Veleyet-E Faqih
Veleyet-e faqih literally means "the authority or governance of the jurist" in Arabic and "rule of the religious jurisprudent" ("jurisprudent" referring to one who is learned in law) in Persian. In essence, it is the belief that an ideal government is one that is run by Islamic clergy who are well versed in Islamic law, history, and theology. It is a doctrine whose origins date back to 939 CE at the beginning of the Twelfth Imam's major occultation or absence from earth. It was determined that scholars of Shiʿa Islam were the most qualified to conduct government services during the Twelfth Imam's occultation, which continues to the present.
Theoretically, veleyet-e faqih was contemplated in the nineteenth century as a definite legal consideration, but it became a political reality in Iran only under Ayatollah Khomeini after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The ayatollah originally began developing this concept in his first work titled Kashf al-Asrar in 1944 when he asserted the right and duty of Shiʿa scholars to lead. During his exile in Iraq, he worked out the details more fully in lectures, which were eventually published as Hokumat-e Eslami (Islamic Government). When Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power in 1979, an Assembly of Experts was assigned to take on the task of making his ideas into a viable political structure. The result was a government structure headed by the faqih, who would be an Islamic theologian overseeing the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government. Ayatollah Khomeini was Iran's first faqih, followed by the 2000 faqih, Ayatollah Khameni.
Further Reading
Algar, Hamid. (1991) "Religious Forces in Twentieth-Century Iran." In The Cambridge History of Iran, volume 7, edited by Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly, and Charles Melville. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 732–64.
Khomeini, Ruhollah. (1981) Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Trans. by Hamid Algar. Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press.
——. (1978) Veleyat-e Faqih. In Persian. Tehran, Iran: Amirkabir Book.
Rahnema, Ali, ed. (1994) Pioneers of Islamic Revival. London: Zed Books.
Sachedina, Abdalaziz A. (1988) The Just Ruler in Shiite Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.
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