Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei[6] (Persian: سید علی حسینی خامنهای, pronounced [ʔæˈliː hosejˈniː xɒːmeneˈʔiː] (listen); born 19 April 1939)[13][14] is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989.[15][16] He was previously President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the second-longest serving head of state in the Middle East (after Oman's Sultan Qaboos), as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.[17]