Mohammad Kāzem Chorāsāni

Mohammad Kāzem Chorāsānī

Mohammad Kāzem Chorāsāni ( Persian محمد كاظم خراساني, DMG Moḥammad Kāẓem Ḫorāsānī b. In Mashhad in 1839 ; died December 12, 1911 in Najaf ), known as Āchund Chorāsāni , was a Shiite mujtahid and political activist from Persia who spent most of his life in Iraq and a major supporter of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911) from the Belonged to circles of the Shiite clergy. After his death in 1911, the constitutionalist movement within the Shiite clergy experienced a decline.

Education and scholarly career

Mohammad Kāzem was the fourth and youngest son of Mollā Hoseyn, an itinerant preacher from Herat , who eventually settled in Mashhad . Here Mohammad Kāzem was born and received his early education. In 1860 he went to Sabzawār for a time, where he studied Islamic philosophy with Mollā Hāddschi Hādi Sabzawāri (d. 1878). In 1861 he continued his studies for six months with Mollā Hoseyn Cho'i at the Madrase-ye Sadr in Tehran. In May 1862 he moved to the holy city of Najaf , where he would spend the rest of his life. First he attended the classes of Mortaza Ansari . After his death in 1864 he studied with Mohammad Hasan Shirazi (d. 1895) Fiqh and Usūl al-fiqh for over ten years .

When Schirāzi moved to Samarra in 1874 , Chorāsāni remained in Najaf as his deputy and was able to build up his own group of students. After Shirāzi's death in 1894, Samarra lost its importance as a scholarly center and Chorāsāni was considered one of the most important scholars. Chorāsāni proved to be a resourceful teacher, giving his daily lectures on Usūl al-fiqh to more than a thousand students from different regions of the Islamic world and training 120 of them to be mujahids. After the death of Muhammad Fādel Sharabiyāni in 1904, Chorāsāni was considered to be the only marshaʿ at-taqlīd . Among his many students was Hossein Borudscherdi .

Chorāsāni also had a powerful position in Iraq because he received transfer payments from the so-called Oudh Bequest , a foundation that the King of Oudh had founded in 1825 to support needy Shiites in Najaf and Karbala . The transfer of the money to Iraq was done by the British, who commissioned Shiite ʿUlamā 'with the distribution on site. With the money at his disposal, Chorāsānī founded three religious and various secular schools in Iraq.

Political activities

Chorāsāni began political activities at an early age. When an “Islamic Company” was founded in Iran in 1898 to manufacture and trade in textiles, he made it an obligation of all Muslims to boycott clothes made in foreign factories and to wear domestically made clothes. From 1906 Chorāsānī supported the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. Together with two other high-ranking mujtahids, Mirzā Hoseyn Tehrāni and Sheikh ʿAbdallāh Māzandarānī, he published numerous fatwas and manifestos and sent telegrams to tribal chiefs, political leaders in Iran and statesmen in England, France, Germany and Turkey, in whom he was in support of the constitutional process. When Mohammed Ali Shah ascended the Iranian throne in 1907, Chorāsāni sent him a ten-point directive that included instructions to protect Islam, promote industry and modern science, and put an end to the intervention of foreign powers while maintaining diplomatic relations and enforce justice and equality. The Shiite clergy in Najaf split into two camps during 1907, the constitutionalist faction led by Chorāsāni, called maschrūta , and the absolutist faction, led by Kāzem Yazdi , called mustabidda , which opposed the constitutional process.

Fight against "little tyranny"

Mohammed Ali Shah, who ruled autocratically from June 1908 to July 1909.

With the bombardment of parliament by the Persian Cossack brigade in June 1908 and the execution of several constitutionalists, the period of "small tyranny" ( estebdād-e ṣaġīr ) began in Iran , in which Mohammad Ali Shah ruled autocratically without a parliament. Chorāsāni intensified his commitment to the constitutionalist movement during this time. This also had to do with the success of the Young Turk Revolution and the reinstatement of the Ottoman constitution in July 1908. Chorāsāni expressly welcomed this revolution and sent Sultan Abdülhamid II a telegram in which he emphasized the need to enforce the constitution. In August he made an attempt to win British support for the constitutional revolution in Iran, but received a rebuff from the British, who had agreed in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1907) with Russia to divide Persia into spheres of interest. In September he sent a telegram to Abdülhamid asking him to help the Persians break free from Mohammed Ali Shah. In October he and his two colleagues complained to the French ambassador in Baghdad about Mohammed Ali's Shah's actions. In December, together with Māzandarāni, he sent a letter to the Muslim fellow believers in the Caucasus , Tbilisi , Batumi and other areas to unite with the revolutionaries of Tabriz to put an end to the despotism of the Qajars. Together with other scholars, he declared in a fatwa that obedience to the Shah and paying taxes to him are against Islam. At the same time, he declared the cleric Fazlollah Nuri , who supported Mohammad Ali's regime and attacked the constitutionalists, to be an infidel .

A companion of Khorāsāni, Mīrzā Muhammad Husain Nā'īnī (1860–1936), published his well-known treatise on constitutional law in March / April 1909 with the title Tanbīh al-Umma wa-tanzīh al-milla fī wuǧūb al-mašrūṭa (“ Admonition of the Umma and Exaltation of the congregation regarding the need for the constitution ”), in which he tried to prove that the requirement for a constitution complies with Sharia law . Chorāsāni greeted the appearance of this pamphlet with a dedication. At the same time he fought against the restorative tendencies in the Ottoman Empire. When in April Abdülhamid II supported an uprising by conservative soldiers who tried to overthrow the Young Turkish government, Khorāsānī threatened the Sultan in a letter with declaring him deposed.

A few weeks later, the balance of power in Iran shifted in favor of the constitutionalists. When they marched on Tehran and threatened the Shah's regime, which was supported by Russian troops, the two great powers England and Russia sent a statement to Khorāsāni calling on him to end his political activism and to call on the various political parties in Iran for moderation. In return, the Shah promised in a telegram to restore the constitution. Chorāsāni did not believe these promises, however, and issued a statement demanding more specific commitments. In order to give the constitutionalists the most effective support possible against the Shah and his Russian supporters, he and a large number of scholars started a protest march to Karbala in July. On July 13, he sent a delegation of four Shiite clergymen, including his son, to the British Consul General in Baghdad to protest against the Russian presence in Iran and to ask the British for support for the constitutionalists. When the scholars heard on July 15 that the constitutionalist forces had taken Tehran, they broke off their march.

After the constitutional monarchy was established

Even after the exile of Mohammad Ali Shah and the appointment of his underage son Ahmad Shah Kajar , Khorāsāni still interfered in Iranian politics several times with telegrams. The main reason for this was his disapproval of the secularist policy of the new parliament. For example, in June 1910 he and Māzandarāni sent a letter to Prime Minister Abolqasem Naser al Molk , in which he complained about the work of the Iranian parliament.

His pronouncements in the ensuing period were more pan-Islamic in character. In December 1910, for example, he and other Shiite scholars from Iraq published a manifesto in which he called on the Persian nation to support the Ottoman Empire. After the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911, he called a jihad against Italy. When the Shah tried to regain his throne after the Anglo-Russian invasion of Iran in the same year, Khorāsāni decided to travel to Persia to mobilize the masses against the Russians. But before he could realize this plan, he died unexpectedly on the 20th of Dhū l-Hiddscha 1329 (= December 12, 1911) in his house in Najaf. There were rumors that Anglo-Russian elements or the governor of Najaf were involved in his death.

Works

Chorāsāni wrote several Arabic works, the most important of which is his two-volume manual Kifāyat al-uṣūl on Islamic legal theory , published in 1885 . It is used to this day in the final stage of study of Shiite madrasas and has been widely commented on. He also wrote a commentary on the work Farāʾid al-uṣūl by his teacher Mortazā Ansārī with the title Durar al-fawāʾid fī šarḥ al-Farāʾid .

literature

• Muḥsin al-Amīn: Aʿyān aš-šīʿa. Ed. Ḥasan al-Amīn. Beirut 1986. Vol. IX, pp. 5f.
• Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi : "Ākhūnd al-Khurāsānī, Mullā Muḥammad Kāẓim" in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. First published in 2015. Online
• Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh: The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the clerical leadership of Khurasani . Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 2015.
• Abdul-Hadi Hairi: Shīʿīsm and Constitutionalism in Iran. A Study of the Role played by the Persian Residents of Iraq in Iranian Politics . Brill, Leiden, 1977.
• Abdul-Hadi Hairi: Art. " Kh urāsānī" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. V, pp. 61a-62a.
• Abdul-Hadi Hairi: Art. "Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1. Life and Political Role" in Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. I, pp. 732a-734b. First published in 1984. Updated online version
• Denis Hermann: "Akhund Khurasani and the Iranian Constitutional Movement" in Middle Eastern Studies 49 (2013) 430-453.
• Muḥsin Kadīwar: Siyāsatnāma-i Ḫurāsānī: qaṭaʿāt-i siyāsī dar āṯār-i Āḫūnd Mullā Muḥammad Kāẓim Ḫurāsānī, Ṣāhib-i Kifāya (1255 - 1329 hiǧrī qamarī). Kawīr, Tehran, 1387hš (= 2008 AD).
• ʿAbd-al-Ḥusain Maǧīd Kafā'ī: Margī dar nūr (zindagānī-i Āḫūnd Ḫurāsānī) . Kitābfurūšī-i Zawwār, Tihrān, 1359 hš (= 1980 AD)
• Pierre-Jean Luizard: La formation de l'Irak contemporain. Le rôle politique des ulémas chiites à la fin de la domination ottoman et au moment de la construction de l'Etat irakia . CNRS, Paris 2002. pp. 250-262.
• Pierre-Jean Luizard: Histoire politique du clergé chiite, xviii ^e -xxi ^e siècle . Fayard, Paris, 2014. pp. 95-109.
• ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm Muḥammad ʿAlī: al-Muṣliḥ al-muǧāhid aš-šaiḫ Muḥammad Kāẓim al-Ḫurāsānī. Najaf 1972.
• S. Murata: Art. "Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 2 His Importance in Oṣūl" in Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. I, pp. 734b-735a. First published in 1984. Updated online version

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Luizard: Histoire politique du clergé chiite . 2014, p. 96.
2. ↑ Cf. al-Amīn: Aʿyān aš-šīʿa. 1986, Vol. IX, p. 5.
3. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 732a.
4. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, pp. 732a-732b.
5. ↑ See Luizard: Histoire politique du clergé chiite . 2014, p. 96.
6. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 733b.
7. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 734a.
8. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 734a.
9. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 732b.
10. ↑ See Luizard: La formation de l'Irak contemporain . 2002, p. 250.
11. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 733a.
12. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, pp. 732b-733a.
13. ↑ See Luizard: Histoire politique du clergé chiite . 2014, p. 102.
14. ↑ See Hairi: Shīʿīsm and Constitutionalism in Iran. 1977, p. 6.
15. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 733a.
16. ↑ See Luizard: La formation de l'Irak contemporain . 2002, p. 261.
17. ↑ See Hairi: Shīʿīsm and Constitutionalism in Iran. 1977, pp. 95, 245f.
18. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 733b.
19. ↑ See Hairi: Shīʿīsm and Constitutionalism in Iran. 1977, p. 116.
20. ↑ See Revue du Monde Musulman 13 (1911) 385-86. Digitized
21. ↑ Cf. al-Amīn: Aʿyān aš-šīʿa. 1986, Vol. IX, p. 5.
22. ↑ Cf. Hairi :. Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 733b.
23. ↑ See Hairi: Aḵūnd Ḵorāsānī. 1984, p. 734a.