Grand Ayatollah Marji ( ar, مرجع, transliteration: ''marjiʿ''; plural: ''marājiʿ''), literally meaning "source to follow" or "religious reference", is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia authority, a Grand Ayatollah with the authority giv ...

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Muhammad-Taqi Golshan Shirazi Ha'eri (; ), also known as al-Mirza al-Thani (; the first being

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_ ...

), was a senior

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

- Iraqi jurist and political leader. He led the

Iraqi revolt of 1920 The Iraqi revolt against the British, also known as the 1920 Iraqi Revolt or the Great Iraqi Revolution, started in Baghdad in the summer of 1920 with mass demonstrations by Iraqis, including protests by embittered officers from the old Ottoman ...

Early life and education

Shirazi was born in 1840, to Mirza Muhib Ali Golshan Shirazi. His uncle was Mirza Habibullah Shirazi, a famous Iranian poet. He migrated to Karbala in 1854, and began his religious studies there, under scholars such as Sheikh Zayn al-Abideen al-Mazandarani, Sayyid Ali Taqi al-Tabatabaei, and Sheikh Fadhil al-Ardakani. He was granted ijazas by Mirza Husayn al-Khalili, Sheikh Husayn bin Taqi al-Nuri, Sheikh Abbas al-Tehrani, and Mirza Hasan Khan al-Shirazi. He then moved to Samarra along with his mentor and predecessor,

, to establish the city, as the new Shi'ite intellectual loci. In Samarra, Shirazi spent his time teaching and delivering lectures at the seminary. After the demise of his teacher, Shirazi took the reins of the seminary in Samarra. He remained in Samarra until 1916, where the situation began to deteriorate, and Shirazi feared that Samarra was going to end up like

Kut Kūt ( ar, ٱلْكُوت, al-Kūt), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare or Kut al-Imara, is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It ...

, during its

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

, so he travelled to

Kadhimiya Kadhimiya ( ar, ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, al-Kāẓimiyyah, ) or Kadhimayn (, ) is a northern neighbourhood of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It is about from the city's center, on the west bank of the Tigris. 'Kadhimiya' is also the name of on ...

. He remained there for just under two years, until he finally settled in Karbala.

Work

Shirazi had a number of publications, and often used ''Gulshan'' as his pen name: * ''.'' A commentary on Murtadha al-Ansari's . * ''.'' An exposition on Sadr al-Din al-Amili's ''.'' *

Divan A divan or diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see ''dewan''). Etymology The word, recorded in English since 1586, meanin ...

in the Persian language. * * * ''.'' Poetry in praise of the

Ahl al-Bayt Ahl al-Bayt ( ar, أَهْل ٱلْبَيْت, ) refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but the term has also been extended in Sunni Islam to apply to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. ...

''.''

Death

Shirazi died on August 28, 1920 in Karbala at the age of eighty. Sheikh Fatthullah al-Isfahani offered the prayers in his funeral, and then he was buried in the southern chamber in the

Imam Husayn shrine The Imam Husayn Shrine ( ar, مَقَام ٱلْإِمَام ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ, Maqām al-ʾImām al-Ḥusayn ʾibn ʿAlī) is the mosque and burial site of Husayn ibn Ali, the third Imam of Shia Islam, in the city of ...

courtyard.

References

Iraqi grand ayatollahs People from Karbala People from Shiraz 1840 births 1920 deaths People from the Ottoman Empire of Iranian descent Iraqi people of Iranian descent 19th-century Iranian writers Iraqi revolt of 1920 {{Islam-bio-stub