The Shah falls and Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Tehran; the Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed under the guardianship of the jurist, the first modern state built on Twelver Shia doctrine, and its example re-energizes movements, Sunni and Shia alike, across the region.
Tagged: Modern Reformist Islam Muslim Twelver Shia Islam
The Event
- Date
- 1979 (exact)
- Era
- Modern; Standard periodization of Islamic history
- Location
- Tehran; today Tehran, Iran
- Traditions
- Islam
- Streams
- Twelver Shia Islam, Modern Reformist Islam
- Key figures
- Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
- Key texts
- Islamic Government (Velayat-e Faqih)
How the Tradition Tells It
The revolution's doctrine of the guardianship of the jurist is a Twelver Shia construction that many Shia scholars themselves dispute, and Sunni Islamist movements drew organizational lessons from 1979 while rejecting its Shia doctrine outright.
Primary Sources
- Khomeini, Islamic Government
Secondary Sources
- Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (Norton, 2006)
- Gelvin, The Modern Middle East: A History (Oxford, 4th ed. 2016)
Provenance: HIST-0251; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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