Ayatollah is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Maraji are the supreme legal authority for Twelver Shia Muslims. The following articles contain lists of maraji:
Islamic religious leaders have traditionally been people who, as part of the clerisy, mosque, or government, performed a prominent role within their community or nation. However, in the modern contexts of Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries as well as secularised Muslim states like Turkey, and Bangladesh, the religious leadership may take a variety of non-formal shapes.
Allāmah is an Islamic honorary title for a profound scholar, a polymath, a man of vast reading and erudition, or a great learned one.
The Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom is an Iranian group founded in 1961/3 by the leading Muslim clerics of Qom. Established by the students of Ayatollah Khomeini after his exile to Iraq, it was formed in order to organize political activities of Khomeini's followers and promote his revolutionary interpretation of Islam, such as the idea of Islamic government. Since the 1979 revolution, it has largely become the body to keep the regime's registrar of who counts as a grand ayatollah, an ayatollah and a hojjat ul Islam. It has a head who is appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. It currently heads the Supreme Council of Qom Hawzas, and proposes judges to the judiciary system. The body gained international prominence when it announced in 1981 that Ayatollah Shariatmadari was no longer a source of emulation (marja'). It has demoted a number of clerics over the last three decades. A recent case was that of Ayatollah Yousef Saanei, who for his solidarity with the green movement was demoted from marja' to hojatoleslam. The society also includes Ayatollah Sistani on its list.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Mazaheri Isfahani is a senior Iranian Twelver Shia Marja. He was also a member of the Third Assembly of Experts.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Ali Hosseini Alavi Gorgani was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a marja.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Mofti al-Shi'a Mousavi was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja.
Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohsen Koochebaghi Tabrizi was an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja.
Grand Ayatollah Agha Mojtaba Tehrani was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja' taqlid, which is described as "a high-ranking Shia cleric who is regarded as a source of emulation".
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ebrahim Ansari was an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a Marja.
Grand Ayatollah Qasem Taei was an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a Marja.
Grand Ayatollah Saleh Taei is an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a Marja.
Ayatollah Mohammad al-Yaqoobi is a prominent Iraqi Twelver Shi'a Marja'. He is the second most widely followed Marja' in Iraq, the most widely followed being Ali al-Sistani. As well as heading the Al-Sadr Religious University in Najaf, he established one of the largest women's Hawzas in Iraq, and oversees many charitable organisations within Iraq. He is an active figure within Iraqi politics, and is considered by the Hawza to be the spiritual successor of Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr and the school of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, with the former famously naming Yaqoobi his successor in an audio recording.
Marja' is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah to make legal decisions within the confines of Islamic law for followers and clerics below him in rank. The highest ranking marjiʿ is known as the marja al-mutlaq or marja al-taqlid al-mutlaq. A marji' is also, or usually is also, a grand ayatollah.
Grand Ayatollah Abbas Mahfouzi is an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja. He has studied in seminars of Qom, Iran under Ruhollah Khomeini, Grand Ayatollah Houssein Borujerdi and Mirza Hashem Amoli.
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