Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

At the age of four Sayyed Ali and his older brother Mohammad, were sent to maktab, the traditional primary-schools of that time, in order to learn the alphabet and the Holy Quran. Later, he was transferred to a newly established Islamic school to continue his learning.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a key figure in the Iranian Revolution in Iran and a close confidant of Ruhollah Khomeini. Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held many government posts. Muhammad Sahimi claims that his political career began after the Iranian Revolution, when the former President of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then a confidant of Khomeini, brought Khamenei into Khomeini’s inner circle.

Later on, the current President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, then a member of Parliament, arranged for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to get his first major post in the provisional revolutionary government as deputy defense minister.

Khomeini appointed Khamenei to the post of Tehran’s Friday prayers Imam in 1980, after resignation of Hussein-Ali Montazeri from the post. He served briefly as the vice Minister of National Defence from late July to 6 November 1979 and as a supervisor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. He also went to the battlefield as a representative of the defense commission of the parliament.