Mostafa Khomeini
Khomeini in the 1970s
Born12 December 1930
Qom, Imperial State of Iran
Died23 October 1977(1977-10-23) (aged 46)
Najaf, Ba'athist Iraq
Resting placeNajaf
NationalityIranian
Alma materQom Theological Center
SpouseMasoumeh Haeri Yazdi
Children2
Parent(s)Ruhollah Khomeini
Khadijeh Saqafi

Mostafa Khomeini (Persian: مصطفی خمینی; 12 December 1930 – 23 October 1977) was an Iranian cleric and the eldest son of Ayatollah Khomeini. He died before the Iranian Revolution.

Early life and education

Khomeini was born in Qom on 12 December 1930.[1] He was the eldest son of Ayatollah Khomeini and Khadijeh Saqafi, daughter of a respected cleric, Hajj Mirza Tehrani.[2]

He graduated from the Qom Theological Center.[1]

Activities

Mostafa Khomeini participated in his father's movement.[1] He was arrested and imprisoned after the 1963 events and also, after his father's exile.[3] On 3 January 1965, he joined his father in Bursa, Turkey, where he was in exile.[3] Then he lived with his family in Najaf, Iraq, from October 1965.[1][4] There he had contacts with the Iraqi Shia activist Hassan Shirazi.[4] Mostafa and his brother Ahmad became part of Khomeini's underground movement.[5] The group also included Mohammad Beheshti and Morteza Motahhari.[5] In 1970 Khomeini asked Hassan Shirazi who had been released from prison to go to Lebanon to find individual and institutional supporters.[4] Shirazi carried out this activity in Lebanon until 1974.[4]

Personal life and death

Khomeini married Masoumeh Haeri Yazdi, a daughter of Morteza Haeri Yazdi.[6] Khomeini died of a heart attack in Najaf on 23 October 1977.[7][8] His father, Ayatollah Khomeini, did not attend the funeral.[7] He was buried in Najaf within the shrine of Imam Ali.[9]

His death has been regarded as suspicious by both the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini and common people of Iran due to his death being announced while he was in police custody and various reports that SAVAK agents were present at the scene.[10] Hence, his death was attributed to the Shah's secret police, SAVAK.[7][8] His father later described Mostafa's death as a "martyrdom" and one of the "hidden favours" of God since it fueled the growing discontent with the Shah which finally produced Iranian Revolution just slightly over one year after Mostafa's death.[10][11] Because memorial services for Mostafa Khomeini were organized in different cities of Iran which became nationwide protests against the Pahlavi rule.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Biography and Struggles of Ayatollah Sayyid Mustafa Khomeini". Imam Khomeini. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Hamid Dabashi (1993). Theology of Discontent. The Ideological Foundation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-1-4128-3972-3.
  3. 1 2 Baqer Moin (1999). Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. London; New York: I.B. Tauris. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-85043-128-2.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Arash Reisinezhad (2019). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 263–264. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89947-3. ISBN 978-3-319-89947-3. S2CID 187523435.
  5. 1 2 Abbas William Samii (1997). "The Shah's Lebanon policy: the role of SAVAK". Middle Eastern Studies. 33 (1): 66–91. doi:10.1080/00263209708701142.
  6. ↑ Mehrzad Boroujerdi; Kourosh Rahimkhani (2018). Postrevolutionary Iran. A Political Handbook. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 796. ISBN 978-0815635741.
  7. 1 2 3 Ray Takeyh (2021). The Last Shah. America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-3002-1779-7.
  8. 1 2 Michael Axworthy (2013). Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-19-932226-8.
  9. ↑ Ismail Zabeeh (4 January 2007). "Mustafa Khomeini's tomb reopens". Jafariya News. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  10. 1 2 Hamid Algar (2009). "A short biography". In Abdar Rahman Koya (ed.). Imam Khomeini: Life, Thought and Legacy. Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-967-5062-25-4.
  11. 1 2 Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (2016). Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment. Minneapolis, MN; London: University of Minnesota University Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 978-0-8166-9949-0.
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