Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...wearing a black turban and ankle-length robes, stepped out of the aircraft's door into the chill February morning. His back hunched, he clutched the arm of an Air France purser as he walked down the portable ramp to touch Iranian soil. After 15 years in exile, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. 78, spiritual leader of a revolution that has been building to a frightening climax, had come home at last. The moment was, conceivably, the start of a new era for a country that has seemed dangerously out of control...
...punctuated the year-long crisis, Iran went wild with joy. From all across the country, millions of people thronged into the capital; they lined the 20-mile route out to Behesht-Zahra Cemetery, where many of the martyrs of the revolution are buried, to catch a glimpse of the Ayatullah. "The holy one has come!" they shouted triumphantly. "He is the light of our lives!" So heavy was the crush of people that Khomeini had to be lifted from his motorcade and flown the last mile to the cemetery by helicopter. There, in Lot 17, he prayed and delivered...
From his bungalow at Neauphle-le-Chateau outside Paris, the Ayatullah had been sending home a steady stream of Elamiehs, messages summoning the faithful to bring down the monarchy in favor of what he has somewhat vaguely termed an Islamic republic. Much of the population heeded Khomeini. It was popular uprisings in his name that forced the hated Shah to take a vacation that might well extend to exile, and left the government in the uncertain hands of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar. Iron-willed, giving little hint of compromise, Khomeini has rejected the Bakhtiar government and damned it as illegal...
...Shah apparently will not be visiting the U.S., even though Washington had already arranged special security measures for him at the Palm Springs, Calif., estate of Millionaire Publisher Walter H. Annenberg. One reason given was that the Shah wanted to stay near Iran until the consequences of the Ayatullah Khomeini's return home became clear; if events went against the Shah, he might then take up residence somewhere in Europe. Privately, the Shah fears that he might be treated in the U.S. as a rich refugee rather than a visiting head of state. He also believes that he would...
What surprises listeners most about the Shah is his belief that he can still go home again. The Ayatullah Khomeini, in his view, is a crazed man, a transitory figure. A successful military coup is unlikely, since junior officers and most of the army would not support it. The Bakhtiar government has no popular base and is bound to fail. The prognosis, then, is chaos; the only solution is the Shah. After all, the tide of history turned against him with unexpected swiftness; it could as swiftly turn in his favor. "I deserve another chance," he says...