Powerful Shiite Cleric Dies at Age 100 in Iran
Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Araki, the most senior spiritual guide of Shiite Muslims, has died at the age of 100 in Tehran, the Iranian news agency Irna reported Tuesday.
Araki had been the last survivor of a generation of senior Shiite clerics, including the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was his student. The question of his succession had already raised heated debate in Iran.
Irna said he was “considered the greatest living marja ,” or religious authority, in the Islamic world.
Araki’s office was not a formal elective one, but it has great influence through the allegiance of followers and the control over large sums of religious dues that they spend on charitable work or training new clerics.
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