The contemporary curriculum given below is well described in an excellent book by ‛Abd al-Hādī al-Ḥakīm published in 2007.Footnote 2 Some preference may be shown to the curriculum of the Madrasa al-Ḥakīm, as the author belongs to the family of the founder of this madrasa. Over twenty madrasas are part of al-Ḥawzah al-‛Ilmīya at Najaf. (See Appendix C.)
The curriculum begins with the study of Arabic grammar. The Alfīya by Ibn Mālik who died in 672/1274, which usually gets memorised from intensive study, remains the primary text. The slightly easier Ājurrūmīya of the North African scholar Ibn Ājurrūm (d. 723/1323), is also studied at Najaf (though seldom, if ever, used at Qum).
At the first level, al-muqaddamāt, two rhetoric works of the great Eastern scholar al-Taftāzānī (d. 793/1390), Mukhtaṣār al-Ma‛ānī and his Muṭawwal are occasionally used. One innovation in the curriculum is the addition of the very popular work on logic of Muḥammad Riḍā al-Muẓaffar (d. 1383/1964), commonly called al-Manṭiq. Some go on to study commentaries on the long favoured traditional logic called al-Risāla al-Shamsīya by Najm al-Dīn ‛Alī al-Kātibī (d. 693/1276).
The fourth area of elementary study is theology, using Sharḥ al-Bāb al-Ḥādī ῾Ashar, which is the commentary of Miqdād as-Suyūrī (d. 826/1423) on a work by ‛Allāmah al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1326), itself a commentary on a part of the brilliant Tajrīd al-Aqā’id of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274).
These works are called muqaddamāt, which means ‘preliminary’ disciplines for the study of subsequent subjects. The more difficult of these books, however, might not be studied in the preliminary phase of study.
The middle level of study, rather unusually called suṭūḥ ‘surfaces’, meaning the word-by-word study of set texts, begins with one of the practical manuals of law issued by one of the marāji‛, the highest Shī‛ī authorities on the law. Teaching such works has long been the custom in Najaf, perhaps to guarantee the correctness of advice given by ulema who do not continue their education to higher levels. It has recently been introduced in Iran. A useful traditional book for introducing fiqh is al-Mukhtaṣar al-Nāfi‛ by al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī (d. 676/1277). After that, the student is introduced to the Sharā’i‛ al-Islām by the same al-Ḥillī, one of the first compendious works on Shī‛ī fiqh. It established the basic divisions of Shī‛ī law, most of which have stood the test of time. The great and voluminous commentary on this work, much consulted by students and teachers, is the Jawāhir al-kalām by Muḥammad Ḥasan al-Najafī (d. 1266/1849), the forty-six volumes of which are sometimes considered the greatest published work on Shī‛ī fiqh. The author is known to students as Ṣāḥib al-Jawāhir, the “master of the Jawāhir”, and the great twentieth-century Iraqi poet al-Jawāhirī is one of his descendants.
The first book in uṣūl al-fiqh used to be Ma‛ālim al-dīn by Shaykh Ḥasan (d. 1011/1602), son of Zayn al-Dīn b. ‛Alī, called al-Shahīd al-Thānī (d. 965/1558), a scholar from Jabal ‛Āmil. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, the famous twentieth-century Najafī jurist-scholar, tried twice to replace this book. His first attempt, al-Ma‛ālim al-jadīda, is still worth study, but was never widely adopted as a textbook. His second attempt, Durūs fī uṣūl al-fiqh, is a brilliant book. Strangely, while it has come to dominate the elementary teaching of uṣūl in Qum, the teachers of Najaf have preferred the Uṣūl al-fiqh of Muḥammad Riḍā al-Muẓaffar, first published in 1966, because of its extreme clarity. The Ḥawza in Qum believes that the work of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr raises subtle points missed by al-Muẓaffar. In general, the Ḥawza in Najaf considers itself deeper in fiqh, while that of Qum considers itself deeper in jurisprudence proper (uṣūl). The rivalry between the two institutions is somehat reminiscent of the rivalry between Harvard and Yale, or Oxford and Cambridge.
At this level of study, students gain some acquaintance with arithmetic, which is considered essential to mastering inheritance law. They also acquire a very considerable knowledge of the science of verifying transmitters and transmission of the ḥadīth of the Prophet and the Imams, in particular through study of the vast work of ḥadīth called Wasā’il al-Shī‛a written by al-Hurr al-‛Āmilī (d. 1112/1700). Another fiqh book that is carefully studied is al-Rawḍa al-bahīya fī sharḥ al-Lum‛a al-Dimashqīya by al-Shahīd al-Thānī previously mentioned. This work is characterised by its careful use of inference from the sources of law and the variety of opinions it gives on disputed points of law.
After the Rawḍa, the students begin al-Makāsib, the epoch-making work of nineteenth-century Shī‛ī jurisprudence by Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī (d. 1281/1864) which, while containing a great deal of practical law, is extremely innovative in its use of jurisprudential theory. This work was so widely influential that we can speak of “the school of al-Anṣārī ” which dominates the Najaf Ḥawza right down to the present. His expansion of jurisprudence dealt mostly with the procedural principles, al-uṣūl al-‛amalīya, and led to a restructuring of the law in the area of transactions. A number of other works may be studied along with, or after, al-Makāsib. By far the most important of these is the master work on jurisprudence proper, Kifāyat al-uṣūl by Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī (d. 1329/1911).
For those interested in philosophy and kalām – an interest not much encouraged by some past marāji‛ in Najaf – the works of Mullā Ṣadrā (Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, d. 1050/1641) are sometimes read. Philosophically-inclined students nowadays often read Bidāyat al-ḥikma and Nihāyat al-ḥikma of the great Qur’ān commentator ‛Allāma al-Ṭabāṭabā’ī (d. 1981).Footnote 3
We have a survey of the set texts used in Najaf in 1913 (See Appendix A).Footnote 4 Two-thirds of the books I have mentioned were in use at that time, although a different set of texts was more favoured in 1913 than at present. It will be noticed that many of the more advanced books of 1913 were written in the nineteenth century when Shī‛ī jurisprudence underwent a great transformation. It is interesting to note that several of these works were written in the Arab world in the period from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries, when among Shī‛īs ijtihād came more into favour. Such works include books of the al-Ḥillīs and of Fāḍil al-Miqdād and of both al-Shahīd al-Thānī and his son Shaykh Ḥasan. The rise of the popularity of the books of Muḥammad Riḍā al-Muẓaffar and the overwhelming influence of Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī stand out as major changes in the Najaf curriculum.
Two autobiographical accounts from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century give us an idea of the texts and the methods of teaching in use at that time. One of these accounts is by the Lebanese Shī‛ī scholar, Muḥsin al-Amīn, who arrived in Najaf in 1891. There he studied the following books:
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a commentary [presumably al-Rawḍa al-bahīyaḥ, mentioned above] on the Lum‛a
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al-Qawānīn by Mīrzā Abū’l-Qāsim Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Jīlānī
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al-Rāsā’il of Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī
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al-Kifāya by Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī
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Miṣbāḥ al-faqīh by Riḍā ibn Muḥammad al-Hamadhānī (d. 1322/1904).Footnote 5
Interestingly, all of these books except the last, which was never completed, are still in use.
At approximately the same time, the Iranian scholar Āqā-Najafī Qūchānī went to Najaf. He mentions many teachers but few books. These books are:
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al-Rāsā’il of Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī
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al-Kifāya by Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī
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Sharḥ Maṭāli‛ al-anwār fī ‛ilm al-manṭiq by Quṭb al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Rāzī al-Taḥtānī (d. 766/1364).Footnote 6
This third book, which is on logic, is no longer in general use.
To some extent these books form part of the shared intellectual endeavour of madrasa learning in the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. All three empires were heirs to the Timurid ‘renaissance’, in which Taftāzānī and Sayyid Shārif Jurjānī played important roles. As Francis Robinson has pointed out, not only did they contribute books to the curriculum but they also wrote commentaries on earlier books of grammar, rhetoric and logic, such as the Shamsīya, which encouraged the canonisation of these books among later generations.Footnote 7
After the set texts, students begin the stage called al-baḥth al-khārij. In this stage the teacher speaks from a raised bench and pursues for several weeks or months a subject not necessarily treated in the textbooks. He gives a survey of views that support or contradict his own, which he presents last, with the arguments and proofs that he considers decisive. After his talk, students question him and the discussion can become so heated that the professor has to demand quiet. Some few teachers did not encourage much disputation, such as Ayatollah al-Khū’ī, who taught al-baḥth al-khārij for sixty years with four to five hundred students at his lectures.Footnote 8 An interesting anecdote of an earlier period concerns the leading Sunnī authority of the Ottoman Empire, the Shaykh al-Islām of Istanbul. He went to visit the Ḥawza some time before al-Khurāsānī’s death in 1911. Although al-Khurāsānī’s lectures were thronged by up to two thousand listeners, the students made way for the Shaykh al-Islām to sit in front. Khurāsānī took a maxim from Abū Ḥanīfa, the great Sunnī jurist whose tomb in Baghdad the Shaykh al-Islām had just visited. He offered the visitor the lecturer's bench, but the offer was declined.Footnote 9 The anecdote illustrates the freedom of the teacher of al-khārij to choose his approach to the general topic of his lectures.
Methods of Teaching
The methods of teaching throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Najaf have remained largely traditional, although outside influences, principally from the civil educational system, have caused significant changes. Many contemporary madrasas offer hourly classes for the elementary and intermediate texts, in a model clearly taken from civil education. The ḥalqa or ‘circle’ which surrounds the teacher is still the usual method for teaching set texts. Sometimes the most favoured students sit nearest the teacher, and in theory any of the students can raise objections at any point. When the lesson is finished and the teacher has left, the students often pair up to review the explanations offered by the teacher. Serious students write down the lesson every day and may carry it to the professor for review. If the teacher finds such study notes outstanding, he may authorise their publication.
In the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, many of the stages of education coincided with stages in recognition of the adulthood of the student. The upbringing of a young Muslim boy rested with his mother up to age six, when he started to go to the public bath with his father instead of his mother. At about the same age, he begins to accompany his father to visit male relatives and receive them at home. It was also around the sixth year that Muslim boys were introduced to the traditional system of education. Such education took place in Qur’ān schools, in which the sacred text was taught word by word with little grammatical explanation. Children brought up in this system have described to me their initial sense of being at sea and then experiencing a sudden leap of understanding. When the student went on to the Ḥawza at age ten to fourteen, roughly the age of puberty, a somewhat similar situation obtained: again a sense of being at sea with extraordinarily abstruse texts, and, for the more able students, a sudden leap of understanding about the subject matter.
Incidentally, a fair number of teachers in Qur’ān schools were women both for pre-pubescent boys and girls. In villages boys and girls were sometimes even taught together in the same school. In contrast, the Ḥawza corresponds to a period in which men and women (who are not related) are kept strictly divided from each other. Many Ḥawza students who formerly lived at home would now live in the all-male or all-female atmosphere of Ḥawza dormitories.
Students had comparative freedom in choosing with whom to study the set texts and, in agreement with the premodern educational system of the Middle East, a pupil usually needed written permission, the ijāza, before he could teach a book to others. Unlike the secular system in both the Middle East and in the West, the ḥawza system recognises achievements text by text and, in this way, allows middle-level students many opportunities to teach and therefore to support themselves as madrasa teachers while continuing their education.
In both past and present great respect is shown to the teacher. Sometime lifelong bonds of affection join pupil and teacher. Although the subject matters of the books vary considerably, there is a fairly consistent use of technical terminology. To give a very simple example: grammar, law, and theology all organise their subject into ‘roots’ (uṣūl) and ‘branches’ (furū‛). Many of the subjects studied present the material in schemata which lead the student up decision trees to the branch which determines the solution to a problem. This technique is much used in uṣūl al-fiqh or jurisprudence proper.
Nowadays almost all Iraqi students have received some degree of state-sponsored education before they arrive at the Ḥawza. There is also some accomodation to the difficulty in understanding the set texts. The very much simplified and clear exposition of Ḥawza subjects offered by contemporary writers such as the Saudi Shī‛ī author Shaykh ‛Abd al-Hādī Faḍlī eases the path of students. Nevertheless, the traditional set texts can be extremely difficult. The Ḥawza atmosphere continues to be all male or all female.
It is interesting to note that in contrast with many Sunnī systems of education, memorisation is not formally required, although many basic texts will in the end be thoroughly committed to memory. Another contrast with most living Sunnī traditions of education is the strong emphasis on dialectic and disputation (jadal and munāzara) in class as the most respected achievement of students. In the most elegant uses of disputation, one shows that the opponent's position leads to an infinite regress or a vicious circle. There are many stories of teachers ceding their position to more able students. The famous Shaykh Waḥīd al-Bihbihānī, considered by Shī‛īs to be the mujaddid or ‘renewer’ of the thirteenth Hijrī century, retired from the marja‛īya in his later years and referred questions to his leading students. The prominent mullah Sa‛īd al-‛Ulamā’ al-Māzandarānī, even though he had many followers, wrote to Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī: “What makes you different from me is your preoccupation with research (baḥth) and writing. I have given that up! Therefore you are more learned than I and it is religiously incumbent upon the ṭā'ifa to emulate you and entrust you with marja‛īya in their affairs”.Footnote 10
This passage brings us to the question of the marja‛ al-taqlīd, a term usually translated as ‘source of imitation’ but most correctly understood as ‘point of authoritative reference in matters of behaviour and belief’. Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī is usually considered the first marja‛ accepted by the great majority of the Shī‛ī world, although lists of marja‛s going back to al-Ṭūsī (d. 1067), founder of the Najaf Ḥawza, are often met with. The informality by which a person is recognised as ‘the most learned’ and therefore the marja‛īya has concerned many reformers of the Najaf Ḥawza. Preeminent among these is Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr (d. 1980), who called for a council of marja‛s, a point of view also supported by the Iranian mullah Mortaza Motahheri. This proposal failed. However, Ṣadr did succeed in making some of his books, such as Iqtiṣādunā (“Our Economy”), the subject of study circles and in this sense achieved his goal of making the teaching of the Ḥawza more relevant to contemporary life.
An earlier and more modest effort was begun by Shaykh Muḥammad Riḍā al-Muẓaffar, who favored a partial integration of the Ḥawza into the national university system by establishment of the Kullīya al-Fiqh. In 1935 he and several like-minded mullahs established the Club for Publication (Muntadā al-Nashr). Interestingly, this group included Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Ṣadr. Its aim was to publish works in a style less archaic than that used in the textbooks at the Ḥawza. Towards the end of the 1930s Muẓaffar established a religious college called Kullīya al-Fiqh, which in 1957 was recognised by the Ministry of Education. Overt opposition to this institution among the ulama of the Ḥawza ceased when Ayatollah al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1946) indicated his acceptance of it.Footnote 11
Another dramatic change in the life of the Ḥawza took place when Muḥammad Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Ṣadr, a graduate of the Kullīya al-Fiqh and son of the founder mentioned above, was allowed limited access to the Iraqi media to publish and broadcast his sermons in the 1980s. At the time the marja‛īya of Ayatollah Abū’l-Qāsim al-Khū’ī was powerful and widespread in Iraq. Nevertheless, Muḥammad Ṣadr put himself forward as a marja‛ and a nationalistic element in the regime of Saddam Hussein welcomed the presence of an ‘Iraqi marja‛’ in contrast with the so-called ‘Persian’ marja‛s of the past, including Khū’ī. On the death of Khū’ī in 1992, although Khū’ī had clearly recognised the Iranian-born ‛Alī al-Sīstānī as his successor and the majority of Ḥawza teachers had accepted him, a large popular element began to follow Ṣadr, who revived the practice of preaching sermons at the Friday prayer, a custom strictly forbidden by the senior Shī‛ī clergy of Iraq for centuries. Ṣadr's Friday sermons on the radio with their admixture of colloquial Arabic and repeated chanting of slogans by his congregations were broadcast in Shī‛ī mosques throughout Iraq. This success brought him accusations of being an agent of the government, which had already given him supervision of the Ḥawza. These activities also brought him both a reputation for theological naiveté and fame as a renewer of Shī‛ī spirituality in the face of the ‘reactionary’ Ḥawza of Najaf. In the end his demand that Shī‛ī processions be performed in the traditional way convinced the government to kill him and his two sons in 1999. A third son, Muqtaḍā al-Ṣadr, survived and claims to be the heir of both his populist father and his cousin Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, the highly respected jurist.Footnote 12
The Ḥawza, whose members had dwindled to less than two thousand in the last years of Saddam Hussein, has more than doubled its numbers since the fall of the Ba‛ath and continues to attract students from most parts of the Shī‛ī world. One of the great ironies of the recent upheavals in the Ḥawza is that Kāẓim al-Ḥā’irī, who was an outstanding student of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr and was recognized by Muḥammad Ṣadr as his successor in religious matters, has steadfastly refused to return to the Ḥawza in Najaf and remains at his own madrasa in Qum. Hence there is a vacuum of senior religious leadership in the Ṣadrist movement led by Muqtaḍā al-Ṣadr. Likewise, in the Islamic Da‛wah Party, which is devoted to the memory of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, there is internal disagreement as to which living religious authority should be recognised.
Sīstānī has grown in stature both within Iraq and beyond while moving from a cautious to a bolder position toward politics. Whenever possible, he has his important fatwās co-signed by Muḥammad Bashīr al-Najafī, Muḥammad Isḥāq al-Fayyāḍ and Muḥammad Sa‛īd al-Ḥakīm. The Ḥakīm family has never overcome their loss of the marja‛īya at the death of Ayatollah Muḥsin al-Ḥakīm in 1970 and continues to champion Ayatollah Muḥammad Sa‛īd al-Ḥakīm. Meanwhile, Sīstānī’s international recognition has made him the most important source of funds for the Iraqi Ḥawza. Perhaps the time will come for reconsideration of the model of collective leadership by the marāji‛ proposed by the most brilliant Iraqi Shī‛ī of the twentieth century, Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr.
The eternal value and authority of a ḥawza education is brought home by a florid passage in Ayatollah Khū’ī’s ijāza al-ijtihād which he granted to Sīstānī:
The nobility of knowledge cannot be overestimated nor its virtue reckoned. Inheritors of [knowledge] are the heirs of the prophets. By it they attain deputyship to the Seal of the prophets so long as earth and sky endure! Among those who followed the path of virtue to seek Him is. . . Ḥujjat al-Islām Sayyid ‛Alī al-Sīstānī (may God prolong the days of his effusion of learning and excellence and multiply his like among the active scholars!). For he has expended in this path a sizable portion of his noble life, devoting himself to living in the vicinity of ‛Alī. . . at Noblest Najaf.Footnote 13
Few systems of knowledge can have been more self-confident, and even fewer can have claimed more inherited authority than the Ḥawza system. Yet, in spite of all this self-confidence, the emergence of Shakespeare, who according to Ben Jonson had “small Latin and less Greek” shows that some creative advantage can be acquired by escaping too many set texts. In contrast, the great Iraqi poet Jawāhirī, who started in the Ḥawza system, shows that a deep knowledge of classical Arabic acquired while learning set texts can also inspire memorable modern poetry written in the classical style.
APPENDIX A Curriculum in Najaf in 1913Footnote 14
The first grammar book used was the al-Ājurrūmīya,Footnote 15 followed by Sharḥ Qaṭr al-nadā [wa-ball al-ṣadā].Footnote 16 Some deepened their knowledge of Arabic grammar by studying Ibn Hishām's al-Mughnī [al-labīb] and a commentary on the al-Alfīyah.Footnote 17 To learn syntax students often studied al-Nukat,Footnote 18 the Lum‛a [fī’l-naḥw], Footnote 19 and the Kitāb [Sībawayhi].Footnote 20
Persian students followed a somewhat different curriculum which included the books printed in Jāmi‛ al-Muqaddamāt such as the grammar books, the ‛Awāmil,Footnote 21 al-Namūdhaj,Footnote 22 and al-Fawā’id al-Ṣamadīya.Footnote 23 They also studied the Sharḥ al-Jāmī [al-Fawā’id al-diyā’īya] Footnote 24 and a commentary on the al-Alfīyah [al-Bahja al-marḍīya].Footnote 25
In the study of logic the students turned to the Ḥāshīya of Mullā ‛AbdallāhFootnote 26 and the Sharḥ al-Shamsīya.Footnote 27 Many also read al-Jawhar al-naḍīd.Footnote 28
In fiqh a wide range of books were studied, including al-Tabṣira Footnote 29 as well as the manual of the mujtahid that the student followed. The students then progressed to Kitāb Sharā’i‛ [al-Islām].Footnote 30
In rhetoric the well-known works were al-Fawā’id al-diyā’īya,Footnote 31 Sharḥ [Talkhīṣ] al-Miftāḥ,Footnote 32 and al-Muṭawwal Footnote 33 with the commentaries of Muḥammad ibn ‛Alī ibn Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsā’īFootnote 34 and Shaykh Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Baḥrānī.Footnote 35
In the study of jurisprudence proper, the students began with al-Ma‛ālim [al-dīn wa-malādh al-mujtahidīn] Footnote 36 although some read beforehand al-Mabādi’ wal-Ma‛ārif.Footnote 37 After these books, students moved on to al-Qawānīn [al-muḥkama] Footnote 38 which was usually read alongside the al-Lum῾a al-dimashqīya Footnote 39 studied with the commentary by al-Shahīd al-Thānī.Footnote 40 At a yet higher level, the students read two classics, al-Rasā’il Footnote 41 on the principles of jurisprudence and al-Makāsib,Footnote 42 applying these principles to a specific area of law.
In the author's time, the work ‘most in vogue’ was the al-Kifāya [al-uṣūl],Footnote 43 which for many had replaced al-Qawānīn [al-muḥkama]. The author adds that students interested in theology read the commentary on Tajrīd al-‛Aqā’id Footnote 44 by [‛Alī ibn Muḥammad] al-QūshjīFootnote 45 or by ‛Allāma [Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillī].Footnote 46 Two books formerly popular in Najaf, the Majma‛ al-bayān [fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān] Footnote 47 and al-Shāṭibīya [on Qur’ān readings],Footnote 48 were completely neglected by the author's time.
APPENDIX B “Standard Ḥawza Curriculum”
1. Logic
While the Sharḥ al-Manẓūma fil manṭiq by Sabzawārī is still used, the most popular work on this subject is the Uṣūl al-manṭiq by Shaykh al-Muẓaffar. Some ḥawzas begin with the simpler Khulāsa al-manṭiq of Shaykh ‛Abd al-Hādī Faḍlī.
2. Uṣūl al-Fiqh
Some students begin with Mabādi‛ Uṣūl al-Fiqh by Shaykh Faḍlī or the second volume of al-Mūjaz fī uṣūl al-fiqh by Ayatollah Ja‛far Subḥānī. After finishing these preliminary books the most widely used works are Durūs fī uṣūl al-fiqh (or Durūs fī ‛ilm al-uṣūl) by Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr and Uṣūl al-fiqh by Shaykh al-Muẓaffar. At a higher stage, students advance to the Ma‛ālim by Shaykh Ḥasan ibn al-Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rasā’il by Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī, and the Kifāya of Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī.
3. Fiqh
Students usually begin with Mukhtaṣar an-Nāfi‛ by Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī, although this book is fast being replaced by al-Durūs fī’l-fiqh al-istidlālī of Muḥammad al-Bāqir al-Īrawānī. The next book is al-Lum‛a al-Dimashqīya by al-Shahīd al-Awwal Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Makkī al-‛Āmilī, usually studied with the commentary by al-Shahīd al-Thānī, which is commonly called Sharḥ al-Lum‛a. At the same stage, some students study Sharā’i‛ al-Islām by al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī and the Āyāt al-Aḥkām of al-Īrawānī.
4. Tafsīr al-Qur’ān
The most popular book in this category is al-Mīzān by al-Ṭabāṭabā’ī.
5. ‛Ulūm al-Qur’ān
The most popular work in this category is al-Tamhīd fī ‛ulūm al-Qur’ān by Muḥammad Hādī Ma‛rifa.
6. ‛Ilm al-Ḥadīth
The most used reference book in this study is Wasā‛il al-Shī‛a by al-Ḥurr al-‛Āmilī.
7. ‛Ilm ar-Rijāl
A popular book in this category is Mu‛jam al-Rijāl by Abū’l-Qāsim al-Khū’ī.
9. ‛Aqā’id
Widely used works include the Tajrīd al-‛aqā’id by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī and the al-Bāb al-hādī ‛ashar by ‛Allāma al-Ḥillī. The Tajrīd is often read with a commentary by ‛Allāma al-Ḥillī.
10. Arabic Language
The Alfīyah of Ibn Mālik is read with the commentary of Ibn ‛Aqīl and/or of al-Suyūṭī.
11. Philosophy
This subject is usually broached with the Bidāya al-Ḥikma and the Nihāya al-Ḥikma by ‛Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī.
12. ‛Irfān
[Since this subject is not publicly taught in most ḥawzas the curriculum given here is idiosyncratic.]
Sources:
al-Islam.org (accessed December 2010)
imamreza.net (accessed December 2010)
[The information on these sites reflects a mixture of the practice in Najaf and Qum.]
APPENDIX C List of Madrasas in Najaf in 2010
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1 Jāmi‛a al-Najaf (Madrasa al-Kalāntar)
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2 Madrasa ‛Abd al-‛Azīz al-Baghdādī
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3 Madrasa Mahdī
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4 Madrasa Yazdī
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5 Madrasa Lubnānīya
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6 Madrasa Shīrāzīya Buzurg
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7 Madrasa Imām ‛Alī
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8 Madrasa Afghānīya (founded by ‛Allāma Mudarris al-Afghānī)
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9 Madrasa Kāẓimīya (Ṣadr al-A‛ẓam)
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10 Madrasa Burūjirdī al-Kubrā (founded by Ayatollah Burūjirdī)
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11 Madrasa Ākhūnd al-Kubrā
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12 Madrasa Ākhūnd al-Ṣughrā (like no. 11, founded by Ākhūnd-i Khurāsānī)
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13 Madrasa Imām Ṣādiq (Madrasa Shubarīya)
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14 Madrasa Qiwām
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15 Madrasa Hindīya
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16 Madrasa Mahdīya Kāshif al-Ghiṭā
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17 Madrasa Kāshif al-Ghiṭā
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18 Madrasa Qazwīnī
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19 Madrasa Dar al-Abrār
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20 Madrasa Dar al-Muṭṭaqīn
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21 Madrasa Ḥusaynīya al-Shīrāzīya
