Mullah
Mullah (; ) is an honorific title for Sunni Muslim clergy or a Muslim mosque leader. The term is also sometimes used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and sharia law. The title has also been used in some Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish communities to refer to the community's leadership, especially religious leadership. Etymology. The word "mullah" is derived from the Arabic word "mawlā" (), meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian". Usage. Historical usage. The term has also been used among Persian Jews, Bukharan Jews, Afghan Jews, and other Central Asian Jews to refer to the community's  religious and/or secular leadership. In Kaifeng, China, the historic Chinese Jews who managed the synagogue were called "mullahs". Modern usage. It is the term commonly used for village or neighborhood mosque leaders, who may not have high levels of religious education, in large parts of the Muslim world, particularly Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia, Eastern Arabia, the Balkans and the Horn of Africa. In other regions a different term may be used, such as "imam" in the Maghreb. In Afghanistan and Pakistan the title is given to graduates of a madrasa or Islamic school, who are then  able to become a mosque leader, a teacher at a religious school, a local judge in a village or town, or to perform religious rituals. A person who is still a student at a madrasa and yet to graduate is a "talib". The Afghan Taliban was formed in 1994 by men who had graduated from, or at least attended, madrasas. They called themselves "taliban", the plural of "talib", or "students". Many of the leaders of the Taliban were titled "Mullah", although not all had completed their madrasa education. Someone who goes on to complete postgraduate religious education receives the higher  title of Mawlawi. "Mullah" and its variation "mulla" have also degenerated into a derogatory term for a Muslim priest that connotes a semiliterate, backward, often bigoted village imam. In Iran, Shia clerics commonly use Ayatollah, rather than Mullah. Until the early 20th century, the term "mullah" was used in Iranian seminaries to refer to low-level clergy who specialized in telling stories of Ashura, rather than teaching or issuing fatwas. However, in recent years, among Shia clerics, the term "ruhani" (spiritual) has been promoted as an alternative to mullah and "akhoond", free of pejorative connotations. Training and duties. Ideally, a  trained mullah will have studied the traditional Islamic sciences not limited to: Some mullahs will specialise in certain fields after completing the above foundational studies. Common specialties are: Such figures often have memorized the Quran and historically would memorise all the books they studied. However in the modern era they instead memorise the founding books of each field (sometimes in the form of poetry to aid memorisation). Uneducated villagers may frequently classify a literate Muslim with a less than complete Islamic training as their "mullah" or religious cleric. Mullahs with varying levels of training lead prayers in mosques, deliver religious  sermons, and perform religious ceremonies such as birth rites and funeral services. They also often teach in a type of Islamic school known as a madrasah. Three kinds of knowledge are applied most frequently in interpreting Islamic texts (i.e. the Quran, hadiths, etc.) for matters of Sharia, i.e., Islamic law. Mullahs have frequently been involved in politics, but only recently have they served in positions of power, since Islamists seized power in Iran in 1979. In Syria, political militant groups supported by the West have taken root. Dress. The dress of a Mullah usually consists of a turban ("ammāme"), a  long coat with sleeves and buttons, similar to a cassock ( "qabā"), and a long gown or cloak, open at the front ( "abā"). The "aba" is usually made either of brown wool or of black muslin. It is sleeveless but has holes through which the arms may be inserted. The turban is usually white, but those who claim descent from the prophet Muhammad traditionally wear a black turban.