history, for no jurist before him had stated that
worldly government must be in the hands of one
of the Ulama.
The shah’s government was increasingly hated
by many Iranians, and the international com-
munity objected to its hUman rights abuses.
Meanwhile, revolutionary currents were already
circulating in the country due both to awareness
of anticolonial revolutions in other countries in
Africa and Asia and to the influence of leftist
organizations. The spark that ultimately ignited
Iran’s revolutionary fire came in the form of a per-
sonal attack on Khomeini published in an Iranian
newspaper on January 6, 1978. Demonstrations
erupted in Qom, Tabriz, and swept across the
country to the streets of Tehran, the capital. On
September 24, 1978, the shah won the consent
of saddam hUsayn (d. 2006), then the Iraqi vice
president, to have Khomeini deported from Iraq
because of his role in stirring antigovernment
demonstrations in Iran. Khomeini went to Paris,
where he remained until the Shah fled Iran with
his wife on January 15, 1979. The Grand Ayatol-
lah returned triumphantly to Tehran on Febru-
ary 1 and was greeted by millions of cheering
Iranians.
During the next 10 years, Ayatollah Kho-
meini sought to rule Iran in accordance with
the principles set forth in his book on Islamic
government. In effect he created a theocratic gov-
ernment with totalitarian leanings. In addition
to being known as the marjaa al-taqlid, he was
also officially designated as Iran’s Leader of the
Revolution (rahbare inqilab), or Supreme Leader
(rahbare muazzam). He successfully transferred
power into the hands of the Shii mullahs and
eradicated or exiled his secular and religious
opponents within a few months after his return.
Khomeini also oversaw the drafting and imple-
mentation of a constitUtion for the fledgling
Islamic Republic before the end of his first year in
office. The constitution allowed for a government
consisting of legislative, executive, and judicial
branches, but it placed these under the control
of religious authority. In November 1979 he gave
his approval to the seizure of the U.S. embassy in
Tehran by a group of students and revolutionar-
ies, provoking a crisis in U.S.-Iranian relations
that has continued until today. He also sought to
spread the revolution to other countries, calling
upon Muslims to rise up against monarchies and
pro-Western governments.
Thinking that Iran’s military defenses had
been weakened by the revolution, Saddam Husayn
invaded the country in September 1980. Under
Khomeini’s lead, the Iranians counterattacked,
resulting in a costly nine-year war of attrition
in which a million people lost their lives. Even
as the war reached a stalemate in the late 1980s,
Khomeini refused to negotiate peace with Iraq.
The conflict did not end until after Khomeini’s
death.
In January 1988 Khomeini took his idea
of “governance of the jurist” to what might be
considered to be its most extreme limit. He pro-
claimed that the power of the Supreme Leader
was absolute, and that his rulings could take
precedence over any other Islamic laws, including
those concerning prayer, fasting, and performing
the hajj. Also, in a move to curb dissent and win
popular support among Muslims at home and
abroad, Khomeini issued a FatWa in February
1988 calling for the death of salman rUshdie, the
Indian author of The Satanic Verses, a controver-
sial novel that retold the life of Muhammad and
poked fun at religious dictators like Khomeini.
Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989. He
was buried in Tehran’s Behesht-i Zahra cemetery,
where his gold-domed tomb has become a shrine
for Shii pilgrims. He was survived by one of his
sons, Ahmad, also a mUllah, who died in 1995.
All of his daughters married into the families of
merchants and Shii religious scholars. Some of his
grandchildren also became mullahs.
See also akhbari school; ethics and morality;
government, islamic; gUlF Wars; politics and
islam; sayyid; satanic verses; tWelve-imam shiism;
UsUli school.K 436 Khomeini, Ruhollah