The Most Learned of the Shi`a: The Institution of the Marja` Taqlid: The Institution of the Marja'i Taqlid

This collection of essays explores the nature of political and religious leadership in Shi'ism. Contributors look at a variety of critical historical periods—from medieval to modern—to reveal the social, political, and theological factors that have influenced the development of Shi'ite leadership. Introduction: Shiʻism and authority / Linda S. Walbridge. The life of an ʻAlim / Sayyid Niʻmatuʾllah Al-Jazaʾiri, translation by E.G. Browne. The Imam's return: messianic leadership in late medieval Shiʻism / Shahzad Bashir. Fayd al-Kashani and the rejection of the clergy/state alliance: friday prayer a politics in the Safavid period / Andrew J. Newman. The economic role of the Ulama in Qajar Persia / Willem Floor. Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsaʾi on the sources of religious authority / Juan R.I. Cole. Fatima's religious authority in an early work by the Bab / Toff Lawson. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr: the search for new foundations / John Walbridge. Baqir al-Sadr's quest for the Marjaʻiya / Talib Aziz. ʻAlima Bint al-Huda, women's advocate ? Joyce Wiley. The fundamental problem in the clerical establishment / Morteza Motahari; Farhad Arshad, translator; Hamid Dabashi, introduction. Analysis of Khomeini's proofs for al-Wilaya al-Mutlaqa (comprehensive authority) of the jurist / Talib. Aziz. The portrayal of an academic rivalry: Najaf and Qum in the writings and speeches of Khomeini, 1964-78 / Devin J, Stewart. The counterreformation: becoming a Marjaʻ in the modern world / Linda S. Walbridge. The Marjaʻ and the survival of a community: the Shiʻa of Medina / Yousif al-Khoei. This collection of essays explores the nature of political and religious leadership in Shi'ism. The contributors look at a variety of historical periods - from medieval to modern - to reveal the social, political, and theological factors that have influenced the development of Shi'ite leadership. -- Publisher description The great orientalist E. G. Browne wrote that "no class in Persia is so aloof and inaccessible to foreigners and non-Muslims as that of the mullas."