As a teenager, Khomeini moved to the religious city of Arak, and later to Qom, where he studied under leading Shiite scholars. He gradually ascended the clerical ranks, ultimately becoming an ayatollah—a high-ranking Shiite jurist—and eventually a marjaʿ, or “source of emulation.” Khomeini’s intellectual foundation was rooted in Twelver Shiism, but he also explored mysticism and Islamic philosophy, developing a unique synthesis of political and spiritual thought.
Rise to Prominence and Opposition to the Shah
Khomeini’s first public opposition to Iran’s Pahlavi monarchy emerged in the early 1960s during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah. A turning point came in 1963, when the Shah launched the White Revolution—a series of Western-inspired modernization reforms, including land redistribution, women’s suffrage, and secularization of the judiciary. Khomeini denounced the reforms as a betrayal of Islamic values and Iranian sovereignty. In a fiery speech, he criticized the Shah’s close ties with the United States and Israel and was subsequently arrested, sparking mass protests across Iran.
After a brief imprisonment, Khomeini was exiled in 1964, first to Turkey and then to Najaf, Iraq, one of Shiism’s holiest centers. It was in Najaf that he developed and articulated his political theory of Velayat-e Faqih or “Guardianship of the Jurist,” arguing that in the absence of the infallible Twelfth Imam, a qualified Islamic jurist should govern. These ideas were compiled in his 1970 book Hokumat-e Islami (Islamic Government), which later formed the ideological cornerstone of the Islamic Republic.