Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini ( 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an persian Shia Muslim religious leader, revolutionary and politician. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of persia and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that saw the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of persia.