Ayatollah Khomeini was born in 1902. After his initial religious training he taught in the major Shi'i theological school at Qom, but was exiled for his opposition to the government of the Shah, Reza Khan. Living in Paris after 1978 he orchestrated the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. He became both the political and religious leader of the country throughout the protracted Iran-Iraq war, until he died in 1989.

Ruhollah Khomeini can be portrayed as one of the most seminal and enigmatic characters of the twentieth century. In no small way has his influence touched our lives, even, or perhaps especially, here in the detached atmosphere of a western first world country, and herein lies the dilemma: Khomeini represents a type of politico-spiritual leader virtually unheard of in the West save the token titles of ruling monarchs in Victorian England. This, combined with the different social implications of Islam compared to Christianity leaves a wide gap in our perceptions, and therefore our ability, to produce an objective analysis. There are many factors to be considered when evaluating the leadership of an individual, and thes

So by the end of his life, far from being a servant of his religion, he was in fact its master.

From this point on religion as a guiding force played little part in actively influencing Ayatollah Khomeini, as he began to concentrate far more on the political aspects of the new religious turmoil that had been created. This is not to say that he lost any of his religious fervour, nor his desire to attain the status of the Perfect Man; now that he had discovered his 'raison d'etre' he used religion more as a tool to advance his political ambitions to create his Islamic state. There is no doubt that he was an incredibly inspiring orator and greatly respected for his wide-ranging religious education, but his motives were almost unequivocally power-orientated. It is in effect a tribute to his ability to stimulate the emotions of a populace that they granted him the title of Imam on his return from exile in 1979. Perhaps in his own mind he considered himself to have finally reached the top of his 'ladder' and was an equal with the Prophet, but we shall never know for sure. Certainly his actions following his arrival back in Iran reinforce the impression that he now considered it his divine right to establish an Islamic Superstate throughout the Persian Gulf region. It is undoubtedly this that prompted the Iran-Iraq war just a year later as Khomeini sought to integrate the Iraqi Sunni branch of Islam with his own more activist Shi'i branch.

Khomeini's father was a high-ranking Shi'i cleric, and enjoyed a life of comparative wealth and elevated social position in their local community. As was the custom of the time he was brought up to follow in his father's religious footsteps, and he began to study under a well-known and influential cleric in Qom. At approximately the same time Reza Khan was appointed prime minister and six months later had himself proclaimed as the new monarch, ousting the Qajar dynasty that had introduced the controversial Constitutional Revolution. This political environment was all but poised to transform Iran into a contemporary secular state, thus depriving the clergy of many of its functions and in their eyes threatening the position of Islam itself. At this stage Khomeini, frustrated by the limited scope of subjects taught at his seminary, sought to acquire 'hig

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