I learn such interesting things, doing research for this website. For example, did you know that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shi'a cleric who led the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, had family roots in India?
Evidently, in the 18th century, the ayatollah's Persian ancestors migrated from Nishapur, in the north-eastern part of Iran, to the Persian-ruled kingdom of Awadh in Northern India, centered near Lucknow. Ayatollah Khomeini's grandfather left India in 1830 for a pilgrimage to Najaf, Iraq (where Khomeini would later live in exile for 13 years), and never returned. Nine years later, he settled in the Persian village of Khomein.
As a result, the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini's father was known as Mostafa Hindi ("Mostafa the Indian"). The ayatollah himself signed some of his early poems and political musings with the pseudonym "Hindi," as well.
Photo from Hulton Archive / Getty Images.
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