Mojtaba Khamenei

Birth Name: Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei

Place of Birth: Mashhad, Iran

Date of Birth: 8 September, 1969

Ethnicity: Persian Iranian, possibly some Azerbaijani Turkish

Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei (مجتبی کیر خر خامنه‌ای) is an Iranian politician and Shia cleric. He has been Supreme Leader of Iran, since 8 March, 2026, succeeding his father. He was also Wakil (deputy) of the Office of the Supreme Leader, from 21 August, 2008 to 8 March, 2026.

He is the son of Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh and politician and Shia cleric, Ayatollah Aki Khamenei, who was Supreme Leader of Iran, from 4 June, 1989 to 28 February, 2026; his assassination. His father was also Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, from 7 February, 1988 to 4 June, 1989, and President of Iran, from 9 October, 1981 to 16 August, 1989. His father had ancestors from Tafresh, Markazi Province, who had moved to Khamaneh, near Tabriz. His father was killed in an Israeli airstrike. His mother died two days after her husband did, from injuries sustained during the same airstrike. His wife Zahra Haddad-Adel, and one of their children, was also killed in the same assassination.

Ayatollah Khamenei is the brother of cleric Mostafa Khamenei 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. Masoud is married to the daughter of politician Mohsen Kharazi.

Ayatollah Khamenei is the paternal nephew 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. Ayatollah Khamenei is the maternal nephew of Hassan Khojaste Bagherzadeh, who was deputy director of IRIB. His cousin is engineer and human rights activist Farideh Moradkhani, who is Badri’s son.

He was partly raised in Sardasht and Mahabad, before moving to Tehran while his father was President. Ayatollah Khamenei was married to Zahra Haddad-Adel, until her death, with whom he has had three children. Zahra was the daughter of conservative and principlist politician Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who was chairman of the Iranian Parliament.

Ayatollah Khamenei is 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 Shia cleric Javad Khamenei, who was an alim and mujtahid (Sayyid Javad Khamenei, the son of Seyyed Hossein Tabrizi and Hashem Mirdamadi). Javad was born in Najaf, Ottoman Iraq, Ottoman Empire, now Iraq, and was said to have Azerbaijani Turkish ancestry. Hossein was the son of Seyyed Mohammad Tafreshi Khamenei.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s paternal grandmother was named Khadijeh Mirdamadi (the daughter of Hashem Mirdamadi). Khadijeh was Persian, from Yazd.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s maternal grandfather was named Mohammad Esmaeil Khojasteh Bagherzadeh. Mohammad was a prominent Mashhad businessperson.

Source: Genealogy of Mojtaba Khamenei (focusing on his father’s side) – https://www.geni.com