Lance Johnson 10.

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Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini was born in Nishapur, Iran, on September 22, 1902. He
studied the Qur'an and elementary-level Persian at age six, and started going to a
local school the next year, where he learned religion. Throughout his childhood,
he continued to study religion with his relatives. After World War I,
arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan,
but he was instead attracted to the seminary in Arak. In 1920, he moved to Arak
to begin studying. He later moved to the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom. he worked
against the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His first book, Kashf
al-Asrar (Translated, Uncovering of Secrets) was published in 1942. Khomeini
became a marja in 1963. On June 5, 1963, two days after this public
denunciation of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Khomeini was arrested. On
October 26, 1964, He denounced both the Shah and the United States, in
response to the diplomatic immunity granted by the Shah to American military
personnel in Iran. He was exiled for more than 14 years, starting in November of
1964. Khomeini had refused to return to Iran until the Shah left. On 17 January
1979, the Shah did leave the country, never to return. Two weeks later, on
Thursday, February 1, 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran welcomed by
a joyous crowd of around five million people. He died on June 3, 1989, at the
age of 86.

Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini