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A hawza ( ar, حوزة) or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah ( ar, حوزة علمیة) is a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated. The word ''ḥawzah'' is found in Arabic as well as the Persian language. In Arabic, the word means "to hold something firmly". Accordingly, ''ḥawzah ʿilmīyah'' would mean a place where the firm knowledge (of the Muslim religion) is acquired. In the Persian language, ''ḥawzah'' refers to the middle part of a place or an area. ''Ḥawzah ʿilmīyah'' in Persian, therefore, means "the place of knowledge". Another meaning of the word is "circle of knowledge". Several senior Grand Ayatollahs constitute the hawza. The institutions in Najaf,
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...
,
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
, are the preeminent seminary centers for the education of Shi'a
scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...
. However, several smaller hawzas exist in other cities around the world, such as at
Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...
,
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is lo ...
and
Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
,
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, Lucknow,
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
,
Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...
, Pakistan, Europe and North America.


Law schools

In countries with sharia courts such as Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, a hawza also functions as a
law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...
for those wanting to practice law in Islamic courts.


Hawza 'Ilmiyya Najaf

Hawza 'Ilmiyya in Najaf, Iraq was established in 430 AH (the 11th century AD) by Shaykh al-Tusi (385 AH/995 CE – 460 AH/1067 CE),http://www.al-islam.org/fiqh/chap2.htm

FIQH and FUQAHA - An Introduction to Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) Containing Forty Four Life Sketches of the Great Past Masters, Published by the WORLD FEDERATION OF KHOJA SHIA ITHNAASHERI MUSLIM COMMUNITIES
and continued as a center of study until the establishment of modern Iraq in 1921. At present Ayatollah Sistani heads Hawza 'Ilmiyya Najaf, which includes two other Ayatollahs -
Mohammad Ishaq Al-Fayyad Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Is'haq al-Fayadh (the word al-Fayadh also spelt al-Fayad), ( ar, مُحَمَّدْ إِِسْحَاقْ ٱلْفَیَّاض, prs, مُحَمَّداِسحٰاق فَیّٰاض) is one of the most senior Shi'a marja li ...
and Bashir al-Najafi.Thinkin ahead: Shi'ite Islam in Iraq and its seminaries
, Christoph Marcinkowsi, Nayang Technological University, Singapore
After witnessing a peak of some 20,000 students in the 60s, then around 3000 because of the State repression, since 2003, the Najaf hawza has now more than 13,000 students, while the curriculum has been updated to include many modern subjects as well as inter faith and inter sectarian initiatives.


Hawza 'Ilmiyya Qom

Although large
Shi'a Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
academies existed in
Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...
dating back as early as 10th century CE, the hawza of the city became prominent at the time of the Safavids when
Shi'a Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...
became the official religion of Iran. The famous teachers of that era included Mulla Sadra and Shaykh Bahai. The modern Qom hawza was revitalized by Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi and
Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tababataei Borujerdi (Luri/ fa, آیت الله العظمی سید حسین طباطبایی بروجردی; 23 March 1875 – 30 March 1961) was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 t ...
and is barely a century old. There are nearly three hundred thousand clerics in Iran's seminaries.A History of Tension between Iran's Clerics and the State
Mehdi Khalaji 26 July 2010 Washington Institute


Hawza 'Ilmiyya Khwaharan (Women's Hawza)

There are also a number of women's hawza, mostly located in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
. Already in the early 1800s, the Salehiyya madrasa in Qazvin ran a women's section where several female
mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
s were trained. In Qom, the earliest seminary for women was established by the grand ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, who in 1973 added a women's section to his hawza Dar al-Tabligh, called Dar al-Zahra. Next, the Haghani school opened a women's wing in 1974/75, called
Maktab-e Tawhid Maktab-e Tawhid (also Maktab-e Tawhīd) was a Shi'i seminary for women, established in Qom, Iran's clerical center in 1975, as a wing of the Haghani school. The founding of the seminary followed similar institutions in Qom, Fasa, Shiraz and Isfah ...
. Outside Qom, women's seminaries included Maktab-e Fatema of Fasa (opened in 1961), Maktab-e Zahra of Shiraz (opened in 1964), Maktab-e Fatimah of Isfahan (opened by
Lady Amin Hajiyeh Seyyedeh Nosrat Begum Amin, also known as Banu Amin, Lady Amin ( fa, بانو امين; 1886–1983), was Iran's most outstanding female jurisprudent, theologian and great Muslim mystic (‘arif) of the 20th century, a ''Lady Mujtahideh ...
in 1965),Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli, "The Life of Two Mujtahidas: Female Religious Authority in 20th Century Iran", in ''Women, Leadership and Mosques: Changes in Contemporary Islamic Authority'', ed. Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmbach (Brill Publishers, 2012), 127–160. Zahra-i Athar of Tehran (opened in 1966), and Madrase-ye ‘Elmīyya Narges of Mashhad (opened in 1966). After the 1979 revolution in Iran, the state began to centralize the women's hawza system. The women's seminaries in Qom were centralized into one large school, the
Jamiat al-Zahra Jami'at al-Zahra is the world's main Shia seminary for women. It is located in Qom, Iran. The seminary teaches female students only, both Iranian and foreign. Most students attend the college, though distance learning is also possible. If they ar ...
. In Khorasan with its clerical center of Mashhad, the women's maktabs came under the aegis of the state-run Centre for Management of Women's Seminaries of Khorasan. In the rest of the country, women's seminaries were integrated into the Centre for Management of Women's Seminaries (Markaz-e Modiriat-e Ḥawzahā-ye ʿElmiyya Khwaharān). Since the mid-1990s the latter center has established more than 300 seminaries across Iran (before the revolution less than a dozen existed in the entire country).


Hawza subjects

Hawza students begin their studies by learning
fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...
, kalam,
hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
, tafsir,
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of mind, mind, and Philosophy of language, language. Such quest ...
, natural and abstract sciences as well as
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
and
Arabic literature Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
. Once these studies have been completed, they may begin preparation to become a
mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
by studying advanced old textbooks known as ''sat'h'', and research courses known as ''kharij''. Subjects studied at the hawza may include the following: # Falsafa (Islamic philosophy) #
Fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...
(jurisprudence) # 'Ilm al-
Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
(traditions) # Ilm al-Kalam (theology) # ' Ilm ar-Rijal (evaluation of biographies) # '
Irfan In Islam, ‘Irfan (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: ; tr, İrfan), literally ‘knowledge, awareness, wisdom’, is gnosis. Islamic mysticism can be considered as a vast range that engulfs theoretical and practical and conventional mysticism, but the c ...
(Islamic mysticism) # Mantiq (Logic) # Lugha (language studies) # Tafsir al-Qur'an (interpretation of the Qur'an) # Tarikh (history) # 'Ulum al-Qur'an (Qur'an sciences) # Usul al-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence)


Advanced subjects

Once the basic studies have been completed, students may begin preparation to become a
mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
by studying advanced ancient textbooks known as ''sat'h'', and research courses known as ''kharij''. To be a
mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
one has to excel in the advanced levels of the Hawza including ''Muqad'dim'maat'', ''Sotooh'', ''Sotooh 'Ulya'', '' 'Uloom ukhra'' and ''Bahath Kharij''. ''Bahath e Kharij'' is the last level of hawzah and this level leads to Marja'iya, to become a marja' one has to teach ''dars e khaarij'' for considerable amount of time, publish collection of juridical edicts (''risala ‘amaliyya'') and become recognised as one (by established ''Maraji'').What is Islam? Beliefs, principles and a way of life
by Abdelmalik Badruddin Eagle (translation of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi's work ''Ma-huwa ’l-Islam?'' first published in 1960s)


See also

* Marja' *
Lists of Maraji Maraji are the supreme legal authority for Twelver Shia Muslims. The following articles contain lists of Maraji: * List of current Maraji'' * List of deceased Maraji'' See also * Marja' *Ijtihad *Hawza * Risalah (fiqh) *List of Ayatollahs *List ...
* List of current Maraji * Qom Seminary * Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom * Hawza Najaf


References


External links


Al-Mahdi Institute Hawza Programme, Birmingham, UKTowards an Understanding of the Shiite Authoritative SourcesResearch centre of Hawza Ilmiyya, Qom, Iran
*
Imam Hossain University (Howza)Alqaem InstituteHawza - Advanced Islamic Studies
{{Islamic educational institutions Islamic education Islamic terminology Lists of law schools Single-gender schools