HAWZAH, which comes from hawz, is an Arabic word that literally means "the place surrounded by a swelling border." Technically it is applied to the traditional religious institution in the Shīʿī world known as Hawzah-e Ilmiyyah (Islamic seminary). The hawzah seeks to attain two major missions: (1) training the clerics to preach the principles and practices of Islam, particularly that of the Shīʿah; and (2) training the experts in religious sciences, ones who can deduce Islamic rules from the related sources. In the early twenty-first century this Shīʿī institution works in the countries where the Shīʿah population is considerable, such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Lebanon. Throughout history Najaf, Hillah, Karbala, and Samirra in Iraq and Isfahan, Qom, Shiraz, and Mashhad in Iran have alternately assumed the central leadership role of the Shīʿī hawzah.

It is said that the establishment of the first hawzah goes historically back...