Ali Khamenei buried in Mashhad after six-day funeral procession

The late Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was buried overnight after a six-day funeral procession marking his death following Israeli and United States air strikes on 28 February.

The remains of Iran’s head of state for almost 37 years, from 1989 onwards, were laid to rest in Mashhad, the north-eastern city where he was born. The city is sacred to Shia Muslims because it contains the mausoleum of Imam Reza, who lived between the eighth and ninth centuries AD.

The funeral procession began on Saturday. Authorities closed streets, shut the airspace and brought everyday activity in Tehran to a halt, where the ceremony lasted for three days. It then travelled through the Shia holy cities of Qom, Najaf and Karbala, with the latter two located in Iraq.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Supreme Leader’s son and successor, made no public appearance during the funeral ceremonies. The events coincided with attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz attributed to the Islamic Republic, prompting United States retaliation and placing the existing ceasefire in doubt.

43 million participants

Between 41 and 43 million people took part in the seven days of funeral ceremonies for Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, across five cities in Iran and Iraq, culminating in his burial in Mashhad on Thursday.

Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, estimated “that the total number of participants was between 41 and 43 million, approximately”, an assessment it said was based on data from “official sources”.

Those sources included public transport statistics, the number of active mobile phones at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran - where the coffin remained for two days - and along the route of the funeral procession in the capital. They also included crowd volumes recorded during the Tehran procession, added to those registered in Qom and the holy city of Mashhad, among other figures.

In neighbouring Iraq, more than 10 million people are estimated to have joined Khamenei’s funeral procession on Wednesday in the provinces of Najaf and Karbala, according to a statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaidi, which described the figures as “preliminary statistics”.

Iranian authorities did not release official attendance figures for the ceremonies, which drew large crowds. However, over the various days, vast numbers gathered to pay their final respects to the religious leader.