Ayatollah Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Etymology The title is originally derived from ...

Mirza Husayn Khalili Tehrani (Persian: میرزا حسین خلیلی تهرانی) was an Usuli

Shi'a 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 ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

and among the four sources of emulation at the time of

Iranian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution ( fa, مشروطیت, Mashrūtiyyat, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911. The revolution led to the establishment of a par ...

. He worked alongside Akhund Khurasani and Shaykh Abdullah Mazandarani to support the first democratic revolution of Asia, Iran's Constitutional Revolution, and co-signed all major statements issued from the seminary of Najaf in support of democracy.Farzaneh, Mateo Mohammad (2015). “''The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani”''. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 13. .

Career

In 1891, he became a Marja', and by the demise of

Mirza Shirazi al-Mujadid al-Shirazi, ar, المجدد الشيرازي , birth_name = , birth_date = April 25, 1815 , birth_place = Shiraz, Qajar Iran , death_date = , death_place = Samarra, Ottoman Iraq , resting ...

in 1895 he was listed among great jurists, and many people from Tehran followed him.Hermann, Denis (1 May 2013). “Akhund Khurasani and the Iranian Constitutional Movement”. ''Middle Eastern Studies''. 49 (3): p. 440. . . When the parliament came under attack from imperial court's cleric, Shaykh Fazlullah Nuri, Tehrani alongside other jurists of Najaf sided with democracy and acted as a legitimizing force. They invoked the Quranic command of ‘

enjoining good and forbidding wrong Enjoining (what is) right and forbidding (what is) evil ( ar, ٱلْأَمْرْ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفْ وَٱلنَّهْيْ عَنِ ٱلْمُنْكَرْ, al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-n-nahy ʿani-l-munkar) are two important duties imposed ...

’ to justify democracy in the period of

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

, and linked opposition to the constitutional movement to ‘a war against the

Imam of the Age Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī ( ar, محمد بن الحسن المهدي) is believed by the Twelver Shia to be the last of the Twelve Imams and the eschatological Mahdi, who will emerge in the end of time to establish peace and justi ...

’. Akhund Khurasani, Mirza Husayn Tehrani and Shaykh Abdullah Mazandarani, theorized a model of religious secularity in the absence of Imam, that still prevails in Shia seminaries. The period from the destruction of the first parliament under the orders of Mohammad Ali shah on June 23, 1908, to the Shah's deposition on July 16, 1909, is called as the Lesser Despotism in the history of modern Iran. The shah repeatedly delayed the elections under the guise of fighting sedition and defending Islam. Mohammad Ali shah wrote letters to the sources of emulation in Najaf, seeking their support against the perceived conspiracies of Babis and other heretics. However, Akhund Khurasani, Mirza Tehrani and Mirza Abdullah Mazandarani responded by affirming the religious legitimacy of democracy and advised the shah to work within the constitutional framework in improving the conditions of society and defending the country against colonial influence.Bayat, Mangol (1991). ''Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909''. Studies in Middle Eastern History. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 232. .

Death

He died in 1908.

References

External links

{{improve categories, date=February 2022 Persian Constitutional Revolution Revolutions in Iran Iranian democracy movements 20th-century revolutions Anti-monarchists Iranian grand ayatollahs Iranian revolutionaries Iraqi grand ayatollahs Islamic democracy activists Iranian Shia clerics 1815 births 1908 deaths

Career

Death

See also

References

External links