shah lavishly celebrated the 2,500th anniversary of monarchy and in 1975 when the shah inaugurated Iran's single party, the Rastakhiz.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, while in al-Najaf, Khomeini formulated his concept of velayat-e faqih, or the governance of the religious jurist. Essentially, the doctrine called for an Islamic government supervised by the clergy to ensure that it did not violate Islamic principles. Khomeini already had a network of supporters inside Iran, including Mehdi Bazargan, Mortaza Motahhari, and Mahmud Taleqani, and he spent these years fostering his ties with Iranian oppositional groups abroad, including the Islamic student associations. Leaders of the latter included Ibrahim Yazdi, Sadeq Qotbzadeh, Abolhasan Bani Sadr, and Mostafa Chamran, all of whom rose to prominence after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

In January 1978, when the first antigovernment protests occurred in Iran as a direct response to official media efforts to slander Khomeini, the ayatollah had access to a well-established and influential infrastructure inside the country. As the demonstrations intensified during the spring and summer, Khomeini rejected all pleas for compromise and instead heightened his anti-shah declarations. In October 1978, under pressure from the Iranian government, the then vice president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, expelled Khomeini. The ayatollah obtained political asylum in Paris, where he not only enjoyed attention from the Western media but also gained access to wider communication with Iran. In January 1979, the shah, failing to quell the strikes and demonstrations, left Iran after having installed National Front leader Shapur Bakhtiar as prime minister. Khomeini returned to Iran amid widespread celebrations on 1 February 1979 but refused to acknowledge legitimacy of Bakhtiar's government. On 11 February 1979, Bakhtiar's government,
the last royalist cabinet in Iran, fell, marking the success of the Iranian Revolution. Bazargan, appointed by Khomeini, assumed office as leader of the provisional government.

After the revolution, the new constitution incorporated the concept of velayat-e faqih and named Khomeini as the first faqih and leader of the revolution (rahbar-e enqelab). But Khomeini did not exercise a direct role in the operation of the government. Rather, his domestic policies in the initial post-revolutionary period were marked by subtle compromises undertaken to consolidate the revolution. Political opposition was tolerated, and a noncleric, Abolhasan Bani Sadr, emerged as his choice for Iran's first president. However, his break with Bani Sadr, the eight-year war with Iraq (1980 - 1988), the severing of diplomatic ties with the United States, international isolation, the armed uprising by the internal opposition (1981 - 1982), and factional strife within Islamic circles combined to radicalize his political views.

Khomeini died on 5 June 1989. Although his former student and revolutionary ally Ayatollah Hosayn Ali Montazeri had been designated as his successor in 1983, the two men increasingly differed over policies after 1985. Montazeri's open criticisms in 1988 about the lack of human rights protections for opponents of the regime led Khomeini to demand his resignation in early 1989. Thus when Khomeini died several weeks later there was no designated successor. However, before his death, he had authorized the formation of a committee to revise the constitution, especially the articles pertaining to velayat-e faqih. The amendments made it possible to consider for the position of paramount faqih a person with appropriate political qualifications even if he lacked superior religious credentials. It seems that Khomeini had concluded near the end of his life that a proper political perspective was more critical for ensuring the long-term viability of the Islamic state than expertise in the nuances of Islamic law.

Bibliography

Abrahamian, Ervand. Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Moin, Baqer. Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Moslem, Mehdi. "Ayatollah Khomeini's Role in the Rationalization of the Islamic Government." Critique 14 (spring 1999).

— NEGUIN YAVARI
UPDATED BY ERIC HOOGLUND

History Dictionary: Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah

(eye-uh-toh-luh rooh-hoh-luh khoh-may-nee, koh-may-nee)

An Iranian religious and political leader of the twentieth century. Imposing rule by Islamic law (see Islam) and determined to rid Iran of foreign, and especially American, influences, he became virtual dictator of Iran in 1979. With his blessing, Iranian militants held American diplomats as hostages from 1979 to 1981. He died in 1989.

Wikipedia: Ruhollah Khomeini

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Ruhollah Khomeini

1st Supreme Leader of Iran
In office December 3 1979 – 03 June 1989
Succeeded by	Ali Khamenei

Born	21 September 1900(1900--) Khomein, Markazi Province, Iran
Died	June 03 1989 (aged 88) Tehran, Iran
Religion	Shia Islam

Grand Ayatullah Sayid Ruhullah Musawi Khomeini ( listen (Persian pronunciation)?) (Persian: روح الله موسوی خمینی Rūḥullāh Mūsawī Khumaynī (September 21 1900 ^[1]– June 3 1989) was a senior Shi`i Muslim cleric, Islamic philosopher and marja (religious authority), and the political leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader—the paramount political figure of the new Islamic Republic until his death.

Khomeini was a marja al-taqlid, ("source of imitation") and important spiritual leader to many Shia Muslims. He was also an innovative Islamic political theorist, most noted for his development of the theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical authority)". He was named Time's Man of the Year in 1979 and also one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Early life

Muslim scholar
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at a young age.
Name:	Sayid Ruhullah Al-Musawi Al-Khomeini
Title:	Al-Imam Al-Khomeini
Birth:	21 September 1900^[2]
death:	June 3 1989 (aged 88)
Maddhab:	Shia Islam
Region:	Iran and Iraq
Main interests:	Fiqh, Irfan, Islamic philosophy, Islamic ethics, Hadith and politics
notable idea:	Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, Dynamic Fiqh
works:	Islamic Government, Tahrir-ol-vasyleh, Forty Hadith, Adab as Salat
Influences:	Mulla Sadra, Abdol-Karim Haeri-Yazdi, Hassan Modarres, Mohammad-Ali Shah Abadi
Influenced:	Mohammad Beheshti, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Morteza Motahhari, Ali Khamenei Akbar Hashemi and Fazel Lankarani

Ruhullah Musawi was born to Ayatullah Sayid Mustafa Musawi and Hajiyah Aga Khanam in the town of Khomein, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, on September 21 1900^[2] (The wrong date written in his identification card is May 17, 1900^[3]^[4]) He was a sayyid from a religious family that are claimed descendants of Muhammad, through the seventh Imam, Imam Muwsa Kaazim.^{[citation needed]} His paternal grandfather, Sayid Ahmad Musawi Hindi, originally from the city of Nishabur, in the provice of Khorasan of Iran, spent many years in parts of India as a Shiah religious leader, before returning to Iran. His next "mission" was in the central Iran and he settled in the city of Khomein. His third wife, Sakinah, gave birth to Mustafa in 1856. Khomeini's maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mujtahid-e Khunsari, a high-ranking cleric in central Iran. Following the grant of a monopoly to a British company, he banned the usage of tobacco by Muslims. The shah canceled the concession. The event marked the beginning of the direct influence of the clergy in contemporary Iranian politics.^[5]

Khomeini's father was murdered when he was five months old. Many historians today believe his father may have been the victim of a local dispute. Khomeini was raised by his mother and one of his aunts. Later, when he was 15, his mother and aunt died in the same year. At the age of six he began to study the Koran, Islam's holy book, and also elementary Persian.^[6] He received his early education at home and at the local school, under the supervision of Mullah Abdul-Qaasim and Shaykh Jaafar, and was under the guardianship of his elder brother, Ayatullah Pasandideh, until he was 18 years old. ^[7] Arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted, instead, to the seminary in Arak, under the leadership of Ayatullah Shaykh Abdul-Karim Haeri-Yazdi.

In 1921, Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri-Yazdi transferred the Islamic seminary to the holy city of Qom, and invited his students to follow. Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom before being exiled to the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After graduation, he taught Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), Islamic philosophy and mysticism (Irfan) for many years and wrote numerous books on these subjects.

Khomeini as a teacher and scholar

Ruhullah Khomeini was a lecturer at Najaf and Qum seminaries for decades before he was known in the political scene. He soon became a leading scholar of Shia Islam.^[8] He taught political philosophy^[9], Islamic history and ethics. Several of his students (e.g. Murtaza Mutahhari) later become leading Islamic philosophers and also marja. As a scholar and teacher, Khomeini produced numerous writings on Islamic philosophy, law, and ethics.^[10] He showed an exceptional interest in subjects philosophy and Gnosticism that not only were usually absent from the curriculum of seminaries but were often an object of hostility and suspicion. ^[11]

Although during this scholarly phase of his life Khomeini, was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings suggest that he believed early on in the importance of political involvement by clerics. Khomeini studied not only traditional subjects like Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh al-Shariah), and principles (Usul), but also philosophy and ethics. His teaching often focused on the importance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day. He was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His first book, Kashf-e Assrar (Discovery of Secrets) ^[12] published in 1942, was a point-by-point refutation of Asraar-e Hazaar Saalih (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kassravi.^[13] In addition he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatullah Hasan Mudarrasi- the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during 1920s. Khomeini became a marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi.

Khomeini held a moderate standpoint vis-à-vis the Greek Philosophy. He even regarded Aristotle as the founder of logic and recalled with honor this great man and his services to philosophy and logic.^[14] He was also influenced by Plato's philosophy. About Plato he said: "In the field of divinity, he has grave and solid views ...". ^[15] On the other hand Khomeini attacks the philosophy of Descartes and regards it weak. Among Islamic philosophers, Khomeini was mainly influenced by Avecina and Mulla Sadra. ^[16]

Apart from philosophy, Khomeini was also interested in literature and poetry. His poetry collection was released after his death. Since his adolescent years, Khomeini has composed mystic, political and social poetry.

“

"We" and "I" are both from reason

That are used as ropes to bind

In mass of those who are drunk

Neither "I" is nor "We" to find^[17]

”

His poetry works were published in three collections The Confidant , The Decanter of Love and Turning Point and Divan.^[18]

Early political activity

At the age of 60 the arena of leadership opened for Khomeini following the deaths of Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Burujerdi (1961), the leading, although quiescent, Shiite 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. The "White Revolution" of Reza's son Muhammad Reza Shah, was a further challenge to the ulama.^[19]

Opposition to the White Revolution

In January 1963, the Shah announced the "White Revolution", a six-point program 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. All of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially by the powerful and privileged Shiite ulama (religious scholars).^[20]

Khomeini on a wall in Iran

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 January 22, 1963 Khomeini issued a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. 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 programs, issuing a manifesto that bore the signatures of eight other senior Iranian Shia religious scholars. In it he listed the various ways in which the Shah had allegedly violated the constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of submission to America and Israel. He also decreed that the Norooz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (which fell on March 21, 1963) be canceled as a sign of protest against government policies.

On the afternoon of 'Ashoura (June 3, 1963), Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feyziyeh madrasah drawing parallels between the infamous tyrant Yazid 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. ^[21]

On June 5, 1963, (15 of Khordad), two days after this public denunciation of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Khomeini was arrested. This sparked three days of major riots throughout Iran and led to the deaths of some 400. That event is now referred to as the Movement of 15 Khordad.^[22] Khomeini was kept under house arrest for 8 months and he was released in 1964.

Opposition against capitulation

During November 1964, Khomeini denounced both the Shah and the United States, this time in response to the "capitulations" or diplomatic immunity granted by the Shah to American military personnel in Iran. ^[23] ^[24] In November 1964 Khomeini was re-arrested^[25] and sent into exile.

Life in exile

Ayatollah Khomeini at Neauphle-le-Chateau

Khomeini spent over 14 years in exile, mostly in the holy Shia city of Najaf, Iraq. Initially he was sent to Turkey on 4 November 1964 where he stayed in the city of Bursa for less than a year. He was hosted by a Turkish Colonel named Ali Cetiner in his own residence, who couldn't find another accommodation alternative for his stay at the time.[23] Later in October 1965 he was allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, where he stayed until being forced to leave in 1978, after then-Vice President Saddam Hussein forced him out (the two countries would fight a bitter eight year war 1980-1988 only a year after the two reached power in 1979) after which he went to Neauphle-le-Château in France on a tourist visa, apparently not seeking political asylum, where he stayed for four months. According to Alexandre de Marenches, chief of External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service (now known as the DGSE), France would have suggested to the shah to "organize a fatal accident for Khomeini"; the shah declined the assassination offer, as that would have made Khomeini a martyr.

While in the 1940s Khomeini accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Iranian Constitution of 1906-1907 -- as evidenced by his book Kashf-e Assrar -- by the 1970s he did not.

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, Authority of the Jurist (Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih).

Main article: Hokumat-e Islami : Velayat-e faqih (book by Khomeini)

This was his most famous and 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." ^[26]

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,^[27] (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.^[28]

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. ^[29]

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.

Ayatollah Khomeini in Turkey where it is illegal to wear a religious turban

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. Cassette copies of his lectures fiercely denouncing the Shah as (for example) "... the Jewish agent, the American snake whose head must be smashed with a stone", ^[30] became common items in the markets of Iran, ^[31] helped 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 Dr. Ali Shariati, an Islamic reformist and political revolutionary author/academic/philosopher who greatly popularized the Islamic revival among young educated Iranians, Khomeini became the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah perceived by many Iranians as the spiritual, if not political, leader of revolt. Adding to his mystique was the circulation among Iranians in the 1970s of "an old Shia saying attributed to the Imam Musa al-Jafar." Prior to his death in 799, al-Jafar was said to have prophesied that `A man will come out from Qom and he will summon people to the right path. There will rally to him people resembling pieces of iron, not to be shaken by violent winds, unsparing and relying on God.` Khomeini was said to match this description.^[32]

As protest grew so did his profile and importance. Although thousands of 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.^[33] 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.^[34]

Supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran

Return to Iran

Arrival of Ayatollah Khomeini on February 1, 1979

Main article: Iranian Revolution

Khomeini had refused to return to Iran until the Shah left. On January 16, 1979, the Shah did leave the country (ostensibly "on vacation"), never to return. Two weeks later on Thursday, February 1, 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran, welcomed by a joyous crowd estimated at least three million.

On the airplane on his way to Iran Khomeini was asked by reporter Peter Jennings: "What do you feel in returning to Iran?" Khomeini answered "Hich ehsâsi nadâram" (I don't feel a thing). This statement is often referred to by those who oppose Khomeini as demonstrating the ruthlessness and heartlessness of Khomeini. His supporters, however, attribute this comment as demonstrating the mystic aspiration and selflessness of Khomeini's revolution. ^{[citation needed]}

Khomeini adamantly opposed the provisional government of Shapour Bakhtiar, promising `I shall kick their teeth in. I appoint the government. I appoint the government by support of this nation."`^[35]^[36] On February 11 [(Bahman 12)], 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 which was a `revolt against God.`^[37]

Establishment of new government

As Khomeini's movement gained momentum, soldiers began to defect to his side and Khomeini declared jihad on soldiers who did not surrender. ^[38] On February 11 [(Bahman 22)], as revolt spread and armories were taken over, the military declared neutrality and the Bakhtiar regime collapsed.^[39] On March 30, 1979, and March 31, 1979, a referendum to replace the monarchy with an Islamic Republic passed with 98% voting yes. ^[40]

Islamic constitution and its opposition

Although revolutionaries were now in charge and Khomeini was their leader, many of them, both secular and religious, did not approve and/or know of Khomeini's plan for Islamic government by wilayat al-faqih, or rule by a marja` Islamic cleric -- i.e. by him. Nor did the new provisional constitution for the Islamic Republic, which revolutionaries had been working on with Khomeini's approval, include a post of supreme Islamic cleric ruler.^[41] At the same time, as the undisputed leader of the revolution with enormous mass support, Khomeini had considerable leaway to change this direction. In the coming months, Khomeini and his supporters worked to suppress these former allies turned opponents, and rewrite the proposed constitution. Newspapers were closing and those protesting the closings attacked^[42] and opposition groups such as the National Democratic Front and Muslim People's Republican Party were attacked and finally banned.^[43] Through a combination of popular support and questionable balloting pro-Khomeini candidates gained an overwhelming majority of the seats of the Assembly of Experts^[44] and revised the proposed constitution to include a clerical Supreme Leader, and a Council of Guardians to veto un-Islamic legislation and screen candidates for office.

In November 1979 the new constitution of the Islamic Republic was passed by referendum. Khomeini himself became instituted as the Supreme Leader (supreme jurist ruler), and officially decreed as the "Leader of the Revolution." On February 4, 1980, Abolhassan Banisadr was elected as the first president of Iran. Helping pass the controversial constitution was the Iran hostage crisis.

Hostage crisis

Main article: Iran hostage crisis

On 22 October 1979, the Shah was admitted into the United States for medical treatment for lymphoma. There was an immediate outcry in Iran and on November 4, 1979, a group of students, all of whom were ardent followers of Khomeini, seized the United States embassy in Tehran, taking 63 American citizens as hostage. After a judicious delay, Khomeini supported the hostage-takers under the slogan "America can't do a damn thing." Fifty of the hostages were held prisoner for 444 days — an event usually referred to as the Iran hostage crisis. The hostage-takers justified this violation of long-established international law as a reaction to American refusal to hand over the Shah for trial and execution. On February 23, 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 less than a year later, this did not end the crisis. Supporters of Khomeini named the embassy a "Den of Espionage", and publicized the weapons, electronic listening devices, other equipment and many volumes of official and secret classified documents they found there. Others explain the length of the imprisonment on what 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." ^[45] The new theocratic constitution did successfully pass its referendum one month after the hostage-taking, which did succeed in splitting its opposition -- radicals supporting the hostage taking and moderates opposing it.

See also: October Surprise

Relationship with other Islamic and non-aligned countries

Khomeini believed in Muslim unity and solidarity and the export of Islamic revolution throughout the world. "Establishing the Islamic state world-wide belong to the great goals of the revolution." ^[46] 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 International Day of Quds in 1979.

Despite his devotion to Islam, Khomeini also emphasised international revolutionary solidarity, expressing support for the PLO, the IRA, Cuba, and the South African anti-apartheid struggle. Terms like "democracy" and "liberalism" considered positive in the West became words of criticism, while "revolution" and "revolutionary" were terms of praise.^[47]

Iran-Iraq War

Main article: Iran-Iraq War

Shortly after assuming power, Khomeini began calling for Islamic revolutions across the Muslim world, including Iran's Arab neighbor Iraq,^[48] 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, of course, to undermine Iranian Islamic revolutionary attempts to incite the Shi'a majority of his country.

With what many Iranians believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries, Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long 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 by early 1982 Iran regained almost all the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership. After this reversal, Khomeini refused an Iraqi offer of a truce, instead demanding reparation and toppling of Saddam Hussein from power.^[49]^[50]^[51]

Outside powers supplied arms to both sides during the war, but the West wanted to be sure the Islamic revolution did not spread to other parts of the oil-exporting Persian Gulf and began to supply Iraq with whatever help it needed. Most military sales came from the USSR and France, and many also from Saudi Arabia, the USA, and Egypt. Most rulers of other Muslim countries also supported Iraq out of opposition to the Islamic ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran, which threatened their own native monarchies. On the other hand most Islamic parties and organizations supported Islamic unity with Iran, especially the Shiite ones.^{[citation needed]}

The war continued for another six years, with 450,000 to 950,000 casualties on the Iranian side and at a cost estimated by Iranian officials to total USD $300 billion.^[52]

As the costs of the eight-year war mounted, Khomeini, in his words, “drank the cup of poison” and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. He strongly denied however that pursuit of overthrow of Saddam had 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?`^[53]

As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Khomeini’s health began to decline.

Rushdie fatwa

Main article: The Satanic Verses controversy

In early 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author. [24] Khomeini claimed that Rushdie's assassination was a religious duty for Muslims because of his blasphemy against Muhammad in his novel, The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book contains passages that many Muslims – including Ayatollah Khomeini – considered offensive to Islam and the prophet, but the fatwa 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 Muslims to kill anyone who insults the Prophet in his hearing and in his presence."^[54]

Though Rushdie publicly apologized, the fatwa was not revoked. Khomeini explained,

Even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell. ^[55]

Rushdie himself was not killed but Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the book The Satanic Verses, was murdered and two other translators of the book survived attempted assassinations.

More of Khomeini's fataawa were compiled in The Little Green Book, Sayings of Ayathollah Khomeini, Political, Philosophical, Social and Religious

Life under Khomeini

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In a speech given to a huge crowd after returning to Iran from exile February 1, 1979, 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. While many changes came to Iran under Khomeini, these promises have yet to be fulfilled in the Islamic Republic. ^[56]^[57]^[58]^[59]^[60]^[61]

More important to Khomeini than the material prosperity of Iranians was their religious devotion:

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^[62] Women were forced to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts. The Iranian educational curriculum was Islamized at all levels with the Islamic Cultural Revolution; the "Committee for Islamization of Universities"^[63] carried this out thoroughly.

Opposition to the religious rule of the clergy or Islam in general was often met with harsh punishments. In a talk at the Fayzieah School in Qom, August 30, 1979, Khomeini said "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."[25]

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 end in firing squads, with critics complaining of "secrecy, vagueness of the charges, the absence of defense lawyers or juries", or the opportunity of the accused "to defend themselves." ^[64] 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. ^[65]

In the 1988 massacre of Iranian prisoners, following the People's Mujahedin of Iran operation Forough-e Javidan against the Islamic Republic, Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill those who would not repent anti-regime activities. Many say that thousands were swiftly put to death inside the prisons.^[66] The suppressed memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri reportedly detail the execution of 30,000 political activists.^[67]

Although many hoped the revolution would bring freedom of speech and press, this was not to be. In defending forced closing of opposition newspapers and attacks on opposition protesters by club-wielding vigilantes Khomeini explained, `The club of the pen and the club of the tongue is the worst of clubs, whose corruption is a 100 times greater than other clubs.` ^[68]

Life for religious minorities has been mixed under Khomeini and his successors. Earlier statements by Khomeini were antagonistic towards Jews, but Shortly after his return from exile in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except Baha'is) be treated well. ^[69] ^[70] In power, Khomeini distinguished between Zionism as a secular political party that enjoys Jewish symbols and ideals and Judaism as the religion of Moses.^[71] As Haroun Yashyaei, a film producer and former chairman of the Central Jewish Community in Iran has quoted^[72]:

By law, four seats in the parliament are reserved for the three minority religions. Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims (Sunni Muslims are the largest religious minority in Iran).^[73]

Non-Muslim religious minorities, however, do not have equal rights in Khomeini's Islamic Republic. Senior government posts are reserved for Muslims. Jewish and Christian schools must be run by Muslim principals.^[74] Compensation for death paid to the family of a non-Muslim was (by law) less than if the victim was a Muslim. (This was recently changed, with non-Muslims families now receiving just as much.^{[citation needed]}) Conversion to Islam is 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.^[75] Iran's non-Muslim population has fallen dramatically. For example, the Jewish population in Iran dropped from 80,000 to 30,000 in the first two decades of the revolution.^[76]

Unlike the other non-Muslims in Iran, the 250,000 members of the Bahá'í Faith, are actively harassed. "Some 200 of whom have been executed and the rest forced to convert or subjected to the most horrendous disabilities." ^[77] Starting in late 1979 the new government systematically targeted the leadership of the Bahá'í community by focusing on the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) and Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSAs); prominent members of NSAs and LSAs were either killed or disappeared.^[78] Like most conservative Muslims, Khomeini believed them to be apostates, for example issuing 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 Bahai's nothing