The Shah Falls and Khomeini Returns
Millions greet a 78-year-old cleric coming home after fourteen years in exile
Quick facts
- Shah left Iran
- Mid-January 1979
- Khomeini returned
- February 1, 1979
- Years in exile
- 14 (Turkey, Iraq, France)
- Crowd estimate
- 5-10 million
What happened
By late 1978, a wave of strikes shut down Iran's economy, bazaars, schools, government ministries, and the oil industry itself, with strikers demanding the abolition of the shah's secret police, the SAVAK, and the return of the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Facing this pressure, the shah left Iran in mid-January 1979. On February 1, 1979, Khomeini, then 78 years old, landed at Mehrabad International Airport near Tehran after fourteen years in exile in Turkey, Iraq, and France, greeted by an estimated five to ten million people. Asked by a reporter how he felt about returning home, Khomeini replied simply, "Nothing." Within days he had denounced the shah's last-appointed prime minister and moved to consolidate power through a Revolutionary Council.
Why it matters
The 1979 revolution ended the 2,500-year continuity of Persian monarchy that traced back, at least symbolically, to Cyrus the Great, and it replaced it not with a Western-style democracy but with a new form of religious authority under Khomeini. Historians have noted the revolution's unusual character among 20th-century uprisings: it was one of the largest nonviolent revolutions in history in terms of how the shah was removed, even as violence followed quickly once the new order began consolidating power.
How we know
The 1978 strikes and Khomeini's February 1979 return are documented in contemporary international news coverage and analyzed in detail by scholars of nonviolent political movements, drawing on eyewitness accounts and Iranian government records of the period.
Sources
- Al Jazeera. 40 Years On: Khomeini's Return From Exile and the Iran Revolution · General sourcealjazeera.com · Cited as a "news" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Global Nonviolent Action Database, Swarthmore College. Iranians Overthrow the Shah, 1977-79 · Reputable sourcenvdatabase.swarthmore.edu · The domain "nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineHistory of Iran27 events · A conquest that could not erase a language, a shah deposed by a CIA cable, and a revolution that replaced a crown with a clericView all →