Ruhollah Khomeini

About Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) was a highly influential Iranian Shia Muslim cleric and revolutionary, ranked as the #679 most historically important figure by MIT's Pantheon project. His defining historical contribution was leading the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty and established the Islamic Republic of Iran, fundamentally reshaping the Middle East's political landscape. As the first Supreme Leader, his interpretation of Twelver Shiism, known as *Velayat-e Faqih* (Guardianship of the Jurist), became the foundational political and religious doctrine of the new state.

In terms of modern digital attention, Khomeini’s historical impact (#679) is heavily overrepresented online, evidenced by a +7x 'Attention Gap' indicating overattention relative to his historical importance. He accrued approximately 2.5 million annualized Wikipedia pageviews in 2025. For contrast, Alexander Pushkin, ranked significantly higher in historical importance at #458, received less than one-third of that traffic, tallying only 706K views, suggesting a disproportionate focus on modern political figures over foundational cultural and historical leaders from earlier eras.

Despite his current high view count, Khomeini’s digital relevance is actively growing, as shown by a robust +14.2% year-over-year change in views and a +9% momentum boost between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, indicating sustained or increasing contemporary interest.