- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, was killed in an attack confirmed by state media
- Khamenei praised Jawaharlal Nehru's writings on colonialism and industrial suppression in India
- Khamenei translated Arabic books into Farsi and studied Islamic scholarship in Iraq
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed after the United States and Israel's attacks on Iran. The news of his death was confirmed by Iran's state media.
"The Supreme Leader of Iran has Reached Martyrdom," state broadcaster IRIB reported on Sunday.
Reportedly, the 86-year-old leader was killed in his office. Israel's Channel 12 reported that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shown an image of his body after it was recovered from the compound in Tehran.
However, after Khamenei's death, his posts on reading literature by India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, have gone viral. This list also includes Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Khamenei's Posts On Reading, Book By Jawaharlal Nehru Go Viral After His Death
An X user shared a screenshot of Khamenei's post from 2013 and 2021. On August 6, 2013, Iran's late Supreme Leader wrote, "Before studying Glimpses of World History by Mr Nehru, I didn't know India before colonisation had undergone so many important advances."
On September 17, 2013, he posted, "Nehru, a trusted & informed person, says Indian industry wasn't behind UK's but Britons barred local industrial growth away (from) Africa & Latin America."
On November 17, 2021, Khamenei wrote, "There were great civilisations in Africa that were completely destroyed due to their neglect of their capabilities & due to the soft war the colonisers waged against them. In his memoirs, Nehru points to this fact & how the British destroyed the industry of self-reliant India."
An old video of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is going viral on social media in which he said, "Do read this book - Glimpses of World History by Nehru. Unfortunately, you don't read many books. This Glimpses of World History has been written by Nehru. He has explained in detail the process of the British invasion in India and the things the British carried out in India."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Read Jane Austen's Literature
The old posts of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prove that he was an avid reader. He read different kinds of literature, fiction and non-fiction, by writers across the globe.
On July 19, 2016, he shared, "I have read (an) English summary of Jane Austen's books, including Pride and Prejudice. The novel is about a couple in early 19th-century England. They disliked each other because of their pride and preconceived notions, but later, they fell in love and overcame their flaws, as well as societal expectations.
Khamenei reportedly went to Islamic schools in neighbouring Iraq. He had to cut short his training under Ruhollah Khomeini, the former Supreme Leader of Iran, to take care of his ailing father. He later confessed that it was the reason why he could not attain the highest credentials in Islamic scholarship.
In its obituary for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, The Washington Post mentioned that he had learned Arabic and had translated many Arabic books into Farsi over the years. This included works of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb, an intensely anti-American theorist of Islamic holy war.
"I've read many novels and poems," Khamenei revealed on X on February 25, 2015. He found works of Mikhail Sholokhov and Alexei Tolstoy "interesting".
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