Ayatollah al-Feyyaz, 96, Laid to Rest in Najaf After Baghdad Funeral

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Tens of thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Feyyaz in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad on Friday. Prime Minister Shawkat al-Shibusi, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, and numerous ministers and religious officials were present at the Sharif al-Muteahhar Mosque for the prayer service. The body was transported Friday morning to Karbala and arrived by evening at Sahne Ali in Najaf, where funeral proceedings concluded. Al-Feyyaz died at the age of 96. He was one of four senior marjas, or sources of emulation, in Najaf's Shiite scholarly establishment. Following the death of Ayatollah al-Sayyid Muhammad Sa'd al-Hakim in September 2021, the highest-ranking marjas were limited to Ayatollah al-Sayyid Ali al-Sistani and Ayatollah al-Muhammad Basir al-Najafi. Al-Feyyaz was born in 1930 in the eastern Turkish city of Igdir and moved to Najaf as a young man. He rose through the clerical ranks to achieve the designation of absolute ijtihad, the highest level of Islamic jurisprudential authority.