Ayatollah khomeini biography book

He has written extensively on Islam, Iran and Afghanistan. Khomeini : Life of the Ayatollah. Baqer Moin. Student Years in. Childhood in Khomein. Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book! Community Reviews. Search review text. Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews. The roof of one bus collapsed, injuring those inside.

It is an obligatory caution not to raise the voice too loudly while crying for the dead. The Iranian media reported over 10, people suffering from self-inflicted injuries, exhaustion, heat, loss of consciousness and the crush. Dozens of people lost their lives. It was an extraordinary event. But, after all, Khomeini, viewed from whatever perspective, was not an ordinary man.

Fuad Karimli. A splendid example of how a biography of a political figure should be written. Much respect to the author of this book who through his writing presents an extensive knowledge of the way of life and culture of Iran. This is a very valuable book as it is not only a biography but also engages the reader with all aspects of life in Iran as well as its history.

The reader gets a glimpse of the late Ayatollah's personality, not something foreigners usually come across as the tainted image of him throughout western media. Who knew the previous supreme leader of Iran and the founder of the Islamic Republic was a lover of poetry, philosophy and was a mystic who hated the orthodox clergy? Author 14 books 2, followers.

One of the best biographies I ever read, and it is absolutely the most catching biography I ever read for Khomeini; comprehensive, unbiased and the author is a hell of a good writer. It is a must read for any one who is interested in the field.

Ayatollah khomeini biography book

Julian Karas. In his day, his face was one of the most identifiable in the world; despite that, not much was really known about the Ayatollah in the West. This biography by BBC Persia specialist and Shi'ite seminarian Baqer Moin fills in a great deal of this gap in public knowledge; along the way he has also provided us with a history of Iran going back over a hundred years.

The book is educational, absorbing and enjoyable. You get a very detailed look at the different factors involved in the collapse of the Shah's regime, and the ensuing revolution. And you get the roots of Khomeini's family background in the tribal areas around the city of Qom. It would have been interesting to know more about that time, and how Khomeini was affected by the murder of his father at the hands of highway brigands, and the death of his mother a few years later in a cholera epidemic.

It happened so long ago that I imagine there just wasn't that much more information at hand. It's hard to believe now how obscure the concept of "political Islam" was up until a few decades ago. It was people like Khomeini, who, in his publication "The Governance of the Jurist Velayet-e-Faqih ", laid out the foundations of Islamic government that is the basis for a nation state whose mettle shows no signs of weakness after nearly forty years in the Middle East pressure cooker.

As original as his ideas were, it's hard to see how he could ever have swept into power without his wily political acumen, and willingness to break ranks with the Western-imposed world order. It's a fascinating story, and Khomeini's extreme force of will was what was able to carry that revolution over the top. Can we be at all surprised that he was able to defy Carter and his foreign policy so completely that they still hold that grudge forty years later?

The most astonishing portion of the book has to be the chapters that discuss Khomeini's mysticism, and his attachment to the old medieval Persian poetic tradition. It's fascinating to think about how influential that literary heritage was in his life, and poetry of which he wrote several volumes. This information was totally unknown in the West before the publication of this biography.

There was always an indefinable something that was different about Khomeini; I still remember the news reports of him stepping off that jet plane into the huge waiting crowds in Tehran. That scene doesn't really fit our Western sense of the rational forward motion of historical development. So it disturbs our serenity and Western sense of complacency: it's not supposed to be that way.

An eighty year old man in a robe and turban isn't supposed to be able to overthrow a modern westernizing country. But it happened! Great book, anyone interested in the Middle East would learn a lot from reading it. From toKhomeini's word was law in Iran, and his off-hand comments or private statements often became official policy. Having spent those ten ayatollahs khomeini biography book humiliating the monarchists, the liberals and the clergy in almost equal measure the clergy could get away with a lot more, but Khomeini was never above cutting down even the most senior Ayatollahs if they stood in his wayKhomeini ultimately consolidated his power absolutely, through a mixture of astute politics, personal charisma and huge bloodshed.

This is a bloody story indeed. Iran was not exactly free under the violent and arbitrary Shah, but the alliance of the liberals and the clerics that overthrew him was soon betrayed, with Khomeini cutting the liberals lose, and then setting about reining in any dissent from the clergy. As Khomeini neared the end of his life, in an irony of ironies, the law had to be amended so that Khomeini's successor no longer needed to be a Marja a very senior Shi'a jurist.

The reason why? No Marjas were suitable for the job. None of them had the necessary commitment to the very specific system that Khomeini had built - a system neither traditionally religious, nor traditionally aligned with the laws of Shi'a Islam. It was something novel. This book spends a fair amount of ayatollah khomeini biography book examining the different bodies that Khomeini put together and the reasoning behind them.

What I liked in this book: - Khomeini is considered from many angles. It is a thoroughgoing portrait. All three spent a brief period in the office of prime minister, and all three were ousted for different reasons. They are all quite well fleshed out. This was interesting. A few things I didn't like as much: - Mir-Hossein Mousavi is an enormous figure both in the Iran of the period and in the Iran of 21st century.

He is, of course, mentioned, but the treatment is brief compared to many other figures. He takes centre-stage in the very final chapters, but figures like, for example, Banisadr, seem to have a more thorough treatment, despite Khamenei's enduring power and influence in Iran to the present day. But all in all, this is a fantastic biography. It's very engaging from start to finish.

I'm glad that I picked it up. Eve Javey. Learned so much! The rise of Khomeini reminded me of what is happening in the US right now which was…interesting. Baqer Moin. The Ayatollah Khomeini was the most radical Muslim leader of this age. In transforming himself from a traditional Muslim theologian into the charismatic Iranian ruler who took on the world, Khomeini launched an Islamic revival movement that, with the collapse of communism, quickly evolved for some as the centre-piece in the pantheon of western demonology, and for others as the inspiration for spiritual and political rebirth.

Whether viewed as a hero by his supporters or as a villain by his enemies, Khomeini was undoubtedly one of the seminal figures of the twentieth century, whose influence will extend some way into the new millennium. Baqer Moin here explores how and why this frail octogenarian, dressed in the traditional robes of a Muslim cleric, overthrew the secular Shah of Iran and became the spiritual leader of a new and militant Islamic regime.