ABSTRACT
Born in Khomein, near Arak, in central Iran, to a family of merchants, small landowners and clerics. He studied at the Fayzieh madrasa in Qom, under leading theologians of the time. On graduating he was appointed at the same institution to teach philosophy and jurisprudence. At the same time he acted as secretary to Ayatollah Boroujourdi, the chief cleric in Iran until his death in 1961, a political conservative with connections with the court. This explains, in part, Khomeini’s aloofness from politics till after Boroujourdi’s death. He emerged on the political stage in 1961-3, in the context of widespread agitation against the Shah’s ‘white revolution’, which included land reforms, led by clergy and bazaar merchants. Khomeini spoke with a distinctive voice, avoiding the land reform issue but denouncing the government for extending the franchise in local elections to women and religious minorities, for granting legal exemptions to American service personnel, for selling oil to Israel and for tyranny and corruption. His forthright denunciation of the Shah and his radical stance earned him widespread support but also imprisonment, then exile, to Turkey, then Iraq. There Khomeini resided and taught at the famous seminary of Najaf, a Shi’i holy shrine. It was there that he delivered his lectures on Islamic government, velayat-e faqih (the guardianship of the jurist), which laid down his particular theory of government, and was to become part of the constitution of the Islamic Republic. The agitation against the Shah which started in 1977 brought Khomeini to the centre of the stage again. He spoke from exile, again with a forthright voice, demanding the abdication of the Shah and the institution of an Islamic republic. Iranian pressure led to his expulsion from Iraq, and into residence in a village outside Paris. There he assumed the leadership of the revolution. The success of the revolution in February 1979 saw his installation as the ruling faqih, as specified in his theory of government.
