---
title: 'The Shah kneeling before Khomeini beneath a Quranic scroll: Iranian poster, 1980'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shah-kneeling-before-khomeini-quran-scroll-poster-1980/
description: 'Painted poster: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in a white dress uniform with orders kneels, clutching the cloak of a standing, bespectacled cleric in a black…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Poster that shows the deposed Shah kneeling and abased before Khomeini under a Quranic verse of condemnation. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![The Shah kneeling before Khomeini beneath a Quranic scroll: Iranian poster, 1980](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shah-kneeling-before-khomeini-quran-scroll-poster-1980.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shah-kneeling-before-khomeini-quran-scroll-poster-1980.jpg)

# The Shah kneeling before Khomeini beneath a Quranic scroll: Iranian poster, 1980

Painted poster: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in a white dress uniform with orders kneels, clutching the cloak of a standing, bespectacled cleric in a black turban and blue robe, who looks down at him; above them a scroll carries a Quranic verse in Arabic with a Persian rendering. The tell: the verse speaks of those who 'disbelieved and did wrong', and its placement over the kneeling monarch applies that label without naming him, while the cleric's pose lends the verdict religious authority.

## Text on the object

Original (Arabic and Persian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَظَلَمُوا لَمْ يَكُنِ اللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ طَرِيقًا

براستی کسانی که کفر ورزیدند و ستم کردند خداوند بر آن نیست که آنان را ببخشاید و برای هدایت کند
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Indeed, those who disbelieved and wronged, God will not forgive them, nor guide them to any way.

Indeed, those who disbelieved and committed injustice, it is not for God to forgive them and to guide them.
```

The Arabic is vocalised on the scroll; it matches Quran 4:168 as read. The Persian line is read from the image, whose last words ('...ببخشاید و برای هدایت کند') are slightly blurred, so that wording could be misread. The English is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← "War, war, until victory": Iranian war-affairs poster, 1980s](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jang-jang-ta-pirouzi-war-affairs-hq-poster-1980s/) [Havana Domestic Service, Castro's May Day speech on the Peruvian embassy exodus ('lumpens', 'scum'), broadcast (Havana, May 1, 1980) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/castro-may-day-lumpen-scum-fbis-1980/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)