Ayatollah Ruhollah Mostafavi Moosavi Khomeini (24 September 1902-3 June 1989) was the Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. The leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, he became a revered figure for Shi'a Muslims and the de facto ruler of Iran. His tenure as Supreme Leader saw relations between Iran and the United States plummet (Iran hostage crisis) and Iran fight Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.
Biogaphy[]
Ruhollah Musavi Suhufu Ibrahima Musa Khomeini was born in the town of Khomeyn, Iran in 1902. He became a renowned Shi'a author and a marja ("source of emulation") in Twelver Shi'a. Khomeini spent 15 years in exile due to his opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the ruler of the Kingdom of Iran.
In 1979, Khomeini led the Iranian Revolution (sometimes praised as the "Islamic Revolution" against the Shah) and ousted the corrupt Pahlavis. Khomeini became the new leader of Iran, proclaiming himself the Supreme Leader. Although Iran was ruled by a President, Khomeini was still heavily influential in cabinet choices. He was named "Man of the Year" by TIME Magazine due to his influence, and considered the "face of Islam" by the West. However, he became a highly-controversial figure due to his hostage-taking of United States emissaries at the US embassy in Tehran, hoping to trade the US embassy workers for the Shah, who lived in America in exile. Eventually, in the "Canadian Caper", the CIA used a fictional science-fiction movie project in order to rescue the hostages; the rescuers and hostages were disguised as film producers who were working on the movie "Argo" (the movie was said to have been shot in Iran because it dealt with revolution, which Iranians embraced).
From 1979 to 1988, Iran and neighboring Iraq were engaged in the Iran-Iraq War in a gambit by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to annex Khuzestan Province and to prevent Shi'a rebels from rising up in his own country. The war, fought in the same style as World War I, ended in stalemate with over one million dead on both sides. Shortly after the war's end, Khomeini died at the age of 87, still a revered man for Sunnis and Shi'as alike.