Ayatollah Khomeini wrote four panegyric poems (qasides), each with a specific religious subject, in the early 1920s when he was a student in the city of Qom. The first qaside from 1922 is a 44-couplet poem called “Praise on the Two Bright Lights, Fâteme Zahrâ and Fâteme Maʿsume, May God Bless Them”. It is dedicated to Fâteme Maʿsume (d. 816/817), patron of the city of Qom, whose shrine in the city is a major centre of pilgrimage.1 The qaside is full of theological and mystical themes and motifs referring to gnostic knowledge, mystical perfection, the ‘Mohammadan light’ and other themes central to Islamic mysticism, such as prophethood and sainthood. Qaside II also dates from 1922 and is called “The Expected Spring.” It consists of 46 couplets and describes the celebrations surrounding the birthday of the twelfth Shiite Imam, Mohammad Mahdi. Qaside III “On the Praise of the Guardian of the Age (Vali-ye ‘Asr),” dates from 1923 and is also dedicated to the Mahdi. It consists of 44 couplets. Qaside IV, composed in 1924, is called ‘Imam Zamân’ (Imam of the Age) and, like the previous two, celebrates the birthday of the twelfth Shiite Imam. This panegyric is actually a mosammat (‘stanzaic poem’), which is a variation on the ‘traditional’ qaside, being structured in groups of five hemistichs that rhyme.