UP Hamlet's Connection to Iran's First Ayatollah

AYATOLLAH Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, the fiery cleric who ignited the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and went on to become its first Supreme Leader, traced his roots to a rather nondescript UP village—Kintoor.

- NAMITA BAJPAI @ Lucknow

Located in Barabanki, some 50 km from the state capital, Kintoor was once dominated by Shias. Today, only five Shia families remain in the village of around 13,000 inhabitants.

Khomeini's grandfather Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi had migrated to Iran in the 1800s. However, among the five Shia families still residing in the village, the Kazmis claim a distant kinship with Musavi.

A portrait of Khomeini still adorns a wall in the room of Syed Nihal Kazmi who claims his great-great-great-grandfather Mufti Mohammad Quli Musavi and Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi were cousins.