ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Mūsawī al-Sabzevārī

ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Mūsawī al-Sabzevārī (born December 21, 1910, Sabzevār, Iran—died August 16, 1993, Al-Najaf, Iraq) was an Iranian-born cleric who, from 1992 to 1993, was the grand ayatollah in the Islamic holy city of Al-Najaf and, thus, spiritual leader to millions of Iraqi Shīʿites. After finishing his basic education in Iran, Sabzevārī moved to Al-Najaf to pursue advanced studies in philosophy and religious law, studying under the prominent mujtahid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Nāʾīnī. A pious, scholarly...