Ayatollah khomeini biography iranian revolution
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Ruhollah Khomeini
Supreme Leader of Iran from to
For other people named Khomeini, see Khomeini (name).
"Khomeini" redirects here. Not to be confused with his successor, Ali Khamenei.
Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini[b] (17 May or 24 September [a]&#;&#; 3 June ) was an Iranian Islamist revolutionary, politician and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from until his death in He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian revolution, which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and ended the Iranian monarchy. Ideologically a Shia Islamist, Khomeini's religious and political ideas are known as Khomeinism.
Born in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran's Markazi province, his father was murdered in when Khomeini was just two years old. He began studying the Quran and Arabic from a young age and was assisted in his religious studies by his relatives, including his mother's cousin and older brother. Khomeini was a
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Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran
On February 1, , the Ayatollah Khomeinireturns to Iran in triumph after 15 years of exile. The shah and his family had fled the country two weeks before, and jubilant Iranian revolutionaries were eager to establish a fundamentalist Islamic government beneath Khomeini’s leadership.
Born around the turn of the century, Ruhollah Khomeini was the son of an Islamic religious scholar and in his ungdom memorized the Qur’an. He was a Shiite—the branch of Islam practiced bygd a majority of Iranians—and soon devoted himself to the formal study of Shia Islam in the city of Qom. A devout cleric, he rose steadily in the Shiite hierarchy and attracted many disciples.
In , British and Soviet troops occupied Iran and installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the second modern shah of Iran. The new shah had close ties with the West, and in British and U.S. intelligence agents helped him overthrow a popular political rival. Mohammad Reza embraced many Western ideas and in
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Ayatollah Khomeini ()
Ayatollah Khomeini (), Shiite Muslim and Iranian revolutionary leader. ©Khomeini was an Iranian religious and political leader, who in made Iran the world's first Islamic republic.
Ruhollah Khomeini was born in Kohmeyn in central Iran. He became a religious scholar and in the early s rose to become an 'ayatollah', a term for a leading Shia scholar.
In , Khomeini was arrested by the shah's security service for his outspoken opposition to the pro-Western regime of the Shah. His arrest elevated him to the status of national hero. In , he was exiled, living in Turkey, Iraq and then France, from where he urged his supporters to overthrow the shah. By the late s, the shah had become deeply unpopular and there were riots, strikes and mass demonstrations across the country.
In January , the shah's government collapsed and he and his family fled into exile. On 1 February, Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph. There was a national referendum and Khomeini won