Ruhollah Mousavi, Khomeini’s name at birth, was born into a family of religious scholars in 1902 in the village of Khomein, from which he would later take its name. His family were Shi’ites and claimed to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad. When he was only five months old his father was murdered and he was raised by his mother an aunt. However. they both died of cholera when he was just sixteen and he was taken under the care of his older brother. The two brothers were themselves devoted scholars and both attained the status of Ayatollah, given only to Shi’ite scholars of the highest learning.
The young Khomeini though proved exceptional though, and when he was eighteen, in 1920, his brother sent him to Arak where he studied with the renowned religious scholar, Yazdi Ha’iri, following him to Qom in 1923, becoming a teacher himself in Ha’iri’s school. It hadn’t been all study for the young Khomeini had been the local leapfrog champion!
In the 1950s, when Iran was becoming ever-increasingly ‘Westernised’, the religious leaders in Iran were of the firm belief that religion should not involve itself in state matters. But when the old order died, including Khomeini’s teachers, Khomeini, who himself felt differently changed course. As a teacher he had built up his own devoted followers, and he had also published his writings on Islamic doctrines so that many came to regard him as Marja-e-Taqlid, a person to be imitated.
In 1962 he led the protest against the Shah’s plan to end the requirement for elected officials to be sworn into office on the Qu’ran. And in June, 1963 he raised the stakes (to a point where they would stay) when in a speech he warned the Shah that if he didn’t change the political direction he was taking and respect the Islamic faith. The people would be happy to see him go. He was arrested and held in prison until April, 1964 resulting in demonstrations demanding his release. When, on his release, he continued his criticism of the Shah he was arrested again and this time deported to Turkey but left Turkey for Iraq where he stayed for the next thirteen years. In exile he developed his theory of what an Islamic state should look like whilst all the time keeping his criticisms of the Shah in the public domain by having his sermons smuggled into Iran where they were sold in the bazaars. Though in exile, he was the recognised leader of the opposition to the Shah and his government. So much so that the Shah manoeuvred to have him removed from Iraq if he refused to stop his political activity. So, he moved to Paris (having been refused entry to Kuwait)and it was from there that he would return to Iran on February 1st, 1979.