Ali khamenei history

Biography

Childhood

Ayatullah Haajj Sayyid Ali Khamenei is the son of the late Ayatullah Sayyid Jawad Husaini Khamenei. He was born in Mashhad on the 17th of July 1939, which coincides with the 28th of Safar 1358 Hijri Qamari (lunar year). He was the second son of his parents, born into the house of Sayyid Jawad who lived a very simple life, like many of the scholars of his time, and it was from him that the family learned to live in a humble manner.
Remembering his life in his father’s home Ayatullah Khamenei says:
"My father was a well known religious scholar who was very pious and a bit of a recluse. We had a difficult life. I remember that sometimes at night we didn’t have anything in the house for dinner. Nevertheless my mother would try to scrape something up and that dinner would be bread- and-raisins."
"My father’s house - the one that I was born in and lived until about the age of four or five - was about a sixty to seventy square meter home located in the poor area of Mashhad. The house only had one room and a gloomy basement. Whene

Ali Khamenei

Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989

Not to be confused with his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Ali Khamenei

Khamenei in 2025

Incumbent

Assumed office
6 August 1989[nb]
President
Preceded byRuhollah Khomeini
In office
9 October 1981 – 16 August 1989
Supreme Leader
Prime MinisterMir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded byMohammad-Ali Rajai
Succeeded byAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
In office
7 February 1988 – 4 June 1989
Appointed byRuhollah Khomeini
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
In office
15 August 1983 – 4 June 1989
ConstituencyTehran Province[1]
Majority2,800,353 (87.8%)[2]
In office
28 May 1980 – 13 October 1981
ConstituencyTehran, Rey and Shemiranat
Majority1,405,976 (65.8%)[3]

Incumbent

Assumed office
14 January 1980
Appointed byRuhollah Khomeini
Interim Imams
Preceded byHussein-Ali Montazeri
Born

Ali Hosseini Khameneh[4]

Profile: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's political and religious head

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's spiritual leader and highest authority. His veto is final in Iranian political affairs.

He is widely regarded as the figurehead of the country's conservative establishment and has been described as one of the three defining influences of the revolution.

Despite Western focus on President Ahmadinejad since his taking office in 2005, the most important figure in Iran is Ayatollah Khamenei in his role as Supreme Leader.

Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly denounced the West, and in particular the United States.

However, in a speech in 2008 he said that he had "never said that the relations will remain severed forever". That no doubt gave some comfort to US President Barack Obama, who has taken the unprecedented step of making overtures to the Iranian leader.

In 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei succeeded the original Supreme Leader and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. Before that he was president for

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