Large portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were displayed across Tehran’s Grand Mosque as preparations intensified for the high-profile funeral ceremony of the Iranian supreme leader, who was martyred in US-Israeli airstrikes. The funeral, which was postponed during the peak of the recent Middle East conflict, took place on Saturday, 4th July, amid a delicate ceasefire between Iran and the United States after both sides reached an initial agreement aimed at ending hostilities. Khamenei, regarded as a deeply influential religious leader among Shia Muslims, was martyred at the age of 86 at his residence in central Tehran on February 28, during the opening day of the war. His public funeral ceremony took place on Saturday, when his body lay in state at the massive Grand Mosalla complex in Tehran, a venue commonly used for major Friday prayers, state ceremonies and significant religious events.
Ali Hosseini Khamenei (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in 2026. A member of the Khamenei family, he previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He held the title of Grand Ayatollah and his tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in West Asia at the time of his death. As Iran performed the solemn funeral ceremonies of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the scale of participation showed that it was one of the most significant mass gatherings in contemporary Iranian history. Millions of people from all over the country were present to pay their final respects to their departed leader. Over twenty million people were present at the funeral and delegations from a hundred countries, including many heads of state, were present to bid farewell to the Iranian leader.
Ali Khamenei stood at the heart of the Islamic Republic from 1979 until his death in 2026. He played a pivotal role in both the militarization of the Iranian state and the consolidation of absolute authority in the office of the Supreme Leader. Through a steady centralization of power over four decades, beginning as the trusted confidant of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and a member of the Revolutionary Council, followed by two terms as president from 1981 to 1989, culminating in his elevation to supreme leader in 1989, despite many obstacles and a lack of formal qualifications, Khamenei shaped Iran’s revolutionary regime in his own image. He was the architect of the rise of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shaping it into an instrument of control and national influence. He was also the main force behind Iran’s nuclear capabilities, central to its national security and deterrence strategy. As a pragmatic hard-liner, he sidelined leftists, moderate clerics and dissidents, while occasionally loosening his grip when regime legitimacy or cohesion was at stake.
Khamenei was born on April 19, 1939, in the city of Mashhad. He began his advanced religious studies in Qom under prominent scholars, including Ruhollah Khomeini. From 1963, he was actively involved in protests against the monarchy, for which he was imprisoned several times by Iran’s security services. Khamenei remained closely associated with the exiled Khomeini during this time and, immediately after the latter’s return to Iran in 1979, was appointed to the Revolutionary Council. After its dissolution, he became deputy minister of defense and Khomeini’s personal representative on the Supreme Defense Council. For a brief period, he commanded the IRGC and was a key negotiator in the American embassy hostage crisis.
In 2019, as the renewed sanctions continued to bite, it was becoming apparent that the other signatories were unable to guarantee Iran the benefits of the deal. Khamenei sought a more aggressive government stance in facing the crisis. He categorically rejected renegotiating the agreement with the USA, backed a gradual breach of the deal and engaged in hawkish rhetoric. As protests erupted across the country against the government decision to raise fuel prices, Khamenei ordered a crackdown and dismissed the protesters as thugs. Meanwhile, unrelated protests in neighboring Iraq took aim at Iran, burning down its consulate in Najaf and the USA’s killing of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 brought international tensions to a new level.
Khamenei was immersed in the republic’s politics from the start. A fiery orator in support of Khomeini and an ardent advocate of the concept of “Velayat-e Faqih” (governance by the religious jurist), Khamenei was among the founding members of the loyalist Islamic Republican Party (IRP). He was severely injured in 1981 in one of the series of terrorist bombings that devastated the IRP’s upper echelon. Following the death of President Mohammed Ali Raja’i and the IRP’s Secretary General in another such blast later that year, Khamenei was appointed as the IRP’s Secretary General. Within weeks, he became the IRP’s candidate for the presidency, an office that had previously been off-limits for the clergy.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
