The Ayatollahs and the Republic: The Religious Establishment in Iran and Its Intersection with the Islamic Republic
December 21, 2017 Project on Middle East Political Science
Postdoctoral Fellow Ali Kadivar in POMEPS, "The death of Ayatollah Khomeini was a turning point in the relationship between the Islamic Republic and the clerical establishment. While Khomeini himself was a source of emulation and so had the highest religious credentials, his successor Ali Khamenei was just a middle rank cleric that before his ascension to leadership was not even called ayatollah, let alone grand ayatollah."