THE RESOURCES OF THE MARJA‘IYYA AND HAWZA, AND THEIR HISTORICAL EVOLUTION 95 - The wealthy marji‘ or the wealth of the marji‘ – which came first? The money and power of the marji‘: Iranian institutionalism versus Najafi traditionalism in managing money and the marja‘iyya INTRODUCTION As is usual in any group, Shi‘ism rests on a set of narratives. Perhaps at the forefront of what interests us in this paper is the narrative of“opposition,” which assumes that Shi‘ism was an opposition doctrine amid successive Islamic governments. That discussion is out of place here. 60 Here, we presume that Shi‘ite opposition, in turn, led the religious institution to operate on two principles, namely protectionism and adaptation. The nature of protectionism has led to the necessity of adaptation at every stage in the history of Shi‘ism, through its leaders. One of the features of this protectionism – which has resulted in adaptation – was financial independence. As a doctrine that declares its opposition, many of its clerics have not received funding from Islamic governments. There were major exceptions with some founding jurists, such as Al-Sharif al-Murtada, 61 who was close to the Abbasid caliphs, on top of his unique relationship with Ali ibn Buya. This led to the development of khums, which is set out in the Qur’an, in Surah Al-Anfal 41:“Know that whatever you take as bounty of war, one-fifth of it is for God and for the Messenger, his relatives, orphans, the destitute, and the needy traveler, if you believe in God and what We revealed to Our servant on the Day of Discernment, the day on which the two hosts met; and God is able to do all things.” Some argue that the way khums is levied today is not the way it was done in the time of the Twelve Imams. As the work and structure of the Shi‘ite religious institution evolved, so did its methods of collecting resources and where it spends them, dividing them into two parts: the imam’s share, and half to the poor, orphans, and the destitute from the Hashemites, from the descendants of Ali and Fatima. From the imam’s share, the mujtahid jurist spends money on several resources, namely material for his work and his means of managing the affairs of his marja‘iyya. He spends on the 60  For details, see: Fuad Ibrahim, Al-Faqīh wa-l-Dawla(The Jurist and the State). 61  Abu al-Qasim Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Musa al-Musawi, called al-Sharif al-Murtada, was born in 355 AH/ 966 AD and died in 436 AH/ 1044 AD. He led the Ashraf Syndicate, an important position in the Abbasid era. During his long life, he was a contemporary of four Abbasid caliphs(Al-Muti li-’Ilah, Al-Ta’i li-’Ilah, Al-Qadir Billah, and Al-Qa’im bi-amri‘Illah), not to mention living through the entire Buyid period in Baghdad(334AH/ 945 AD- 447 AH/ 1055 AD).