Ruhollah Khomeini

Birth Name: Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi

Date of Birth: 17 May, 1900

Place of Birth: Khomeyn, Iran

Date of Death: 3 June, 1989

Place of Death: Tehran, Iran

Ethnicity: Persian Iranian

Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Imam Ruhollah Khomeini (روح‌الله خمینی), or Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, was an Iranian Muslim cleric, politician, and author. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic Islamic republic. He was Leader of the Revolution, from 5 February, 1979 to 3 December, 1979, and Supreme Leader of Iran, from 3 December, 1979 to 3 June, 1989. He was considered the face of Shia Islam in the West throughout the 1980s. His state funeral was said to have been attended by ten million people.

Ayatollah Khomeini was the son of Agha Khanum and Sayyid Mustafa Musawi/Musavi. His first name Ruhollah meant “spirit of Allah.” His half-brother, Morteza Pasandideh, was a cleric and poet. His family included land owners, clerics, and merchants. His father was murdered in 1903. Ayatollah Khomeini began learning the Qur’an at age six, and in 1920 moved to Arak, Markazi province, to study in the seminary there. He became a high ranking cleric in Twelver Shi’ism, and was also a marja’, a mujtahid, a faqīha, and a hafiz.

Ayatollah Khomeini was married to revolutionary Khadijeh Saqafi, until his death, with whom he had seven children. Khadijeh was the daughter of respected cleric and merchant Hajj Mirza Mohammad Thaqafi-e Tehrani. Their children include cleric Mostafa Khomeini; politician and educator Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini; female religious scholar Farideh Mostafavi Khomeini; and cleric and politician Ahmad Khomeini, who was Custodian of the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, from 19 July, 1989 to 17 March, 1995, his own death.

Among Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandchildren were scholar and reformist cleric Hussein Khomeini; activist and government official Zahra Eshraghi; and cleric Hassan Khomeini, who has been Custodian of the Mausoleum of Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini, since 17 March, 1995.

Ayatollah Khomeini’s paternal grandfather was Ahmad Hindi, a Twelver Shia Muslim cleric (Syed/Seyyed/Sayyid Ahmad Musavi Hindi, the son of Sayyid Dīn Ali Shah bin Safdar). Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandfather Ahmad was born, c. 1800, in Kintoor, near Lucknow, in Oudh State, British India, now Uttar Pradesh, India. His family had moved from Nishapur, Khorasan province, Iran, to Oudh. His name “Hindi” indicated his stay in India. Ahmad left India around 1830, first traveling to the Tomb of Ali, Najaf, Iraq, and later purchasing land in Khomeyn, Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini’s great-grandfather Sayyid Dīn was the son of Safdar. Safdar’s father, Zayn al-‘Abidin al-Musavi, had began the family’s Syed legacy in Kintoor.

Ayatollah Khomeini’s paternal grandmother was named Sakineh Kamareh’i Farqahani.

Ayatollah Khomeini’s maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, a cleric. Mirza issued a fatwa to forbid usage of tobacco during the Tobacco Protest in 1890.

Source: Genealogy of Ruhollah Khomeini – https://www.geni.com