Widespread dissatisfaction among the lower classes, Shiʿi clergy, bazaar merchants, and students led in 1978 to the growth of support for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiʿi religious leader living in exile in Paris. Rioting and turmoil in Iran’s major cities brought down four successive governments as the Iranian Revolution gained momentum. On January 16, 1979, the shah left the country, and Khomeini assumed control. Although the shah did not abdicate, a referendum resulted in the declaration on April 1, 1979, of an Islamic republic in Iran. The shah traveled to Egypt, Morocco, The Bahamas, and Mexico before entering the United States on October 22, 1979, for medical treatment of lymphatic cancer. Two weeks later Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and took hostage more than 50 Americans, demanding the extradition of the shah in return for the hostages’ release (see Iran hostage crisis). Extradition was refused, but the shah later left for Panama and then Cairo, where he was granted asylum by Pres. Anwar Sadat.
