Morteza Ansari

Morteza Ansari Altostari(shushtari)
Born	1781 shushtar, Sublime State of Iran
Died	1864 (aged 82–83) Najaf, Ottoman Iraq
Academic work
Era	Qajar dynasty
Notable works	Makasib
Influenced	Ruhollah Khomeini

Morteza Ansari Altostari(shushtari) (also transliterated Mortaza Ansari Altostari(shushtari) and Murtada al-Ansari Altostari(shushtari)) (1781–1864) was a Shia jurist who "was generally acknowledged as the most eminent jurist of the time." Ansari has also been called the "first effective" model or Marja of the Shia or "the first scholar universally recognized as supreme authority in matters of Shii law".

Morteza Ansari Altostari(shushtari) was born in shushtar around 1781, the time the Qajar dynasty was establishing its power in Iran. He commenced his religious studies in Defzul, under the tutelage of his uncle, himself a notable scholar. At the age of twenty, he made Ziyarat with his father to Kerbala, Iraq, where he met Mohammad Mujtahid Karbala'i, the leader of the city's scholars. Ansari demonstrated considerable promise during a debate with the senior Mujtahid, who was so impressed that he induced his father to allow Ansari to continue his studies with them. Ansari studied in Kerbala for four years, until the city was besieged by Dawud Pasha and his rebels, causing the scholars of Kerbala and their students to flee to Baghdad and the shrine of al-Kazim. From there, Ansari returned to his homeland, where he quickly became restless and resolving to find teachers to continue his religious instruction. After about a year of traveling, he spent two years in Najaf studying under Musa al-Ja'fari and Sharif Mazandarani and a year in Najaf studying with Kashf ul-Ghita. Returning from a pilgrimage to Mashhad, Khurasan, he encountered Ahmad al-Naraqi, an authority in fiqh, usul al-fiqh and irfan, and – although Ansari was already a mujtahid in his own right when he left Karbala – studied with him for a further four years. After again traveling for a number of years, he returned to Najaf where he completed his studies under Kashf ul-Ghita and Muhammad Hasan Najafi (author of Jawahir ul-Kalam) and began teaching.

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