Infectious Idealism in Khomeini’s Ideology

Hanin Alsudais

Ruhollah Khomeini was one of the last revolutionaries of the twentieth century and an exceptional case of evolutionism in the modern Iranian political sphere. In the 1979 Iranian revolution, Khomeini reshaped the modern history of Iran, giving it a different kind of governance that had never before existed. This paper discusses how Khomeini managed to gain legitimacy with both the masses and the intellectuals of Iran and analyze why this was possible.