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Khomeini: The Life of the Ayatollah by Baqer Moin. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999. Pp. 368. L24.95. ISBN 1-85043-128-0.
Baqer Moin's Khomeini: The Life of the Ayatollah is an excellent overview of the life, career, and ideas of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution. The book is the product of careful research and thoughtful scholarship. Moin has made extensive use of both Persian and English material including government publications and published interviews with prominent Iranian figures. The result is a well-documented and tightly argued study of the man who led one of the most far-reaching revolutions of the twentieth century.
From the outset, Moin sets himself the task of explaining `the tenacious and complex character' of Ayatollah Khomeini by analysing the social and cultural context in which he grew up. The first chapter focuses on Ayatollah Khomeini's childhood and upbringing in Khomein, a town in central Iran, 40 kilometres south of SultanabadArak. Born in September 1902, Ayatollah Khomeini lost his father, Mostafa, a clergyman and a local notable, less than six months after his birth. After the death of his father, Ayatollah Khomeini was brought up by his mother, his wet nurse and his aunt. As Moin shows, this period, between the constitutional revolution of 1906 and the end of the First World War, was tumultuous for Iranian society. The revolution undermined the authority of the central government in the provinces and gave rise to banditry and raids by various tribal groups. In this `bleak' environment, the young Ruhollah received a traditional Islamic education both at home and at a local maktab where he became acquainted with verses from the Qur'an, the life of the prophet Muhammad, and the shia Imams. According to Moin, this educational setting combined with the popular shia religious festivals, helped socialize Ayatollah Khomeini `into the culture of Shi`ism' (p.14). The childhood years of, Ayatollah Khomeini came to a sudden end, Moin writes, when he lost both his mother and aunt to a cholera epidemic that raged through Iran in 1918 (p.18).
In chapter two, Moin discusses Ayatollah Khomeini's subsequent school years in Khomein, Arak, and Qom roughly from 1918 to 1936. The most important influence during this period was undoubtedly Abdul Karim Ha'eri, a shia...