Ahmad Khonsari

Who is Ahmad Khonsari?

Ahmad Khonsari, also Aḥmad Khvānsārī, or Khvunsārī, was an Iranian grand ayatollah and attained marja status after the death of marja Boroujerdi in 1961. In contrast to all other maraji of his time, who lived in Qom or in Najaf, he was based in Tehran, where he ran his own hawza. Khonsari was one of the teachers of ayatollah Khomeini.

Grand ayatollah Khonsari came to Qom in 1923 and became one of the leaders of the hawza after the death of Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi. Together with Shariatmadari and a number of other Iranian grand ayatollahs, he was a staunch opponent of the Shah’s White Revolution in 1963. But he felt Khomeini’s direct challenge of the Shah, claiming to speak for the entirety of Iranian religious leadership, went too far. Khonsari openly criticized Khomeini’s behaviour.

Khonsari was a quietist, who believed the clergy should not exercise political power. As such, he opposed Ayatollah Khomeini’s interpretation of the concept of velayat-e faqih.