1 Million Mourners Flock to Khomeini’s Grave

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Two Iranians died and thousands fainted as huge crowds flocked to the grave of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Sunday for a memorial service marking a week since his death.

Iran’s most powerful leaders were among the more than 1 million mourners at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, 10 miles south of Tehran, according to Iranian press reports monitored in Nicosia.

“Soon this site will become a shrine to attract the Muslims of the world,” said Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani, who broke into tears during his speech. “This is a center which radiates heavenly light.”

In Islam, the seventh and 40th days after death are considered a time for special mourning rites. Free food and drink were distributed around the grave.

Iran’s state-run television showed mourners beating their heads and chests with clenched fists in the Shiite Muslim expression of grief and chanting, “Khomeini, Khomeini, why did you leave us?”

But the atmosphere appeared calmer than during Tuesday’s burial, which was delayed for six hours after some in the hysterical crowd of 2 million tore pieces from Khomeini’s white shroud and toppled the body out of its coffin.

The 86-year-old patriarch died June 3 after suffering a heart attack. There were eight deaths and 11,000 injuries in the subsequent three days of mourning.

On Sunday, one man died of a heart attack and another died after falling from a cargo container used as a stand for television cameras, according to press reports.

Fainting One a Second

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the mourners were so densely packed during the afternoon ceremony that, on average, one person fainted every second in temperatures around 96 degrees.

The ailing were passed hand over hand to one of 23 mobile medical units stationed around the site, and more than 1,000 doctors and medical workers were on duty, the news agency reported. More serious injuries were rushed to nearby hospitals in one of 250 ambulances.

The television showed a protective barrier made from four metal cargo containers to keep crowds away from the grave site.

Shrine Built Overnight

Working through the night, young men from the Reconstruction Crusade had hastily had lain cream-colored marble slabs, and a three-tiered shrine had sprouted, topped by a huge golden dome and a fluttering black flag.

The dome over Khomeini’s grave, already called the Haram-e Sharif after the tomb of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, is based on the famous Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem.

The actual grave is marked by a small, blank marble slab.

A permanent structure is planned to replace the temporary one erected within days of Khomeini’s death.

Weeping Mourners

The television showed weeping mourners gripping a metal grille built around the structure, trying to touch and kiss the shrine, which they already consider sacred.

Those unable to reach it threw clothes and other articles to the guards standing on top of the containers. The guards touched them to the shrine and threw them back.

“It would take a stone heart to stay composed at such a time,” Rafsanjani said in his speech. Khomeini’s 44-year-old son, Ahmed, was reported too overcome to speak.

A crop-dusting plane sprayed rosewater on the mourners, and helicopters circled overhead, showering the crowds with flowers.

The agency said crowds began collecting at the grave site Saturday night and grew to a throng almost two miles wide. There were unprecedented traffic jams on the expressway leading to the cemetery.