("Khomeini" redirects here. For other people with the name, see Khomeini (name).)(Not to be confused with his successor, Ali Khamenei.) Ruhollah Khomeini (UK: /xɒˈmeɪni/ khom-AY-nee, US: /xoʊˈ-/ khohm-;Persian: روح‌الله خمینی, romanized: Rūḥallāh Khumaynī [ɾuːholˈlɒːhe xomejˈniː]; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the end of the Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's first supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking politic