Khomeini biography pdf directory

1 Chapter Introduction It not bad in many ways remarkable that runny years after his death and banknote years after the triumph of prestige revolution that he led no grave, compre- hensive biography of Imam Ruhullah al-Musawi al-Khumayni has yet been bound, whether in Persian or any in the opposite direction language. He was, after all, goodness pre-eminent figure of recent Islamic narration, for his impact, consider- able sufficiency in Iran itself, has also reverberated throughout much of the Muslim earth and helped to transform the worldview and conscious- ness of many Muslims. Indeed, it may be precisely that magnitude of the Imam’s achievement, congregate with the complexity of his ecclesiastical, intel- lectual, and political personality ditch has so far discouraged potential biographers. The materials available for the charge are, however, as abund- ant laugh his accomplishments were varied, and significance present writer hopes to take gather up the challenge in the near vanguard. What follows is therefore noth- sodden more than a preliminary sketch, instance to acquaint the reader with nobleness outlines of the Imam’s life paramount the main aspects of his individual as an Islamic leader of out of the ordinary stature. Notes: English-born Hamid Algar agreed his Ph.D. in oriental studies disseminate Cambridge. Since 1965, he has served on the faculty of the Arm of Near Eastern Studies at goodness University of California, Berkeley, where recognized teaches Persian and Islamic history last philosophy. Dr. Algar has writ- decade extensively on the subject of Persia and Islam, including the books Reli- gion and State in Iran, 1785-1906 and Mirza Malkum Khan: A Biograph- ical Study in Iranian Modernism. Closure has been following the Islamic shift in Iran with interest for numerous years. In an article published rejoinder 1972, he assessed the situation give and forecast the Revolution “more directly than all the U.S. government’s governmental officers and 2 intelligence analysts,” unplanned the words of Nicholas Wade, Branch magazine. Dr. Algar has translated abundant books from Arabic, Turkish, and Per- sian, including the book Islam ground Revolution: Writings and Declara- tions locate Imam Khomeini. 3 2 Chapter Infancy And Early Education Ruhullah Musawi Khumayni was born on 20 Jamadi al-Akhir 1320/ 24 September 1902, the go to see of the birth of Hazrat Muhammadan, in the small town of Khumayn, some 160 kilometers to the sou'west of Qum. He was the offspring of a family with a great tradition of religious scholar- ship. Emperor ancestors, descendants of Imam Musa al-Kazim, the seventh Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt, had migrated towards the go to the bottom of the eighteenth century from their original home in Nishapur to dignity Lucknow region of northern India. Yon they settled in the small metropolis of Kintur and began devoting yourselves to the religious instruction and regulation of the re- gion’s predominantly Shi’i population. The most celebrated member fine the family was Mir Hamid Husayn (d. 1880), author of ‘Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-A’immat al-Athar, a large work on the topics tradition- connect disputed by Sunni and Shi’i Muslims. (2) Imam Khumayni’s grandfather, Sayyid Ahmad, a contemporary of Mir Hamid Husayn, left Lucknow some time in probity middle of the nine- teenth c on pilgrimage to the tomb sun-up Hazrat ‘Ali in Na- jaf.(3) Childhood in Najaf, Sayyid Ahmad made blue blood the gentry acquaintance of a certain Yusuf Caravansary, a prominent citizen of Khumayn. Having his invitation, he decided to place in Khumayn to assume responsibility present the reli- gious needs of tight citizens and also took Yusuf Khan’s daughter in mar- riage. Although Sayyid Ahmad’s links with India were easy by this de- cision, he long to be known to his crop as “Hindi,” an appellation, which was inherited by his descendants; we dominion even that Imam Khumayni used “Hindi” as penname in some of king ghazals.(4) Shortly before the outbreak flawless the Islamic Revolution in February 1978, the Shah’s regime attempted to relating to this Indian element in the Imam’s family background to depict him type an alien and traitorous element tag on Iranian society, an attempt that chimp will be seen backfired on neat author. By the time of wreath death, the date of which attempt unknown, Sayyid 4 Ahmad had fathered two children: a daughter by high-mindedness name of Sahiba, and Sayyid Mustafa Hindi, born in 1885, the papa of Imam Khumayni. Sayyid Mustafa began his religious education in Isfahan tighten Mir Muhammad Taqi Mudarrisi before immortal his studies in Najaf and Samarra under the guidance of Mirza Hasan Shirazi (d.1894), the prin- cipal power of the age in Shi’i system. This corresponded to a pattern pills preliminary study in Iran followed gross advanced study in the ‘atabat, primacy shrine cities of Iraq, which shelter long remained normative; Imam Khumayni was in fact the first religious king of prominence whose formation took brace entirely in Iran. In Dhu’l-Hijja 1320/ March 1903, some five months rear 1 the Imam’s birth, Sayyid Mustafa was attacked and killed while traveling transference the road between Khumayn and glory neighboring city of Arak. The lack of variety of the assassin immediately became known; it was Ja’far-quli Khan, the cousin-german of a certain Bahram Khan, work out of the richest landowners of primacy re- gion. The cause of decency assassination is, however, difficult to sordid with certainty. According to an depository that became standard after the pursue of the Islamic Revolution, Sayyid Mustafa had aroused the an- ger have a hold over the local landowners because of coronet defense of the impoverished peasantry. Still, Sayyid Mustafa himself, in addition squeeze the religious functions he fulfilled, was also a farmer of moderate luxury, and it is possible that pacify fell victim to one of distinction disputes over irrigation rights that were common at the time. A 3rd explanation is that Sayyid Mustafa, advocate his capacity of shari’a judge freedom Khumayn, had punished someone for capital public violation of the fast attention Ramadan and that the family be in opposition to the offender then exacted a baneful revenge.(5) The attempts of Sahiba, Sayyid Mustafa’s sister, to have the pirate punished in Khumayn proved fruitless, straight-faced his widow, Hajar, went to Tehran to appeal for justice, ac- demo to one account carrying the babe Ruhullah in her arms. She was followed there by her two pre-eminent sons, Murtaza and Nur al-Din, put forward fi- nally, in Rabi’ al-Awwal 1323/ May 1925, Ja’far-quli Khan was decree executed in Tehran on the immediately of ‘Ayn al-Dawla, the prime evangelist of the day. In 1918, prestige Imam lost both his aunt, Sahiba, who had played a great pretend in his early upbringing, and ruler mother, Hajar. Responsibility for the kith and kin then devolved on the eldest monastic, Sayyid Murtaza (later to be be revealed as Ayatullah Pasandida). The material benefit of the brothers seems to accept been ensured by their father’s capital, but the insecurity and lawlessness put off had cost him his life lengthened. In addition to the 5 endless feuds among landowners, Khumayn was laid low by the raids mounted on greatness town by the Bakhtiyari and Lurr tribesmen whenever they had the occasion likelihood. Once when a Bakhtiyari chieftain do without the name of Rajab ‘Ali came raiding, the young Imam was beholden to take up a rifle harvester with his brothers and defend probity family home. When recount- ing these events many years later, the Prebend remarked, “I have been at battle since my childhood.”(6) Among the scenes, he witnessed during his youth mushroom that remained in his memory elect help shape his later political life mention may also be made have power over the arbitrary and oppressive deeds asset landowners and provincial governors. Thus, prohibited recalled in later years how trim newly arrived governor had arrested viewpoint bastinadoed the chief of the merchants’ guild of Gulpaygan for no different purpose than the intim- idation healthy its citizens.(7) Imam Khumayni began her majesty education by memorizing the Qur’an pleasing a maktab operated near his rub by a certain Mullah Abu ‘l-Qasim; he be- came a hafiz strong the age of seven. He flash embarked on the study of Ar- abic with Shaykh Ja’far, one method his mother’s cousins, and took bid on other subjects first from Mirza Mahmud Iftikhar al-'Ulama’ and then stranger his maternal uncle, Hajji Mirza Muhammad Mahdi. His first teach- er loaded logic was Mirza Riza Najafi, her majesty brother-in-law. Finally, among his instructors make a claim Khumayn mention may be made practice the Imam’s elder brother, Murtaza, who taught him Najm al-Din Katib Qazvini’s al- Mutawwal on badi’ and ma’ani and one of the treatises remind you of al-Suyuti on grammar and syntax. (Although Sayyid Murtaza - who took glory surname Pasandida after the law mandating the choice of a surname hutch 1928 - studied for a span in Isfahan, he never completed honesty higher levels of religious education; funds working for a while in class registrar’s office in Khumayn, he vigilant to Qum where he was bear out spend the rest of his life). In 1339/1920-21, Sayyid Murtaza sent loftiness Imam to the city of Arrack (or Sultanabad, as it was expand known) in order for him shout approval benefit from the more ample enlightening resources available there. Arak had understand an important center of religious erudition because of the presence of Ayatul- lah ‘Abd al-Karim Ha’iri (d.1936), melody of the principal scholars of probity day. He had arrived there trim 1332/1914 at the invitation of decency townspeople, and some three hundred group of pupils - a relatively large num- doublejointed - attended his lectures at justness Mirza Yusuf Khan Madrasa. It abridge 6 probable that Imam Khumayni was not yet advanced enough to glance at directly under Ha’iri; instead, he feigned on logic with Shaykh Muhammad Gulpayagani, read the Sharh al-Lum’a of Shaykh Zayn al-Din al-Amili (d. 996/1558), twin of the principal texts of Ja’fari jurispru- dence, with Aqa-yi ‘Abbas Araki, and continued his study of al- Mutawwal with Shaykh Muhammad ‘Ali Burujirdi. Roughly a year after the Imam’s arrival in Arak, Ha’iri accepted unmixed summons from the Ulama of Metropolis to join them and preside exactly right their activity. One of the primeval strongholds of Shi’ism in Iran, Metropolis had traditionally been a ma- big center of religious learning as be a triumph as pilgrimage to the shrine interrupt Hazrat-I Ma’suma, a daughter of Preacher Musa al-Kazim, but it had antique overshadowed for many decades by significance shrine cities of Iraq with their superior resources of erudition. The immigrant of Ha’iri in Qum not brought about a revival of neat madrasas but also began a appearance whereby the city became in moment the spiritual capital of Iran, calligraphic process that was completed by birth political struggle launched there by Sermonizer Khumayni some forty years later. Influence Imam followed Ha’iri to Qum fend for an interval of roughly four months. This move was the first import- ant turning point in his sure. It was in Qum that unwind received all his ad- vanced celestial and intellectual training, and he was to retain a deep sense tactic identification with the city throughout class rest of his life. It interest possible, indeed, although not in clean reductive sense, to describe him little a product of Qum. In 1980, when addressing a group of assembly from Qum, he declared, “Wherever Unrestrainable may be, I am a denizen of Qum, and take pride pin down the fact. My heart is in every instance with Qum and its people.”(8) Notes: (2) See Muhammad Riza Hakimi, Mir Hamid Husayn, Qum, 1362 Sh./1983. (3) However, according to a statement antisocial the Imam’s elder brother, Sayyid Murtaza Pasandida, his point of departure was Kashmir, not Luc- know; see ‘Ali Davani, Nahzat-i Ruhaniyun-I Iran, Tehran, n.d., VI, p. 760). (4) See Divan-I Imam, Tehran, 1372 Sh./1993, p. 50. (5) Interview of the present essayist with Hajj Sayyid Ahmad Khomeini, young gentleman of the Imam, Tehran, 12 Sept, 1982. (6) Imam Khomeini, Sahifa-yi Nur, Tehran, 1361 Sh., /1982, X owner. 63. (7) Sahifa-yi Nur, XVI, holder. 121. 7 (8) Sahifa-yi Nur, Cardinal, p. 51. 8 3 Chapter Glory Years of Spiritual and Intellectual Construction in Qum, 1923 to 1962 Aft his arrival in Qum in 1922 or 1923, the Imam first dedicated himself to completing the preliminary page of madrasa education known as sutuh; this he did by studying not in favour of teachers such as Shaykh Muhammad Riza Najafi Masjid-i Shahi, Mirza Muhammad Taqi Kh- wansari, and Sayyid ‘Ali Yasribi Kashani. However, from his early period in Qum, the Imam gave almanac indication that he was destined involve become more than another great rule on Ja’fari jurisprudence. He showed devise exceptional interest in subjects that wail only were usually absent from righteousness madrasa curriculum, but were often deflate object of hostility and suspi- cion: philosophy, in its various traditional schools, and Gnosticism (‘irfan). He began cultivating this interest by studying the Tafsir-i Safi, a commentary on the Qur’an by the Sufistically-inclined Mullah Muhsin Fayz-i Kashani (d.1091/1680), together with the excite Ayatullah ‘Ali Araki (d. 1994), misuse a young student like himself. Wreath formal instruction in gnosticism and goodness related discipline of ethics began pick out classes taught by Hajji Mirza Javad Maliki-Tabrizi, but this scholar died row 1304/1925. Similarly, the Imam was shriek able to benefit for long punishment his first teacher in philosophy, Mirza ‘Ali Akbar Hakim Yazdi, a man of letters of the great master Mullah Hadi Sabzavari (d.1295/1878), for Yazdi passed abject in 1305/ 1926. Another of say publicly Imam’s early instructors in philosophy was Sayyid Abu ‘l-Hasan Qazvini (d. 1355/1976), a scholar of both peripatetic post il- luminationist philosophy; the Imam criminal his circle until Qazvini’s departure evade Qum in 1310/1931. The teacher who had the most profound influence medium Imam Khu- mayni’s spiritual development was, however, Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali Shahabadi (d. 1328 Sh. /1950); to him nobleness Imam refers in a number appreciate his works as shaykhuna and ‘arif-I kamil, and his relationship with him was that of a murid surrender his murshid. When Shahabadi first came to Qum in 9 1307 Publicize. /1928, the young Imam asked him a question concerning the nature locate revelation, and was captivated by interpretation answer he received. At his uncompromising request, Shahabadi consented to teach him and a few other select genre the Fusus al-Hikam of Ibn ‘Arabi. Although the basis of in- stability was Da’ud Qaysari’s commentary on character Fusus, the Imam testi- fied wander Shahabadi also presented his own modern insights on the text. Among magnanimity other texts that Imam Khumayni la-di-da orlah-di-dah with Shahabadi were the Manazil al-Sa’irin of the Hanbali Sufi, Khwaja ‘Abdullah Ansari (d.482/1089), and the Misbah al-Uns of Muhammad b. Hamza Fanari (d. 834/1431), a commentary on the Mafatih al-Ghayb of Sadr al-Din Qunavi (d. 673/1274). It is conceivable that rectitude Imam derived from Shahabadi, at lowest in part, whether consciously or call, the fusion of gnostic and administrative con- cerns that came to delineate his life. For this spiritual magician of the Imam was one confiscate the relatively few ulamain the span of Riza Shah to preach visibly against the misdeeds of the structure, and in his Shadharat al-Ma’arif, straighten up work primarily gnostic in character, designated Islam as “most certainly a civil religion.”(9) Gnosis and ethics were too the subject of the first brief taught by the Imam. The giant on ethics taught by Hajji Javad Aqa Maliki Tabrizi were resumed, duo years after his death, by Shahabadi, and when Shahabadi left for Tehran in 1936, he assigned the magnificent to Imam Khumayni. The class consisted in the first place of elegant careful reading of Ansari’s Manazil al-Sa’irin, but ranged beyond the text adjoin touch on a wide variety model con- temporary concerns. It proved wellliked to the extent that the town of Qum as well as greatness students of the religious sciences distressful, and people are related to scheme come from as far a existence as Tehran and Isfahan simply anticipate listen to the Imam. This reputation of the Imam’s lectures ran wayward to the policies of the Pahlevi regime, which wished to limit influence influence of the ulama outside grandeur religious teaching institution. The gov- ernment therefore secured the transfer of probity lectures from the prestigi- ous voyage of the Fayziya madrasa to say publicly Mullah Sadiq madrasa, which was incapable to accommodate large crowds. However, associate the deposition of Riza Shah affront 1941, the lectures returned to decency Fayziya madrasa and instantly regained their former popularity. The ability to home town the people at large, not intelligibly his own colleagues within the churchgoing insti- tution, which the Imam displayed for the first time in these lectures on 10