Ayatollah: Difference between revisions

Until the 14th/20th century the title Ayatollah  had not been used for any other scholar. In early fourteenth/twentieth century and for the first time, [[Mirza Husayn Nuri]] (1254/1836-1320/1903) used this title for [[al-Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Bahr al-'Ulum]]. After few decades, [[Shaykh 'Abbas Qummi]] used Ayatollah  for [[Shaykh Murtida Ansari]], [[Shaykh Husayn Najaf]] and [[Sayyid Muhammad Hasan Shirazi]]. Gradually [[Mashruta]] historians used the title for [[Akhund Mulla Kazim Khurasani]], [[Haj Mirza Husayn Mirza Khalil]], [[shaykh 'abd Allah Mazandarani]] and others. Before that, all [[Marja']]s were referred to, in official correspondences and speeches, as: [[Hujjat al-Islam]].

In 1340/1922 and when [[Shaykh 'Abd al-Karim Ha'iri]] established the (Hawza) [[Seminary of Qom]] and it turned to the center of Islamic and [[Shi'a studies]]; some great scholars who gathered there were called Ayatollah  and gradually more prominent scholars who were at the position of a [[Marja']] were referred to as Ayatollah  al-Uzama (grand Ayatollah ).