Ayatollah Khomeini: Biography, Revolution, Legacy, and Key Facts

Few figures in modern history have reshaped a nation as completely as Ruhollah Khomeini. The Iranian cleric not only toppled a monarch but also built a new political order that fused religious authority with state power.

Born: 17 May 1900 ·
Died: 3 June 1989 ·
Role: First Supreme Leader of Iran ·
Revolution: 1979 Islamic Revolution ·
Funeral attendance: Estimated 10 million mourners

Seven key facts, one pattern: Khomeini’s life was a continuous arc from religious scholarship to the highest political office, merging the two into a single institution.

The table below outlines his biographical details.

What was Ayatollah Khomeini known for?

His role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution

• Khomeini was the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (Khamenei.ir (official biography)).
• He returned from exile in France to Iran in February 1979 and was hailed as the guiding figure of the revolution (Britannica (reference work)).

Khomeini’s leadership gave the revolution a clear religious direction. His speeches from exile, recorded on cassette tapes, circulated widely inside Iran and mobilized millions against the Shah’s regime.

Founding of the Islamic Republic

• After the revolution, Khomeini’s vision of government was approved by national referendum and enshrined in the constitution, creating the post of Supreme Leader (Britannica (reference work)).
• He became Iran’s first Supreme Leader, holding the role until his death in 1989 (Britannica (biographical encyclopedia)).

The constitution gave the Supreme Leader sweeping powers — control over the military, judiciary, and state media — all justified by Khomeini’s doctrine of velāyat-e faqīh (guardianship of the jurist).

The implication: Khomeini transformed a religious concept into a working constitution, a move with no modern precedent in Shia Islam.

Political ideology of Khomeinism

• Khomeini articulated the doctrine of velāyat-e faqīh, which underpins Iran’s Islamic republic (Britannica (reference work)).
• His ideology combined Shia Islam with political governance, asserting that clerics should rule until the return of the hidden Imam (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia)).

The implication: Khomeinism remains the official state ideology, and any political reform in Iran must contend with its core principles.

What has happened to Ayatollah Khomeini?

His death and funeral

• Khomeini died on 3 June 1989 in Tehran, Iran (Khamenei.ir (official biography)).
• His funeral in Tehran drew an estimated 10 million mourners, making it one of the largest funeral gatherings in human history (BBC News (international broadcaster)).

The crowd was so massive that the funeral procession had to be halted and the burial moved to a different location. Several deaths from crowd crush were reported, though exact numbers remain disputed.

Succession by Ali Khamenei

• Ali Khamenei succeeded Khomeini as Supreme Leader (Britannica (biographical encyclopedia)).
• The succession was smooth by institutional standards, but Khamenei lacked Khomeini’s marja‘iyya (highest religious authority), a distinction that would later create tensions within the clerical establishment.

The pattern: Khomeini’s death did not end the system he built; it passed intact to his successor, though with a different balance of religious and political authority.

How many people died at Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral?

Funeral stampede and casualties

• Estimates of the crowd size range from 10 million to 12 million mourners (BBC News (international broadcaster)).
• Several deaths occurred from the crowd surge, with some sources reporting dozens of fatalities (The Guardian (British newspaper)).
• The funeral was held in Tehran, with the burial site later converted into a massive shrine complex.

The exact casualty count is not officially recorded, making this a contested detail in Khomeini’s biography. What is clear is that the sheer scale of the gathering reflected his immense popular following at the time.

Why did Saddam fight Khomeini?

Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)

• Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in September 1980, triggering the Iran–Iraq War (Britannica (reference work)).
• The war lasted eight years, ending with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988.
• Causes included border disputes over the Shatt al-Arab waterway and Khomeini’s call for the export of the Islamic Revolution to Iraq’s Shia population (Council on Foreign Relations (think tank)).

Saddam saw Khomeini’s revolutionary ideology as a direct threat to his secular Ba’athist regime. The war became a brutal eight-year struggle that cost over 500,000 lives, with chemical weapons used on multiple fronts.

Territorial and ideological disputes

• Khomeini viewed Saddam as a secular tyrant oppressing Iraq’s Shia majority.
• Saddam feared that Khomeini’s revolution would inspire Iraqi Shia to revolt — a fear that was borne out when Iraqi Shia rose up after the 1991 Gulf War (History.com (educational publisher)).

Why this matters: The Iran–Iraq War cemented Khomeini’s image as a defender of Iran’s sovereignty and strengthened the revolutionary state’s military and security apparatus.

The pattern: The war turned Khomeini from a revolutionary leader into a wartime commander, a role that silenced domestic opposition and consolidated the Islamic Republic.

How many wives did Ayatollah Khomeini have?

Family life and children

• Khomeini had one wife, Khadijeh Thaqafi (Khamenei.ir (official biography)).
• They had seven children, five of whom survived infancy (Britannica (biographical encyclopedia)).
• His family life was private; his sons stayed out of politics, and his daughter Zahra Mostafavi became an academic and political figure in her own right.

The simplicity of Khomeini’s personal life — one wife, a modest home — stood in contrast to the lavish lifestyles of many monarchs and presidents. This austerity reinforced his image as a man of religious principle.

Quotes from key sources

“Khomeini was the architect of the Iranian Revolution and the first leader (rahbar) of the Islamic republic established in 1979.”

— Britannica (reference work)

“He articulated the doctrine of velāyat-e faqīh, or ‘guardianship of the jurist,’ which underpinned Iran’s Islamic republic.”

— Britannica (reference work)

“Imam Khomeini was the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.”

— Khamenei.ir (official biography)

“Khomeini served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989.”

— Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia)

Khomeini’s legacy is a paradox: a religious scholar who created a modern theocracy, a revolutionary who institutionalized his power, and a leader whose death triggered one of the largest mass gatherings in history. For Iran in 2026, his ideology remains the constitutional foundation — but the cracks are visible. Iranian reformers must either work within Khomeini’s framework or challenge the velāyat-e faqīh itself, a move that could unravel the entire system.

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