Word: qum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Khomeini was educated as a scholar in Qum, the holy city where he worked as a teacher, married and reared a family of six children. An excellent instructor, he was fascinated by the Greek philosophers, especially Plato, whose Republic provided the Ayatullah with a model for his own concept of the ideal state, in which the philosopher-king was replaced by the Islamic theologian...
...with the regime of the Shah. In 1962 he led a general strike of the clergy to protest reforms allowing witnesses in court to swear by any "divine book," instead of the Koran alone. By the spring of 1963 he was under house arrest for telling huge crowds at Qum that just a "flick of the finger" could sweep away the Shah. Soon after his release a few months later, Khomeini was arrested again, this time for fomenting riots against a modernization program that included land reform. He was imprisoned for half a year, then exiled to Turkey. He soon...
...confidence became visible late last February, after the Iranians revived the so-called war of the cities by firing two missiles into Baghdad, the capital, and Basra, the key port city in the south. The Iraqis reacted in kind. Rockets fell on Tehran, on the holy city of Qum and other Iranian towns, and sent civilians fleeing. Between Feb. 29 and April 19, when the missile war was halted, Iraq fired 160 Soviet-made Scud-B missiles, which had been modified to increase their range beyond the normal 175 miles. The bombs killed and wounded hundreds in Tehran and other...
...over. At this point, it is unclear what impact his alleged role in the U.S.-Iran arms deal will have on the succession. "It's a time bomb ticking away," says one diplomat. While Iran's council of experts designated Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, 64, the senior cleric from Qum, as the formal successor, Khomeini has yet to approve the recommendation. Western diplomats say Rafsanjani has the political ability to outmaneuver Montazeri. Regardless of who the next Iranian leader will be, it is not expected that he will change Khomeini's policies or halt the war. One Iranian shrugged...
Iraq has counterattacked with devastating air raids on a dozen Iranian cities, including Tehran, Isfahan and the holy city of Qum. Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reported last week that 212 civilians had been killed and more than 600 wounded in the raids. Iran retaliated by firing a long-range missile that struck a residential area of Baghdad, causing dozens of casualties...