Biography
Early Life
Sayyid Ahmad Musavi Hindi was born in 1800 in Kintoor, a town in the Barabanki district of the Awadh (Oudh) region, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. His family had migrated towards the end of the 18th century from Nishapur in Iran to northern India, settling in Kintoor. As a Sayyid, he claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad through the Musavi line.
Twelver Shia cleric (Sayyid)
Sayyid Ahmad Musavi Hindi (1800-1869) was a Twelver Shia Muslim cleric born in Kintoor, in the Awadh region of northern India (modern Uttar Pradesh). His family had emigrated from Nishapur in Iran and settled in India in the late 18th century, and he carried the nisba 'Hindi' throughout his life in reference to his Indian residence.
Around 1830 he permanently left India, initially setting out on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq. In 1834 he travelled to Iran and settled in the town of Khomeyn, where he purchased a house along with orchards, land, and a caravanserai, and married locally. He had five children.
He is best remembered historically as the paternal grandfather of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder and first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran; his son Mostafa (born 1856) was Khomeini's father. Sayyid Ahmad died in 1869 and was buried in Karbala, Iraq.
