Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...

Ahmad Musavi Hindi (; 1800–1869) was a

Twelver Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

cleric. He was the paternal grandfather of the supreme leader of the Islamic republic of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

Biography

India

His family migrated towards the end of the 18th century from

Nishapur Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wr ...

Oudh The Oudh State (, also Kingdom of Awadh, Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. They settled in the town of

Kintoor Kintoor or Kintur is a village in Barabanki district famous for battle of Kintoor of 1858 during the Indian Mutiny. Battle of Kintoor The Battle of Kintoor was a conflict between rebel sepoys and troops East India Company and Kapurthala Sta ...

Barabanki district Barabanki district is one of the five Districts of Uttar Pradesh, districts of Faizabad division (officially ''Ayodhya division''), in the central Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh, India. Barabanki city is the administrative headquarters of Barabank ...

.From Khomein, ''A biography of the Ayatollah''
14 June 1999, The IranianKhomeini: life of the Ayatollah, Volume 1999
By Baqer MoinRuhollah Khomeini's brief biography by Hamid Algar Zayn al-'Abidin al-Musavi, who was progenitor of sayeds of Kintoor, was great-great-grandfather of Seyyed Ahmad.Islam, Politics, and Social Movements
By Edmund Burke, III, Ervand Abrahamian He was born in

.The Columbia world dictionary of Islamism
By Olivier Roy, Antoine Sfeir

Iraq

In about 1830 he permanently left India, initially on a pilgrimage to the tomb of

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

Najaf Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated popula ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. According to Moin, this movement was to escape colonial rule.

Iran

He visited Iran in 1834 and bought a house in

Khomeyn Khomein ( fa, خمين, also Romanized as Khowmeyn) is a city and capital of Khomeyn County, Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2015 census, its population was 76,706 in 17,399 families. Khomein is located to the south of the province, in a fertil ...

. He later purchased more land in and around Khomeyn, including an orchard and

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...

. These properties remained in the family up to modern times. By 1841 he had married three wives: Shirin Khanum, Bibi Khanum, and Sakineh (his friend Yusuf Khan Kamareh'i's sister), all from Khomeyn. He had five children, including a son named Mostafa (father of

), who was born in 1856 from Sakineh.

Death

He died in 1869 and was buried in

Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...

The Hindi ''nisba'' (title)

He continued to be known by the ''nisba'' (title) ''Hindi'' (i.e. from

Hind A hind is a female deer, especially a red deer. Places * Hind (Sasanian province, 262-484) * Hind and al-Hind, a Persian and Arabic name for the Indian subcontinent * Hind (crater), a lunar impact crater * 1897 Hind, an asteroid Military ...

or India), indicating his stay there. Even

used ''Hindi'' as a pen name in some of his

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

s. Ruhollah Khomeini's brother was known by name Nureddin ''Hindi''.

References

{{Ruhollah Khomeini 1869 deaths Iranian Shia clerics Iranian Shia scholars of Islam People from Nishapur 19th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Iranian expatriates in India People from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh Ruhollah Khomeini Scholars from Lucknow Al-Moussawi family Year of birth unknown Indian people of Iranian descent 19th-century Indian Muslims Indian Shia clerics