Ayatollahs are spiritual leaders of the Shi‘ite Muslim minority sect. Islam is very much less institutionalized and hierarchically ordered than most Christian denominations, and it is not possible to make a direct equivalent to the role of, for example, a bishop or cardinal. A closer analogy, though still not a good one, is to the rabbi in Judaism. Certainly the stress on religious leadership being in part a matter of excellence in scholarship and learning, and therefore in teaching, is important. Because Islam does not grant to any one person or body a decisive authority over matters of faith, as with the pope in Roman Catholicism or the synod in some Protestant churches, there is no clear way in which any particular ayatollah can be seen as either institutionally senior to others, or possessing a special right to lay down correct belief on any matter. Furthermore, the divisions between Sunni and Shi‘ite Muslims are at least as important as those between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Christianity.
Ayatollahs have political importance because the state, according to Islam, is a religious institution (see Shari‘a) and should be governed accordingly, and because of their particular role in guiding the Islamic fundamentalist movements which have so strongly affected world politics since the 1970s. After the Muslim factions in the Iranian revolution of 1979 gained control over the secular radical wing, and thus over Iran, the ayatollahs came to be the effective government, with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accepted consensually as the leading spiritual guide, being at first the de facto and later the de jure head of government. However, his authority was never completely institutionalized, nor even necessarily completely effective. Much of the revolution in Iran, and especially the enforcement of Islamic law and ethics, was carried out under the collective authority of a large number of ayatollahs, especially in their role as members of religious courts, or because they also held posts as members of the Iranian parliament. Divisions did occur among this collective body, and after Khomeini’s death in 1989 there was no one who had a personal religious authority in the same way, and therefore no possibility of a routine transfer of power. Ayatollahs will continue to exercise enormous authority both in Iran and among fundamentalist Muslim groups elsewhere, and official political leaders will frequently be able to claim this title, although their actual power will increasingly come from more secular bases. In this context it might be noted that Khomeini’s initial authority over his fellow ayatollahs derived more from his long-term political opposition to the Shah, symbolized by his lengthy exile, than from any special position he held in terms of his spiritual distinction.
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