Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989)

Ruhollah Khomeini was a senior Shia cleric who became the principal voice of opposition to the Shah. He preached against the regime from religious schools in the holy city of Qom. In 1964 he was exiled by the Shah, first to Turkey, then to Iraq, and eventually to a Paris suburb. From abroad he continued to preach to Iranian audiences via cassette tapes smuggled into the country, building his moral authority as the regime's most uncompromising opponent.

Khomeini's distinctive contribution was the doctrine of velayat-e faqih ("guardianship of the jurist"), which argued that during the absence of the hidden imam (a key Shia theological concept), political authority should be exercised by senior Shia clerics. This was a radical proposal even within Shia Islam; most Shia clerics had traditionally maintained distance from direct political power. Khomeini's doctrine provided the theoretical basis for what would become the Islamic Republic.