TEHRAN—
Millions of frenzied mourners carried away with grief tore the white shroud from the body of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, toppling his half-naked corpse to the ground, before the Iranian leader was buried today.
Mourners blocked the path of a van carrying Khomeini’s body in an open coffin to the cemetery from the square where it had lain in state for 24 hours in an air-conditioned glass cubicle.
In a scramble for mementos, they grabbed the tightly wrapped white shroud in which Muslims are buried and tore it to shreds.
State television later showed the mourners grabbing the body and pulling the shroud, until the feet could be seen. The broadcast then was cut off abruptly for several minutes.
“The people love the imam too much,” a young man said. “They cannot bear to see him buried.” He said they wanted pieces of the shroud “as sacred relics.”
Son Knocked Down
The coffin was transferred to a military helicopter, but the crowd rushed forward as it tried to land. As the helicopter flew away with the coffin protruding from its open door, the crowd was told that the burial had been postponed.
Three hours later, however, a helicopter landed the rewrapped body in a metal casket. Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khomeini’s son, Ahmad, accompanied the body and oversaw the burial.
Ahmad was knocked down in the melee around the coffin and lost his black turban. He looked pale and dazed as he was hoisted above the crowd and passed from hand to hand to an ambulance.
Women clad in head-to-toe black chadors rubbed shoulders with men despite the Islamic prohibition of physical contact between a woman and any man other than her husband.
Firemen sprayed the crowd with jets of water from fire hoses.
Nightlong Vigil at Bier
Most of Tehran’s 6 million people appeared to be in the streets, and official media said millions more came from other regions to bid Khomeini farewell. About 2 million mourners had kept a nightlong vigil around the bier in Mousalam Mosque, 22 miles north of the cemetery.
At the Baheshte Zahra cemetery, thousands of Revolutionary Guards and civilians jostled around the grave raising clouds of dust as Khomeini’s body was finally laid to rest.
A television announcer, his voice hoarse with emotion, chanted “Father, don’t leave your children! Oh father don’t leave your beloved!” as the crowd surged toward the grave. People wept and beat their heads and chests with clenched fists in the Shiite Muslim expression of bereavement.
Soldiers passed concrete slabs over the sea of mourners and laid them across the grave, a shallow pit in a 100-square-yard section of the vast cemetery where men who died in the Islamic revolution and the 8-year war with Iraq are buried.
A crane lowered a metal freight container onto the grave to prevent people from grabbing handfuls of dirt from it and possibly unearthing the body.
8 Killed in Crush Monday
Guns roared a last salute to the 86-year-old patriarch who toppled a 2,500-year-old monarchy in 1979 and transformed Iran into a militant Islamic state. For the moment, at least, no special marker was put on the grave.
Eight people were killed Monday in the packed square, some suffocating and others trampled to death. About 500 mourners were injured or collapsed in temperatures of 104.
Khomeini died of a heart attack Saturday, 11 days after intestinal surgery, without settling the question of who would succeed him.
He left a 29-page “political testament,” extracts of which his son read on Tehran radio Monday.
It contained an attack on the United States, which Khomeini called the “Great Satan,” and said Iran should guard against “conspiracies and plots.”
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FAQs
As the body was removed from the black truck, people in the crowd rushed forward, grabbed the white shroud and ripped it to pieces. The body fell but was retrieved, and the helicopter swept away. Touching the funeral shroud of a loved one, or holding a piece of it, is considered a blessing in Moslem Iran.
Did Ayatollah Khomeini fall out of his casket? ›
As the excitement grew, the body of the Ayatollah, wrapped in a white burial shroud, fell out of the flimsy wooden coffin, and in a mad scene people in the crowd reached to touch the shroud. The soldiers pushed and wrestled, finally firing warning shots, to get the body back.
Is Khomeini still alive? ›
What was Ayatollah Khomeini known for? ›
Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian Islamic revolutionary, politician, and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989.
Did Ayatollah Khomeini have a wife? ›
What was the largest funeral of all time? ›
The funeral of the charismatic C.N. Annadurai (died 3 Feb 1969), Madras Chief Minister, was attended by 15 million people, according to a police estimate. The queue at the grave of the Russian singer and guitarist Vladimir Visotsky (died 28 July 1980) stretched for 10 km (6 miles).
When did Khomeini lose power? ›
Beginning in 1963, Pahlavi implemented a number of reforms aimed at modernizing Iranian society, in what is known as the White Revolution. In light of his continued vocal opposition to the modernization campaign after being arrested twice, Khomeini was exiled from Iran in 1964.
Who runs Iran now? ›
The current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made final decisions on economy, education, environment, foreign policy, national planning, and almost everything else in the country.
When did Khomeini come back? ›
Ruhollah Khomeini's return to Iran on 1 February 1979, after 14 years in exile, was an important event in the Iranian Revolution. It led to the collapse of the provisional government of Shapour Bakhtiar and the final overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, on 11 February 1979.
Is Khomeini a descendant of the Prophet? ›
Genealogically, Khomeini's father, Sayyid Mustafa Musawi, was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad SAW from the path of the Seventh Imam of Shi"ah, namely Musa al-Khazim. While his mother was the son of Ayatollah Mizra Ahmad, a well-known respected theologian.
Iran's complex and unusual political system combines elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. A network of elected, partially elected, and unelected institutions influence each other in the government's power structure.
Who was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini? ›
The Iranian Revolution was the Shia Islamic revolution that replaced the secular monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with a theocratic Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Why did people flee Iran? ›
History. Emigration from Iran is said by one source to have started in earnest with conscription for the Iran–Iraq War. The government's need for fresh troops and the high mortality rate of those troops led to the flight of draft-age Iranian men to other countries.
Is Khomeini A Shia? ›
Ruhollah Khomeini (born September 24, 1902 [see Researcher's Note], Khomeyn, Iran—died June 3, 1989, Tehrān) was an Iranian Shiʿi cleric who led the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 (see Iranian Revolution) and who was Iran's ultimate political and religious authority for the next 10 years.
Do ayatollahs marry? ›
Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, married his wife, Mansoureh Khojasteh, when she was under seventeen years old. Iranian clerics have traditionally promoted marriage at a young age for both boys and girls.
Why was Khomeini exiled? ›
On September 5, 1965, Khomeini left Turkey and went to Najaf in Iraq. The reasons for Khomeini's exile to Najaf by the Shah's regime are described as: The regime hoped to diminish the role of Khomeini through competition with Iraqi Ulama like Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei. Because of intense pressure and popular protests.
How many people did Khomeini execute? ›
Human Rights Watch puts the estimate at between 2,800 to 5,000 people killed. In his autobiography, Hussein-Ali Montazeri, deputy of then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, put the number of prisoners executed at between 2,800 and 3,800, MeK says 30,000 were killed.
How much did the mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini cost? ›
The budget of Khomeini's tomb: From the total of 240.5 billion rials ($5,714,000) of the budget of Imam's tomb, 100.5 billion rials (2,380,952) spent for renovation and expansion of the tomb and 140 billion rials ($3,300,000) was given for the daily expenses.
What was life like under Ayatollah Khomeini? ›
In December 1979, a new Iranian constitution was approved, naming Khomeini as Iran's political and religious leader for life. Under his rule, Iranian women were denied equal rights and required to wear a veil, Western culture was banned, and traditional Islamic law and its often-brutal punishments were reinstated.
Did Ayatollah Khomeini overthrow the Shah? ›
The Iranian Revolution was the Shia Islamic revolution that replaced the secular monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with a theocratic Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
