The strength of the book is describing Khomeini's views towards Islam. It is very informative about mysticism and Khomeini's attachment to it. On the other hand, the book is not very detailed and I was yearning for more insight and information. There is little detail on the personality and personal life of Khomeini. Instead, the author focuses on the events that take place during Khomeini's lifetime more than Khomeini's life. In other words, I would recommend it for those who do not know much about history of 20th Century Iran. For those who have even a basic understanding of that period of Iranian history, I would not recommend it.

Baquer Moin, an Iranian Cleric himself, traces an extremely interesting portrait of Khomeini personality and career as a political and religious leader.

The model used by Baquer Moin to analyse Khomeini's life and achievements is based on the division of the Iranian leader's experience in there main parts: mystic, jurisprudence (that is Islamic law) and the politics: three cornerstones, of Khomeini career. Mysticism as the one fundamental drive in the formation of a religious leader who becomes one with God, jurisprudence or knowledge of the Islamic law and its application to modern world and politics as the art of transforming the role of the Iranian clergy.

This book explain how the Iranian clergy, after five century of collaboration with the conservative Iranian monarchy and 50 years of opposition to the modernising monarchy of the Palavi, has turned itself in the ruling power in control of Iranian State and society.

Furthermore, the book analyses and explains an otherwise difficult figure for most westerns, and contribute to the understanding of Khomeini popularity in Iran and abroad, despite the many shortcomings of the Islamic regime he inspired and built.

This biography of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 - 1989) is not just a biography. It also is an excellent introduction to the theological and intellectual, as well as political, currents of 20th century Iran. I was struck by how different Baqer Moin's 'view from inside Islam' is from others' 'view from outside Islam.' One can glimpse the feelings, frustrations, and motivations of a people caught in a world where they were losing control over their own fates. The first chapters of this book are mind-bogglingly informative, telling the story of how a Western-influenced elite futilely tried to create a secular state atop a deeply traditional Shiite society. Ultimately the elites were so out of touch that they lost control; Iranian Shiism and its religious leaders channeled popular discontent and were able to control the directions in which Iran would evolve. Baqer Moin brilliantly documents Ruhollah Khomeini's development over a lifetime, explaining him in terms of Shiite theology, mysticism, and law - not to mention as power politician and demagogue. He states: "Khomeini established his credentials as a prominent religious leader before moving on to the political arena in order to both strengthen his standing within the religious establishment and widen his power base in general." As Moin also points out: "Khomeini was, in a sense, one of the few to have reached the stature of a leading jurisprudent, the highest level of theoretical mysticism and also to have become a highly-regarded teacher of Islamic philosophy. He was unique in being at the same time a leading practitioner of militant Islam." Ultimately the author documents a fanatic firmly convinced that he is the representative of God on earth, using his religious position to command absolute authority. Khomeini's deep debt (usually unrecognized) to Islamic mysticism is fully explored. Were his ideas mysticism run amok? Did his mystic dreams merge into megalomania? Was Khomeini a 'heretic?' Baqer Moin (a former Islamic seminarian from Iran) makes a strong case that, in his last years, Khomeini's brand of fundamentalism was diametrically contrary to classical Shiism -- and in many ways un-Islamic. Moin definitely paints a somewhat darker picture of everyday Iranian Islamic life than does, for example, Ann Armstrong, in her more sympathetic portraits. (This book, incidentally, is cited in Karen Armstrong's "The Battle for God", her recent work about international fundamentalism). Though the author carefully examines the Grand Ayatollah's motivations, one is left with an understanding that never seems to go deeper than the intellectual. I suspect that this is not Moin's fault, but a reflection of Khomeini's cerebral inhumanity. By the time the cleric first got into serious trouble with the Shah's regime (initially imprisoned -- then exiled first to Turkey, next to Iraq, and finally to France) he was already in his 60's. (Khomeini 'the old man' was wily, successful, and brilliant - he was certainly NOT likeable.) This book is certainly an excellent first step to understanding modern Iran and the man who changed it so much. I found this book so appealing that after I read it the first time, I went back and read it through a second time! I thoroughly recommend it...