Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini (1981)

Ruhollah Musawi Chomeini ( Persian روح‌الله موسوی خمینی, DMG Rūḥollāh Mūsawī Ḫomeinī [ ruːholˈlɑːh χomeiˈniː ], also Khomeini , * 1902 in Chomein ; † June 3, 1989 in Tehran ) was an Iranian Ayatollah , political and religious leader of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and then Iranian head of state until his death. With the revolution, he overthrew the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , the then Shah of Iran, from exile in France . Khomeini is considered the founder of theIslamic Republic of Iran .

Life

Ruhollah Chomeini was founded in 1902 in the town of Chomein as Ruhollah Musavi (روح‌الله موسوی[ ruːɦoˈlːɔːh muːsæˈviː ]) born. Khomeini's exact date of birth is controversial. There are sources that state that he is:

• 1900
• on August 28, 1902
• in September 1902
• on September 24, 1902
• born on November 9, 1902.

His mausoleum in the south of Tehran has four minarets, each 91 m high. The height of 91 m was chosen according to the alleged age of Khomeini when he died in 1989, calculated in lunar years.

origin

Great grandfather

The origin of the great-grandfather is highly doubtful. One version assumes that a Hindu named Jajal was supposed to have been employed as a porter and security guard at the branch of the British -run Bank-e Shahi, later the Imperial Bank of Persia , in Bombay . As the bank mainly dealt with Muslim business people, the management of the bank advised Jajal to become a Muslim, which Jajal followed. From then on he called himself Hamed. After Hamed's death, his son Ahmad, Khomeini's grandfather, took over the post at Bank-e Shahi. From Bombay he was transferred to the Bushehr branch and later to Najaf . In Najaf, Ahmad (Hindi) left the Imperial Bank and became the bodyguard of Mirza Mohammad Hasan Shirazi . In 1839 Ahmad Musavi Hindi acquired land in Khomein and soon belonged to the class of wealthy landowners.

grandfather

Seyyed Ahmad Musavi (1800–1869) was Ruhollah Khomeini's grandfather. As Seyyed and thus a direct descendant of the Prophet, the family name was traced back to the 7th Imam . There are two different versions of the grandfather's origins:

• He is said to have come from Najaf and then moved to Khomein.
• He is said to come from India (see great-grandfather), hence the original name Ahmad Musavi Hendi or Hindi. Ahmad Musavi Hindi is said to have been born in Kintur in 1800, studied Hindi Neischaburi with the then famous teacher Mir Hamed Hosein and moved to Najaf in 1830, where he died in 1869.

father

Seyyed Mustafa Musavi (1856 / 62–1902) was Ruhollah Khomeini's father. Mustafa Musavi studied Islamic theology in Isfahan, Najaf and Samarra - there under Mohammad Hasan Shirazi - and is said to have acquired the religious title of Mujtahid . With Hajjiyeh Agha Chanum, the daughter of Mirza Ahmad Modschtahed-e Chonsari, he had six children, three girls and three sons each. After the birth of their first daughter, the Najaf family is said to have moved to Khomein. The sons were called

• Morteza Pasandideh, (1895-1996)
• Nureddin Hindi, (1898–1977)
• Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989), the youngest son.

Mustafa Musavi died when Ruhollah was just 5 months old. There are three versions of this:

• According to the official version of the Islamic Republic of Iran , an attack carried out by agents of Reza Shah . The fact that Reza Pahlavi only became a shah in 1925, while the assassination is said to have taken place as early as 1902, does not make this version credible.
• By bandits who killed him on the way from Arak to Khomein.
• Slain by large landowners after disputes over the share of harvest.

The young Khomeini

education

Ruhollah, who was raised by his aunt Sahebe after his father's death, is said to have finished school at the age of 15 and was taught Islamic studies by his eldest brother Morteza.

In 1918 Khomeini went to Arak to receive training as a legal scholar. In 1922 he moved to Qom , where the Islamic law school under Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi was being set up. In 1936 he received the qualification of a Mujtahid and the religious title of Hodschatoleslam . In 1943 he published his book: Kašf al-asrār (Revelation of the Secrets), which takes up the abolition of the monarchy.

"The Islamic government is the government of divine law and its laws cannot be changed, changed, or challenged."

Khomeini was not alone with these theses. In 1946, Navvab Safavi founded the organization Fedajin-e Islam ( who sacrifice themselves for Islam ) in Tehran , consisting of theology students and members of the lower class. The demands of Fedayeen-e Islam, an anticipation of Khomeini's Hokumat-e eslami from 1970, were: establishment of an Islamic government under the leadership of an imam, application of Sharia law , cleansing of the Persian language from un-Islamic vocabulary, pan-Islamism and nationalism, nationalization of the Petroleum, jihad against western powers, spreading the ideology of martyrdom. The Fedajin-e Islam organized demonstrations and attracted attention through various attacks on writers, scientists and members of the government in the years 1946–1951.

First public appearance

Khomeini speaks on the 15th of Khordad

→ Main article : Unrest in Iran in June 1963

Until 1963 Khomeini taught Islamic law in Qom. In the same year he called for resistance to the White Revolution (including land reform and women's suffrage) by the Shah. With the death of the Grand Ayatollah and of the Mardschaʿ-e Taghlid Hossein Borudscherdi , who was recognized by all clergy , who had taken the view that the clergy should stay out of active politics, the influence of the quietist group among the clergy decreased . On March 22, 1963, on the anniversary of the death of the 6th Imam, Jafar as-Sādiq , Khomeini preached in Qom:

“Rise up to revolution, jihad and reform, because we do not want to live under the rule of criminals. It is worthy of us to follow the example of our prophet and imams, that they may be our advocates on the day of judgment. "

Khomeini was first arrested but then released.

After the speech on June 3, 1963, Ashura Day, given against the tyrant of our time - everyone knew that this meant the Shah - Khomeini was arrested again on June 5, 1963. Gehrke speaks of a conscious, "in-the-foreground in the political sense, without having the acclamation of the other leading clergy." Through his consciously chosen confrontation against the Shah, which he could not win at the time, he at least pulled the moderate clerics on his side, since they were forced to take his side. Khomeini's appeal of June 3, 1963 was directed primarily against the land reform begun by the Shah as part of the White Revolution , against the abolition of the female marriage age of nine and against the active and passive right to vote for women. The clergy's position on land reform was divided: from approval ( Hussein Schariatmadari , Mahmud Taleghani ) to strict rejection. With his criticism, Khomeini was the mouthpiece of the large landowners affected, who then began to oppose the Shah. In addition to aristocratic landowners, numerous religious foundations and some clerics themselves were affected by the land reform. Religious foundations and clergy were among the largest landowners and were supposed to transfer this land, which they had previously leased to farmers, to these farmers in return for compensation. Khomeini's appeal and arrest sparked violent demonstrations.

Immediately after the unrest, a court case against Khomeini was to be opened, which resulted in a death sentence. The Ayatollah Kasem Shariatmadari and Hadi Milani then gathered in the Tehran's Abd-al-Azim Mosque and proclaimed Khomeini to be "Imam" (Ayatollah), an action that should save him from the death sentence, as the title "Ayatollah" is a kind of included unwritten immunity. The head of SAVAK , Hassan Pakravan , is also said to have campaigned for Khomeini. Hassan Pakravan and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur told the Shah that it was necessary to give the clergy more time to adapt to the reforms of the White Revolution to get used to, and that it was better to dismiss Khomeini from custody, with the place of execution from the condemned a martyr to make. While in detention, Khomeini allegedly promised Hassan Pakravan to stay out of politics in the future. Khomeini only said:

"We never get involved in politics as you define it."

This statement left enough room for interpretation. It was soon to be seen that Khomeini had no intention of staying out of politics.

Khomeini was under house arrest until April 7, 1964 and, according to official information, had reached an agreement with the authorities not to “endanger the interests and security of the country”.

After Khomeini's speech on October 28, 1964 against the application of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to US military advisers, another incendiary speech, the Shah's patience came to an end. Khomeini warned the army, parliamentarians, merchants and clergy that this government dreams of destroying Iran. He urged the leaders of all Islamic countries to come to the aid of Iran's Muslims.

“[...] America is the source of our problems. Israel is the source of our problems. And Israel is America. These ministers are all from America. All are American lackeys. If it weren't for you, why don't you get up and protest loudly. The laws of this Parliament are illegal. The entire parliament is illegal. Article 2 of the amendment to the Iranian Constitution, according to which a group of five mullahs must agree to any law after reviewing it to ensure that it complies with Islam, was ignored. [...] I pray to God that he will destroy all those who betrayed this country, Islam and the Koran. "

On November 4, 1964, Khomeini was arrested and flown into exile in a military plane to Turkey ( Bursa ).

Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur was shot dead on January 22, 1965 by a member of Fedayeen-e Islam . Hassan Pakravan was said to be among the first to be arrested and executed after Khomeini's return to Iran in 1979.

The years in exile

Khomeini in Turkey

At its whereabouts Bursa in Turkey Khomeini any activity had been prohibited as a clergyman. He was also not allowed to wear the clothes of an ayatollah. Khomeini then wrote a personal letter to the Shah and asked him to allow him to continue teaching in Najaf. In October 1965 Khomeini was allowed to move to Iraq , where he settled first in Baghdad and then in Najaf , a holy place of the Shiites . Khomeini could move about there relatively freely and resume his studies and teaching.

Lectures on the "Islamic State"

In Najaf , Khomeini gave lectures on the political significance of Islam between January and February 1970. From the lecture transcripts of students and interviews a collection of texts emerged, which, although not edited by Khomeini, appeared as a book under the title The Islamic State (1970) . Khomeini saw it as the duty of the clergy to take an active role in political action. He compared the struggle against the existing political system in Iran with the struggle of Imam Hossein . He therefore called on the clergy of Qom, Mashhad and Najaf to develop a contemporary form of the tragedy of the death of Imam Hossein. The students of the religious schools should activate the masses in the fight against the monarchy in Iran. Khomeini was convinced that this time the Schia would emerge as the winner.

The most determined opponent of Khomeini from the ranks of the Shiite clergy was Grand Ayatollah Kasem Shariatmadari , who supported Khomeini's political model of a clergy government (ولایت فقیه velayat-e faghih ) denied any basis in Shiite theology.

Khomeini's views on the establishment of an Islamic state that should be governed solely on religious principles are not new - he referred explicitly to Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri , who had already spread such ideas 70 years earlier. In fact, with Hokumat-e eslami, Khomeini negated the quietist attitude of the Shiite clergy for centuries. Until the return from exile, as Mohsen Kadivar noted, Khomeini was for a council of legal scholars with general authority, after that only for the authority of one legal scholar (Marjaʿ-e Taghlid).

The three central sections from Hokumat-e eslami (The Islamic State) are:

The eternal validity of the laws of Islam

“The claim that the laws of Islam can be overridden or that they are bound by time and space is contrary to the Islamic spirit. Therefore, according to the noble prophet, the application of the law is an eternal duty. Were the laws, which took the Prophet 23 years of hard work to lay down, propagate, disseminate, and enforce, intended for a limited time only? Did God limit the period of application of his laws to two hundred years? "

With this statement, the concept of law is interpreted in the context of the religious tradition of Islam. Laws of the Islamic state are not legal norms that have been enacted by a legislator, but correspond to the direct will of God.

The political and legal foundations of the Islamic state

“The Islamic State is a state of law. In this form of government, sovereignty belongs solely to God. The law is nothing but the command of God "

The legal and political basis of the Islamic state is not based on popular sovereignty as a constitutional power, but on God. All violence in an Islamic state does not come from the people, but from God or, on behalf of the legal scholars.

In January 1988, Khomeini commented on the superiority of the state over religion that

“The government is unilaterally empowered to prevent any situation that might pose a threat to its interests ... (and that) in Islam the requirements of government take precedence over all other principles, including prayer, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca. "

- Khomeini : 1988, according to the Federal Agency for Civic Education , 2003

The Islamic State as a social utopia

“No sane person expects our propaganda and educational work to lead to the establishment of an Islamic state in the near future. To achieve this, a number of complex and permanent activities are necessary. This will need time. The building of an Islamic state is a complex and permanent process in which a distinction has to be made between demands and reality. "

Deficits in the present day political life are therefore no proof that the Islamic state cannot meet the expectations and expectations of the population, but merely proof that the realization of the Islamic state has not yet been completed.

Khomeini defines Islam in the context of a liberation theological interpretation as “the religion of militant individuals who are committed to truth and justice. Islam is the religion of those who strive for freedom and independence. ”He characterized the Islam of the constitutional monarchy of Iran as a misinterpretation that arose through the influence of Western agents and orientalists. In the Qajar era, Islam was misinterpreted; the Islamic laws were wrongly applied. British agents took advantage of the resulting social problems and led the Iranians down the wrong path of constitutionalism as part of a constitutional revolution . Moreover, Islam declares any form of monarchy or monarchical succession to be false and illegal. This already emerges from the letters of Mohammad to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and the Persian Shah Chosrow Parvis . And the fact that the Islamic legal system is far superior to the constitutional legal system imported from the West can already be proven by the fact that a case that used to be settled by a Sharia judge in two days now lasts for twenty or more years.

Taqiyya

Taqiyya , the hiding of ritual duties , was originally intended to protect the Shiites from Sunni persecution. For Khomeini a permitted means of self-preservation, which he categorically excluded in cases of the destruction of holy places, apostasy and all acts that corrupt the faith. Khomeini recommended this method to people who “are currently joining the ranks of a despotic regime in order to infiltrate and collapse it.” The clergy and their students, however, should oppose the existing system as openly as possible. In addition, Taqiyya in Khomeini becomes an act that must serve Islam.

"Should the circumstances of taqiyya have caused any of us to join the entourage of those in power, then it is his duty to refrain from doing so unless his purely formal participation brings a real victory for Islam."

In contrast to the usual, purely defensive Shiite precautionary measure, Taqiyya was interpreted by Khomeini offensively in the sense of jihad , as was the instruction to his theology students from April 1963, who were to be drafted into military service:

“You are soldiers of the Lord of Time. You have to do your military service. Learn your military lessons with full seriousness and full of physical and mental steadfastness. Make yourself strong. "

Khomeini also used the form of Taqiyya in his French exile, in which he did not lie, but omitted essential passages. His interviews given to the western press do not reveal any of his later ideas:

“In our opinion, Islam is a progressive religion, but we are against governments that are dictatorial under the motto of modernity… We are for complete freedoms. Naturally, we will approach the religious ideas of others with respect. "

"I will not have a role within the government."

“It is not intended that the religious leaders should run the government themselves. Personally, because of my age, I will ... show no interest in it. I will never be president, and I will never hold any other government office. "

The events of 1978

The fall of power of the Shah and the rise of Khomeini in 1978 can be traced back to four events:

Newspaper articles against Khomeini

On January 7, 1978, the Iranian newspaper Ettelā'āt published an article entitled Iran and Black and Red Colonialism . "For years the regime's propaganda apparatus had left no stone unturned in denying the very existence of Khomeini" and now Khomeini was reviled as a "communist conspirator". This article, published under the pseudonym Ahmad Raschidi-ye Motlagh , is considered to be the initial spark of the Islamic revolution. The then Information Minister Darius Homayun in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jamschid Amuzegar is suspected to be the author of the article . A sympathy rally held by students in Qom on January 9 was violently broken up by the state authorities. Four protesters died from their injuries. Rumors circulated that at least 100 protesters had died. Later there was even talk of 300 dead demonstrators. The protests, which now run every 40 days across the country, increased on the one hand in terms of the number of participants and on the other hand in terms of the number of injuries and fatalities until the end of 1978.

On January 12, 1978, Khomeini first called for the overthrow of the Shah:

"Mohammad Reza Khan is a traitor and a rebel whose overthrow must be prosecuted by law."

Cinema Rex arson attack

On the 25th anniversary of the fall of Mossadegh , August 19, 1978, 25 cinemas, including one in Abadan , were set on fire. 477 cinema-goers died in the arson attack on Cinema Rex in Abadan. The supporters of Khomeini accused the secret service SAVAK as the originator of the fire . Sheikh Ali Tehrani has disclosed the perpetrators of the attack 16 years after the arson attack. After Khomeini issued a fatwa against colonial programs and Western cinema , “four teachers from the Qom Koran school had jointly developed a plan to set fires in cinemas. One of the four was Sheikh Hossein Ali Montazeri . ”According to current knowledge, a relative of the current supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Khamenei is said to have been responsible for the concrete planning and implementation of the arson attack on Cinema Rex .

Black Friday

On September 5, 1978, demonstrations took place across the country on the occasion of the fasting month of Ramadan. Two days later, opponents of the Shah - an alliance of the clergy and the National Front - called for a general strike, which was followed by 100,000 to 200,000 people, depending on the source, in Tehran alone. On the night of September 8, martial law was imposed on Tehran and ten other cities. 200 Chieftain - tanks and 100,000 soldiers, more than a quarter of the entire army was General Oveisi in Tehran contract. Friday, September 8th, 1978 went down in Iranian history as Black Friday . It was rumored that the military had shot indiscriminately into the crowd of unarmed demonstrators. There is talk of 106, 2,000 to 15,000 dead. On September 9, 1978, Khomeini called on the Iranian army to revolt against the Shah's regime, but the army remained largely loyal to the Shah. Khomeini's call for a general strike on September 13, 1978, however, was followed by large parts of the population.

Expulsion from Iraq

Khomeini, who had been under house arrest in Najaf since 1978 at the insistence of the Shah , was expelled from the country on October 6, 1978 by Saddam Hussein . However, Khomeini's exit to Kuwait was refused by the local authorities. The French government ( Barre III cabinet ) finally agreed to accept Khomeini. He had no other choice, although at first he "never thought for a second of going abroad, to Paris ."

Khomeini before the western media

In Neauphle-le-Château , where he lived in France, Khomeini managed to attract the attention of the international press and to force the distribution of his speeches in Iran by means of tape recordings. Book author Amir Taheri lists 132 radio, television and press interviews during Khomeini's few months in France. Beheschti played a crucial role in spreading it to Iran. The picture of the “holy old man under the apple tree”, which painted a transfigured picture of Khomeini in the western press, and Khomeini's declaration

"I am the speaker who expresses the demands of this disenfranchised Iranian people."

nourished the idea in the Western public that Khomeini was the Gandhi of Iran who wanted to lead his country peacefully to freedom. During the Guadeloupe Conference from January 4 to 7, 1979 , the French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , US President Jimmy Carter , British Prime Minister James Callaghan and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt decided to stop supporting the Shah and Khomeini to return to enable Iran.

Return to Iran

Khomeini on the flight to Iran

Khomeini's arrival on February 1, 1979

→ Main article : Islamic Revolution

The revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic

After the Shah left the country on January 16, 1979, Khomeini announced that he would return soon. Hectic activity already developed in Neauphle-le-Château before that. There were visits from various factions and leaders of the National Front , the Tudeh Party , which has a large number of members, and even did not stop at US politicians. The goal was common to all: the overthrow of the Shah.

Khomeini, who never recognized any government legitimized by the Shah, formed an alliance in Paris between mullahs, bourgeoisie and leftists who worked together to overthrow the Shah. Mehdi Bāzargān , who was approved by Khomeini as interim prime minister, should form the first phase , as Riyahi writes. The "incorruptible", recognized by all parliamentary groups, should ensure the neutrality of the army, which then declared it on February 11, 1979. At the same time, Bazargan was supposed to be the guarantor and reassurance of the bourgeoisie, democrats and leftists before an absolute takeover of power by the clergy, since Bazargan was in favor of a religious but democratic republic.

The government of Shapur Bakhtiar , the last Prime Minister appointed by the Shah, first had Tehran's airport closed on January 25, 1979 and then reopened on January 30. This made a return of Khomeini possible. On February 1st, around 150 journalists from the world press accompanied the Ayatollah on his flight from Paris to Tehran, along with 50 close friends. The departure at 1:15 a.m. with the Air France Boeing 747 was preceded by a tug of war behind the scenes. Khomeini himself told journalists to prepare for the worst. Zbigniew Brzeziński spoke of a plan to hijack the machine, an organization from London had announced the shooting down of the machine, and air force pilots loyal to the Shah had launched mock attacks days earlier. “At an altitude of 12,000 meters, the pious old man flies back to the Middle Ages almost as fast as the sound of sound,” was the headline of a German newspaper on Khomeini's return flight. On the flight, Khomeini was asked by a reporter accompanying him how he felt about returning to Iran after such a long period of exile; his answer was: "Nothing".

On February 1, 1979 at 9:39 a.m. local time, Khomeini set foot on Iranian soil for the first time in over 14 years. The reception at Mehrabad airport by clerics, politicians and journalists was separated from the masses, the landing itself was broadcast live on television. The first route led Khomeini from the airport to the Behescht-e Zahra cemetery , the central cemetery of Tehran. The way there was blocked off by an audience of millions who blocked the streets. Khomeini then boarded a helicopter provided by the army and flew to the cemetery. In his first speech after his return, he turned against the Shah:

"He only expanded the cemeteries."

and against the Social Democratic Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar, whom he described as "illegal". Khomeini appealed to the army, some of which were still loyal to the Shah:

"We wish so much that you are independent .."

On February 11, 1979 (22nd Bahman 1357) Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar fled after the military declared neutrality. The "counter-government" of Mehdi Bāzargān , appointed by Khomeini since February 5, 1979, took over the affairs of state. Two days later, the first wave of arrests began, involving the Shah's military leaders and politicians. Two weeks later the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) was founded to enforce Khomeini's state doctrine of "Velayat-e Faqih" against the drafts of other opposition groups. With the help of the all-powerful Revolutionary Council , and then the predetermined composition of the assembly of experts , Khomeini , who proceeded on several tracks, succeeded in usurping all power within a year. After the referendum of March 30, 1979 , Khomeini proclaimed the " Islamic Republic of Iran" on April 1, 1979 , and its constitution was adopted in a further referendum on December 3, 1979 . Khomeini was enshrined in the constitution as leader of the revolution, chief legal scholar and deputy to the 12th Imam for life.

On November 4, 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by radical students and the hostage - taking of Tehran for more than a year , for which Khomeini had previously indirectly called in a statement, began.

"It is therefore up to the dear pupils, students and theology students to intensify the attacks against the USA and Israel with all their might so that they can force the USA to extradite the deposed and criminal Shah ..."

On December 7, 1979, Khomeini sanctioned the hostage situation with the words:

"The US embassy is the espionage center of our enemies against the sacred Islamic movement."

Khomeini referred to the failed liberation operation Operation Eagle Claw as

"[E] infinite maneuver, which was doomed to failure by the will of God."

Khomeini drove the most powerful king of kings out of the country, brought the strongest army in the Near and Middle East to its knees, according to Nirumand, and now the liberation action has failed.

"Do not be afraid, America is incapable of anything."

With the hostage taking, according to Riyahi, began the second phase of the stage of establishing a theocratic state and adding new strength to the declining momentum of the revolution with the creation of an external enemy. The replacement of Mehdi Bāzargān, appointed by Khomeini as interim prime minister, by Abu l-Hasan Banisadr , who claimed to be able to usurp the Islamic revolution as the “second Mossadegh ” - without having the base of a political party. Banisadr declared on February 26, 1980: “There has been a purely Islamic revolution in Iran. The fortunes of Iran cannot be controlled by a system that is rejected by Imam Khomeini. ”Banisadr, the first prime minister elected on January 25, 1980, was elected on June 22, 1981 after criticizing the closure of six other magazines deposed by parliament by order of Khomeini. Bani-Sadr's impeachment was passed by Parliament on June 21, 1981 with 177 to one vote and eleven abstentions.

Riyahi understands the third phase as the assumption of all governmental power by clerics, which began after the fall of Banisadr at the latest. This was accompanied by the establishment or expansion of the powers of the paramilitary groups that had emerged from the Iranian Hezbollah , such as the Revolutionary Guard ( Pasdaran ) and the Basitsch . In the course of the inner-Iranian power struggle, in addition to the left and monarchist opposition groups, deviating companions from Khomeini's time in exile in France were executed or forced to flee. The wave of purges peaked in 1981 after the People's Mujahideen carried out a series of bombings against IRP offices, killing numerous high government officials. In the end, even religious-liberal forces that had previously formed an alliance with the IRP were severely restricted or persecuted in their ability to act.

One of the consequences of the revolutionary upheavals was that millions of Iranians left the country within a very short time. By the end of 1982, 2.5 million Iranians had gone into exile, including at least 200,000 intellectuals. Many immigrated to the USA (1.5 million), Germany (110,000), Great Britain (80,000), Canada (75,000), France (62,000) and Australia (60,000).

The consolidation of power

Press censorship

According to Khomeini, the ban on 22 newspapers and magazines on April 20, 1979, one of the first measures, was intended to prevent “the Islamic masses from being irritated by the media coverage. These papers are opposed to the revolution. ”By 1985, more than 800 newspapers were gradually restricted or banned by the censors.

Closure of the universities

After the system of rule by one legal scholar was stabilized by the adoption of the constitution on December 3, 1979, Khomeini's aim was to eliminate resistance to it. As early as September 7, 1979, he warned with the words:

"The opponents of velayat-e faqih are in reality opponents of Islam."

The Revolutionary Council decided on June 4, 1980, on instructions from Khomeini to close all universities in the country and to start a cultural revolution . Khomeini was supported by the students and the faculty with the words:

"We are not afraid of military attacks, we are afraid of colonial universities,"

not sure. The background to this was the disruption of Alī Akbar Hāschemī Rafsanjānī's speech in April 1980 in the medical school. The words

"Universities are more dangerous than hand grenades"

of December 17, 1980 brought Khomeini's concern to the point. On January 23, 1982 Khomeini pleaded for the reopening of the universities after a completed Islamization of the faculty and the students, which was only completed in autumn 1984 and led to the partial reopening.

Ban left parties and guerrilla organizations

When the Tudeh Party was banned on May 4, 1983, the intellectual cleansing was completed. Before that, the National Front , the Democratic Party of Kurdistan , the Organization of the People's Fedajin Guerrilla Iran , the People's Mujahedin etc. were banned.

Nationalization of banks, insurance companies and industrial companies

After the Shah's assets had already been nationalized on March 2, 1979, this affected the Iranian private banks on June 8, 1979, the insurance companies on June 25, 1979 and the industrial companies of the 51 major industrialists in Iran on July 5, 1979. On December 23, 1979, the Revolutionary Council prescribed the merger of the banking sector.

Martyrs' Cemetery in Yazd

The first Gulf War

→ Main article : First Gulf War

prehistory

On April 8, 1980, Khomeini declared:

"Saddam Hussein, who like the deposed Shah has exposed his anti-Islamic and inhuman face, intends to destroy Islam."

The further address to the Iraqi people:

"Rise, before this corrupt regime destroys you in any way, cut off its criminal hand from your Islamic land,"

is a declaration of war on Saddam Hussein. The very next day there was an artillery duel near Qasr-e Schirin , in which 15 Iranian Revolutionary Guards were injured. The prewar had begun. On April 30, 1980, the Iranian embassy in London was occupied by Iraqi-backed terrorists. The event came to be known as the Siege of the Iranian Embassy , which was ended by the intervention of the British SAS on May 5, 1980.

Start of fighting

On September 4, 1980, Iranian units attacked the Iraqi cities of Mandali and Chanaqin , the Iraqi units responded on September 10, 1980 by occupying an area near Musian on the Shatt al-Arab. This 120 km² area was assigned to Iraq in the Algiers Agreement , but not surrendered. On September 17, 1980, Saddam Hussein canceled the Algiers Agreement and claimed full sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab . On September 22, 1980 at 2 p.m. local time, the war began with massive Iraqi air strikes on Iranian airports in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz , Kermanshah , Ahvaz , Hamadan and Dezful . At the same time, the Iraqi army advanced with a total of 100,000 men in three places across the Iranian border. Khomeini is said to have lost his temper for the first time after Banisadr delivered the news . "His hands were shaking [...] I had never seen the Imam so scared."

In the first year of the First Gulf War (1980–1988) Khomeini refused to accept the UN proposed ceasefire, and a year later he ignored the unilateral ceasefire announced by Saddam Hussein . After the Iraqis were pushed back from Iranian territory in mid-1982, the aim of the war was directed towards the overthrow of the despotic regimes of Iraq. The conquest and liberation of Iraq should only be the beginning of the liberation of Jerusalem. Khomeini, who on February 11, 1980 called for the revolution to extend to the whole world and explicitly called on the revolutionaries

"Rise up, shake hands, we will soon destroy the state of Israel"

, thus forced the war to continue for another six years. For him the war was one

"Present from heaven."

He described every participant in the war as a martyr who would go straight to Paradise in the event of death. Recruiting begins when the nation is addressed.

“In this holy war the devils of the fifth column are trying to lure you with the lack of gasoline, heating material, sugar and fat - do our sons only die for gasoline and sugar? Are they not rather dying for Islam and our heroic nation? Do you only want to serve Islam and the nation so that you can fill your bellies? I praise the twelve-year-old hero who tied hand grenades around his body and threw himself under the armor of the devil Saddam. "

Khomeini was referring to the 14-year-old Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh the 1980 Khorramshahr armed with an explosive belt blew up an Iraqi tank.

The combat tactic of the “human wave” with barely trained or untrained civilians as the vanguard for the paramilitary Pasdaran, the so-called Basichi , first appeared on September 30, 1982 on the sector of the front near Mandali . At least 4,000 Iranians died in a single action, while 300 of the defending Iraqis died. By the end of 1983 the war had cost at least 350,000 dead, 300,000 wounded and 90,000 prisoners on both sides. Front commanders who called personally at Khomeini in Qom and who brought up the military situation and the pointlessness of deploying poorly trained volunteers, Khomeini replied:

"The fight for God means victory, regardless of whether we really win or suffer defeat."

On August 9, 1983, Iraq used chemical warfare agents for the first time in a section of the front. In February 1985, during the war's most costly offensive on Basra , nearly 50,000 Iranians died. Khomeini also used the Koran as an aid for ideological rearmament:

“Everyone who thinks that Islam did not preach the slogan 'war, war, until victory' and claim that this sentence is not in the Koran, are right. The Koran demands much more, it demands war, war, until all corruption is abolished. "

armistice

The turning point was the replacement of Seyyed Ali Chamene'i and the appointment of Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni as commander in chief of the armed forces on June 2, 1988. Because of the war fatigue of the Iranian population and the hopelessness of winning the war against Iraq and against Western interests, Khomeini finally declared on July 18, 1988 ready to recognize UN resolution 598 of a ceasefire.

"That decision was as bitter as drinking a cup of poison."

In the war that was brutally waged for almost eight years from September 22, 1980 to August 20, 1988, with high civilian casualties, at least 500,000 people were killed on the Iranian side alone. The material damage of the war on the Iranian side is estimated at 644 billion dollars.

Fight against regime opponents

It appears that after they came to power, Khomeini and his supporters committed similar crimes that they accused the Shah. Monarchists , leftists , liberals , homosexuals , Baha'i and Freemasons suffered severe repression. An estimated 8,000 Iranians were executed for "political offenses" between 1981 and 1985. A total of 12,000 Iranians are said to have been executed under Khomeini. The number of prison cells doubled under Khomeini. And torture practices that had been banned under the Shah were reintroduced. In July 1988, 3,000 Iranians were executed in one week alone.

Persecution of non-Muslims

According to Islamic teachings, Khomeini differentiated between Muslims, dhimmi , infidels and harbī . The Harbi concept provides for the killing of non-subjugated non-Muslims. Khomeini declared in a speech on jihad on December 12, 1984:

"If a corrupter who commits wrongdoing is arrested and killed, he must be grateful for it, because if he lived he could commit more wrongdoings, and he would have to suffer even greater punishment in the afterlife."

The Baha'i , who were systematically persecuted and are still persecuted in Iran today , were particularly affected . In 1979 the house of the Bab in Shiraz was destroyed, 1980–1981 the spiritual leadership of the Baha'i was executed, until 1985 the entire elite of the Baha'i was eliminated in 210 executions. The Baha'i assume 202 people were executed and 15 missing. After Khomeini had referred to the Baha'i as "spies" on May 28, 1983, the Baha'i religion was officially banned on September 15, 1983. At least 10,000 believing Baha'i are believed to have fled into exile.

Persecution of opponents of the regime

Immediately after Khomeini came to power, 23 generals and 30 officers of the Shah were executed; 80% of the first two hundred executed were members of the Shah's military or secret service. Amnesty International recorded 3,800 executions from the beginning of the revolution in February 1979 to the end of 1981 and 5,447 executions by the end of December 1983. In order to identify opponents of the regime, Khomeini called on every citizen in August 1981:

“To watch neighbors and see what's going on in their houses. You can watch your neighbors and the neighbors you, and if you practice this method for ten, twenty, thirty days, if you watch carefully who goes in and out of your neighbors, and if you go to the nearest police station if you suspect you have we will solve the problem soon. (...) Parents should take care of their children (...) And if the children do not listen to parental advice, then the parents have a religious duty to report them. "

According to press reports, days later, a mother reported her son to the public prosecutor. Khomeini is said to have received this woman with the words: “What you have achieved is exemplary, everyone should follow you”.

Persecution abroad

Those who had fled the regime were not safe from persecution and execution, even abroad. Over 120 are said to have been executed in contract killings; the most famous attacks were:

• on December 7, 1979, the nephew of the Shah, Prince Schahriar Schafiq in Paris,
• on July 22, 1980, Ali Akbar Tabatabai, former press attaché of the Iranian Embassy in Maryland,
• on July 7, 1984, the former General Gholam-Ali Oveissi in Paris.

Mass execution of political prisoners

Mass executions of political prisoners took place shortly after the end of the Iran-Iraq war . The casualty figures range from 1,367, 2,700, up to a speculative 10,000 political prisoners in Iran. In 2008, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published the number of 33,700 prisoners who had been executed. The majority of them were supporters of the People's Mojahedin and various left-wing groups. The executions approved by Khomeini starting in July 1988 are considered the largest wave of executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Blood “donation” from convicts

"The lack of blood supplies and the impossibility of obtaining them immediately leads to the death of the injured," said the letter from the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Islamic Republic of Iran, dated October 2, 1981. For this reason, the letter continues, "the solution to this problem should be kept secret be ordered that blood is drawn from the people sentenced to death before the execution. ”Khomeini, according to the chief prosecutor, was asked for advice. "He [Khomeini] announced that this measure was entirely compatible with religious law."

Khomeini's positions

Pahlavi monarchy

His dislike of the Pahlavi monarchy goes back to Reza Shah Pahlavi :

“For us, Reza Khan's dictatorship is a single crime. This dictatorship stole everything from us. "

This meant the reforms introduced under Reza Shah Pahlavi, such as B. Western clothing for men, the prohibition of the veil for women and the abolition of the Sharia jurisdiction, which only had to decide in cases of marital status and was not independent here either. Khomeini only wisely published his work Kašf al-asrār in 1943, after Reza Shah's abdication. Khomeini met Mohammad Reza Pahlavi personally once (1944) or twice in the 1940s, depending on the author . In 1944, when the Shah visited Qom, he is said to have received the ruler sitting and not standing, contrary to etiquette.

“The Shah is political derangement personified. He lives in a morbid dream world. His crimes are innumerable. The first task of a liberal government will be to initiate the process against the man who has the treasures of the Persian people in foreign banks. "

United States

The United States were for Khomeini as the "great Satan, the diabolical plans cooking up, leading to foreign domination."

“The world should know that all problems of the Iranian people and all Muslim peoples have been caused by foreigners, by the Americans. The Islamic peoples hate all these strangers, and America in particular. It is strangers who have plundered our precious natural resources and are still plundering them. It is America that treats our Islamic people like subhumans and worse. "

- Appeal of October 28, 1964 against the Surrender Act

“America can do a damn thing. (on the hostage-taking of Tehran ) "

“The White House has turned into a black house. (after the Iran-Contra affair became known , on November 22, 1986) "

In his memoirs, Rafsanjani claimed that Khomeini, revolutionary leader, agreed in the 1980s not to use the slogan Marg bar Amrika ("Death to America").

Israel

On August 7, 1979, the last Friday of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan , Khomeini proclaimed the international al-Quds day  - al-Quds is the Koranic description for Jerusalem  - to show the solidarity of all Muslims with the Palestinian people and the liberation of the To urge Muslims under the Zionist regime . Al-Quds-Day, meanwhile a sure-fire success, which leads to demonstrations every year, was supposed to remind of the claim to Jerusalem, the third holiest city of the Muslims after Mecca and Medina , implied by the Koran .

“Israel has illegally appropriated the land of a Muslim people and has committed countless crimes. I have always insisted that Muslims around the world unite and fight against their enemies, including Israel. "

“Israel, that source of evil, has always been a base for America. I have been warning of the Israeli danger for over 20 years. We must all rise up, dissolve the State of Israel and put the people of Palestine in its place. "

On the other hand, Khomeini confirmed the status of the Jewish religion, as stipulated by the Koran, as a protected person. Article 13 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran explicitly takes up this principle, and Article 64 provides for at least one member of the Jewish faith, currently Ciamak Moresadegh , in the Iranian parliament. This ambivalence is also expressed in the private sector. On February 27, 1985, the Israeli magazine Maariw reported that a close relative of Khomeini was being treated under strict secrecy in a Jerusalem hospital. Other relatives of Khomeini are said to have been treated in Israel beforehand. After Israel's arms deliveries to Iran during the first Gulf War , Khomeini tempered his words.

In the period between 1948 and 1966, around 45,000 Jews had emigrated from Iran to Israel. In the 1966 census, 60,683 Jews were still counted in Iran. After a period of stabilization, the number of Jews in Iran has fallen sharply since the Islamic Revolution: from around 80,000 immediately before the revolution to less than 10,000 according to the census in 2012.

Soviet Union

"This diabolical great power cannot subdue Afghanistan by force."

After Gorbachev was elected head of state of the Soviet Union, Khomeini wrote a letter to him on January 1, 1989, in which he asked Gorbachev:

"Possibly to rethink the materialistic and atheistic worldview"

and put the advice up

"A careful study of Islam may bring you a solution to the Afghanistan problem and similar issues in the world."

to conclude that

"The Islamic Republic of Iran as the largest and most powerful base in the Islamic world can easily fill the religious vacuum in your system."

Gorbachev is said to have replied on February 16, 1989 as follows: "Regardless of various views of the secrets of the world structure (...) the USSR has set itself the task of ensuring the sovereignty of general human values ​​over all other interests and goals."

Communists

The relationship between Khomeini and the communists of the Tudeh party was marked by a certain ambivalence; before the overthrow of the Shah, Khomeini was entitled to any help. Even in the first months of the Islamic revolution, the Tudeh party literally embraced Khomeini's ideas. The 16th plenum of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran in March 1979 in Tehran declared: “The Tudeh Party of Iran supports the initiatives of His Holiness the Ayatollah Khomeini with regard to the proclamation of an Islamic republic. It will fully support its implementation. ”For Khomeini, communists were considered“ godless ”. In 1981 the Tudeh party was classified as loyal to Moscow and finally banned in 1983.

“I ordered my followers to refrain from cooperating with the communists. We know that they will stab us from behind and that - if they should ever come to power - they will establish a dictatorial regime that is totally contrary to the commandments of Islam. "

“We fight international communism just like the world devouring the West. (...) The danger of the communist powers is no less than that of the USA. "

- Khomeini on March 20, 1980

Women

“In an Islamic republic, women will be able to choose to have employment and secondary education, but all of this must be done with appropriate clothing, a minimum of veils and, wherever possible, separate from men happen. "

In an interview with Oriana Fallaci , when asked about Islamic clothing, Khomeini replied:

"The women who made the revolution wore and still wear Islamic clothing and are not elegant women who are made up like you and who run around half-naked ... these women are no good: neither socially, politically, nor professionally."

The summary of Khomeini's extensive treatises on the subject of women has the key points: holy women of Islam, status and the role of women in Islam, the Islamic revolution, the family, the struggle of women and the military and ends in misconduct.

Paradise and hell

"I fear, and I am often concerned about the fear, that these people who fight for us will go to paradise, but we will go to hell."

- Payame enghelab of June 23, 1984.

“I don't think there have ever been as many devils in human history as there were in these times. Our time, which is called the epoch of progress, is the era of the devil. "

- Payame enghelab of May 11, 1985.

Khomeini also wrote a treatise on the devil in his famous 40 hadiths.

Ask John Paul II to release the hostages

On the occasion of Pope John Paul II's request regarding the hostage-taking of Tehran that Khomeini should release the hostages, he replied in a letter dated November 10, 1979:

“Anyway, our concern is a human one. And it is precisely human love that makes this concern necessary. Since we are Muslims, we profess to be human. You Christians must also bow to Jesus Christ and love people just as Jesus Christ loved people. The feeling for philanthropy forces our people to prosecute the crimes committed against them. "

“And it did not occur to the Reverend Pope to defend this oppressed people or at least to mediate (...) Now [hostage-taking] ... His Holiness speaks of philanthropy and demands that they be treated well. (…) We now wish that during all this time (…) especially the papal leadership of Christianity would have supported this oppressed people with a gesture of solidarity. I can't believe the Vatican didn't know about any of this. (...) What should I answer if my people asked me whether the Christian clergy allow such crimes? "

Messiah

The veneration of the person Khomeini, which went hand in hand with the designation of his followers Imam as well as our holy Imam , based on the twelve Shiite imams, which found its continuation in Article 1 of the Iranian constitution with his naming and which he himself never contradicted, led to a personality cult that rose into the quasi-messianic . "Khomeini you are my soul", a saying that was heard from many Iranians, as well as his words:

"I came to let justice rule, all the humiliated, enslaved, exploited will be finally free."

and the belief that he can work miracles has an unearthly power becomes reality. Gholamasad speaks of an “eschatological hope for a messianic redemption.” He [Khomeini] is the representative of the rapt 12th Imam , who establishes paradise on earth, and this is only possible through Islam and the Islamic revolution. Thus, according to Gholamasad, “Khomeinism - as a pariah ideology and an adequate form of conflict resolution for the marginalized - is the self-confidence and self-esteem of people who have not yet acquired themselves or have already lost themselves.” Khomeini's speech, shortly after the beginning of the first gulf war:

"In this war the world-devouring leeches of imperialism want to destroy all oppressed in the world, but I once again proclaim my help for all liberation movements in the world,"

refers precisely to this point. Loudspeaker announcements supported this claim with the words: “The Imam has set us free.” On some propaganda posters Khomeini is depicted as Moses with a scroll (Koran) or he faces the Pharaoh (Shah) with fire-breathing dragons. This “stick miracle” of Moses is transferred to Khomeini, the “archetypal conflict between good and evil, justice and tyranny”, which Khomeini understands can only be won through active action.

"A religion that excludes war is imperfect"

so Khomeini in his interpretation of Islam.

"I think that if Jesus had been given time, he would have acted exactly like Moses."

- December 22nd, 1984, Payame enghelab

Fatwa against Salman Rushdie

Shortly after the publication of the novel The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in September 1988, the first copies of it appeared in Iran. The book review and excerpts were broadcast shortly thereafter on Iranian radio, which Khomeini regularly followed. An unknown clergyman translated a 700-page version on his own initiative and presented it to Khomeini's office about a month later. Khomeini's comment after reading it was, “The world has always been full of insane people who talked nonsense. It's not worth reacting to something like that. Don't take it seriously. ”That seemed to settle the matter, no reference to an import ban or fatwa.

On February 12, 1989, the first unrest in Pakistan became public. On February 14, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to kill the writer Salman Rushdie because of what he considered to be blasphemous statements against the prophet Mohammed in Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses :

“I ask all brave Muslims to kill him quickly wherever they find him, so that no one dares to offend the saints of Islam again. Anyone who dies trying to kill Rushdie is, God willing, a martyr. "

The reason for the fatwa was ostensibly text passages in which the Koran and the Prophet are (allegedly) insulted. On a personal level, Khomeini's motivation can be seen in the fact that he recognized himself in certain passages of the text:

• “The bearded, seductive imam. Who is he? An exile, a man in exile. "
• “Exile is a dream of a glorious return. The exile is a vision of the revolution: Elba, not St. Helena. It is an infinite paradox: the look ahead through the eternal look back. "
• "For the man in exile, paranoia is a precondition for survival."
• “The Imam is a tremendous calm, an immobility. He is living stone. [...] He is the necromancer and the story is his trick. "
• “The imam drinks water constantly, a glass every five minutes to keep himself clean; the water is cleaned of all impurities with the help of an American filter device before he sips it. The young men with whom he surrounds himself are familiar with his famous monograph on water, its purity, which the Imam believes is communicated to the drinker […] ”- a direct allusion from Salman Rushdie to Khomeini's treatise on the nature of water . This passage attests to Rushdie's precise knowledge of the daily life of Khomeini in exile.

In addition, at the level of power politics, Khomeini was obviously striving for opinion leadership within the Islamic world.

A bounty placed on Rushdie increased to around 9.2 million DM within a few days . As a result, assassinations were carried out on numerous translators and editors, including Hitoshi Igarashi (July 11, 1991), Ettore Capriolo (July 3, 1991), Aziz Nesin (July 1993), and William Nygaard (October 11, 1993). 37 people were killed in an arson attack in Sivas , Turkey . The as liberal applicable Mohammad Khatami said on sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 1998: "We should look finished the affair Salman Rushdie as a completely." Furthermore reiterated Khatami, "that there was in practice no decision to act in this matter, . ”So that no murderers were hired by the government. The order to kill the fatwa, which according to customary Shiite doctrine ceases to be valid after the death of its author, was reaffirmed by Ali Khamene'i and Rafsanjani after the deaths of Khomeini .

Coup attempts and assassinations

• On July 9, 1980, there was an attempted coup led by General Ayat Mohagheghi. The putsch, known as the Nojeh Coup, consisted in the first phase of air strikes on militarily and strategically important building complexes of the government, the residence of Khomeini in Jamkaran and buildings of the clergy in Tehran, Mashhad and Qom.
• On March 27, 1982, there was an attempted coup in the Lawisan barracks in Tehran, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh , the former Iranian foreign minister is said to have been involved, as was Hussein Schariatmadari's son-in-law Hodschatoleslam Abdul-Karim Hejazi.
• On May 26, 1983, five senior Air Force officers were arrested and executed for the planned bombing of Khomeini headquarters.

According to Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini is said to have spent every night in different rooms and Hussein Schariatmadari dubbed him “the prisoner of Jamkaran ”. The house of Khomeini was cordoned off from the outside world and, according to Taheri, "had been transformed into a fortress, with an electronic security system and anti-aircraft battery." Khomeini only returned after his exile and landing in Mehrabad on January 24, 1980 due to a weak heart in Qom back to Tehran.

According to a newspaper, Saddam Hussein is said to have promised a bounty equivalent to 200 million euros for the murder of Khomeini in 1982, according to the Syrian secret service . As early as September 1978, the then head of the Iraqi intelligence service, Barzan Ibrahim at-Tikriti , offered the Shah the removal of Khomeini during a secret visit to Tehran. "The Shah expressed his gratitude, but did not want to hear about a staged fatal accident."

health status

According to Ali Tehrani , Khomeini is said to have suffered from asthma since his youth and - according to Tehrani - to have claimed not to fast. He is said to have suffered a stroke in Isfahan in 1959 , which made it difficult for him to concentrate. The herniated disc, which he suffered in old age, made it difficult for him to kneel down to pray, so that he could no longer get up unaided - said Ali Tehrani. The diagnosed difficulties with the bladder and prostate led to the allegation of bladder cancer. Shortly before his death, Khomeini underwent an intestinal operation.

family

In 1931 Khomeini married Batol Khadijeh Saghafi , called Mrs. Ghodsi, the 15-year-old daughter of Agha Mirza Mohammad Saghafi , a cleric from Tehran. Saghafi (1916–2009) later became known in Iran as the "mother of the Islamic Revolution". From this marriage, Khomeini lived monogamous, had seven children, two sons and three daughters survived childhood.

• Mustafa (* 1929, according to other information * 1932; † October 23, 1977) the eldest son died in Najaf . The suspected causes of death range from myocardial infarction to a SAVAK attack . Khomeini is said to have reacted without emotion to the news of the death of his eldest son: “We are all transient. God gave it to us and has now taken it back. There is no reason to cry at all. (...) So, now to work, gentlemen. "
• Ahmad (* 1946 - March 17, 1995) also died under mysterious circumstances. Initially acting as his father's spokesman and member of the expert council . During the Iranian Revolution, he was nicknamed "Ayatollah Dollar" because of his fondness for using the Shah's vehicle fleet. In the last years of his life he is said to have turned critically to the current leader of the revolution.

Khomeini's famous grandchildren:

• Zahra Eshraghi (* 1964) is married to Mohammad-Reza Chātamī , the younger brother of Mohammad Chātami - Mohammad-Reza Chātami is leader of a reformist party - and is critical of the regime.
• Hassan Khomeini, son of Ahmad, is a cleric with the religious title Hodschatoleslam, the administrator of his grandfather's shrine and conforms to the system. When he wanted to run for a seat on the Expert Council in 2016, his candidacy was blocked by the Guardian Council .
• Hussein Khomeini (* 1958) son of Mustafa is also a cleric with the title Hodschatoleslam and a system critic who called for the overthrow of the regime in 2003.

Private citizen

After returning to Iran, Khomeini never left his daughter's house, where he was moving. He visited, as Kapuscinski writes: “nothing and nobody. He lived ascetic, ate only rice, yoghurt and fruit, and only had a single room with bare walls, no furniture, only a bed on the floor and a pile of books. ”Sitting on a blanket, leaning his back against the wall , he received selected guests. The crowds, understandably not allowed to get to him, could see him waving on the balcony.

Khomeini wrote poetry in addition to his well-known treatises. Taheri quotes two poems, probably written in the thirties and forties, with the title “The Almond Tree” and “Tamerlan” . The almond tree deals with the transience of life because “this almond tree is a messenger of the Creator. After a thunderstorm the flowers are bent and scattered, the bride of the garden stands naked ... a moment of ingratitude leads to a terrible punishment for those who forget God. "In Tamerlane , Khomeini deals with the atrocities of the Mongolian ruler Timur :" It was he who disregarded all the commandments of the Lord, but there is one who throws the mighty in the dust, there is one who dismisses the guilty, Hindi is devoted to the wise and to no one else. "

Quotes about Khomeini

“Khomeini is a poor person today. He is ruined, has battered his people and is crazy about his power. I once loved him like my father, but he betrayed all hopes. "

- Abolhassan Banisadr : New Press, December 3, 1981

"Ayatollah Khomeini is like a village mullah, he cannot tolerate any other mullahs next to him."

- Ayatollah Shariatmadari : quoted from Banisadr

"Ayatollah Khomeini, the other side of the coin with the image of the Shah."

- Oriana Fallaci : Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 29, 1981

“You see, Khomeini is a rough and primitive man, but at the same time he is also a genius. I have never met a person who has the ability to interpret the masses, to communicate with them through a simple look or a few words spoken from a distance. "

- Mehdi Bāzargān

“Oh Khomeini, you are the idol of the fatherless violent criminals, you are the Dracula of our time, even thirstier for blood than Attila and Genghis Khan. Your wine is the blood of our people, the blood clots of slain youths are henna for your beard. "

- Piruz Khaefi

“I admit, Khomeini was the bulldozer of the revolution. But you can only bring down old buildings with a bulldozer, not build a country. In exile Khomeini said: the Shah must go. Now he says: the intellectuals have to go, the generals have to go, the judges have to go, the lawyers have to go, the left-wing students have to go, and those who stand up for human rights have to go too. "

- Hassan Nasih : Die Welt , July 3, 1980

"The parallel to Idi Amin is becoming increasingly clear."

- Egyptian Gazette, Cairo

“He was not a medieval figure, but a biblical, great and charismatic personality. And he had to be, because he changed the Orient. "

- Peter Scholl-Latour : Merkur Online, March 5, 2014

Death and successor

Khomeini died on June 3, 1989 at 10:20 p.m. local time after a second heart attack in a Tehran hospital. He had undergone bowel surgery eleven days earlier. Khomeini's last words, spoken to his wife and children around 1 p.m. local time, are said to have been:

“I have nothing more to add. Those who want to stay should stay, those who want to go should go. Turn off the light, I want to sleep. "

News of Ayatollah's death was broadcast to the public on June 4, 1989 at 5:30 a.m. through radio announcements. The state funeral got out of control, millions tried to reach the coffin, 11,000 people are said to have been injured and dozens of people were crushed to death. As mourners tore at the shroud, the body fell to the ground. The corpse was then flown from downtown Tehran to the Behescht-e Zahra cemetery by helicopter. Even days after his death, thousands were counted at the grave. Because it was feared that mourners would take soil with them from the grave site and, among the masses, could expose the body, the grave site was sealed off with containers and guarded by soldiers. The Khomeini mausoleum was later built on this site . The mausoleum is located outside of Tehran's central cemetery on a confiscated property that previously belonged to General Iraj Matbooie's family. General Matbooie had violently broken up a demonstration in Mashhad against the newly enacted chador ban in 1935 during the reign of Reza Shah . In 1979, shortly after Khomeini's return to Iran, General Matbooie, who was over 80 years old, was arrested, sentenced to death and executed 44 years after this incident.

One day after Khomeini's death, on June 4, 1989, his former student, then President Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamene'i , was surprisingly elected Supreme Legal Scholar by the Expert Council with the vote of 60 of the 70 mullahs present . Khomeini had presumably made the succession plan long ago, as Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni would have been available for the office, who had acted as “Khomeini's right hand” in recent months.

Works

Major works

• Kašf al-asrār (Unveiling of the Secrets), published in 1944.
• Tauzīh al-Masā'il (Explanation of the Problems), published 1961/1978
• Hokumat-e eslami (The Islamic State), in Najaf, published 1970/1971. " The Islamic State " appeared for the first time in the English translation in 1979 by the American Manor publishing house in a western language with the propagandistic title: "Ayatollah Khomeinis Mein Kampf" . The direct comparison with Hitler is sought here; Likewise, a psychological profile of the CIA seems to have been used in the introduction . The title page refers to this translation as the "Official US Government Translation". In 1979 the French translation by Kotobi and Simon appeared: “Pour un gouvernement islamique” , and in 1981 another translation from the USA by Hamid Algar . In 1983 a German edition by Hasan Nader and Ilse Itscherenska appeared in West Berlin ( Islamkundliche materials , Vol. 9), translated and printed in the GDR . Short excerpts from all three works are in 1980 as “My words. Wisdoms, Warnings, Instructions ”. published.

Others

• Tafsir-e Sureh-ye Hamd , Tehran
• Me'raj al-Salekin
• Mesbah al-Hedaya or Misbah al-hidaya (in Arabic), 1929.
• Resaleh-ye Towzih al-Masa'el ,
• Resaleh-ye Novin , Tehran 1981.
• Sahifeh-ye Nur , Tehran 1982.
• Manasek-e Haj , Tehran 1982.
• Ruhaniyat , Tehran 1982.
• Sharh-e Do'a al-Sahar , 1984.
• Tahrir al-Wasileh , 1987.
• Sabu-ye Eshq , Tehran 1989.

translated into European languages:

• 40 hadiths
• Position on women
• Jehad-e Akbar , Tehran 1982

See also

• Ali al-Sistani
• History of Iran since 1979

literature

• Literature by and about Ruhollah Chomeini in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ervand Abrahamian: Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic. University of California Press, 1993, ISBN 0-520-08173-0 .
• Wilfried Buchta: Shiites. Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7205-2491-4 .
• Karl-Heinrich Goebel: Modern Shiite Politics and State Idea. 1984, ISBN 3-8100-0438-3 .
• Monika Gronke : History of Iran. Beck, 2003, ISBN 3-406-48021-7 .
• Heinz Halm : The Schia. Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-534-03136-9 .
• Heinz Nussbaumer : Khomeini - anarchy in Allah's name. 2nd Edition. Munich 1980, ISBN 3-453-01043-4 .
• Bahman Nirumand : With God for power. A political biography of the Ayatollah Khomeini. 1987, ISBN 3-498-04628-4 .
• Baqer Moin: Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. 1999, ISBN 0-312-26490-9 .
• Benedikt Reinert: Ḫumainī in the mirror of his poetry. In: Benedikt Reinert, Johannes Thomann (Hrsg.): Islamic borders and border crossings . Bern 2007, pp. 191–288.
• Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1986, ISBN 3-548-27540-0 .
• Amir Taheri : Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-455-08237-8 .
• Gabriele Thoß, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. Münster 1991, ISBN 3-923881-39-8 .
• Wahied Wahdat-Hagh : The Islamic Republic of Iran. Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6781-1 .

Web links

Commons : Ruhollah Chomeini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mehdi Shamshiri: Untold Stories about Rouhollah Khomeini. 2011, ISBN 978-0-578-08821-1 . (farsi) details
• Baqer Moin: Khomeini, Ruhollah al-Musavi. Ruhollah al-Musavi Khomeini (1902-1989) . In: Oxford Islamic Studies Online (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World . ( online ).
• One Hour History: Islamic Republic of Iran - The Return of Ayatollah Khomeini 1979

Remarks

1. ↑ The Bank of Bombay was founded in 1840, the Imperial Bank of Persia in 1889. According to all sources, the son Jajal / Hameds stayed in Najaf as early as 1839. The origin of the great-grandfather plays a role insofar as Khomeini is called Indian ( Hindi ) by opponents . The basis for this is the apparently made up story of the converted porter of Bank-e Shahi, which did not yet exist.
2. ↑ That Khomeini inherited a fortune from his father Mustafa Musavi is confirmed by Ali Tehrani . See “Whoever does not fight will be shot” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1984 ( online ).
3. ↑ On the question of when Khomeini was first addressed with the title Ayatollah and when this was awarded to him, different information can be found in the literature. The Encyclopædia Britannica speaks of "the 1950s" and "by the early 1960s" is said to have given him the title of Grand Ayatollah. Abbas Milani has the year 1961 "by then Khomeini was recognized as an ayatollah, although in the world of Shiite clerics, obsessive about hierarchy and seniority, he was certainly considered a junior ayatollah." ( Eminent Persians , Vol. 1, New York 2008, p. 353) For Linda S. Walbridge, Khomeini became Mardschaʿ-e Taghlid ( The Most Learned of the Shi`a: The Institution of the Marja` through Shariatmadari's letter to the Shah, in which he referred to Khomeini as Ayatollah Taqlid, Oxford UP 2001, p. 219 and FN 16). According to the predominant literature opinion, it seems certain that Khomeini was not addressed as Ayatollah before 1961, nor did he later hold the title of Grand Ayatollah or Marjah-e Taghlid. His followers approached him as Imam .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Khomeini. Islamic leadership ministry. Tehran. April 1982.
2. ↑ Farhang Rajaee: Islamic Values and Worldview. 1983.
3. ↑ Richard Yann in: Keddie: Roots of Revolution. New Haven 1981, p. 205.
4. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. St. Martin's Press, New York 1999.
5. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 10.
6. ^ Karl-Heinrich Göbel: Modern Shiite Politics and State Idea. 1984, p. 142.
7. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. P. 29.
8. ↑ M. Mohid: Atash Biaran-e Douzakh. Iranians Publication, London 2009, p. 6f. (Persian)
9. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University, 2008, p. 351.
10. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. Hamburg 1989, p. 25.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Baqer Moin: Khomeini - Life of the Ayatollah . In: New York Times
12. ↑ Ayatollah Sayyed Morteza Pasandideh ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Hamid Ruhani: Imam Khomeini's Movement. Tehran 1977, p. 23.
14. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Hamburg 1985, p. 30.
15. ↑ Heinz Halm: The Schia. Darmstadt 1988, p. 159.
16. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini. 1999.
17. ↑ Ruhollah Khomeini: Kašf al-asrār (Revelation of the Secrets). 1943.
18. ^ Karl-Heinrich Göbel: Modern Shiite Politics and State Idea. P. 162.
19. ^ Karl-Heinrich Göbel: Modern Shiite Politics. P. 176.
20. ↑ Heinz Halm: The Schia. Darmstadt 1988, p. 157.
21. ^ Ulrich Gehrke: Iran. 1976, p. 202.
22. ↑ Ashraf, 1971; Baqa`i, 1979.
23. ↑ Henner Fürtig : The Islamic Republic of Iran (Ed. Günter Barthel). Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1987, ISBN 3-05-000079-1 , p. 62.
24. ↑ Ehsan Naraghi: From Palace to Prison. IB Tauris, 1994, p. 177.
25. ↑ "SHRBaresi va Tahile Nehzate Imam Khomeini, p 575. Quoted by Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, 2008, pp 479th
26. ↑ Ettelaat of July 3, 1963.
27. ↑ Ruzshomar, 2: 465ff.
28. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. Hamburg 1989, p. 125.
29. ↑ Heimz Halm: The Schia. Darmstadt 1988, p. 160.
30. ↑ Shahrough Akhavi: Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran. State University of New York Press. Albany 1980, p. 165 f.
31. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracus University Press, 2008, p. 375.
32. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: The Islamic State. Berlin 1983, p. 34.
33. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: The Islamic State. Berlin 1983, p. 52.
34. ^ Political Islam in the 20th Century , Federal Agency for Political Education BpB
35. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: The Islamic State. Berlin 1983, p. 153.
36. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government. The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, undated, p. 2.
37. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government. The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, undated, p. 5.
38. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government. The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, undated, p. 8.
39. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government. The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, undated, p. 9.
40. ↑ Ignaz Goldziher: The principle of Taḳijja in Islam . In: Journal of the German Oriental Society 59, pp. 213–226 . 1906, p. 216 .
41. ↑ Shahrough Akhavi: Religion and Politics in Contemporyr Iran. State University of New York Press. Albany 1980, p. 166.
42. ^ Karl-Heinrich Göbel: Modern Shiite Politics. P. 179.
43. ↑ Le Figaro, October 14, 1978.
44. ↑ November 5, 1978, interview with Dutch television
45. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 196.
46. ↑ Hans-Georg Müller in: The Islamic Republic of Iran. 1987, p. 98.
47. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 37.
48. ↑ Shahrough Akhavi: Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran. State University of New York, 1980, p. 167.
49. ↑ Interview with Ali Reza Meybodi, Radio Voice Iran, USA. The transcript of the interview was published in Nimroz No. 277, Volume 6, Friday 21st Mordad 1337
50. ^ Wahied Wahdat-Hagh : The Islamic Republic of Iran. P. 165.
51. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 111.
52. ↑ Josef Joffe: Black days of the white revolution. In: Die ZEIT. No. 48, November 24, 1978.
53. ↑ Josef Joffe: The revolt of the mullahs and the masses. In: The time. No. 38, September 15, 1978.
54. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 36.
55. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 37.
56. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini. P. 284.
57. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. Munich 1980, p. 125.
58. ↑ "I am the spokesman for this people" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1979, pp. 111 ( online interview).
59. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 70.
60. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. P. 219.
61. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. 1980, p. 16.
62. ↑ Thomas Seifert: Iran: Back to the Middle Ages by plane . The press . Article dated January 30, 2009, accessed February 17, 2020.
63. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 149.
64. ↑ ^{a b} Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 151.
65. ↑ Michael Naumann, Josef Joffe: Teheran, A Revolution is executed. Munich 1980, p. 214.
66. ↑ Michael Naumann, Josef Joffe: Teheran, A Revolution is executed. Munich 1980, p. 218.
67. ↑ ^{a b} Bahman Nirumand: Iran - behind the bars the flowers wither. P. 210.
68. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 70.
69. ^ Die Welt, February 26, 1980.
70. ^ Wahied Wahdat-Hagh : The Islamic Republic of Iran. Berlin 2003.
71. ↑ Khomein's speech of April 17, 1979, Radio Tehran
72. ↑ ^{a b c d} Bahman Nirumad, Keywan Daddjou. Khomeini. P. 343.
73. ↑ Hans-Georg Ebert, Henner Fürtig, Hans-Georg Müller: The Islamic Republic of Iran. 1987, p. 159.
74. ^ Rolf-Roger Hoeppner: The Iranian Revolution and the New Iranian Economic Policy. 1980, p. 185.
75. ↑ ^{a b c} Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 117.
76. ↑ Anja Malanowski, Beate Seel: Chronology of War. P. 81.
77. ↑ Bahman Nirumand, Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. P. 311.
78. ↑ Ettelat February 11 1980th
79. ↑ Bahman Nirumand, Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. P. 312.
80. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans-Peter Drögemüller. Iranian diary, p. 280.
81. ^ Economist, October 16, 1982.
82. ^ S. Chubin: The Iran-Iraq War and Persian Gulf Security. London 1984.
83. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. P. 348.
84. ↑ December 22, 1984. Payame enghelab, quoted from Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. P. 346.
85. ↑ Montazeri: Khaterat-e Ayatollah Montazeri. o. O 2001, p. 490.
86. ^ K. Mofid: Economic Reconstruction of Iraq. Third World Quarterly. London 1990, p. 53.
87. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 493f:
88. ↑ Payame enghelab, December 22, 1984, quoted by Bahman Nirumand
89. ↑ Mohssen Massarrat: Religious zeal against national madness. In: Iran-Iraq. 1987, p. 129.
90. ↑ spiegel.de
91. ↑ spiegel.de
92. ^ Gunnar Heinsohn : Lexikon der Genölkermorde, S. 87, Rowohlt 1998, ISBN 3-499-22338-4 .
93. ↑ On the situation of the Baha'I in Iran - Current persecutions and their background. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 7, 2012 ; accessed on March 5, 2019 . 
94. ↑ See Iran relies on tourism - the mullahs still rule ( Memento from June 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
95. ↑ James A. Bill: The Iranian Revolution and the Changing Power Structure. P. 124.
96. ↑ Amnesty International: 1983 Annual Report, p. 404.
97. ↑ Etelaat of August 21, 1981. quoted from Bahman Nirumand
98. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: Keywan Daddjou. With God for power. P. 331.
99. ↑ Iran's Terrorism abroad ( Memento from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), on farrid.20m.com
100. ↑ holycrime.com (PDF)
101. ↑ Amnesty International: Annual Report 1988, p. 472 and 1989, p. 518.
102. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini, Life of the Ayatollah. P. 278.
103. ↑ List of the Fedayeen executed in 1988 (PDF; 279 kB).
104. ↑ law.harvard.edu (PDF)
105. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 76.
106. ↑ Kašf al-asrār (Unveiling of the Secrets), 1943.
107. ^ Rizvi: Iran, Royalty, Religion and Revolution. Canberra 1980, p. 257.
108. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 194.
109. ↑ quoted from Ulrich Tilgner : Umbruch in Iran, p. 100.
110. ↑ ^{a b} Amir Taheri: Khomeini. P. 330.
111. ↑ Iran: Rafsanjani is back , on zeit.de
112. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 195.
113. ↑ Khomeini on the anniversary of the Islamic revolution on February 11, 1980 - quoted from Michael Naumann , Josef Joffe . In: The time .
114. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 141.
115. ^ Eckart Ehlers: Iran. Basics of a geographic culture. 1980, p. 142.
116. ^ An -Nahar, Beirut August 10, 1980.
117. ↑ Khomeini's dispatch to Gorbachev , on freitag.de
118. ↑ Iran between February and spring. UZ current. 1979, p. 149.
119. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 197.
120. ↑ quoted from Michael Naumann , Josef Joffe . In: The time .
121. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. P. 192.
122. ↑ Stern, No. 41/79, p. 62 ff.
123. ↑ ^{a b} The position of women from the viewpoint of Imam Khomeini (PDF; 1.9 MB) in autumn 2001. Accessed on November 15, 2009 (English)
124. ↑ quoted from: Bahman Nirumad Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. 1989.
125. ↑ quoted from: Bahman Nirumad Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. 1989.
126. ↑ al-islam.org ( Memento of October 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
127. ↑ ^{a b} quoted from Michael Naumann , Josef Joffe . In: The time .
128. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: Iran - behind the bars the flowers wither. P. 25.
129. ↑ Bahman Nirumad Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. 1989, p. 334.
130. ^ ^{A b} Dawud Gholamasad: Iran, the emergence of the Islamic revolution. 1985, p. 462.
131. ↑ clas.ufl.edu
132. ^ Gabriele Thoss, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1991, p. 152.
133. ↑ quoted from Bahman Nirumand, p. 346.
134. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini. P. 283.
135. ^ BBC as of February 14, 1998
136. ↑ Ulrich Encke: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1989, p. 172.
137. ^ Gabriele Thoss, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1991, p. 134.
138. ^ Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses. Hamburg 2007, p. 273.
139. ^ Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses. Hamburg 2007, p. 274.
140. ^ Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses. Hamburg 2007, p. 275.
141. ^ Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses. Hamburg 2007, pp. 279-280.
142. ^ Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses. Hamburg 2007, p. 278.
143. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini. P. 284.
144. ^ Gabriele Thoss, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1991, p. 131.
145. ↑ taz.de
146. ↑ welt.de of June 23, 2007
147. ^ Henner Fürtig: The Iraqi-Iranian War. P. 78.
148. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. P. 121.
149. ↑ ^{a b} Amir Taheri: Khomeini. P. 356.
150. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini. P. 280.
151. ↑ A. Elias, H. Hielscher: "Who does not fight will be shot" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1984 ( online - Spiegel interview).
152. ^ New York Times, March 23, 2009
153. ↑ Taheri, The Spirit of Allah (1985), pp. 90-91.
154. ↑ “Khomeini's widow died in Tehran” , Der Standard, March 22, 2009.
155. ^ Matthias Küntzel : The Germans and Iran. Past and present of a fateful friendship. Verlag wjs, 2009, p. 177 ff.
156. ↑ Bahman Nirumand, Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. P. 158.
157. ↑ Bahman Nirumand, Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power. P. 159.
158. ↑ iran-daily.com ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
159. ↑ washtimes.com
160. ↑ iran-daily.com ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
161. ^ Hope bearers of rank Portrait Hassan Chomeinis, freitag.de, February 24, 2016.
162. ↑ Ayatollah Khomeini's family mostly absent from Iran politics apnews.com, February 1, 2019.
163. ↑ Khomeini's grandchildren calls for the overthrow of the God state , in: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (ed.), Iran-Report 10/2003 ( PDF ), p. 8 f.
164. ↑ Ryszard Kapuscinski: Chomeini, p. 82.
165. ↑ Amir Taheri. Khomeini. P. 394 ff.
166. ↑ "Khomeini is unpolished, but a genius" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1979 ( online interview with Oriana Fallaci ).
167. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini . Hamburg 1985, p. 17.
168. ↑ quoted from: "Khomeini is infested with madness" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1979 ( online ).
169. ↑ Merkur Online Interview with Peter Scholl-Latour on his 90th birthday
170. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini. P. 301.
171. ↑ Baqer Moin: Khomeini. P. 299.
172. ↑ reddit.com
173. ^ Gabriele Thoss, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1991, p. 137.
174. ↑ Vali Nasr: Forces of Fortune. New York 2009, p. 104.
175. ^ Gabriele Thoss, Franz-Helmut Richter: Ayatollah Khomeini. 1991, p. 27.
176. ^ Ayatollah Khomeini: The Islamic State. Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-922968-21-X .
177. ↑ “My words. Wisdoms, Warnings, Instructions ”. Translation from French. Moewig-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-8118-6601-X .
178. ↑ al-islam.org ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
179. ↑ al-islam.org