Ali Khamenei

Although Ali Khamenei was an avid reader, well versed in works such as The Divine Comedy, Shahnameh,Gulistan, the poetry of Rumi, and One Thousand and One Nights, he regarded Les Miserables by Victor Hugo as an achievement in itself, even describing it as a miracle in the history of the novel and a profound book of love and feeling. His admiration suggests that he saw literature not merely as aesthetic expression but as moral pedagogy.