Ahmad Hindi

Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi (died 1869), a Twelver Shia Muslim scholar. He was paternal grandfather Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini.

In the early 18th century his family had migrated from their original home in Nishapur to the Kingdom of Oudh of northern India whose rulers were Twelver Shia Muslims; they settled in the town of Kintoor, Barabanki.

He was born in Kintoor and was a contemporary and relative of the famous scholar Ayatollah Syed Mir Hamid Hussain Musavi Kintoori.

In about 1830 he left Lucknow for to the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq for pilgrimage and to study at one of its famous seminaries; he never returned back to India. According to Moin this movement was to escape colonial rule of British Raj in India. He visited Iran in 1834 and settled down in Khomein where in 1839 he purchased the large house and garden spanning 4,000-square-meter and costing very large sum of 100 tomans. He later purchased more land in and around Khomein including an orchard and caravanserai, these properties remained in the family upto modern times.

Till 1841 he had married three wives Shirin Khanum, Bibi Khanum and Sakineh (his friend Yusuf Khan Kamareh'i's sister), all from Khomein. He had only one child from his first two wives, but had three daughters and a son Mostafa (Father of Ruhollah Khomeini), who was born in 1856 from Sakineh.

He died in 1869 and, as he had instructed in his will, the family took his body by mule to the holy city of Karbala for burial.

Although he stayed back and settled in Iran, he continued to be known as Hindi, even Ruhollah Khomeini used Hindi as pen name in some of his ghazals. Also, Ruhollah's brother was known by name Nureddin Hindi.