The shah thought that, instead of sitting in classrooms reading the Koran, children should be learning the skills that would help them obtain jobs. Trying to modernize Iran and believed that the way to do this was to put less emphasis on religion. At the same time, the shah, as the Iranian leader was called, was The religious leaders of Iran had little tolerance for the royal family, as they regarded the royal lifestyle as decadent and their relationships with Western countries, especially the United States, as a form of treason. The Iranian equivalent of the king, Reza Shah, had just abdicated, or resigned, in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919–1980). In 1941 the recently renamed Iran was ruled by a monarchy. When he rose through the ranks to become a teacher himself, hundreds of students would cram into his classroom to hear his famous lectures on solving his country's problems through religious means. Although Khomeini was never described as a brilliant speaker, the passion with which he spoke inspired people to rally around him. People soon started to take notice of the young student, for his preaching was very political and his dislike of and intolerance for non-Muslims and foreigners was intense. His hard work gained him a place at one of the leading centers of Islamic study in Qom, the holiest city in Persia and the spiritual capital of Shiite Islam. Khomeini was a very diligent student who excelled in ethics and philosophy. At the age of nineteen he was sent to Arak, in central Persia, to study the Koran under the famous Ayatollah Haeri, one of Islam's most important theologians, or religious thinkers, at the time. Tragically, she died when Khomeini was just fifteen years old, after which his brothers and sisters were left to care for him. When Khomeini was just a few months old, his father was brutally murdered and his mother, a deeply religious woman, was left to care for all six children. She was the daughter of Ayatollah Mirza Ahmad, a famous religious scholar from Najaf, Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. His mother, Hajar, also came from an important religious family. Most of his childhood was spent discussing religion or reading the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Khomeini descended from a long line of religious leaders: his grandfather and brother were both ayatollahs, high-ranking Shiite religious and political leaders who are regarded as authorities on religious law.

Khomein-the birthplace from which the child took his name. His father, Mustapha Musavi, was the mullah (religious leader) of several towns, including that of Khomeini was born in a poor and rural area of Persia (which changed its name to Iran in 1935), about 180 miles southwest of Tehran, the country's capital. Islam is the religion of the Muslims, and Shiites are members of the branch of Islam that regard Ali, one of the Prophet Muhammad's sons, as the Prophet's legitimate successor. His first name, Ruhollah, means 'The Spirit of God,'Īnd is a common name in the Shiite branch of Islam. Sayyid Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini was born around 1900. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all.' A childhood dominated by religion I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim. 'Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. When he died in 1989 he was hailed by many as a martyr, and he has retained a god-like status among many of his followers.

He was reviled by many leaders in the West, yet his form of Islamic rule had a great impact on the region and changed the balance of power in the Middle East forever. (Western influences came from Western countries such as Britain, France, Canada, and the United States.) But his leadership was in many ways detrimental to Iran: he mismanaged the country's economy, prolonged a bitter and bloody war with Iraq that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, and slowed down the development of the country by many years.

Muslims in Iran and throughout the Middle East were attracted to his rejection of Western-influenced modernization and his emphasis on Islamic tradition. He came to power in 1979 in a violent storm of religious fervor. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran.

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