Return of Khomeini to Iran
Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran from exile
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The crowds were so dense his motorcade could not finish the trip by road. He completed it in an American-built Iranian Air Force helicopter.
Mehrabad Airport, 1 February 1979
On 1 February 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini landed in Tehran aboard a chartered Air France Boeing 747, ending an exile that had begun with his deportation on 4 November 1964 — more than fourteen years.
Bakhtiar's government sought to delay his return, and the military occupied Mehrabad from 24 to 30 January. At the airport Khomeini thanked those who made his return possible and called for unity in removing the remaining institutions of the Shah's regime.
Eighteen miles the crowd would not clear
Millions lined the streets, in contemporary descriptions, along the roughly 18-mile route toward Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. When the motorcade was overwhelmed, Khomeini continued by helicopter.
The destination was chosen: the cemetery held graves of people killed during the uprising and had become a major revolutionary memorial site.
The speech among the graves
In a reported 30-minute address, Khomeini denounced Shapour Bakhtiar's government as illegitimate and said he intended to replace it with a government backed by the revolutionary movement.
Iran now had two openly competing centers of authority. On 5 February Khomeini publicly named Mehdi Bazargan to lead a provisional government.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The date and itinerary are secure. Exact crowd estimates range into several millions and cannot be independently counted.
- “Nearly 15 years” is conventional rounding. Khomeini was deported on November 4, 1964, so his exile lasted approximately fourteen years and three months.
- Some sources assign the cemetery address to February 2, but contemporary reporting and the detailed Iranica biography place the airport arrival, journey, and address in the February 1 homecoming sequence.