Our Bureau
Lucknow
A small village along the Ghaghara river, just 70 kilometers from Lucknow, is home to a lineage that once shaped the destiny of Iran. In Kintoor, the lingering traces of a shared history between India and Iran’s revolutionary past are preserved by a handful of Shia families, whose ancestors include the forebears of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Today, only five Shia families remain in Kintoor, a stark contrast to its former prominence as a center of Shia scholarship during the era of Oudh. Among them, the Kazmi family proudly traces a direct connection to the Khomeini family. “My great-great-great-grandfather Mufti Mohammad Quli Musavi and Syed Ahmad Musavi were cousins,” explains septuagenarian Syed Nihal Kazmi, seated beneath a fading portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini, who served as Iran’s first supreme leader until his death in 1989.
The story of Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, grandfather of Ayatollah Khomeini, is one of migration, faith, and fortuitous alliances. Born in Kintoor in the early 1800s, Ahmad left British India in 1830 on a pilgrimage to Najaf, Iraq. There, he met Yusef Khan Kamarchi, a landowner from Farahan in Iran. By 1839, Ahmad had settled in Khomeyn, purchased a large house with a garden, and married Yusef’s sister Sakineh. This union laid the foundation for the Khomeini family’s rise in Iran.
While much attention has focused on Ayatollah Khomeini’s legacy, recent interest has also turned to the Indian roots of Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Although less widely documented, Khamenei’s family is also said to have origins in the same region of eastern Uttar Pradesh, underscoring the deep historical and cultural connections between India and Iran.
