Ayatollah Khomeini
Explore Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — the Shia cleric who led the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and established the world's first modern Islamic republic.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) was the Shia Muslim cleric who led the Iranian Revolution of 1979, establishing the Islamic Republic of Iran and fundamentally reshaping Middle Eastern politics. His revolution demonstrated that political Islam could overthrow a Western-allied regime and offered an alternative model of governance rooted in religious authority.
Khomeini spent decades in opposition to the Shah's regime, articulating a theory of 'velayat-e faqih' (guardianship of the jurist) — the idea that Islamic scholars should hold supreme political authority. Exiled in 1964, he continued to lead opposition from Iraq and France, his sermons distributed on cassette tapes. When revolution erupted in 1978–79, Khomeini became its undisputed leader, returning triumphantly to Iran on February 1, 1979.
Khomeini established a theocratic system that combined republican elements (elections, parliament) with clerical supremacy through the office of Supreme Leader. His foreign policy was revolutionary: the seizure of the American embassy, support for Islamist movements across the Middle East, the fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, and a devastating eight-year war with Iraq. Khomeini died in 1989, but the system he created endures. His legacy divided the world: to supporters, he restored Islamic sovereignty; to critics, he replaced one form of tyranny with another.