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Rating: 
Summary: A Great Biography
Review: ...The book contains some interesting titbits about the life of Khomeini, the mullah who presided over a reign of terror in Iran in the 1980s. ( According to Amnesty Internatoional at least 100,000 people were executed during Khomeini's decade-long rule. This book, however, does not cite a single one of those political murders.)
Because he is a trained cleric, the writer also offers some insight into the psychology of mullahs, especially their consummate skill in deception.
The problem, however, is that the author has studiously avoided any discussion of Khomeini's policies. It is as if Khomeini were a movie star or another celebrity with absolutely no connection with politics.
The author also largely ignores Khomeini's position as an ayatollah, thus saying very little about his theological writings and opinions on matters of faith.
Moin wants to avoid running into trouble with the Khomeinist regime in Tehran and thus flatters the late ayatollah whenever he can get away with it.
At the same time , however, because the book is designed to sell in Western markets, he tries to hint at some, very mild, criticism without ever getting into any depth.
Anxious not to appear to be taking sides, while taking sides,the author causes much confusion and, eventually, annoyance.
One wonders why this book was written. Pierre Benedile, London
Rating:
Summary: Informative and insightful biography of Komeiny
Review: Baquer Moin, an Iranian Cleric himself, traces an extremely interesting portrait of Khomeini personality and career as a political and religious leader. The model used by Baquer Moin to analyse Khomeini's life and achievements is based on the division of the Iranian leader's experience in there main parts: mystic, jurisprudence (that is Islamic law) and the politics: three cornerstones, of Khomeini career. Mysticism as the one fundamental drive in the formation of a religious leader who becomes one with God, jurisprudence or knowledge of the Islamic law and its application to modern world and politics as the art of transforming the role of the Iranian clergy. This book explain how the Iranian clergy, after five century of collaboration with the conservative Iranian monarchy and 50 years of opposition to the modernising monarchy of the Palavi, has turned itself in the ruling power in control of Iranian State and society. Furthermore, the book analyses and explains an otherwise difficult figure for most westerns, and contribute to the understanding of Khomeini popularity in Iran and abroad, despite the many shortcomings of the Islamic regime he inspired and built.
Rating: 
Summary: FAILS TO SELL KHOMEINI
Review: Khomeini, the mullah who seized power in Iran and unleashed a reign of terror, has been the subject of many critical articles and at least one biography. It is, therefore, welcome that Mr Moin has written a biography that is sympathetic to the late clerical leader.
Moin, however, lacks the knowledges and the analytical abilities needed to do the job properly.
Those who wish to hear Khommeini's side had better refer to the work of Hamid Algar, a Briton who converted to Islam and has become one of the most passionate followers of the late ayatollah in the United States.
RB
Rating:
Summary: The Usual Stuff
Review: Sadly, there are very few books in English which discuss the Islamic Revolution in Iran from the Iranian point of view. The truth is that the late Ayatollah Khomeini was and still is very popular among Iranians living inside Iran. This book, while trying to portray itself as being objective, follows the same agenda as other books written previously.
Rating:
Summary: ENDLESS CONTROVERSY
Review: The late Ayatollah Khomeini, the man who founded the Islamic Republic in Iran, has been the subject of bitter debate for over a quarter of a century.
He is likely to remain so for many more years.
Those who see him as an incarnation of evil- after all, he caused the deaths of more than a million Iranians and a quarter of a million Iraqis- could not be bothered about his real or imagined religious credentials.
Those, on the other hand, who regard him as a revolutionary leader in the same class as Robespierre, Lenin, Mao Zedong and , more recently, Fidel Castro, will regard his many victims as so many necessary sacrifices at the altar of the Revolution.
The problem with Mr. Moin's bigoraphy of Khomeini is that the author can never quite make up his mind about the ayatollah's precise role in the events that helped make his name.
Moin, a mullah who has cast aside his clercial cloak to work for the BBC in London, tries to explain away Khomeini's excesses in a spirit of clerical solidarity.
Nevertheless, reading between the lines, one could see that even a mullah such as Mr. Moin cannot be quite comfortable with Khomeini's career of crime.
Mr. Moin is, of course, right in suggesting, ever so gingerly that not all mullahs are murderers.
Jamila Sherian
Rating:
Summary: A history of 20th century Iran!
Review: This biography of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 - 1989) is not just a biography. It also is an excellent introduction to the theological and intellectual, as well as political, currents of 20th century Iran. I was struck by how different Baqer Moin's 'view from inside Islam' is from others' 'view from outside Islam.' One can glimpse the feelings, frustrations, and motivations of a people caught in a world where they were losing control over their own fates. The first chapters of this book are mind-bogglingly informative, telling the story of how a Western-influenced elite futilely tried to create a secular state atop a deeply traditional Shiite society. Ultimately the elites were so out of touch that they lost control; Iranian Shiism and its religious leaders channeled popular discontent and were able to control the directions in which Iran would evolve. Baqer Moin brilliantly documents Ruhollah Khomeini's development over a lifetime, explaining him in terms of Shiite theology, mysticism, and law - not to mention as power politician and demagogue. He states: "Khomeini established his credentials as a prominent religious leader before moving on to the political arena in order to both strengthen his standing within the religious establishment and widen his power base in general." As Moin also points out: "Khomeini was, in a sense, one of the few to have reached the stature of a leading jurisprudent, the highest level of theoretical mysticism and also to have become a highly-regarded teacher of Islamic philosophy. He was unique in being at the same time a leading practitioner of militant Islam." Ultimately the author documents a fanatic firmly convinced that he is the representative of God on earth, using his religious position to command absolute authority. Khomeini's deep debt (usually unrecognized) to Islamic mysticism is fully explored. Were his ideas mysticism run amok? Did his mystic dreams merge into megalomania? Was Khomeini a 'heretic?' Baqer Moin (a former Islamic seminarian from Iran) makes a strong case that, in his last years, Khomeini's brand of fundamentalism was diametrically contrary to classical Shiism -- and in many ways un-Islamic. Moin definitely paints a somewhat darker picture of everyday Iranian Islamic life than does, for example, Ann Armstrong, in her more sympathetic portraits. (This book, incidentally, is cited in Karen Armstrong's "The Battle for God", her recent work about international fundamentalism). Though the author carefully examines the Grand Ayatollah's motivations, one is left with an understanding that never seems to go deeper than the intellectual. I suspect that this is not Moin's fault, but a reflection of Khomeini's cerebral inhumanity. By the time the cleric first got into serious trouble with the Shah's regime (initially imprisoned -- then exiled first to Turkey, next to Iraq, and finally to France) he was already in his 60's. (Khomeini 'the old man' was wily, successful, and brilliant - he was certainly NOT likeable.) This book is certainly an excellent first step to understanding modern Iran and the man who changed it so much. I found this book so appealing that after I read it the first time, I went back and read it through a second time! I thoroughly recommend it...
Rating:
Summary: very good book
Review: what i truly enjoyed about this biography of khoemeini was that is was pretty much non biased,not like the western world's view of the man who portrayed the ayatollah as a fanatic and madman.sure it was written by an iranian cleric but i find he was very non biased even though in reality he was proberly in fact a big admirer of the ayatollah.but in parts of this book i get the sense he is actually critizing the ayatollah on some of he's beliefs and actions.after reading this book you are left scratching your head about what the ayatollah was all about,but i must admit i learned some new facts about the man that really surprised me,i must say to the disdain i'm sure of those reading this review,that i really now gained a new found respect for the ayatollah ruhollah khoemeini after reading this book.the man surely was'nt as bad as the western media would led you to believe.very informative book.
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