What is the literal meaning of the name "Khomeini"?  (As in, Ayatollah
Khomeini).  For instance, the name "Fatima" means 'mother of many
sons.'  But what is the meaning of the name "Khomeini"?  Plus  a tip
if you can cite an authoritative reference for the meaning (i.e., a
book title or journal or magazine).  Thanks!

Issachar

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 28 Oct 2003 07:56 PST

Hello Issachar,

The name Khomeini as in Ayatollah Khomeini was taken from the town
where he was born.
Encyclopedia of the Orient
http://i-cias.com/e.o/khomeini.htm

“Imam Khomeini was born in the town of Khomein, about 350 kms south of
Tehran in the central province, on the 20th of Jamadi-Al-Thani, the
year 1320 A.H.,(September 24, 1902).”
Biography: Imam Khomeini
http://members.tripod.com/~islamscience/biography.html

Place of Birth

“A Persian Surname indicating the place of birth is usually the name
of the town or city followed by an "i", for example, Ayatollah
Khomeini was born in the town of "Khomein", hence the name Khomeini.
(I noted your now from the province of Shahzamin, you could use
"Shahzamini" for example)”
Babkha
http://pub48.ezboard.com/fbabkhafrm8.showPrevMessage?topicID=86.topic


Therefore, the word Khomeinei means “born in Khomein”.

Would you require the literal meaning for the word Khomein as well?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by issachar-ga on 28 Oct 2003 19:57 PST

Hi Bobbie7,

Thanks for your work so far...Yes, I would need to know the meaning of
the word Khomein... If it helps, let me be more specific about why I'm
asking.  Someone asserted that Ayatollah Khomeini's name comes from
the same root word / meaning as the Biblical name "Haman," from the
book of Esther.  I would very much like to know if this is true or
not.  I found out the derivation of the name "Haman," so now I'd like
to see if Khomeini is the same root / meaning.  Thank you!

Issachar

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 28 Oct 2003 21:04 PST

Hi Issachar!

Unfortunately, I didn’t find any relevant information to add to my
findings.

This is a challenging question and I’m sure other researchers will
attempt to answer it.

Best regards,
Bobbie7

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 29 Oct 2003 08:35 PST

Challenging, indeed!

The closest I've come is this:


http://www.itto.org/province/province.asp?prv=mkz&citycode=Kh90&status=showcity

"The name of Khomein was primarily mentioned in a book named `The
History of Prophets and Kings'".

However, I could not find an on-line English version of this old text
that I could explore further.

Good luck to whoever picks up the trail...

paf

---

Clarification of Question by issachar-ga on 30 Oct 2003 07:22 PST

To Pafalafa,

Thanks for checking!  Everyone is working hard on my questions...I
didn't realize they would be so hard.  Appreciate your efforts!

Best regards,
Issachar

issachar --

I have located and e-mailed an English-speaking University student in
Iran who was born in Khomein and asked him for information about the
derivation of the name.  I will let you know if and when I get a
response.

markj-ga

To Bobbie7:

Thanks Bobbie....yes, in answer to your question, I  _would_  need to
know the meaning of the town's name, "Khomein."  Thank you!

Issachar

To Markj:

Thanks for your efforts... if anyone can give me a source to cite for
a book, that's worth a tip!

Need to know what "Khomein" means.

Good luck & thanks!
Issachar

My e-mail to Teheran just got returned as undeliverable.  So much for
that idea. I will keep looking.

markj-ga

NOTE:  As I am not a Google Researcher, but just a lowly commentator,
you may wish to have   a Farsi speaking Researcher confirm this.

You have to look at the variants of the name to find the origin of the
name of the town.

Just as Kandahar (Afghanistan)  is named after Alexander the Great and
Washington, D.C.(United States)  is named after George Washington, 
Khomein was named after HoomAn (a character in the Shahnameh).  It has
no other known  meaning.

Iranian Tourism and Touring Org.
The name of Khomein was primarily mentioned in a book named `The
History of Prophets and Kings`.
http://www.itto.org/province/province.asp?prv=mkz&citycode=Kh90&status=showcity


Khomein variants  
Khumayn
Khomaine
Homein
HoomAn
HumAn    

The capital "A" is important when transcribing pronunciation into the
Roman alphabet.  Hooman without the capital "A" means person with nice
behavior.
The name Khomein is therefore the name of a character in the
Shahnameh.

Khumayn
http://khomein.tripod.com/Khomeini/id8.html
Khomaine
Also Khumayn, Homein
http://www.spongobongo.com/em/em9785.htm

Iranian boy's names
http://www.geocities.com/persian_names/boys.html
http://www.farhangsara.com/names.htm#BIJKL
HoomAn/HumAn A character in Shahnameh 
Shahnameh = The name of a famous Persian book written by Ferdosey with
true strories about Kings of Iran and many different battles in the
Ancient Persian Empire.

----------------------------------
Khomeini was not born Ruhollah Al-Mussawi Al-Khomeini.   He choose
al-Khomeini.
"An Ayatollah which literally means 'sign of God' takes his name from
the place of his birth."
http://origin.sundayobserver.lk/2002/05/26/fea06.html

His  father was Ayatollah Seyyed Mustafa Mussawi.   
His grandfather was Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi.

OMAR - An online database for oriental manuscripts
Matthias Brückner (*) and Paul-Thomas Kandzia (#)
(*) Oriental Seminar, Freiburg University, Germany
http://sansibar.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/brueckne/os/ichim.doc

Arabic Names. Occidental names have a strict order of Christian name
and surname. For Arabic names, categorization is quite more complex.
The main categories for Arab names are Kunya, Ism, Nasab, Nisba and
Laqab. The Kunya is a genealogic name, which is normally given
according to the first born son. It consists of Abu (father of) or Umm
(mother of) and the name of the son, e.g. Abu ´Ali (father of ´Ali).
The Ism is what in the western world is called the Christian name,
e.g. Muhammad, ´Ali etc. The Nasab is the Genealogy of the person
consisting of many Ibn (son of) or Bint (daughter of). The Nisba is
usually a geographic term which is denoting the origin, e.g. Tehrani,
Baghdadi, Tunisi etc. The Laqab is like a nickname, e.g. the blind.
Titles like Ayatollah, Shaykh and Pasha are being added either. Even
worse, there is no general order of the components of an Arabic name,
e.g. Ayatollah Khomeini (from the village Khomein in Iran) - the title
stands in the first place, ´Ali Pasha - the title stands in the second
place.

Dear Issachar, 

Bobbie7 is right. 

The word Khumein (the name of the city) in Iran is spelled 

KH-M-I-N (see ://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%D8%AE%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86
written with the keyboard on http://www.paralink.com/virk/, which is
an Arabic keyboard, but the spelling is the same).

The word Haman in the Herbrew Bible is written: 
H-M-N 
Which is different (the letter "H" and the letter "Kh" are not the
same root).

In addition, Persian is an Indo-European laguage, while Hebrew is a
Semitic one. While there are influences, there is big difference
between the two languages. Persian is more similar to German than it
is to Arabic. When the Turks arrived to the gates of Vienna in the,
they wrote back - "the inhabitants speak a language similar to
Farsi...".

In any case, while I know that gematria and word-games are very
popular in Jewish tradition, there is no evidence supporting your
friend's conclusion.

Although I agree with politicalguru-ga that Farsi and Hebrew are from
two different language groups, the problem in this case is that we are
discussing the derivation of a name, not a word for an object such as
stick or bucket.

And in the Bible, the biblical name Haman, is specifically mentioned
as the name of a Persian.

http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/di.htm
"Haman" - the evil Persian megalomaniac, who saw in the Jewish People
and in Mordechai, in particular, the block in his path to the throne
of Persia. To get rid of this "obstacle," he formulated a plot, based
on a lottery (a "Pur," in Persian), by which he would effectively
exterminate the entire Jewish population. Fortunately, at that time,
we were able to assemble enough "zechut," or merit, to convince HaShem
that we were still worthy of being saved.

Therefore, the question is whether the persian name Haman in the Bible
is the same persian name (not necessarily the same person) of the
character in the Shahnameh that the city of Khomein is named after. 
And as the Hebrews would have written his name in their alphabet, it
could easily have been altered in the process.

For example, my name Arun is Hindi (meaning Sun) , but when I mention
it to people in the United States, they often misspell it as Aaron
(Hebrew, meaning Lofty; exalted; high mountain
) or sometimes even as Erin (Irish, an early name for Ireland).


As to that, I have no opinion.  I simply point out that if Khomein had
a meaning other than that of a person in the Shahnameh, it probably
would have already been stated by admirers of Khomeini as they are
more than willing to spell out the meaning of the other components of
his name and title.

To Amalik,

Wow!  Thanks for your interest and hard work at providing relevant
info.  Your comment was very interesting.  I knew it was a Persian
name...and was wondering if perhaps it got modified when it was
transcribed into Hebrew (sort of an ancient world "Ellis Island"
phenomenon, perhaps?)  Anyway, I truly appreciate your hard work and
detailed comments!

Best regards,
Issachar

Hi, I'm from Iran.
We write Khomein in Persian: "?????"
You can find google results in persian for Khomein at:
://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%D8%AE%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86

But there is not anything about what you're looking for.
Many times ago, I saw a book it has "The reason of Why each Iran's
City name has this name"

But I can't find it now, sorry.
I can guess something but it is just a *GUESS*!

In Persian, "Khom" means "Jug made from clay for wine."
and we say "ein" for two things, for example:
"Nahrein": Two Rivers
"Na'lein": A pair of shoe
"Bahrein" (the Bahrain country also): Two Seas

And so, PROBABLY "Khomein" means "Two jugs of wine"

To noghte-ga,

Hi!  Thanks for the info.  So far it sounds the closest to a
definitive result.  Good luck to you over there!

Issachar