Ali Khamenei

Born in Mashhad to the Khamenei family, of Azerbaijani and Persian descent, he studied at a hawza there before settling in Qom in 1958, where he attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. His birth date is disputed: the English article and Wikidata give 19 April 1939, while the Persian article records that his identity certificate gives 16 July 1939 and that he himself held the correct date to be in April of that year. He became involved in opposition to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was arrested six times and exiled for three years by the Pahlavi government; an attempted assassination after the revolution paralysed his right arm. ^{1 2}

Khamenei was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. On Khomeini's death in 1989 he was chosen as supreme leader although, as the English article notes, he was not then a marja' — a senior clerical authority in Twelver Shi'ism — which the Iranian constitution required; the requirement was adjusted and his position confirmed. His foreign policy centred on Shia Islamism and exporting the Islamic Revolution. ¹

He was assassinated on 28 February 2026, killed by Israeli airstrikes during the 2026 Iran war; the Arabic article's lead likewise records his assassination on that date in that war, and the Persian article's infobox ends his leadership the same day. His state funeral took place from 3 to 9 July 2026, and his son Mojtaba Khamenei had been elected his successor on 8 March. ^{1 3}

His faith is recorded as shia-twelver, documented, under the museum's Shia-mapping rule: the English and Urdu leads both call him a Shia cleric — two independent texts attesting "Shia" — and the branch is supplied by the stated context, including the English infobox's Twelver denomination, his formation at Qom in Khomeini's classes, the English text's discussion of his standing within Twelver Shi'ism, and his headship of the Islamic Republic, whose constitution establishes Twelver Ja'fari Shi'ism. Wikidata carries only Islam and Shia Islam in general. ^{1 4 5}

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