Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (Persian: روحاللّه مصطفوی موسوی خمینی, Persian pronunciation: [ruːholˈlɑːhe muːsæˈviːje xomeiˈniː], 24 September 1902[1][2][3] – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader—a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation—until his death.
Khomeini was a marja ("source of emulation", also known as a Grand Ayatollah) in Twelver Shi'a Islam. He is the author of more than 40 books mainly on mysticism, philosophy, and Islamic jurisprudence most of which were written before revolution. After his death, a book of poetry was published under his name[4].
He was arrested in 1963 for 10 months[5] and exiled in 1964 for near 15 years for his speeches against the Capitulation (treaty) approved by the Shah regime[6]
In January 1970, during a series of lectures, Khomeini expanded the theory of velayat-e faqih, (clerical authority) to include theocratic political rule by the Islamic jurists,[7], though he never mentioned it in public until after revolution[8] [9] which was then installed in the new Iranian constitution[10] and put to referendum[11].
Khomeini is criticized for his direct responsibility in 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners.[12][13][14] and his fatwa calling for the death of British citizen Sayyid Salman Rushdie.[15]
He was named Man of the Year in 1979 by American newsmagazine TIME[16] and is quoted as a person who escalated anti-Americanism in middle-east[17]
Khomeini has been referred to as a "charismatic leader of immense popularity,"[18] considered a "champion of Islamic revival" by some Shia scholars[19] and through this fatwa, was regarded as a "renewer of Islam" by non-Shi'a[20].
He is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran[21] and amongst his followers internationally, and Ayatollah Khomeini amongst others.[22]
[edit] Early life
Khomeini in youth (Second from right and fourth from left )
The Khomeini family originated from Nishapur, Iran. Towards the end of the 18th century, the ancestors of Ruhollah Khomeini had migrated from their original home in Nishapur to the kingdom of Oudh in northern India whose rulers were Twelver Shia Muslims of Persian origin[23] [24]; they settled in the small town of Kintoor, just outside of the capital.[25][26][27][28] Ayatollah Khomeini's paternal grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, was born in Kintoor, he was a contemporary and relative of the famous scholar Ayatollah Syed Mir Hamid Hussain Musavi.[26][28] He left Lucknow in 1830 on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq and never returned.[25][28] According to a statement attributed to Khomeini's elder brother, Seyed Morteza Pasandideh, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi's point of departure was Kashmir.[citation needed] Also in a letter to Ayatollah Yousuf Kashmiri, Ayatollah Khomeini confirms the Kashmiri origins of his grandfather.[citation needed] According to Moin this movement was to escape colonial rule of British Raj in India.[29] He visited Iran in 1834 and settled down in Khomein in 1839.[26] Although he stayed and settled in Iran, he continued to be known as Hindi, even Ruhollah Khomeini used Hindi as pen name in some of his ghazals.[25]
Ruhollah began to study the Qur'an, Islam's holiest book, and elementary Persian at age six.[30] The following year, he began to attend a local school, where he learned religion, "noheh khani" and other traditional subjects.[29] Throughout his childhood, he would continue his religious education with the assistance of his relatives, including his mother's cousin, Ja'far,[29] and his elder brother, Morteza Pasandideh.[31]
After World War I arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted instead to the seminary in Arak. He was placed under the leadership of Ayatollah Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi.[32] In 1920, Khomeini moved to Arak and commenced his studies.[33] The following year, Ayatollah Haeri Yazdi transferred to the Islamic seminary at the holy city of Qom, southwest of Tehran, and invited his students to follow. Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved,[31] and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom.[34] Khomeini's studies included Islamic law (sharia) and jurisprudence (fiqh),[30] 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 would continue to pursue his interest in philosophy with two other teachers, Javad Aqa Maleki Tabrizi and Rafi'i Qazvini.[35][36] However, perhaps Khomeini's biggest influences were yet another teacher, Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Shahabadi,[37] and a variety of historic Sufi mystics, including Mulla Sadra and Ibn Arabi.[36]
[edit] Literature, poetry and philosophy
Khomeini studied Greek Philosophy and was influenced by both the philosophy of Aristotle, whom he regarded as the founder of logic,[38] and Plato, whose views "in the field of divinity" he regarded as "grave and solid".[39] Among Islamic philosophers, Khomeini was mainly influenced by Avicenna and Mulla Sadra.[38]
Apart from philosophy, Khomeini was also 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.[40] Some of his poems are seen as criticizing spirituality and religion, such as one firstly dedicated to a commander in the Iran-Iraq war but later published by his son as a memorial to him. He claims the controversial "I am the Truth" of the Persian mystic Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj and uses the Ṣūfī terminology of wine.[41][clarification needed]
Ruhollah 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.[42] He taught political philosophy,[43] Islamic history and ethics. Several of his students (e.g. 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.[44] He showed an exceptional interest in subjects like philosophy and gnosticism that not only were usually absent from the curriculum of seminaries but were often an object of hostility and suspicion.[45]
[edit] Political aspects
His seminary teaching often focused on the importance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day, and he worked against the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His first book, Kashf al-Asrar (Uncovering of Secrets)[46][47] published in 1942, was a point-by-point refutation of Asrar-e hazar salih (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kasravi.[48] 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 1920s. Khomeini became a marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi.
[edit] Early political activity
[edit] Background
Khomeini's speeches against the Shah in Qom on 1963
Most Iranians had a deep respect for the Shi'a clergy or Ulema,[49] 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 Protests 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 Muhammad Reza Shah, instituted a "White Revolution", which was a further challenge to the ulama.[50]
[edit] Opposition to the White Revolution
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, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially by the powerful and privileged Shi'a ulama (religious scholars).[51] 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 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 programmes, 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 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 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.[52]
On 5 June 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.[53] Khomeini was kept under house arrest and released in August.[54][page needed]
[edit] Opposition to capitulation
On 26 October 1964, the day of the Shah's holiday celebrating '2,500 years of continuous monarchy,' 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.[55][56] The famous "capitulation" law (or "status-of-forces agreement") would allow members of the U.S. armed forces in Iran to be tried in their own military courts. Khomeini was arrested in November 1964 and held for half a year. Upon his release, he was brought before Prime Minister Hasan Ali Mansur, who tried to convince Khomeini that he should apologize and drop his opposition to the government. Khomeini refused. In fury, Mansur slapped Khomeini's face.[57] Two weeks later, Mansur was assassinated on his way to parliament. Four members of the Fadayan-e Islam were later executed for the murder.
[edit] Life in exile
Khomeini spent more than 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 colonel in Turkish Military Intelligence named Ali Cetiner in his own residence, who could not arrange alternative accommodation for his stay at the time.[58] 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 told him that it's better to leave (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, suburb of Paris, 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-Espionnage Service (now known as the DGSE), the shah declined that France expel Khomeini for fear that the cleric should move to Syria or Libya.[59] Some sources report that president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing sent Michel Poniatowski to Tehran to propose to the Shah the elimination of Khomeini.[60]
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 Iranian Constitution of 1906–1907 — as evidenced by his book Kashf al-Asrar — by the 1970s he 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: Authority of the Jurist (Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih).
Khomeini and other clerics in Najaf
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."[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.
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] 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. 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.
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