Mirza Shirazi

Mirza Shirazi
Grand Ayatollah Mujaddid Mirza Abu Muhammad Mu'iz al-Din Muhammad-Hassan al-Husayni al-Shirazi (25 April 1815 – 20 February 1895), better simply known as Mirza Shirazi, was an Iraqi-Iranian Shia marja'.
After the death of Murtadha al-Ansari, he was known to be the supreme Shia leader of his time, and gained fame for his celebrated 1891 verdict against the usage of tobacco in what became known as the Tobacco Protest in the Qajar era.
He is dubbed as the mujaddid (renewer of the religion) of the 13th century of the Islamic era.
Early life and education
Shirazi was born in Shiraz, to the renowned al-Shirazi family. His father was Mirza Mahmud Shirazi, and his mother was Khanum Musawi. His father died when he was young, and his maternal uncle, Sayyid Husayn Musawi–majd al-ashraf–became his guardian.
Education
He began his religious education at the age of four, and completed his introductory studies by the time he was eight years old. He began his advanced classes in jurisprudence and methodology in the seminary of Shiraz. He studied at the religious seminary in Isfahan beginning in 1832, and was granted ijtihad in 1835.
He then moved to Najaf in 1845, and studied under many senior scholars including Sheikh Muhammad-Ibrahim al-Karbassi, Sayyid Sadr al-Din al-Ameli, Sayyid Hassan al-Mudarris and Sheikh Muhammad-Hassan Najafi. He studied for a short while under Sayyid Ibrahim al-Qazwini, author of al-Dhawabit.
Najafi equipped Shirazi with another certificate of ijtihad and a letter of recommendation to Hossein Khan Sardar, governor of Iran.
Upon the death of al-Ansari in 1864, Shirazi was nominated the best qualified scholar to succeed him.
Tobacco Protest
Shirazi was considered the leading marja' of the Shia world, especially in Persia. This meant that he was very influential, over the Shia community. Two scholars were involved in bringing what was happening in Iran to Shirazi's attention, one of them sent a letter, whilst the other sent one of his students to Samarra to explain matters to Shirazi in person.
The protest started with Shirazi sending a telegram to Naser al-Din Shah on July 26, 1891, protesting the granting of the tobacco monopoly. Shirazi was left with no reply; however, the Shah sent his ambassador in Iraq to Shirazi to try to persuade him to abandon his motive, and that the deal was beneficial to the nation. After another attempt by Shirazi, that was also met with no response, a fatwa began to go around in Tehran, declaring the use of tobacco to be tantamount to war against the Hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi.
Some doubts arose as to whether the fatwa was genuine; however, this was quickly dismissed as there was no sign of any remarks of renunciation from Shirazi, upon the circulation of the fatwa.
The case came to a close on January 26, 1892, when Naser al-Din yielded to the public pressure and cancelled the concession.
Ecumenical policy in Samarra
Shirazi's protest allowed Shiism to become more popular in Samarra. The Sunnis began participating in the mourning ceremonies of Muharram, with their Shia neighbours. Shirazi's demeanor also inspired them to pursue religious careers. Shirazi tried to use this advantage to strengthen ties between the Shias and Sunnis. His great-grandson, Radhi al-Shirazi narrates when the Sunnis decided to build a seminary for themselves, after reaching a specific stage, they had run out of funds to complete the construction. They then turned to Shirazi for financial aid, to which Shirazi gladly provided them a generous sum, that helped complete their seminary.
Unfortunately, this level of influence gained by a Shia marja', wasn't going down well with Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who decided to establish more Sunni madrasas in Samarra to "protect the Sunnis from the tricks of the heretics [Shias]".
In 1893, when chaos began to spread across Samarra due to sectarian tensions, leading to the death of Shirazi's son, Muhammad, as well as one of his nephews. Pressures rose on the Shia's, many Shias from the south were adamant on going to Samarra and violently ending the conflict, but were constantly rejected by Shirazi. Eventually, a complaint was made to the sultan, who allegedly worked hard to extinguish the conflict. In the meantime, the British and Russian governments both tried to take advantage of the situation and intervene by deploying their forces to one side of the conflict, choosing Shirazi. But to their disappointment, Shirazi rebuffed the two powers, claiming "it was a simple dispute among brothers" and of no concern to foreign nations.
Personal life
Shirazi was married to his cousin, the daughter of Mirza Radhi al-Din Shirazi. From her he had four children, two sons and two daughters.
His eldest son, Muhammad, was killed in Samarra; reports indicate that his death was at the hands of the sectarian tension that happened at the time, and other reports, like that of his great-grandson, Muhammad al-Shirazi's, claim he was killed by the British. His second son Ali, became a high ranking scholar, and if it was not for his death in 1936, he would have been the marja' of his time.
His great-granddaughter is married to the current grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani.
Death
After facing a strenuous period after the tobacco protest, Shirazi died in Samarra on Wednesday February 20, 1895. He was then taken to Najaf to be buried in the Imam Ali shrine.
Legacy
Shirazi produced a large number of prominent students that proved to be great scholars of the age, and had a huge impact on the dissemination of the Islamic sciences. Some of them included:
Sheikh Muhammad-Kadhim al-Khurasani
Sayyid Muhammad-Kadhim al-Tabatabaei
Sheikh Muhammad-Husayn al-Naini
Sheikh Fadhlallah al-Nuri
Sheikh Muhammad-Taqi al-Shirazi
Sayyid Ismail al-Sadr.
Muhammad bin Fadlallah al-Sarawi
As the supreme marja' of his time, this left him very little time to attend to scholarly His duties as marja' did not leave him much time for publishing religious literature. He only had a few writings on the works of his mentor, al-Ansari.
The role he played in the tobacco boycott has been dubbed a "stunning" demonstration of the power of the marja'-i taqlid, and the protest itself has been cited as one of the issues that led to the Persian Constitutional Revolution a few years later.
See also
Murtadha al-Ansari
Muhammad-Kadhim al-Khorasani
Mirza Mahdi al-Shirazi
References
Further reading
ḤASAN ŠIRĀZI by Encyclopædia Iranica
1814 births
1895 deaths
Iranian emigrants to Iraq
Iranian grand ayatollahs
Iraqi grand ayatollahs
Burials at Imam Ali Mosque
Religious leaders from Shiraz
19th-century Iranian people