Murtadha al-Ansari
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Murtadha al-Ansari al-Tostari, also Morteza Ansari Shushtari, known as Shaykh al-Ta'ifah was a Shia Islamic scholar of Arab descent who was “generally acknowledged as the most eminent jurist of the time". He is considered to have laid the foundation of modern Shi'i jurisprudence, and his style has been imitated more than any other classical scholar of Shia Islam. Ansari is considered the "first effective" model or Marja of the Shia or "the first scholar universally recognized as supreme authority in matters of Shi'i law".
In Iraq, al-Ansari is referred to with the honorific Ustād al-Fuqahā wa al-Muhaqiqīn.
Life and studies
His nasab is Murtadha bin Muhammad Amin bin Murtadha bin Shams al-Din bin Muhammad Sharif bin Ahmad bin Jamal al-Din bin Hassan bin Yusuf bin Ubaid Allah bin Qutb al-Din Muhammad bin Zaid bin Abi Talib. He traces his paternal lineage to the Sahabi Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari, who hailed from the Arab tribe of Khazraj. Murtadha al-Ansari was born in Dezful around 1781 to Iranian Arab parents, the time where the Qajar dynasty was starting to establish its power in Iran. He commenced his religious studies in Dezful, under the tutelage of his uncle, himself a notable scholar. At the age of twenty, he made Ziyara with his father to Karbala, Iraq, where he met Mohammad Mujtahid Karbala'i, the leader of the city's scholars. Ansari demonstrated considerable promise during a debate with the senior Mujtahid, who was so impressed that he induced his father to allow Ansari to continue his studies with them. Ansari studied in Karbala for four years, until the city was besieged by Dawud Pasha and his rebels, causing the scholars of Karbala and their students to flee to Baghdad and the shrine of Musa al-Kazim. From there, Ansari returned to his homeland, where he quickly became restless and resolving to find teachers to continue his religious instruction. After about a year of traveling, he spent two years in Najaf studying under Musa al-Ja'fari and Sharif Mazandarani and a year in Najaf studying with Kashf ul-Ghita. Returning from a pilgrimage to Mashhad, Khurasan, he encountered Ahmad Naraqi, an authority in Fiqh, Usul al-fiqh and Irfan, and – although Ansari was already a Mujtahid in his own right when he left Karbala – studied with him for a further four years. After again traveling for a number of years, he returned to Najaf where he completed his studies under Kashf ul-Ghita and Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi and began teaching.Religious leadership
When the last of the prominent scholars of the generation senior to Ansari died in 1849, Ansari was universally recognized as the 'most learned Mujtahid' in the Twelver Shia community. His lessons in Fiqh and Usul al-fiqh became incredibly popular, attracting hundreds of students. Furthermore, it is estimated that 200,000 Tomans a year of Khums money was tithed to Ansari's base in Najaf "from all over the Islamic world". Despite this, Ansari lived humbly, generously provided stipends to his Islamic students with these funds, and this resulted in a confirmation of Najaf's standing as center of education for Twelver Shi'ism. In spite of the tremendous prestige attached to his position, Ansari lived the life of an ascetic. When he died, his two daughters were unable to pay for his funeral expenses from his inheritance. He rarely used his authority in the Shia community, seldom judging cases or giving out Fatwas.From the beginning of the Oudh Bequest in 1850, Morteza Ansari along with Sayyid Ali Naqi Tabatabie transferred the bequest from India through agents. Morteza Ansari had devised a mode of distribution which included "junior mujtahids, low-ranking indigent ulama, students, the custodians of the shrines, and the poor."