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Ayatollah al-Uzma
Fazil Iravani
Ayatollah al-Uzma Fazil Iravani
Title	Second Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus
Personal life
Born	1782; Yerevan, Erivan Khanate, Zand Iran
Died	March 3, 1885 (aged 102–103); Yerevan, Erivan Governorate, Russian Empire
Religious life
Religion	Islam
School	Shia
Muslim leader
Based in	Tbilisi, Russian Empire
Post	Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus
Period in office	1846-1852
Predecessor	Mahammadali Huseinzadeh
Successor	Ahmad Huseinzadeh

Muhammad ibn Muhammad Bagher Iravani (Persian: محمد بن محمدباقر ایروانی) or Fazil Iravani was an Islamic jurist and the second Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus and an Ayatollah al-Uzma.

Early life and education

Fazil Iravani was born in Yerevan in either 1782 or 1817 to Muhammad Baqir Iravani. His grandfather Mir Abdulfattah Iravani was a cleric as well. He got his primary religious education in same city. He went on to continue his education in 1802 to Al-Azhar University. He later went on to be a disciple of Ayatollah Sayyed Ibrahim Qazwini in Karbala and later studied in Najaf. He was also a disciple of Sayyid Husayn Kuhkamara'i, uncle of Muhammad Hujjat Kuh-Kamari. According to Iranian writer Aghighi Bakhshayeshi, he was a successor to Kuhkamara'i and the Turkish faction of Najaf scholars. He later became a marja', having 30 students and disciples of himself, including Sayyid 'Ali Kuhkamara'i, his teacher's brother, Muhammad Hirz al-Din, Abdallah Mazandarani and Sayyed Hussein Khamenei (grandfather of Ali Khamenei). He was akhund of Isfahan and Tabriz in his 40s.

Sheikh ul-Islam

He returned to his native Yerevan in 1827 and became akhund of Blue Mosque. He was appointed as deputy of Sheikh ul-Islam Mahammadali Huseinzadeh in 1843. He succeeded him as Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus prior to former's resignation in 1846. He reformed many clerical issues, including taking nikah rights from mosque mullahs and handing it over to more educated akhunds. He resigned his post in 1852 and was succeeded by Ahmad Huseinzadeh. He died on 3 March 1885, Yerevan in very old age and buried in Najaf.

Works

He was long thought to be the author of famous novel The Rose and the Nightingale (1834), being mistaken for Fazlî Kara, an Ottoman poet. Besides that, he authored at least 15 treatises including Qawaid-i Farsi (1845, Tabriz), Usuli Ibrat.

Family

He had at least 3 children:

Sheikh Mahmud Iravani
Sheikh Morteza Iravani
Sheikh Muhammad Javad Iravani (b. 1870, Najaf - 1962)
1. Mirza Mohammad Iravani (died young)
2. Sheikh Kazem Iravani
3. Sheikh Mohammad Taghi Iravani (b. 1911 - d. 1 November 2005)
  1. Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Irawani (b. 1949, Najaf)
  2. A daughter
    1. Ammar Nakshawani