Figure timeline
Ruhollah Mostafavi Khomeini was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the leader of the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ended the Pahlavi era, and transformed the country into an Islamic republic. As supreme leader, he implemented policies that came to be known as Khomeinism.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
politics · Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989 · ulema · Islamic jurist · marji' · politician · preacher · philosopher · poet · revolutionary · also Ruhollah Khomeini, Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Khomeini
Born 24 September 1902 · Died 3 June 1989 · Q38823
55 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
14 photos · 1 audio
Listen
Ruhollah Khomeini speech of 24 November 1981, divided of main file (1254 -1327)
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
Yes, we are reactionaries, and you are enlightened intellectuals: You intellectuals do not want us to go back 1400 years. You, who want freedom, freedom for everything, the freedom of parties, you who want all the freedoms, you intellectuals: freedom that will corrupt our youth, freedom that will pave the way for the oppressor, freedom that will drag our nation to the bottom.
the spiritual over the material
76%WikipediaSource
“Yes, we are reactionaries, and you are enlightened intellectuals: You intellectuals do not want us to go back 1400 years. You, who want freedom, freedom for everything, the freedom of parties, you who want all the freedoms, you intellectuals: freedom that will corrupt our youth, freedom that will pave the way for the oppressor, freedom that will drag our nation to the bottom.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“the spiritual over the material”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“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”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“You will see we are not in any particular animosity with the Americans,”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
News18: Ladakh Logjam: Kargil Police File FIR After Remarks Against Late Iran Leader Ayatollah Khomeini Spark Prote
The Tribune: Ladakh police register case over derogatory remarks against Ayatollah Khomeini
Rising Kashmir: Short: Kargil Police file FIR over remarks against Ayatollah Khomeini
Rising Kashmir: Kargil Police file FIR over remarks against Ayatollah Khomeini
EurAsian Times: When Iran Asked Mossad to Kill Khomeini: Can Israel & Iran Be Friends Again Amid Saudi-Pak-Turkey Pact?
Public attention spiked: 9,073 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.1× the usual 2,897, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Undid revision 1362363483 by Legofan3484 (talk)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Washington Post: AP Was There: Millions of mourners attended funeral of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
American Enterprise Institute: Transform Ruhollah Khomeini’s Tomb into a Museum on Regime Crimes
The New York Times: Ruhollah Khomeini
fact checker rated the claim “BREAKING NEWS: Iranian protesters are burning the tomb of Khomeini, the founder of Irans '79.” misleading.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
The Quint rated the claim “The image from a textbook showing Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini listed as one of the 'most evil people of the world' is recent.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran published a report in which it categorised the purges under Khomeini, including the 1981–1982 massacres and the 1988 executions, as a genocide of Iran's polit
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: In Rare Display Of Defiance, Iranians Dance To Mark Death Of Ruhollah Khomeini
Snopes rated the claim “During the Iran hostage crisis, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed support for the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
PolitiFact rated the claim “"Socialist Workers Party leader Bernie Sanders supported Ayatollah Khomeini against the US, condemned President Carter for imperialism, and accused the hostages of being CIA spies."” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
And published by the BBC — indicate Khomeini did send messages to the US two weeks prior to the revolution, and that these may have been successful in facilitating his return from exile to Iran
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Under the title The Mystery of Prayer: The Ascension of the Wayfarers and the Prayer of the Gnostics
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Observer: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was quoted as saying: "Iranians need freedom now, and if they can only achieve it with American interference, I think they would welcome it
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Our movement Islamic before being Iranian”
Was put under house arrest for questioning what he regarded to be an unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the age of 50, was also rumoured to be a victim of foul play but this time at the hands of Ali Khamenei's regime
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Died 1989-06-03.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was alleged to have committed blasphemy against Islam
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution”
And before the revolution prominent figures in the Khomeini network translated Qutb's works into Persian
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Khomeini passed a fatwa allowing gender reassignment operations as a cure for "diagnosed transsexuals"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly provided Khomeini with a list of Soviet KGB agents and collaborators operating in Iran, who then executed up to 200 suspects and closed down the Communist Tudeh Party of I
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
After listening to a half-hour-long speech on the Quran by him, a Muslim scholar from South Africa, Sheikh Ahmad Deedat gushed:
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
There was an attempted military coup against Khomeini
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Only Montazeri qualified as a potential Leader (this was either because only he accepted totally Khomeini's concept of rule by Islamic jurists, or, as at least one other source stated, because only Montazeri had the "pol
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces (1981–1989).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Time Person of the Year (1979).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Supreme Leader of Iran (1979–1989).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For his international influence and in the next decade was described as the "virtual face of Shia Islam in Western popular culture"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Before Khommeini had consolidated power, a Kurdish delegation traveled to Qom to present the Kurds' demands to Khomeini
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except those of the Baháʼí Faith) be treated well
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
While in exile in Najaf, Iraq with his father and was rumored by supporters of his father to have been murdered by SAVAK
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Khomeini wrote a book in which he stated that there is no religious restriction on corrective surgery for transgender individuals
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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, as well as a condemnation of innovations such as
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists”
Or possibly 1931, Khomeini married Khadijeh Saqafi, the daughter of a cleric in Tehran
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 y
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
But Khomeini continued to pursue his interest in philosophy with two other teachers, Javad Aqa Maleki Tabrizi and Rafi'i Qazvini
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1902-09-24.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi visited Iran, and in 1839, he settled in Khomein
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
On a pilgrimage to the tomb of Ali in Najaf, Ottoman Iraq (now Iraq), and never returned
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections