90 Al Hawza of Najaf in Iraq of the marja‘iyya features a few instances of inheritance that were mandated by the circumstances of the time, it has not happened often. Prior to his death in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini spoke about the characteristics of a mujtahid who meets all the criteria(is qualified to be the marji‘). Such a person would combine religious knowledge, mastery of Hawza lessons, social experience, and enough political awareness to be familiar with international dynamics and how to exploit mechanisms of influence. He made these characteristics a prerequisite for the jurist who would be the leader, the marji‘, and the guardian of public affairs. 57 This vision has entered the consciousness of some portion of the wider Shi‘ite public, especially within Islamist movements. With this vision added to the late Marji‘ Muhammad al-Sadr’s experience and then Ayatollah al-Sistani’s experience in Iraq, it can be said that the path to a marji‘ with these characteristics is a long one. Iraq will enter a period in which the work of the marji‘ will recede into its traditional confines before opening to new variables during the tenure of a marji‘ who keeps abreast of those variables. Perhaps there will again be calls for institutionalizing the marja‘iyya on the model of the papacy, and the selection of the marji‘ will follow the model for the selection of the pope. This option faces strident objections and strong rejection, though, for technical and institutional reasons on which the late Marji‘ Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim has previously expounded. CONCLUSION The relationship between the political authority in Baghdad and Shi‘ite leadership has oscillated between stability and tension. For decades after the emergence of the nation-state in 1921, maraji‘ tried to avoid coming into contact with political authorities. They intervened only out of necessity to oppose a law or policy the marji‘ saw as harmful or flagrantly incompatible with Islamic identity, definitive provisions of Shari‘a, or the people’s political rights. In doing so, they faced blockades, crackdowns, persecution, and exclusion that curtailed Najaf’s role as the Shi‘ite center of gravity and the effectiveness of senior clerics(the major maraji‘). Nonetheless, they did not abandon their basic functions, in spite of isolation that was voluntary at times and imposed on them at other times. After being under siege for years, Najaf reclaimed its influence and became an 57  Ibrahim al-Abadi, Al-Ijtihād wa-l-Tajdīd, Dirāsa fī Manāhij al-Ijtihād wa-l-Tajdīd( Ijtihad and Renewal: A Study in Approaches to Ijtihad and Renewal), Dar al-Hadi for Printing, Publishing, and Distribution, Beirut, first edition, 2000, p. 60.