Word: mullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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AYATULLAH KHOMEINI, 80, chief mullah (religious leader) of the country's Shi'ite Muslim sect, to which 93% of all Iranians adhere, and symbol of resistance to the Shah. Khomeini was exiled in 1963 for opposing the Shah's land-reform program, ostensibly because it conflicted with Islamic law. He directs an almost messianic campaign to overthrow the Shah from a white stucco house in the French village of Neauphle-le-Château, not far from the home of Brigitte Bardot. Five times a day French gendarmes stop traffic while the ayatullah (a Persian term meaning...
AYATULLAH SHARIETMADARI, 76, a Shi'ite scholar who speaks for the conservative, religious-based resistance to the Shah from within Iran, as Khomeini speaks for it from without. Sharietmadari, who lives in the holy city of Qum, is slightly less militant than his fellow mullah. He believes in an Islamic state but has not ruled out a constitutional monarchy so long as it adheres to Islamic principles. A holy war, he argues, is acceptable only as a last resort-that is, if the Shah ignores the Islamic community's legitimate demands. He insists on the segregation of sexes...
...past who served as Premier during a similar period of unrest in 1961-62. Karim Sanjabi, leader of the opposition National Front, a loose alignment that includes a broad spectrum of political groups ranging from conservative to leftist, flew to Paris to talk with Ayatullah Khomeini, the dissident mullah who is spiritual leader of Iran's 34 million Shi'ite Muslims. Aides to the Shah confirmed that the monarch intends to confer with Sanjabi when he returns this week. There is speculation that he may be considering a government that would be headed by National Front members...
...which his opponents are divided. Many people in Iran would like to see him remain as a figurehead but removed from politics; others insist that his rule must end. One of the most vigorous advocates of the Shah's removal is Ayatullah Khomeini, the 76-year-old mullah who is now the undisputed spiritual and political leader of Iran's 32 million Shi'ite Muslims, who comprise 93% of the population. A longtime opponent of the Shah, Khomeini was exiled in 1963 following violent demonstrations against the Shah's land reforms. Two weeks ago, he was expelled from Iraq, where...
...specialist in Islamic philosophy and law, Khomeini lives the typically ascetic life of a mullah and hardly looks like a political leader who could galvanize a nation. Yet no less a personage than Ardeshir Zahedi, Iranian Ambassador to the U.S., tried to pay a call on Khomeini in France. The reported purpose of the visit was to persuade Khomeini to return to Iran and help defuse the crisis. But Khomeini refused to see the ambassador. He will not return to Iran, he insists, until the Shah's rule has ended. Last week TIME Correspondent Dean Brelis interviewed Khomeini...