Ayatallah Khamenei: Unprecedented event in contemporary history

The death of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatallah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, has been described as an unprecedented event in contemporary history. Many see him as one of the major reformist Islamic leaders in the world; hence the attack is considered an action outside the bounds of international law. Khamenei was believed to have been […]

The death of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatallah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, has been described as an unprecedented event in contemporary history. Many see him as one of the major reformist Islamic leaders in the world; hence the attack is considered an action outside the bounds of international law.

Khamenei was believed to have been killed by airstrikes, courtesy of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), on February 28, 2026.

“Agree that it was an unparalleled event. I can’t think of a similar case to the execution of a head of state by a bombing raid from another country without any declaration of war,” said Javier Chinchón Álvarez, a professor of International Law and International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Following the killing and those of other attacks, Iran is currently at war with USA and Israel, including Middle East countries.

Khamenei, a Shia cleric, served first as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 following the revolution that overthrew the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979 before becoming the Supreme Leader and held the title of Ayatollah and was considered one of the world’s leading maraji of Twelver Shi’ism.

Born into the Khamenei family, he studied at a hawza in his hometown of Mashhad, later settling in Qom in 1958, where he attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. Then he became involved in opposition to Shah Pahlavi.

Khamenei was arrested six times before being exiled for three years by the Shah’s regime. He was a mainstream figure in the Iranian Revolution, and upon its success, held many posts in the newly established Islamic republic. In the aftermath of the revolution, he was the target of an attempted assassination that paralysed his right arm.

While serving as the third president, the Iran-Iraq war broke out, which drew him closer to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). After the death and state funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei was elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts. During the deliberations, he expressed reservations about his religious qualifications and suitability for the position.

As opposed to his predecessor who held the rank of Grand Ayatollah, Khamenei was then a mid-ranking cleric and did not meet the constitutional requirement of marja.

He was born on April 19, 1939 to Javad Khamenei, an alim and mujtahid born in Najaf, Iraq, and his second wife Khadijeh Mirdamadi (daughter of Hashem Mirdamadi) in Mashhad. He was the sixth of eight children, the third born to his mother. Two of his brothers are also clerics; his younger brother, Hadi Khamenei, is a newspaper editor and cleric. His elder sister, Fatemeh Hosseini Khamenei died in 2015, aged 89. His father was an ethnic Azerbaijani Turk from Khamaneh. His mother was ethnic Persia from Yazd.

As an adolescent, Khamenei read widely in literature, poetry and novels. He became familiar with major works of Persian poetry and began composing poetry at a young age.