Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes in late February, was Iran’s second and longest serving supreme leader.
He became head of state in 1989, after the death of his mentor and predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic Revolution, died just under ten years after founding the Islamic Republic.
His funeral was recognized by Guinness World Records as having the “largest percentage of population to attend a funeral,” with an estimated 10.2 million people — equivalent to one sixth of the country’s population — in attendance, according to official Iranian estimates.
The events surrounding the funeral were chaotic, with eight people killed and hundreds injured, according to a report written by the Associated Press news agency at the time.
Iran’s semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) wrote about the 1989 funeral earlier this week, describing how the enormous crowds exceeded the numbers expected by authorities.
When Khomeini’s coffin began moving in a convoy, mourners surged towards it, causing a crowd crush and forcing the funeral procession to be abandoned, according to ISNA. The coffin was airlifted away from the scene by helicopter to allow the crowds to disperse, it said.
Some mourners scratched their faces until they bled in their grief, the AP reported at the time. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had to hit some mourners’ hands to get them to let go of Khomeini’s coffin as it passed through the crowds, it described.
