KINTOOR (BARABANKI): In Kintoor, a tranquil village of 13,000 nestled along the Ghaghara, 70 kilometres from Lucknow, only five Shia families remain. Among them, the Kazmis claim a distant kinship with Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, grandfather of Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, the fiery cleric who ignited Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and became its first Supreme Leader.
Born in Kintoor in the early 19th century, Ahmad’s journey from this unassuming village wove a legacy that reshaped West Asia’s history. He left India, escaping colonial rule in 1830, migrating to Najaf, and then finally settling in Khomeyn in 1834. Hence the family name.
A portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini still hanging in his drawing room, septuagenarian Syed Nihal Kazmi says, “My great-great-great-grandfather Mufti Mohammad Quli Musavi and Syed Ahmad Musavi were cousins. Ahmad’s story began here in Kintoor, but he became Iran’s forever.” The village, once a vibrant hub of Shia scholarship in the kingdom of Oudh, is concerned with the war in West Asia.
BBC journalist and author Baqer Moin, in his book Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah, writes that Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi left Kintoor around 1830, drawn to Najaf, Iraq, for pilgrimage. There, he befriended Yusef Khan Kamarchi, a landowner from Farahan, near Khomeyn, Iran. Persuaded by Yusef, Ahmad settled in Iran in 1839, purchasing a sprawling house and garden in Khomeyn that remained in the family for over a century.
Ahmad went to become a Twelver Shia cleric. From his third wife, Sakineh Ahmad, who was his friend Yusef’s sister, Ahmad had three daughters and a son, Syed Mostafa, father of Ruhollah Khomeini. Ahmad died in 1869 and was buried in Karbala.
The Musavi family’s roots trace back to Nishapur (or Neyshabur), Iran, over 2,500 kilometres from Kintoor. “In the early 18th century (1700), they migrated to India, settling in Kintoor,” Moin notes. The family, Musavi Syeds, claimed descent from the Prophet through his daughter and the seventh Shia Imam, Musa al-Kazim, a lineage rooted in Nishapur.
Syed Adil Kazmi, Nihal’s youngest son and an LLB graduate, says, “Our ancestors’ journey from Nishapur to Kintoor, and Ahmad’s return to Iran, tied two worlds together.”
Today, Iran’s defiance under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei echoes Khomeini’s unyielding spirit. “Long before Khamenei or the 1979 revolution led by Khomeini, it was Ahmad, born in our Kintoor, whose choice to settle in Iran changed West Asia’s discourse,” Adil says.
From Ahmad’s departure to Khomeini’s revolution, Kintoor’s quiet lanes hold stories of faith, migration, and a family that bridged continents, leaving an indelible mark on history.
Kintoor’s legacy also includes Justice Syed Karamat Husain, a Musavi Syed who rose to the position of a judge at the Allahabad high court and founded the Karamat Husain Muslim Girls’ PG College in Lucknow, championing education for women.