Early life and ancestry Sistani was born in 1930 in
Mashhad, to a family of religious clerics who claim descent from
Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of
Muhammad. His father was Mohammad-Baqir al-Sistani and his mother was the daughter of Ridha al-Mehrebani al-Sarabi. Despite the family surname being "Sistani", the family was not of
Sistani Persian origin but of
Arab Sayyid origin. The surname derived from his great grandfather, Muhammad al-Husayni, who was appointed as
Sheikh al-Islam in
Sistan by the last Safavid Shah Hossein and established his residence there. After the
2003 invasion of Iraq, a Sunni Arab tribal delegation visited Sistani, and noted that despite speaking imperfect Standard Arabic with a heavy Persian accent, Sistani made it clear that he was an Arab and that the influence of his Iranian upbringing did not change the fact that he was a Sayyid. The delegation also mentioned that Sistani frequently mentioned the
Arab nation and criticized the Velayat-e-Faqih system of Iran. Sistani began his religious education as a child, first in Mashhad in his father's , and continuing later in
Qom. In Qom he studied under Grand Ayatollah
Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi. Later in 1951, Sistani traveled to
Iraq to study in
Najaf under Grand Ayatollah
Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei. Sistani rose to the rank of
mujtahid in 1960 at thirty-one.
Grand Ayatollah When Ayatollah al-Khoei died in 1992,
Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari briefly became the leading marja'. However, when he died in 1993, Sistani ascended to the rank of
Grand Ayatollah through formal peer recognition of his scholarship. His role as successor to Khoei was symbolically cemented when he led funeral prayers for Khoei, and he also inherited most of Khoei's network and following.
Baath Party During the years of
Saddam Hussein's rule of Iraq through the Arab nationalist and Sunni dominated
Baath Party, Sistani was untouched during the violent Baathist repression and persecution that killed many clerics including
Muhammad al-Sadr in 1999, for which Saddam denied any involvement. Sistani's
mosque was forcefully shut down in 1994 and did not reopen until the
2003 American-led invasion of Iraq.
Role in contemporary Iraq Since the overthrow of the Baath Party of Iraq in 2003, Sistani has played an increasingly prominent role in regional religious and political affairs and he has been called the "most influential" figure in post-invasion Iraq. Shortly after the American invasion began, Sistani issued a
fatwa advising Shia clergy to become engaged in politics to better guide the Iraqi people toward "clearer decisions" and to fight "media propaganda." As the summer of 2003 approached, Sistani and his followers began petitioning the occupying forces for a constitutional convention. Later, Sistani called for a democratic vote of the people to form a
transitional government. Observers described the move as being a path leading directly to Shia political dominance over
Iraq's government, as Shia Muslims make up approximately 65% of the total Iraqi population. Subsequently, Sistani criticized plans for an Iraqi government for not being democratic enough. In early August 2004, Sistani experienced serious health complications related to a previously diagnosed heart condition. He traveled to London to receive medical treatment. It was, reportedly, the first time that Sistani had left Iraq in decades, and may have been due, in part, to growing concerns for his safety from sectarian violence. Though still recovering, Sistani returned later in the month to broker a military truce at the
Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf where
Muqtada al-Sadr and the
Mahdi Army had been cornered by American and Iraqi forces. Sadr, who rose rapidly to prominence through a series of independent military actions beginning in 2004, has since actively challenged Sistani's more progressive influence over Shia in the region. Sistani's edicts reportedly provided many Iraqi Shia cause for participating in the
January 2005 elections—he urged, in a statement on 1 October 2004, that Iraqis recognize the election as an "important matter," additionally, Sistani asked that the elections be "free and fair ... with the participation of all Iraqis." Soon after, Sistani issued a fatwa alerting Shia women that they were religiously obligated to participate in the election, even if their husbands had forbidden them from voting. In an issued statement Sistani remarked that "truly, women who go forth to the polling centers on election day are like
Zaynab, who went forth to
Karbala." He has consistently urged the Iraqi Shia not to respond in kind to attacks from
Sunni Salafists, which have become common in Sunni-dominated regions of Iraq like the area known as the "
Triangle of Death," south of
Baghdad. Even after the destruction of the Shia
Al-Askari Mosque in
Samarra in February 2006, his network of clerics and preachers continued to urge calm and told their followers that "it was not their Sunni neighbors who were killing them but foreign
Wahhabis." Sistani's call for unity after the bombing of the mosque helped to control a potentially dangerous situation, preventing the country from entering in a bloody sectarian war. Sistani did the same when the same mosque was bombed again in 2007. An alleged plot to assassinate Sistani was foiled on 29 January 2007, when three
Jund al-Samaa gunmen were captured at a hotel near his office. It is believed to have been part of a larger attack against several targets in Najaf. In an online open poll 2005, Ali Sistani was selected as the 30th topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by
Prospect (
UK) and
Foreign Policy (US). On 13 June 2014, Sistani appealed that Iraqis should support the government against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militant group, which had taken over
Mosul and
Tikrit and was threatening Baghdad. Later in June 2014, Sistani revised his statement and issued a fatwa calling for "citizens to defend the country, its people, the honor of its citizens, and its sacred places," against the ISIL. Sistani said the Iraqi government and police were liable for killing protestors during the
2019–2021 Iraqi protests. He requested that the government prosecute those who gave the command to shoot protesters. The ayatollah rarely voices his opinion on politics except in extreme unrest. The protests have been described as Iraq's worst violence since ISIL was militarily defeated in 2017. A month later in November 2019, in response to the death of three Iraqi protesters, Sistani said "No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them."
Shia patronage As the leading cleric in Najaf, Sistani oversees sums amounting to millions of US dollars. His followers offer him a fixed part of their earnings (
khums), which is used for educational and charitable purposes. Sistani's office has reported that it supports 35,000 students in Qom, 10,000 in Mashhad, and 4,000 in
Isfahan. It also oversees a network of representatives (
wakil) "who promote his views in large and small ways in neighborhoods,
mosques,
bazaars, and seminaries from
Kirkuk to
Basra". In Iran, due to the post-invasion opening of the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala to Iranians, many Iranians are said to return from pilgrimage in Iraq as supporters of Sistani. Sistani sent nearly 1,000 aid packages, mostly food, but also other basic needs, to
Balkhab,
Afghanistan during the
Balkhab uprising in 2022 to help out the displaced
Shia Hazaras. A spokesperson for the
al-Abbas Shrine confirmed that Sistani was overseeing the relief campaign conducted by the shrine for displaced Lebanese families amid the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon in October 2024. The relief campaign has delivered at least 1,200 tons of aid as of 8 October 2024. ==Religious and political views==