After the shah was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, Iran became an Islamic republic. Khamenei was appointed as a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Council, which was put in place to manage the ...

A property empire built on seizures. Khamenei became Iran's supreme leader in 1989. He was 50. He now has the final say on all of Iran's domestic and foreign policy.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a mourning ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, July 6, 2025.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd while attending a ceremony marking the 30th death anniversary of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, shown in the poster at ...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran last year. He was born in 1939 into a religious family of modest means and rose quickly in the regime that took power after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.