Velāyat-e faqīh, or “guardianship of the jurist,” is a concept in Twelver Shiʿi Islamic thought stating that a Shiʿi faqīh (expert in Islamic jurisprudence) can administer the affairs of the Muslim community in the absence of an imam. In the 1970s Ruhollah Khomeini, a prominent faqīh in Iran, further argued that a government must be overseen by a faqīh in order to rule justly. Velāyat-e faqīh then became the founding principle of Iran’s Islamic Republic after the Iranian Revolution (1978–79).
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