Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Khomaynī) (1902–1989) was the Shīʽī spiritual and temporal leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution from 1979 until his death. His philosophy shaped the ideology of the revolution and the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Khomeini’s worldview, based on a radical interpretation of Islam, underwent significant changes. Initially, he followed the politically quietist marjaʿ-i taqlīd (Pers. source of emulation) Ayatollah Ḥusayn Burūjirdī (d. 1961). During his years in exile in Iraq and France from 1964 to 1979, however, his views radicalized. He cl…