Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T15:25:10.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: A Clerical Revolutionary?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

By
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Edited by
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Get access

Summary

By all standards available, Ayatollah Khomeini was a giant of the twentieth century. The Iranian revolution of 1979, which unfolded so eclectically under his leadership, quite literally shook the world. As all giants of history, Khomeini left an indelible imprint on the consciousness of his people, a stock of shared memories that is constituted by nostalgia, reverence, utopia and loyalty on the one side and exile, tragedy, anger and rejection on the other. Comparable to the impact of other revolutionary leaders of the twentieth century – Lenin, Mao, Castro – Khomeini’s era seriously affected both the personal life of the people he eventually came to govern and the trajectory of world politics.

By virtue of their gigantic projects, revolutionary leaders claim history in its entirety. Theirs is, by definition, a rebellion against the planetary order that promises to bring about universal, not relative, change. So, too, Khomeini in 1979 was not a reformist; he was not in Iran to compromise with the ancien régime of the Shah. He was there to define, once and for all, what he considered to be the ideal political and social order for human beings, that he thought applicable not only to Iran but throughout the globe. As he proclaimed from exile in Neauphle-le-Chateau at the height of the revolutionary fervour in that fateful winter of 1978/1979:

Great People of Iran! The history of Iran, even world history, has never witnessed a movement like yours; it has never experienced a universal uprising like yours, noble people! … Our lionhearted women snatch up their infants and go to confront the machine guns and tanks of the regime; where in history has such valiant and heroic behaviour by women been recorded? … Fear nothing in your pursuit of these Islamic goals, for no power can halt this great movement. You are in the right; the hand of God Almighty is with you and it is His will that those who have been oppressed should assume leadership and become heirs to their own destiny and resources.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Critical Introduction to Khomeini , pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Khomeini, Ruhollah, “In Commemoration of the Martyrs of Tehran, October 11, 1978”, in Algar, Hamid (ed., trans.), Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini (London: Mizan Press, 1981), pp. 240–241Google Scholar
Rouhani, Seyyed Hamid (Ziarati), Baresi va tahlil az nehzate Imam Khomeini, 11th edition, (Tehran: Entesharat-e Rahe Imam, 1360 [1982]), no page numberGoogle Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhollah, Ain-e enghelab-e Islami: Gozidehai az andisheh va ara-ye Imam Khomeini (Tehran: Moasses-ye tanzim va naschr-e assar-e Imam Khomeini, 1373 [1994]), p. 497Google Scholar
Shirazi, Asghar, The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic (trans. O’Kane, John), (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998)Google Scholar
Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin, Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic (London/New York: Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2008)Google Scholar
Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin, On the Arab Revolts and the Iranian Revolution: Power and Resistance Today (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013)Google Scholar
Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin, “What Is Radicalism: Power and Resistance in Iran”, Middle East Critique, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2012), pp. 271–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamshidi, Mohammad-Hossein (ed.), Andishey-e siasiy-e imam Khomeini (Tehran: Pajoheshkade-ye imam Khomeini va enghelabe islami, 1384 [2005]), pp. 245, 246Google Scholar
Rahnema, Ali, An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998)Google Scholar
Davari, Mahmood T., The Political Thought of Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari: An Iranian Theoretician of the Islamic State (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005), pp. 134–135Google Scholar
Algar, Hamid, “A Short Biography”, in Koya, Abdar Rahman (ed.), Imam Khomeini: Life, Thought and Legacy (Petaling Jaya: Islamic Book, 2009), p. 19Google Scholar
Moin, Baqer, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999), p. 2Google Scholar
Dabashi, Hamid, Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011)Google Scholar
Tabatabai, Sadegh, Khaterat-e siasi – ejtemai-ye doktor Sadegh Tabatabai, jelde aval, vol. i, (Tehran: Mo’aseseh-ye chap va nashr-e oruj, 1387 [2008]), p. 156Google Scholar
Abisaab, Rula Jurdi, Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), p. 24Google Scholar
al-Karaki, Muhaqiq, Jameal maqasid, vol. 2 (Qum: Ahlol Bayt Publication, 1365 [1986])Google Scholar
Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali, The Divine Guide in Early Shi’ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam (trans. Streight, David), (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 138–139Google Scholar
Sachedina, Abdulaziz Abdulhussein, The Just Ruler in Shi’ite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurisprudence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)Google Scholar
Walbridge, Linda, The Most Learned of the Shi’a: The Institution of the Marja’ Taqlid (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), in particular pp. 1–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, Latife Reda, Khomeini’s Discourse of Resistance: The Discourse of Power of the Islamic Revolution (PhD thesis, London: School of Oriental and African Studies 2012)Google Scholar
Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin, A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism (London/New York: Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2011)Google Scholar
Knysh, Alexander, “Irfan Revisited: Khomeini and the Legacy of Islamic Mystical Philosophy”, The Middle East Journal, Vol. 64, No. 4 (1992), p. 652 (footnote 81)Google Scholar
Chittick, William C., The Sufi Path of Knoweldge: Ibn Al-Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989)Google Scholar
Mahdi, Muhsin S., AlFarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010)Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhollah, Shou’n va Ekhtiyarate Valiye Faqih (Tehran: Vezarat-e Ershade Islami, 1986), pp. 29–30Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhollah, Al Makaseb al Muharrama, vol. ii, (Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Work, 1995), p. 160Google Scholar
Povey, Tara and Rostami-Povey, Elaheh (eds.), Women, Power and Politics in 21st century Iran (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012)Google Scholar
Abrahamian, Ervand, Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)Google Scholar
Byrd, Dustin, Ayatollah Khomeini and the Anatomy of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (London: University Press of America, 2011)Google Scholar
Martin, Vanessa, Creating an Islamic State: Khomeini and the Making of a New Iran (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×