Ayatollah

Ayatollah is a title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy. It came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Originally used as a title bestowed by popular/clerical acclaim for a small number of the most distinguished marja' at-taqlid ''mujtahid'', it suffered from "inflation" following the 1979 Iranian Revolution when it came to be used for "any established mujtahid". By 2015, it was further expanded to include any student who had passed their Mujtahid final exam, leading to "thousands" of Ayatollahs.
The title is not used by the Sunni community of Iran.
In the Western world – especially after the Iranian Revolution – it was associated with Ruhollah Khomeini, who was so well known as to often be referred to as "The Ayatollah".
File:Grand Ayatollahs Qom فتوکلاژ، آیت الله های ایران-قم 02.jpg|thumb|220px|upright|Grand Ayatollahs of Qom, Iran; Religious leaders who have the authority to interpret sharia sources in Shia Islam used assertive titles such as Hujjat al-Islam, Ayatollah, Ayatollah Al-Uzma and gained tutelage over people and the administration.

Etymology

The title is originally derived from the Arabic word post-modified with the word Allah, making . The combination has been translated to English as 'Sign of God', 'Divine Sign' or 'Reflection of God'. It is a frequently used term in the Quran, but its usage in this context is presumably a particular reference to the verse "We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their own selves", while it has been also used to refer to The Twelve Imams by Shias.
Variants used are , or and .

Qualifications

Though no formal hierarchical structure exists among Shia clerics, a "hierarchy of difference" can be elaborated to describe the situation. Traditionally, the title Ayatollah was awarded by popular usage only to the very few highest ranking, prominent Mujtahid. Qualifications included

being a definite Mujtahid,
being regarded among peers as superior in aʿlamīyat and
being superior in riyāsat, which is determined by popular acclamation, as well as collecting a huge amount of Khums.

Consequently, by the 1960s a cleric addressed as an Ayatollah was expected to be a Marja'.

Devaluation trend

The title of Ayatollah has been "cheapened" since then.
Roy Mottahedeh describes how the title of ayatollah was determined in the mid to late 20th century.
According to Michael M. J. Fischer, the Iranian Revolution led to "rapid inflation of religious titles", so that almost every senior cleric began to be called an Ayatollah. raising the number of individuals who call themselves an Ayatollah dramatically.
An unwritten rule of addressing for Shia clerics has been developed after the 1980s as a result of Iranian Revolution, despite the fact no official institutional way of conferring titles is available. At first the title that had been reserved for a Marja', was gradually applied to an established Mujtahid. With the post-revolutionary bureaucratization of Shia seminaries under the Islamic Republic, four levels of studies were introduced and those clerics who end the fourth level, also known as Dars-e-Kharej and pass the final exam, were called Ayatollahs. Moojan Momen wrote in 2015 that every cleric who finished his training calls himself an Ayatollah and this trend has led to emergence of "thousands of Ayatollahs".
This inflation led to invention of a new title, Ayatollah al-Uzma. Originally, about half a dozen people were addressed as al-Uzma, but as of 2015, the number of people who claimed that title was reportedly over 50.

Political connotations

Another post-revolutionary change in what makes an ayatollah has been the falling away, of purely religious credentials and informal acclamation, and its replacement by political criteria.
Ali Khamenei—who was addressed with mid-level title of Hujjat al-Islam when he was in office as President of Iran—was bestowed the title Ayatollah immediately after he was elected Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989, without meeting regular unwritten criteria. Since the 2010s, sources under government control tend to give him more distinguished titles like Grand Ayatollah and Imam.
Certain clerics, such as Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari and Hussein-Ali Montazeri, who had fallen out of favor with the rulers were downgraded by not being addressed as an Ayatollah.

Usage

Origins, early 20th century

The earliest known address of this title is for Ibn Mutahhar Al-Hilli, however it was not in use as a title for those qualifying until the 20th century. Glassé states that following domination of Twelver branch by followers of school and demise of school, the title was popularized by s as an attempt to promote their status. Mirza Ali Aqa Tabrizi was the first one to use the term for the sources of emulation in Najaf, especially Akhund Khurasani, to distinguish them from the clerics of lower rank in Tehran, during the 1905-1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution.
Hamid Algar maintains that this title entered general usage possibly because it was an "indirect result of the reform and strengthening of the religious institution in Qom". Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi who founded Qom Seminary, may be the first to bear the title according to Algar.
While the title Ayatollah was sporadically used during the 1930s, it became widespread in the 1940s.

Stages of contemporary titles for Shia clerics in Iran

Grand Ayatollah

Only a few of the most important ayatollahs are accorded the rank of Grand Ayatollah. When an ayatollah gains a significant following and they are recognized for religiously correct views, he is considered a Marja'-e-Taqlid, which in common parlance is "grand ayatollah". Usually as a prelude to such status, a mujtahid is asked to publish a juristic treatise in which he answers questions about the application of Islam to present-time daily affairs. Risalah is the word for treatise, and such a juristic work is called a risalah-yi'amaliyyah or "practical law treatise",. A Grand Ayatollah is often seen as a spiritual guide and mentor to millions of Shia Muslims. His influence extends beyond the mosque and into the social and political arenas. Unlike many religious leaders of other religions, a grand ayatollah is often involved in state affairs, especially in countries with large Shia populations such as Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Use of the term as a pejorative

In the West, particularly the United States, the term "Ayatollah" may be used as a pejorative to describe religious fundamentalism. Sam Miller of London Review of Books states that following the Iranian Revolution, "ayatollah" became common use; Miller described the pejorative version of the term as " an old, turbaned, bearded man, sitting in judgment, looking like a crow and ordering the execution of the impure".
However, the term is generally used to describe any kind of fundamentalism, not just Islamism. For example, in the choice of title for the 1987 English translation of Raphael Mergui and Philippe Simonnot's book Israel's Ayatollahs: Meir Kahane and the Far Right in Israel, or in the United States, where former jurist and lawyer Roy Moore has been called the "Ayatollah of Alabama" by his critics due to espousing Christian nationalism, opposition to secularism, and far-right politics.