KHOMEINI, RUHOLLAH (1902–1989)

Spiritual and political leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini became one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. A prolific writer and charismatic speaker, Khomeini inspired millions of Iranians to rise up against the Pahlavi regime and establish Iran as a truly Islamic republic.

Khomeini was born in 1902 in Khumayn, into a family of Shi ite clerics. As a child and young man, he learned Arabic and studied Islamic law, and by 1923 he was a student in the holy city of Qum. Here Khomeini dedicated nearly forty years to the study of traditional shari˓a, as well as mysticism, gnosticism, ethics, and philosophy.

By 1944, Khomeini had grown increasingly angry at the secularization of Iranian life under Reza Shah Pahlavi. He continued to teach at Qum, but also began his prolific career of political writings. Over the next two decades he collected disciples, whom he taught to relate their study of the shari˓a to all aspects of public and private life.

In 1963, Khomeini stepped into the national spotlight by leading anti-Pahlavi protests in Qum. Horrified by the violence of the government's response, he became the leading religious figure opposing the regime. Exiled for his outspoken views, he ultimately went to Iraq (1965), settling in the holiest of Shi˓ite cities, Najaf. Through his writings, however, Khomeini's views were widely disseminated throughout Iran, denouncing the shah and his allies in the United States.

In 1978, a variety of anti-Pahlavi forces—leftists, merchants, and ulema—rose up in open revolt, inspired by Khomeini's vision of a new future for Iran that eliminated the corruption of the shah's regime. Finally, in January 1979, the shah fled Iran and Khomeini returned from exile to lead the revolution. In March 1979 a referendum established the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Khomeini became its spiritual leader.

In opposing the shah, Khomeini had taken the title of imam, legitimizing his leadership by associating himself with Holy Imams of Iranian Shi˓ism. Surrounding himself by a coterie of former students, he created a revolutionary government dedicated to restoring Islam to the center of Iranian life. He created new national institutions predicated on the teachings of Islam and administered by clerics, using the confiscated property of the previous rulers to pay for his reforms. Although he called for an elected governing body, all political offices were reserved for clerics. In an attempt to shake off Western influences, he supported the 1979 occupation of the United States embassy, holding its staff hostage, and thereby touching off a world crisis.

In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran with United States support. The war, which lasted eight years, became increasingly unpopular, and Khomeini ultimately agreed to sign a cease-fire. In its aftermath, Khomeini continued his attempt to create a truly theocratic state, suppressing dissenters, including those who practiced minority variants of Islam.

As ruling jurist of the new, theocratic Iran, Khomeini grew increasingly vehement in putting down dissent, ordering mass executions of prisoners who had run afoul of his revolutionary courts. Isolated from the West by his anti-American rhetoric and from the Soviet Union for his insistence on the centrality of religion in his government, he further incensed outside observers when, in February 1989, he issued a fatwa (a judgement carrying the sentence of death) against author Salman Rushdie for having written a novel that contained passages offensive to his view of Islam. Khomeini died in June 1989, still hugely popular among the people who looked to him as Iran's spiritual leader. His funeral was attended by over one million mourners.

See alsoIran, Islamic Republic of ; Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi ; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Algar, Hamid. "Imam Khomeini: The Pre-Revolutionary Years." In Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Edited by E. Burke III and I. M. Lapidus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Arjomand, Said A. The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Brunner, Rainer, and Ende, Werner, eds. The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious, Cultural, and Political History. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Khomeini, Ruhollah. Islam and Revolution. Translated by Hamid Algar. Berkeley, Calif.: Mizan Press, 1981.

Nancy L. Stockdale