Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini (24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Shia Islam religious leader and politician. He was the founder of homeland as an Islamic republic and the leader of its 1979 Revolution that saw the overthrow of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last King .