Over the last decade, for better or worse, Khomeini's radical brand of activist Islamic fundamentalism has blown through the world like a violent storm.
His activist, dogmatic interpretation of the Koran had global ambitions. Khomeini's willingness to confront the West was a call to action for the world's 900 million Muslims.
It shook the governments of many more religiously moderate Arab states - most notably Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - and led Iran into a succession of confrontations with the United States, Khomeini's "Great Satan."
AMERICA'S FOE
For America, Khomeini will be remembered as the architect of bloodshed and political embarrassment. He was directly or indirectly responsible for some of the most difficult and tragic incidents in recent American foreign policy,
from the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, to the 1983 bombing of Marine headquarters in Beirut, in which 241 servicemen were killed, to the seizure of Western hostages in Lebanon.
In the last two years, this radical Khomeini tide began to wane, with Iran's agreement to a cease-fire in 1988 after eight years of horrific war with Iraq. But his purist brand of Shiite Islam remains a potent and dangerous force in Islamic nations around the world.
"It takes a generation for history to effectively judge a great man," said Abdulaziz Sachedina, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia. "It remains to be seen whether Khomeini will ultimately be judged a negative or positive force in the Islamic world."
Long before political events rewarded Khomeini with power in Iran, he had mapped out his new Islamic state in strict detail.
