Ali Khamenei

Birth Name: Ali Hosseini Khamenei

Date of Birth: 19 April, 1939

Place of Birth: Mashhad, Iran

Date of Death: 28 February, 2026

Place of Death: Tehran, Iran

Ethnicity: Persian Iranian, possibly some Azerbaijani Turkish

Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Imam Ali Khamenei (علی خامنه‌ای) was an Iranian politican and Shia cleric. He was Supreme Leader of Iran, from 4 June, 1989 to 28 February, 2026; his assassination, by an Israeli airstrike. He was also Tehran’s Friday Prayer Imam, from 14 January, 1980 to 28 February, 2026, Member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, from 28 May, 1980 to 13 October, 1981, President of Iran, from 9 October, 1981 to 16 August, 1989, Member of the Assembly of Experts, from 15 August, 1983 to 4 June, 1989, and Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, from 7 February, 1988 to 4 June, 1989. He was considered one of the world’s leading Shia marja’.

Ayatollah Khamenei was the son of Khadijeh Mirdamadi and Shia cleric Javad Khamenei (Sayyid Javad Khamenei), who was an alim and mujtahid. His father was born in Najaf, Ottoman Iraq, Ottoman Empire, now Iraq, and was said to have Azerbaijani Turkish ancestry. His mother was Persian, from Yazd. He had ancestors from Tafresh, Markazi Province, who had moved to Khamaneh, near Tabriz. Ayatollah Khamenei started learning the Quran at Maktab at the age of four.

Ayatollah Khamenei was the brother of cleric and politician Mohammad Khamenei, who was a Member of the Assembly of Experts for Constitution, from 19 August, 1979 to 19 November, 1979, and a Member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, from 28 May, 1980 to 27 May, 1988; Badri Khamenei; and politician, mujtahid, linguist, and newspaper editor Hadi Khamenei, who was a Member of the Parliament of Iran, from 1980 to 1992, and again, from 2000 to 2004. Badri was married to Shia Islamic theologian and writer Ali Tehrani. His nephew is engineer and human rights activist Farideh Moradkhani, who is Badri’s son.

Ayatollah Khamenei was married to Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, until his death. The couple had six children, including cleric Mostafa Khamenei; politician and cleric Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been Supreme Leader of Iran, since 8 March, 2026, succeeding his father; and Twelver Shia cleric Masoud Khamenei, who has been “Hujjatul-Islam.” Mostafa is married to the daughter of philosopher, mystic, theologian, and faqih Azizollah Khoshvaght. Mojtaba is married to the daughter of conservative and principlist politician Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who was chairman of the Iranian Parliament. Masoud is married to the daughter of politician Mohsen Kharazi. Ayatollah Khamenei’s wife Mansoureh died two days after her husband did, from injuries sustained during the same airstrike.

Ayatollah Khamenei was a descendant of Sayyid Hossein Tafreshi. Sayyid Hossein’s ancestors, the Aftasi Sayyids, were said to descend from Sultan ul-Ulama Ahmad/Sultan Sayyid; whose own grandfather was the fourth Imam of Shia Islam, Ali al-Sajjad (c. 658 – 712). Ali was the great-grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s paternal grandfather was Seyyed Hossein Tabrizi Khamenei (the son of Seyyed Mohammad Tafreshi Khamenei). Seyyed Mohammad was the son of Seyyed Mohammad Taghi Tafreshi/Mir Fakhraayee.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s maternal grandfather was named Hashem Mirdamadi.

Source: Genealogy of Ali Khamenei – https://www.geni.com