Marja': Difference between revisions

For Shiite Marja'iyya ( religious authority ) to gain grounds, it had to live through a variety of circumstances that guaranteed its success or, on occasions, failure. From governmental interventions, ethnic tendencies, political events, possibility of access to/with people to strength or weakness of Islamic seminaries. The history of the Shiite Marja'iyya can be divided into nine periods.

Rasul Ja'fariyan takes the recent period of Marja'iyya to begin with [[al-Wahid al-Bihbahani]] who had an authority in scholarship, rather than the administration of the Shiite affairs, that is, it was not the case that the majority of the Shi'as followed him.<ref>Jaʿfarīyān, ''Tashayyuʿ dar ʿArāq marjaʿīyya wa Īrān'', p. 58.</ref> Before this period, the Shi'as usually acted upon the fatwas of some local scholars, and thus, there was no Marja' followed by the majority of the Shi'as in the world.

According to some researchers, the period of a global, influential Marja'iyya for the Shi'as began in the [[Islamic Seminary of Najaf]] with [[Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi]], known as "Sahib al-Jawahir" (d. 1266/1849).<ref>Ḥāʾirī, ''Tashayyuʿ wa mashrūṭīyyat dar Īrān'', p. 82.</ref> He did not require [[ijtihad]] for judges, and thus, he permitted that a judge adjudicates on the basis of the fatwas of a [[mujtahid]].<ref>Jaʿfarīyān, ''Tashayyuʿ dar ʿArāq marjaʿīyya wa Īrān'', p. 59.</ref> Many of his students went back to Iran and served as propagators of his Marja'iyya and fatwas.

The Persian Constitutional Movement led to obvious interventions of Shiite authorities in political affairs. [[Akhund Khurasani]] and [[Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Yazdi]], the author of ''[[al-'Urwat al-wuthqa]]'', were crucial figures in the movement both of whom were Najaf-based Iranians. However, they had opposing views about the Constitutional Movement. Khurasani issued the Constitutional fatwa, and Yazdi opposed it.

In 1337/1918 when [['Abd al-Karim al-Ha'iri al-Yazdi]] moved to [[Qom]], a new period of the [[Islamic Seminary of Qom]] began. Sayyid al-Yazdi died in the same year. When the Islamic Seminary of Qom was taking shape and Sayyid al-Yazdi and [[Shaykh al-Shari'a Isfahani]] (d. 1339/1920) died, part of the Shiite authority moved to Iran along with al-Ha'iri himself. [[Sayyid Husayn Burujirdi]]'s migration to Qom in 1363/1943 and his activities led to the burgeoning of the Islamic Seminary of Qom. After the death of [[Sayyid Abu l-Hasan al-Isfahani]] (d. 1946) who lived in Najaf, Burujirdi was the prominent Shiite authority until 1961.<ref>Jaʿfarīyān, ''Tashayyuʿ dar ʿArāq marjaʿīyya wa Īrān'', p. 79.</ref>

After the death of Ayatollah Burujirdi, Marja'iyya was not passed on to a single person. It was provided by a number of Shiite authorities in Iran and Iraq at this period.<ref>Qurbānī, ''Tārikh-i taqlīd dar Shīʿa'', p. 373.</ref> Although in the early years of this period, [[Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim]] (d. 1390/1970) in Najaf was more outstanding than others<ref>Jaʿfarīyān, ''Tashayyuʿ dar ʿArāq marjaʿīyya wa Īrān'', p. 81.</ref>, late in this period of 33 years, [[Sayyid Ruh Allah Khomeini]] (d. 1409/1989), the founder of the [[Islamic Republic of Iran]], turned into the most widely accepted Shiite authority in Iran and [[Sayyid Abu l-Qasim Khu'i]] turned into the most influential Najaf-based Shiite authority.

After the death of Sayyid Abu l-Qasim Khu'i in 1413/1992, the global Shiite authority was concentrated in Qom for three years. This was because of the death of Shiite authorities in Najaf, the deportation of many Iranian scholars from the Islamic Seminary of Najaf, and the restrictions imposed by the ruling [[Ba'ath Party]] in Iraq. The compulsory migration of Najaf-based Iranian scholars led to the thriving of the Islamic Seminary of Qom and the weakness of the Islamic Seminary of Najaf. In this rather short period, [[Sayyid Muhammad Rida Gulpayigani]] and [[Muhammad 'Ali Araki]] were the most prominent Shiite authorities.