Why a small village in India is suddenly in the spotlight amid Israel-Iran conflict
Editor's Note: Follow our live blog for real-time updates on the latest developments in the Israel-Iran conflict.]
Amid the ongoing barrage between Israel and Iran, a small town nestled in Uttar Pradesh has unexpectedly come under the limelight, tracing roots of Iran's founder and first supreme leader back to India.
Kintoor, a village in the Barabanki district of the Awadh region of central Uttar Pradesh, was once home to the family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran, who is known as the 'architect' of the nation. The details were reported in BBC journalist and author Baqer Moin's book Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah published in 1999, and have come to light afresh amid the ongoing conflict.
It started with Ayatollah's grandfather, Syed Ahmed Musavi Hindi, a Shia cleric and scholar born in Kintoor in the 1800s. According to Moin, described as "a specialist on Iran and Islam", Hindi's family from a generation earlier had migrated to India from Iran.
Committed to his purpose, Hindi left India during the British colonial era and headed towards Iraq in 1830, where he intended to visit the tomb of Imam Ali, located in Najaf.
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What was supposed to be a pilgrimage led to migration, and the scholar never looked back and made his way towards Iran, where he got married and raised children in the Iranian city of Khomeyn.
According to Iranian historical records, Syed Ahmed Musavi Hindi retained the name 'Hindi' in his title, paying homage to where he came from. Till date, Iranian records show his title with the name 'Hindi'.
The birth of the first supreme leader
Much after his passing in 1869, Musavi's grandson, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was born in 1902, who would soon go onto become the first supreme leader of Iran, as he championed the teaching and principles of his grandfather.
Ruhollah rose through the political ranks during the 1960s and 70s, when his ideology opposing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's pro-Western monarchy gained mass support.
This soon led to the start of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which saw the deposition of Shah and Ruhollah becoming the first supreme leader of Iran, with the country replacing its internal laws with the current government's anti-Western rule.
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