Sayyid Mostafa Khomeini (; 12 December 1930 – 23 October 1977) was an Iranian cleric and the eldest son of

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

. He died before the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

Early life and education

Khomeini was born in Qom on 12 December 1930. He was the eldest son of Ayatollah Khomeini and

Khadijeh Saqafi Khadijeh Saqafi (; 21 March 2009) was an Iranian revolutionary and the wife of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran and figurehead of the Iranian Revolution. Early life Saqafi was born in in Tehran, the daughter of Hajj Mirza Mohammad ...

, daughter of a respected cleric, Hajj Mirza Tehrani. He graduated from the Qom Theological Center.

Activities

Mostafa Khomeini participated in his father's movement. He was arrested and imprisoned after the 1963 events and also, after his father's exile. On 3 January 1965, he joined his father in

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

, Turkey, where he was in exile. Then he lived with his family in

Najaf Najaf is the capital city of the Najaf Governorate in central Iraq, about 160 km (99 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam an ...

, Iraq, from October 1965. There he had contacts with the Iraqi Shia activist Hassan Shirazi. Mostafa and his brother Ahmad became part of Khomeini's underground movement. The group also included Mohammad Beheshti and Morteza Motahhari. In 1970 Khomeini asked Hassan Shirazi, who had been released from prison, to go to Lebanon to find individual and institutional supporters. Shirazi carried out this activity in Lebanon until 1974.

Personal life and death

Khomeini married Masoumeh Haeri Yazdi (died 2024), a daughter of Morteza Haeri Yazdi. Khomeini died of a heart attack in Najaf on 23 October 1977. His father, Ayatollah Khomeini, did not attend the funeral. He was buried in Najaf within the shrine of Imam Ali. 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. Hence, his death was attributed to the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. 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. Memorial services for Mostafa Khomeini were organized in different cities of Iran which became nationwide protests against the Pahlavi rule.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khomeini, Mostafa 20th-century Iranian people 1930 births 1977 deaths Musawis Children of supreme leaders of Iran Iranian emigrants to Iraq Iranian emigrants to Turkey Iranian exiles Iranian Shia clerics Religious leaders from Qom Ruhollah Khomeini