Sabrina Mervin, "Writing the History of Religious Authority in Najaf: The Marja'iyya as Apparatus", Sabrina Mervin, Robert Gleave et Géraldine Chatelard (eds.), Najaf: Portrait of a Holy City, Garnet and Ithaca Press, Unesco Publishing, 2017, pp. 163-187. Writing the History of Religious Authority in Najaf: The Marja'iyya as Apparatus

The marja'iyya is the expression of religious authority in usuli Shi'ism that is familiar to us today, and it consists of an individual -the marja' al-taqlid -at the top of a hierarchy together with an associated network and set of institutions. The use of this word in Najaf, and in the circles that recognise the authority of the leading clerics of the city, can refer to Ali al-Sistani and the group of four leading marja' to which he belongs: Ishaq Fayyad, Muhammad Sa'id al-Hakim and Bachir al-Najafi. (Some would also add Muhammad Ya'qubi to this list.) 1 In using this term, actors today are describing the contemporary character of the marja'iyya.

For observers of Shi'ism today, the character of the marja'iyya goes (almost) without saying; therefore numerous works deal with it, 2 and the words marja' and marja'iyya have become common, at least when used in the media. However, the use of these words within an academic framework presents a variety of problems, beginning with their translation. As a result, they are, for the most part, simply transliterated from the Arabic. 3 Moreover, the terms marja' and marja'iyya are not part of the technical vocabulary or categories used in Islamic law (unlike faqih or mujtahid) and discussed by the 'ulama. The latter did not produce discussions of them before the attempts to reform and modernise the institution that took place in Iran after the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi in 1961. 4 These attempts were later continued by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in Najaf and Muhammad Hussein 1 When talking of the marja'iyya, residents of Najaf use the word to refer to one of the four leading marja' or to all four at the same time. Muhammad al-Ya'qubi is accepted as a possible fifth marja'. There are also other 'junior' marja' in the city, such as Muhammad al-Ta'i, as well as those one might call 'marja' in waiting', sometimes called 'second-tier' (tabaqa thaniyya) marja', such as 'Ali Sabzawari or Muhammad Baqir al-Irawani, leading clerics who attract a great many students to their kharij classes at the hawza. 2 See, for example, Linda Walbridge (ed.), The Most Learned of the Shi'a. The Institution of the Marja' Taqlid (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), and Mehdi, Khalaji, 'The Last marja': Sistani and the End of the Traditional Religious Authority in Shi'ism' (Policy Focus 59, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 2006).

3

The expression marja' al-taqlid is often translated as 'source of emulation,' ; I prefer 'reference to follow' instead.

4

Such thinking was explored in a collective work to which 'ulama like Murtaza Mutahhari and laymen like Mehdi Bazargan contributed (Marja'iyyat va ruhaniyyat, Tehran, no publisher, 1341/1962). A translation of the article by Motahhari, 'The Fundamental Problem of the Clerical Establishment', introduced by Hamid Algar, has been published in Walbridge, Linda (ed.), The Most Learned of the Shi'a. The Institution of the Marja' Taqlid (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 161-82. Fadlallah in Lebanon. Later, Muhammad Sa'id al-Hakim and Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim published works on their own conceptions of the marja'iyya. 5 Furthermore, the word marja'iyya is sometimes used in an anachronistic fashion by historians, yet it refers to a recent institution, which did not exist in the past in the way that it does today. The noun marja' is originally an ancient word, and was not only employed in Shi'i Islam, but also by Sunni writers; it was even used in Saudi Arabia until the early 1950s, when it was replaced by the word mufti. (It is worth asking why the term was simultaneously abandoned by the Saudis and adopted in a more systematic way in Shi'i circles. Perhaps this was not a case of simple coincidence: it can be argued that each of these groups -Sunni and Shi'i -wanted to differentiate itself from the other by adopting its own vocabulary.) 6 Thus the term marja' was not ordinarily employed before the 1950s in the sense that it is today. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was used as one of the honorific titles given to leading 'ulama as a way of indicating their rank. Abbas Amanat reports that Fath Ali Shah called Mirza Abu al-Qasim al-Qummi (d. 1815-16) the 'refuge (marji') of the East and the West,' the mujtahid of the age,' the most learned ('allama) of the time, and the 'source of emulation of the people' (muqtada al-anam). 7 According to Amanat, the titles marja' and muqtada al-anam were intended to emphasize al-Qummi's importance: he lived in Qum, and the use of these titles would have undermined the authority of the mujtahid who lived in the holy places in Iraq. 8 Turning to a correspondence between Indian 'ulama in Lucknow and 'ulama in Najaf that took place a little later, one cannot fail to be struck by the emphasis placed on titles as forms of mutual compliment, even if this was standard practice among scholars at the time. Thus, Sayyid Muhammad 'Abbas al-Shushtari (d. 1888), who acted as secretary to Sayyid Hussein Nasirabadi in his written exchanges with the mujtahid of Iraq, wrote a number of letters to Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi (d. 1850). In one of them, among the various laudatory expressions and polite phrases that the author uses to address al-Najafi, one finds wahid 5 Muhammad Sa 'id al-Hakim, al-Marji'iyya al-diniyya wa qadaya ukhra (Beirut, mu'assasat al-murshid, 2001); Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, Mawsu'at al-hawza al-'ilmiyya wa al-marji'iyya, Vol. 2, 'al-marji'iyya al-diniyya' (al-Najaf, mu'assasat turath al-shahid al-Hakim, 2005). More detailed definitions of the marja'iyya can also be found, among them that given by 'Ali al-Gharawi in his commentary on al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa in 1413/1992, and cited by Haydar Nizar al-sayyid Salman ('Atiyya) in al-Marji'iyya al-diniyya fi al-Najaf al-ashraf wa mawaqifuha al-siyasiyya fi al-' Iraq (1958-1968) ', in Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism (London, I.B. Tauris, 2009), pp. 156-7. It should be noted that the author writes muqtadi al-anam and not muqtada al-anam, as has also been done here.

'asrihi wa farid dahrihi ('the uniqueness of the scholar and his science'); mujtahid al-anam, which indicates al-Najafi's status and his role among believers; and marja' al-khass wa al-'amm, which relates to the fact that the latter all refer to him. 9

The term was later used more precisely to refer to the source of authority as far as religious rulings were concerned. This can be seen in two other examples. In March 1909, the journal al-'Irfan in Saida (now in Lebanon) published fatwas that authorised the fight against Muhammad Ali Shah, the sixth king of Persia's ruling Qajar dynasty. These fatwas legitimised his removal from power on the basis that he had infringed upon the sacredness of religious law (hurmat al-shari'a). The text introducing the fatwas explained that they had been issued by four of the greatest Shi'i 'ulama 'to whom one refers [wa ilayhim al-marja'] on religious matters in every country' [fi al-umur al-diniyya fi kull al-amsar]', and that they had the same status as those of the shaykh al-islam (chief religious authority) of the Ottoman Empire himself. 10 In this example, the word marja' is not used to designate the holders of authority themselves, but instead indicates the authority they represent. The commentator draws a parallel with the shaykh al-islam in order to indicate the status of the fatwas to his readers.

The second example comes from 1935, when Muhammad Hussein Kashif al-Ghita' wrote in an autobiographical account that after the death of his brother Ahmad in 1926, he had become one of the references (marja') in relation to rulings and fatwas (fi al-taqlid wa alfatwa). 11 Used here, the term designates the holder of authority and gives his area of competence as being the rules of Islamic law. However, it does not refer to the institution that legitimated that exercise and the use of that authority, as it does today. As a result, up until the 1950s, the term was used simply to designate the scholar that should be referred to, even if the latter was more usually called faqih or mujtahid.

Throughout the history of Shi'ism, religious leadership has been described in different terms and been given different names, including ra'is dini, ra'is al-mujtahidin, mujtahid al-'asr or, later, za'im al-hawza. These terms appear over and over again in the biographical and bibliographical dictionaries of scholars (tabaqat), sometimes following each other and showing that the titles are not interchangeable but instead refer to distinct roles or functions. The oldest of the titles, ra'is dini, 12 was first used within the study of hadith in Sunni and Shi'i Islam, and was later extended to jurisprudence (fiqh). Until the twentieth century, in order to indicate that a leading cleric was responsible for directing religious affairs, the authors of such dictionaries used the phrase intahat ilayhi al-ri'asa al-diniyya, which literally means that the 'religious headship' belonged to the cleric in question -with the implication that it 'ended' with or culminated in him. While the phrase no longer meant that this cleric was the last of his generation able to transmit a hadith, or that he was the last in a chain of transmitters, 13 it did retain the idea of culmination, and of transmission that could take place after the deaths of the previous leaders. Moreover, it was possible for a hierarchy to extend from this 'head' (ra'is), including a group of scholars. This is indicated in the expression ra'is al-mujtahidin, which one finds used, for example, in the title of the biographical account that Hibat al-Din al-Shahrastani wrote of his master Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Khorasani (d. 1911) after the latter's death. 14 This idea of hierarchy is also suggested by the expression mujtahid al-'asr, as this phrase implies that the one thus named is the best of his time. It seems that the word za'im ('leader'), was introduced later as a synonym for ra'is, becoming widespread as the twentieth century wore on -as in the expressions za'im dini ('religious leader') or za'im al-hawza ('head of the hawza'). Thus when Iraqi intellectuals pleaded for the reform of the hawza with the most senior mujtahid in Najaf in the 1930s, they addressed newspaper articles to 'the most senior religious leader [za'im dini] Sayyid Abu al-Hasan [al-Isfahani]' and 'the most senior reformist leader [za'im muslih] Imam [Muhammad Hussein] Kashif al-Ghita''. 15 Thirty years or so later, Shaykh Muhammad Hadi al-Amini described Akhund Khorasani as having been first of all a religious leader (za'im dini) and then an usuli jurist (faqih) and conscientious scholar (mutatabbi') in the account he wrote about him. He included Khorasani among the greatest teachers of the school (jami'a) of Najaf, and wrote that the leadership of the hawza 'belonged to him in every place' (intahat ilayhi za'amat al-hawza fi kulli makan).

This brief sketch should prevent the anachronism generated by simply 'sticking' a recent word onto an older institution and using a word linked to a contemporary institution to describe the marja'iyya of al-Tusi, for example, or that of Shaykh al-Mufid or al-Kulayni. Even so, those authors who write within the framework of religious history do precisely this, using the word to indicate the continuity of a religious tradition and of religious authority 13 See the detailed explanation given by Roy Mottahedeh in Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990, pp. 144ff.), as well as that of Devin Stewart in 'Islamic Juridical Hierarchies and the Office of marji' al-taqlid,' in Clarke, Linda (ed.), Shi'ite Heritage. Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions (Binghamton & New York, Global Publications, 2001), pp. 150-1. since the occultation of the Twelfth Imam that is underlined by the term marja'iyya. 16 There are lists of marja' organised in this way. 17 However, more academic authors as well as those wishing to write a more objective and critical form of history have tried to avoid the trap of anachronism by being careful not to speak about marja'iyya as such before the nineteenth century. Others have also used the established lists of marja', while at the same time adding various comments to them. 18 Three observations can be made here. First, there is no universally accepted standard list of marja', but there are many lists of greater or shorter length that signal different views regarding the single or plural nature of the religious authority. Some authors include scholars whose authority only extended across their local areas, while others only include scholars working in the major centres, who succeeded each other in the history of Shi'ism.

Second, in the words of Devin Stewart, while the lists of marja' beginning in the tenth century are anachronistic, they 'contain a modicum of truth'. 19 Such scholars did indeed exercise a form of religious authority, supreme or not, according to the principles and methods that are, to an extent, still to be found in the exercise of the marja'iyya today.

Lastly, one should emphasise the difficulty of identifying the date on which the marja'iyya was founded as an institution. While a foundational narrative regarding the establishment of the hawza exists -namely, the migration (hijra) of Shaykh al-Tusi to Najaf along the lines of the prophetic model (this narrative having been widely discussed by historians) 20 -this is not the case for the marja'iyya. The latter is the outcome of doctrinal developments linked to changing political circumstances and to other developments of varied character. In order to write the history of the institution, it is therefore necessary to refer to the history of the religious functions exercised by the clerics; to examine the history of the relations between the clerics and the powers that be; to investigate the history of the title of marja' more carefully; and to look at the history of the concepts used by the 'ulama from the 16 See, for example, Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jannati, 'Tasalsul al-marji'iyya mundhu al-ghayba al-kubra ila al-an', in Ara' fi al-marji 'iyya al-shi'iyya li-majmu'a min al-bahithin (Beirut, dar al-rawda, 1994) time of the occultation up until the present day, in order to take over the prerogatives of the Imam and issue rulings in his name. These concepts include those of wikala, ijtihad, and niyaba, among others. Careful work has been done to take such factors into account, 21 and an examination of this shows the complexity of the development.

Yet, many historians agree that the origins of the marja'iyya in its modern form lie in the nineteenth century, owing to the scientific revival (nahda 'ilmiyya) that took place after the victory of the usuli current over the akhbari one, and particularly as a result of developments in legal method -of the science of usul al-fiqh. In the view of these historians, this movement -taken together with the progress then underway in transport and communication (e.g. the development of the telegraph) -encouraged the centralisation of religious authority in Najaf and the formation and institutionalisation of the marja'iyya. 22 The same process then continued throughout the twentieth century, making the marja'iyya a financially independent and transnational institution, above the state and able to exert its authority across the Shi'i world. The marja'iyya, considered as a religious authority, became the 'guardian' [hafiza] of Islam', defending the rights and protecting the interests of Muslims and setting up religious schools and so on. It thus came to exercise the leadership of the umma. 23 As a result of such developments, the marja'iyya today does not have a simple religious function that limits itself to ifta', or the act of issuing a fatwa, but is instead a complex institution that brings together many separate functions along with religious leadership (riyasa diniyya). It is also a flexible institution, and one that is susceptible to interpretation: each marja' sees it in his own way, bringing his own contribution to it, as if adding another stone to an edifice that is forever under construction -in progress and open to new possibilities. The Shi'i religious authority might thus be approached in the spirit of Weber, with the expertise of its religious specialists (the 'ulama and particularly the jurists) being described by tracing processes of bureaucratisation, routinisation and modernisation. This approach has indeed been a very fertile one, 24 but does not capture all the aspects of the institution. Moreover, in focusing on processes of institutionalisation (even if incomplete), it has tended to conceal the permanently 'organised disorder' 25 (fawda munazzama) that reigns in the institutions of the marja'iyya and the hawza. Far from being just a minor feature of these institutions, it is this 'organised disorder' that gives them their overall character and guarantees their survival by making them difficult to grasp as a whole and thus difficult to control. As a result, the process of institutionalisation has been neither linear nor necessarily linked to modernity as such.

Moreover, while the marja'iyya has produced a hierarchy among the clerics, this is a hierarchy that has remained 'floating' and always subject to negotiation -all the more so as it is a plural one. Even if one confines oneself to recent history, it is clear that there has rarely been a consensus around a single marja'iyya. All these considerations should lead to the conclusion that if one is to understand the marja'iyya fully, then other tools need to be found.

The Apparatus of Religious Authority

The marja'iyya is a process that brings together an ensemble of actors, in the sense in which the words are used by the sociologist Norbert Elias. 26 That means it has usages and ways of doing things, norms and rules, and other elements of varied character. It is for this reason that it can be seen in terms of what Michel Foucault called an 'apparatus' or 'device' (dispositif), a concept he developed throughout his work. Foucault defined an apparatus as the 'network' of different elements that make up a 'thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discursive elements, institutions, architectural arrangements, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, and philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions -in short, the said as well as the unsaid'. 27 An 'apparatus', conceived in this way, is a historically specific formation that arises from an ensemble of heterogeneous elements. It is formed at first in order to serve 'a dominant strategic function' and often to 'respond to an emergency or urgent situation'. 28 It is then maintained beyond the initial strategic impulse by the reorganisation of its various elements and a continuous process of 'strategic adjustment, which means that it is used to deal with the effects that it has itself produced'. In the case of the marja'iyya, the apparatus in question answers the need to produce a form of religious authority that makes up for the absence of the Imam. It is periodically revised in order to meet changing circumstances even as the absence of the Imam and the expectation of his return persists. The apparatus allows for the production of religious knowledge to be linked to the power relations that underpin the exercise of religious authority, while at the same time foregrounding the role played by networks made up of many different elements. Each of these elements, whether actor or institution, has its own life and its own individual history, and these have an impact to a greater or lesser extent on the network as a whole. For this reason, it is useful to identify the elements in play in the apparatus, even in a provisional and incomplete way, and to examine the history of each of them. (Indeed, this is the overall aim of this chapter -although, given the size of the task thus sketched out, it cannot do more than offer a way of understanding how the apparatus operates, or a first step in that direction.)

Without citing to the letter the elements of such an apparatus, as given by Foucault, one can nevertheless use the concept to identify the various elements that contribute to the operation of the Shi'i religious authority and form the marja'iyya. Some of these elements have influenced the dynamics of the apparatus even though they are located at the margins of it. One such element is the political context, as each time that the Shi'is have had privileged access to power -under the Buyids, under the Safavids particularly, and then under the Qajars -the 'ulama have used this to reorganise and reinforce the exercise of their authority.

However, the analysis should not only be limited to political matters. Social, environmental and technological contexts should also be looked at, as has been mentioned above. External religious actors should also be taken into account, given their influence on the apparatus, as the interactions and controversies that led the usuli 'ulama to confront competing religious currents -whether these were closer (Sunnism, Akhbarism, Shaykhism, Babism, and so on) or further away (Christianity and Judaism) -and helped them to establish their authority. In fact, these interactions were an opportunity for the 'ulama to define the scope of their doctrines more precisely, in order to impose them on the faithful as the orthodoxy to which the latter had a duty to conform, with or without the assistance of a state.

Defining these doctrines, as much for those within the faith as outside it, allowed the 'ulama to set limits around the community for which they acted as spokesmen. At the heart of the system lay the religious rules and norms and the usages that ruled the lives of the faithful. These rules also determined their relationship to the religious authority along with the access of the experts, the 'ulama, to that authority. Some of these usages became norms in due course.

Usages

The authority of the 'ulama is based on the practice of believers referring to a scholar for guidance -a principle that is not specific only to Shi'ism or to Islam. When the 'ulama explain the workings of the marja'iyya today, they often compare it to the way things are done in other fields, such as medicine, where experts are also referred to. As a result, believers are envisaged as choosing their marja' in the same way that patients choose their doctors. The practice of appealing to a scholar to guide the Muslims of a given region is an ancient one; in the past, a local prince or notable would take charge of it. The 'ulama simply sacralised this practice by basing it on a text (tawqi') by the Twelfth Imam during the Lesser Occultation that says, 'as for day-to-day events, refer to the transmitter of our hadith [al-hawadith alwaqi'a]'. [START_REF] Ali | Supreme Authority (marja'iyya) in Shi'ism[END_REF] In the absence of a suitable scholar, or in cases where it was impossible for him to be present in person, the practice of referring religious questions to books developed. The famous collection of hadiths, Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih (The One Who Does not Benefit from the Presence of the Jurist) by Ibn Babuya (d. 991 CE) was put together to meet this need. In the introduction, the author explains how the collection came about. In Ilaq, near Balkh, in what is now northern Afghanistan, he wrote that he had met Sharif al-Din Abu 'Abdullah Ni'ma. The sharif had talked to him about a book by Muhammad al-Razi (d. 925 CE) titled Man La Yahduruhu al-Tabib (The One Who Does not Benefit from the Presence of the Doctor). Sharif al-Din asked him to write a book on jurisprudence (fiqh), the licit and the illicit, and laws and rulings (al-shara'i' wa al-ahkam), bringing together everything that he had compiled in these areas. The book was to be titled Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih, and the idea was that he could refer to it (li-yakun ilayhi marji'uhu). In writing the book, Ibn Babuya did not include the chains of transmission of the hadiths in order, he wrote, to reduce its length and increase its benefits. 31 He also added commentaries on the hadiths that he had included and extracted rules from in order to instruct readers on the path they should follow. [START_REF]See the account given by Robert Gleave in 'Between Hadith and Fiqh: The 'Canonical' Imami Collections of Akhbar[END_REF] However, the work is still difficult to use for non-scholars wanting to know the legal rules.

Another example of the practice of referring to books is the famous al-Lum'a al-Dimashqiyya by the 'first martyr' (al-shahid al-awwal), Muhammad ibn Makki al-'Amili (d. 1385). The Sarbadar Sultan 'Ali bin Mu'ayyad (d. 1392) had summoned the scholar to meet him in Khorasan, but he had declined to come or had not been able to travel to Sabzavar, the Khorasani capital. [START_REF]The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam. Religion, Society, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890[END_REF] As a result, it is said that in seven days he wrote a summary of the rules of Imami Shi'ism, and this was sent to the sultan.

This use of books became systematic with the development of Islamic law, particularly in its usuli version -so much so that these books have now become what are today called risala 'amaliyya, or 'practical treatises' of fiqh that a jurist produces for his followers to refer to in their everyday lives.

Norms and Concepts

Religious authority depends on doctrines, norms and concepts of fiqh that have their own histories and fields of application. Only the principles will be reviewed here, without lingering over the stages of their development. The doctrine of the Occultation (ghayba) of the Imam is central, as it leads to the impossibility of believers referring directly to the legitimate sacred authority. In order to make up for the Imam's absence, various hadiths established the authority of the 'ulama, and concepts were developed in order that they could exercise it. Above all, the ijtihad/taqlid gave rise to a link between the jurist who could practise ijtihad if he met the conditions necessary to do so, and the believer (mukallaf) who was not licensed to practise it and was obliged to follow the jurist's rulings (ahkam) and conform to his opinions (fatwas). As a result, a faqih became a mujtahid, 34 and the seeker of a fatwa (mustafti) found himself given the status of a muqallid (follower) of the rulings of the mujtahid. 35 From here the question arises of when taqlid became obligatory. Shaykh Baha' al-Din al-'Amili (d. 1621) clearly says that it is obligatory in his Jami'-i 'Abbasi, writing that 'in the context of the occultation of the Imam, the jurist (faqih) who meets all the conditions should give legal rulings (hukm kardan), and it is obligatory (wajib) for men to refer to his legal decisions.' 36 Later, in the works of Wahid Bihbahani (d. 1791), the supremacy of the usuli current over the akhbari led to the reinforcement of this obligation and thus of the relationship that attaches the muqallid to the person of the mujtahid and not just to his opinions. 37 However, owing to a lack of sources, it is difficult to know what the practices of believers in different Shi'i areas really were at this time, particularly in rural areas far from the religious centres. Even if one focuses on the theory alone, there is still one question on which jurists disagree: namely, that relating to the possibility of following the opinions of a dead mujtahid (taqlid al-mayyit). 38 The various forms of taqlid give rise to widely differing views, 39 as well as to differences over the scope of its application, notably in political matters.

37

Robert Gleave, Inevitable Doubt: Two Theories of Shi'i Jurisprudence (Leiden, Brill, 2000), p. 244.

38

For details on the question of taqlid, see Linda Clarke, 'The Shi'i Construction of Taqlid,' Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 12, N°1, 2001, pp. 40-64. Which mujtahid should one follow, and what should determine one's choice? Here again, such problems became the subjects of debate. One rule of usage -to follow the scholar who was considered to be the most learned -gave rise to a concept, a'lamiyya, that made explicit the qualities necessary for a mujtahid.

The concept of a'lamiyya was not only dealt with by Imami Shi'i Islam. To a lesser extent, Sunni scholars also dealt with it from the tenth century onwards; they, too, advocated the continuous attachment of a believer to a jurist. 41 As with the other concepts underpinning the marja'iyya, it resulted from discussion, debate and continual development. As early as the eleventh al-Sharif al-Murtada stated that the should consult the most learned jurist and the one who was 'the most pious and observant' (awra' wa adyan). 42 A large number of 'ulama subsequently supported this opinion, as was mentioned by Muhammad al-Tabataba'i, called 'Mujahid' (d. 1827), in his work of usul that contains a list of authors who supported the obligation to follow the most learned jurist. This list goes from al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277) to Muhammad al-Tabataba'i's own father and grandfather ( 'Ali al-Tabataba'i [d. 1815-16] and Wahid al-Bihbahani, respectively). It includes al-'Allama al-Hilli, the two martyrs, 'Ali al-Karaki (who argued for a consensus [ijma'] regarding a'lamiyya) and Hasan al-'Amili (d. 1552) and Baha' al-Din al-'Amili (d. 1621). Al-Tabataba'i also added certain Sunni scholars to the list, among them Ibn Hanbal, before he himself also defended the same point of view. 43 The marja' Ibrahim al-Jannati later updated the list by adding Ja'far Kashif al-Ghita', Muhammad Ibrahim al-Kalbasi (d. 1845) and Murtada al- Ansari (d. 1864), along with others who came after the latter and up to the present day. 44 A sense of this can be gained from Muhammad Ali Taskhiri, 'Combining Legal Rulings,' in Linda Clarke (ed.), Shi'ite Heritage, pp. 233-42. 40 This question has given rise to more or less radical disagreements among the 'ulama. For an idea of the contemporary debate, see Robert Gleave, 'Conceptions of Authority in Iraqi Shi'ism. Baqir al-Hakim, Ha'iri and Sistani on Ijtihad, Taqlid and Marja'iyya,' Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 24, N°2, 2007, pp. 70- It should be noted that some 'ulama use the term afdal rather than a'lam, but the basic idea remains the same.

44

Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jannati, 'al-Masar al-tarikhi li-utruhat luzum taqlid al-a'lam,' in Ara' fi al-marji 'iyya al-shi'iyya (Beirut, dar al-rawda, 1994), pp. 91-2. See also Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam: From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marja' (Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996), pp. 179-82.

Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi was less categorical regarding the necessity of a'lamiyya, as he considered it permissible to 'present [as an authority] the less learned scholar [mafdul] despite the presence of the scholar [fadil], without distinguishing them by their knowledge'. However, he also added that the layman ('ammi), not having the capacity to think for himself on such questions, should refer to the most learned scholar (afdal) and follow his directives (qawl) in practice ('amal). 45 Murtada al-Ansari is often considered the first to make the underpinnings of the taqlid al-a'lam explicit. These were later systematised by his successors holding the religious authority. 46 The debate over a'lamiyya was later reopened, particularly after the death of Ayatollah Borujerdi in 1961 and in the 1990s, when some clerics and intellectuals demanded greater pluralism in the marja'iyya. [START_REF]work Ara' fi al-marji'iyya al-shi[END_REF] The clerics also raised the question of what the phrase 'most learned' means. The meaning of the word 'ilm, or knowledge, had itself changed over the history of legal doctrine, and it could vary according to the context. As a result, al-Mujahid asked himself whether the a'lam was the one who had best learned by heart the questions (of fiqh) to be dealt with, or the one best able to extract them (istikhraj), or the one best able to decide (tarjih) in cases where things were confused (ishkal). When he did not find an answer to these questions in the texts, he wrote: 'In order to identify [the a'lam] one should refer to usage, as the person that usage considers to be the most learned should be referred to if it is considered to be obligatory to follow the most learned.' [START_REF] Al-Tabataba'i Al-Karbala'i | Ali, called 'Mujahid[END_REF] Murtada al-Ansari also put forward answers to the question posed by Mujahid and other 'ulama of the period. For him, the most learned was 'the one who has the surest faculty [malaka] and the firmest [capacity of] deduction in line with the established rules'. In other words, he argued, the most learned was the one who excelled in understanding the akhbar [of the imams] and the different sorts of contradiction, as well as in identifying linguistic principles and practices and other aspects of ijtihad. [START_REF] Murtada Al-Ansari | Mu'assasat ahl al-bayt, 1404/1983-4)[END_REF] Moreover, he was 'the most expert [ustadtar] in the extraction of God's law and in understanding from signs [adilla]'. [START_REF] Ansari | Siraṭ al-najah: risala-ʾi ʻamaliyya-i shaykh-i aʻzam Ansari, tahqiq-i Muhammad Husayn Fallahzadah (Qum, Kungrih-i Jahani-i Buzurgdasht-i Davistumin Salgard-i Tavallud-i shaykh-i aʻzam Ansari[END_REF] The successors of al-Ansari -in other words, the leading teachers in the hawza who exercised authority -continued to define the competences of the most learned scholar within a strictly legal framework. 51 Other criteria were introduced more recently, when the debate was extended to take in a larger public, and these considerations included the jurist's knowledge of other sciences, speed in exercising ijtihad, age, status as sayyid, relationship to modernity, political awareness and so on. 52 Lastly, other qualities besides 'ilm were required in order to check the strict obedience of the mujtahid to the law and indicate the degree of his obedience. These qualities were demanded of jurists, notably because they were able to collect religious taxes. Their definition has not varied much since they were first introduced: moral probity ('adala) and (wara', taqwa).

Such concepts contribute to strengthening the bond that unites the believer with the mujtahid. Without belabouring the point, it is also worth noting that Shi'i clerics have developed a concept that links the mujtahid to the Imam -the ultimate authority -and, in this way, establishes their legitimacy. This is the concept of niyaba (deputyship or vice-regency), under which the mujtahid, as the deputy (na'ib) of the Imam, may rule in his name and claim some of his prerogatives. 53

Forms of Writing

The connection between the oral and the written in the transmission of knowledge in Islam is well-known, and is expressed in the verb qara'a. The word itself means both to read and to recite, and to study when the verb is followed by 'ala. [START_REF] Makdisi | and 242-3. These issues have also been examined in contemporary contexts: see, for example, Dale Eickelman, 'The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and Its Social Reproduction[END_REF] This knowledge, produced and transmitted by the clerics, is dealt with in various forms of writing dealing with the different Islamic religious sciences. Among them is law (fiqh), which is of particular interest here, as it is the basis of the clerics' authority. These different forms of writing include treatises (risala), commentaries (sharh), collections of fatwas, marginal annotations (hashiyya or ta'liq), licences (ijaza), and notes made in classes (taqrirat), 55 to which should be added the biographical and bibliographical dictionaries (tabaqat) that contribute to the legitimation of scholars. All these help constitute the tradition in its written form, keeping it up to date through links in the authenticating chain.

First, there are the treatises of fiqh and usul al-fiqh together with their commentaries, of which the main examples, produced in Najaf following the nahda 'ilmiyya, are cited here. They include Jawahir al-Kalam by Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi, the commentary on Shara'i' al-Islam by al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli, 56 al-Makasib by Murtada al-Ansari on commercial transactions, the same author's work on usul, titled Fara'id al-Usul, and Kifayat al-Usul by Muhammad Kazim Khorasani. These works are still standard references for Najaf jurists, who continue to teach from them today. To these treatises, which are addressed to ulama, should be added works intended to instruct and guide believers in the rules they should follow in order to conform to religious law, as mentioned earlier. These latter treatises were composed in various ways, 57 but were later brought together and standardised in format when their distribution was aided by modern communication methods. It was at this time, too, that they were labelled risala 'amaliyya ('practical treatises'). Many works of this kind have served as models for treatises produced today, among them the famous al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa by Muhammad Kazim al- Yazdi (d. 1919), which has been reissued in many editions with commentaries by leading 'ulama. 58 However, the history of this standardisation has yet to be written; as a result, though the treatises of some of the mujtahid who exercised the religious leadership (riyasa diniyya) are still known today in clerical circles, others are not.

It is striking to notice, for example, that the treatise by Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi, Najat al-'Ibad fi Yawm al-Ma'ad (published in 1846 in Tehran), was considered to be a standard reference until the appearance of al-Yazdi's al-'Urwa. 59

58

Today's practical treatises generally begin with a chapter on the obligation of taqlid before moving to the classical divisions of fiqh according to a predefined order. 59 Meir Litvak, Shi'i Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq, p. 92. Devin Stewart, 'Islamic Juridical Hierarchies', pp. 154-5. whom gave their opinions to make clear or to refute those of al-Najafi. This practice allowed believers to continue to refer to a living mujtahid even after his death. 60 Al-Ansari also recommended the book to his followers (muqallidin), [START_REF]Adwar-i fiqh va kayfiyyat-i bayan-i an[END_REF] though it would be more accurate to say that he followed the principle of precaution (ihtiyat) in this case and, despite numerous demands, limited himself to writing notes (hashiyya) on the treatises of his predecessors rather than writing a new one himself. [START_REF]wrote comments on the treatise by Ja'far Kashif al-Ghita[END_REF] He also made fewer notes on the treatise by al-Najafi than the other mujtahids. [START_REF] Hasan | the manuscript in the Mar'ashi Library[END_REF] A work later presented as a risala 'amaliyya by al-Ansari, titled Sirat al-Najat, [START_REF] Ansari | risala-ʾi ʻamaliyya-i shaykh-i aʻzam Ansari, tahqiq-i Muhammad Husayn Fallahzadah[END_REF] was in fact written by a certain Hajj Mullah Muhammad 'Ali Yazdi. It is a problematic work for the historian, as it consists of a set of questions dealt with orally by the scholar and not written out by him in the form of fatwas. [START_REF]1855, and thus to the lifetime of al-Ansari, in the Princeton University Library. Juan Cole uses a printed version dating to 1883 in his article 'Imami Jurisprudence and the Role of the 'ulama: Mortaza Ansari[END_REF] Moreover, the compiler of the collection is not among the scholar's known students. [START_REF] His Name | is not mentioned in the detailed list of students given by Murtaza Ansari in Zindigani[END_REF] While editions of the text did circulate, 67 they did so in the main after his death and with the notes of other mujtahids appended to them. [START_REF] Hasan Shirazi | [END_REF] As a result, the work reflects the debates that took place among the 'ulama, particularly regarding the methods of taqlid, and it prefigures the practical treatise of fiqh as this developed after the publication of al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa by al-Yazdi and Wasilat al-Naja by Abu al-Hasan al-Isfahani. A systematic study of the practical treatises and notes from this period until the present day would show the affinities and divergences among the marja', not only on particular questions, but also as a result of the treatise each one chose as a model.

Moreover, chains of transmission also appear in the ijazas, or licences. It seems that the practice of according a licence to transmit (riwaya) or to practice ijtihad to a disciple, widespread in Najaf as in all other centres of Muslim learning, 69 experienced a relative decline in the nineteenth century as the number of students and 'ulama rose and the value of the ijaza fell. Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi was criticised for granting too many such licences; it was even said that he had set up a 'dyeing factory' (masbagha) to manufacture 'ulama. Al-Najafi also authorised others to judge (qada') in his name, thereby producing a network of individuals owing their positions to him and reinforcing his authority. He gave out licences practise ijtihad to his Iranian disciples, who then Najaf for Iran, where they furthered his teachings. [START_REF] Mahbuba | Beirut, dar al-adawa[END_REF] More generally, the various types of ijaza were used both to establish the credentials of the 'ulama and appoint agents of the marja'. Many questions remain regarding their history and different meanings from the nineteenth century to the present day. The ijaza to practise ijtihad, for example, did not authorise a scholar to exercise ijtihad, but rather endorsed his capacity to do so. Today, the senior 'ulama in Najaf give out very few ijazas, as modern communications technology has enabled 'ulama to make themselves known even at long distances from Najaf, without needing an ijaza to testify to their competence. However, in other writings (dedications to books, taqrirat and letters, for example), the marja' give 'strong indications' (dalalat qawiyya) that are more meaningful than an ijaza for those who know how to read them. 71

Religious Taxes

The collection of religious taxes (above all the khums, the fifth) and the redistribution of the money thus raised by the mujtahid forms the economic basis of the marja'iyya, and lies at the root of its organisation, institutionalisation and influence in regions that are far from the religious centre of Najaf. The mujtahid 'purifies' the money of the believers and decides on the ways in which it should be spent, according to rules laid down by religious doctrines. In addition to the taxes, there are also donations made by benefactors, and these have played an important role throughout the history of Najaf -the Awadh bequest from India is one example. 72 This system guarantees the financial independence of the hawza, as the mujtahid is responsible for its running costs, the awarding of scholarships to students and the payment of teachers' salaries.

The history of the establishment of this system remains to be written, though there are a few theoretical works that trace the history of doctrinal disputes between jurists on this question. 73 These are useful, if insufficient, in helping one understand the development of practices over the long term. They also explain, to some extent, the relationship between the financial systems of the imams, referred to by the usuli jurists, and the systematisation of the tax-collection system. What information one can find has to be gleaned from narratives and anecdotes, as well as from written sources and observations of how things are done at the present time, in order to understand this major feature of the marja'iyya, which is a part of its unique character. This is particularly the case for the marja'iyya of Najaf, which still remains completely independent of the state.

This system is at the root of the power of the marja'iyya today, and enables it to create or maintain the associated institutions that propagate its doctrines and guarantee the link between the mujtahid and his followers (muqallid) and thus between centre and periphery. These institutions form a network that is itself part of the apparatus, while at the same time the latter also contains other networks made up of other groups of actors.

Networks

The 'ulama are the main actors responsible for the institutionalisation of religious authority. Presenting a united front to the outside world, it is nevertheless characterised by a variety of internal rivalries (between ethnic groups, families, disciples of different teachers, etc.), and is markedly hierarchical and divided by doctrinal disputes. Encouraged by the state, the 'ulama was formally structured under the Persian (and fellow Shi'i) Safavids and Qajars, giving individual 'ulama positions and official functions. However, with the (re)foundation of a religious authority that was independent of the state in Najaf during the nineteenth century, there developed a hierarchy that can appear to be informal or shapeless, as a result of its being constantly renegotiated and determined only by 'the said and the unsaid', in the words of Foucault. Meaningful names and titles are used to identify individual 'ulama and to distinguish them from each other. Their fame (shuhra) within the group does the rest.

The 'ulama, teachers and students at the hawza, mosque imams, judges, muballigh (preachers) and majlis reciters form pressure groups that take part, each at its own level, in the designation or 'emergence' of the marja'. Among these groups, the experts (ahl al-khibra) are responsible for forming a link between the marja' and his followers when the latter request advice on which marja' they should follow. Moreover, the religious authority could not operate effectively beyond the centre without a network of agents (wakil); these were responsible for representing the marja', disseminating his teachings, collecting taxes and sometimes spending money in local areas. Here again, the origins of this network are to be found in ancient times, with the 'ulama tracing it back to the era of the Imams, who also had officials responsible for collecting taxes in remote areas. 74 However, there is no historical continuity between this older system and the network of agents that was set up from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. While there are no sources that would allow one to reconstruct the different stages of this process, it is possible to refer to the wikala documents for the latter period. 75 Networks outside clerical circles also make up part of the apparatus in Najaf and wherever the authority of the marja'iyya is felt. Financial or political in character (or both), they are made up of small businessmen, local notables (both urban and rural), landowners, bankers, etc., as well as intellectuals and various political actors. They are among the pressure groups that, each in its own fashion, play a role in the marja'iyya, or try to influence it.

Lastly, the apparatus is completed by various 'architectural arrangements'; these operate in the religious and teaching institutions, the madrasas where the students live and above all in the house of the marja' himself, which functions as the centre of the marja'iyya. (Najaf today contains many marja' houses that function as different centres.) However, all of these are surpassed by another centre -the architectural ensemble in the heart of the city that contains the mausoleum of 'Ali, with its golden dome.

14

  Chahrastani, Hibat al-Din, Ayat Allah al-Khurasani, akbar 'ulama' al-din wa ra'is al-mujtahidin,' Majallat al-'ilm (1910-1912), Vol. 2, Maktabat al-rawda al-haydariyya, silsilat sahafat al-Najafal-achraf (Najaf, January 1912), p. 338. 15 These are the titles of two articles that appeared in the journal al-Hâatif in 1937: n° 63 and n° 64 for 12 and 19 February 1937. Cited by Yitzhak Nakash, The Shi'is of Irak, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 265.

19

  Stewart, Devin, 'Islamic Juridical Hierarchies and the Office of marji' al-taqlid', in Clarke, L. (ed.), Shi'ite Heritage. Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions (Binghamton & New York, Global Publications, 2001), p. 149. 20 See particularly the article by Sajad Jiyad in the present volume.

29 25

 29 The expression is used in the clerical milieu itself. 26 Norbert Elias, What is Sociology? (New York, Columbia University Press, 1978), chapter three. 27 Michel Foucault, Dits et écrits, Volume II (Paris, Gallimard, 1994), p. 299. 28 Idem. 29 Jean-Samuel Beuscart and Ashveen Peerbaye, 'Histoires de dispositifs,' Terrains et travaux, N°11, 2006/2, p. 4. For a clear presentation of the concept of a system, see Giorgio Agamben, Qu'est-ce qu'un dispositif?, translated from the Italian by Martin Rueff, (Paris, Rivages poche, 2007).

  40

  34 ''Allama al-Hilli on the Imamate and Ijtihad,' translation of the text by al-Hilli (d. 1325) by John Cooper in S. A. Arjomand, Authority and Political Culture, pp. 243-6. 35 John Cooper, introduction to the text by Muqaddas al-Ardabili (d. 1585) on taqlid, in S. A. Arjomand, Authority and Political Culture, p. 263) and the text by 'al-Ardabili himself (pp. 263-6). 36 Baha' al-Din al-'Amili, Jami'-i 'abbasi, Mu'assasat intisharat farahani, (Tehran, p. 348). Contemporary jurists add that it is reason ('aql) that dictates this obligation. See the commentary by ayatullah Muhammad Rida Gulpayegani on the treatise by Abu al-Hasan aI-Isfahani, for example, Wasilat al-najat, Vol. 1 (Beirut, Dar al-Mujtaba, 1992), p. 11.

  5. 41 Devin Stewart, 'Islamic Juridical Hierarchies and the Office of marji' al-taqlid,' in Clarke, L. (ed.), Shi'ite Heritage, pp. 142-9. 42 Ibid., p. 141. 43 See al-Tabataba'i al-Karbala'i, Muhammad b. 'Ali, called 'Mujahid,' Mafatih al-usul, (Qum, Mu'assat ahl albayt, http://lib.eshia.ir/13109, p. 626).

  It was commented upon by Murtada al-Ansari, Hasan al-Shirazi, Muhammad Taqi al-Yazdi and Isma'il al-Sadr, all of 55 On taqrirat, see Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani, al-Dhari'a, Vol. 4, pp. 366-7. The habit of recording taqrirat in written form seems to have been developed after Mahdi Bahr al-'Ulum, some of whose courses were transcribed by his pupil Jawad al-'Amili. See the introduction by Fadil Bahr al-'Ulum to Muhammad Mahdi Bahr al-'Ulum, Ijazat al-hadith (Markaz turath al-sayyid Bahr al-'Ulum, 2010), p. 59 and Muhsin al-Amin, A'yan al-shi'a, Vol. 10, p. 159. 56 On this work, see the article by Robert Gleave, infra. 57 See 'Abbas Miri, 'al-Marji'iyya wa al-rasa'il al-'amaliyya,' Ara' fi al-marji'iyya al-shi'iyya, pp. 477-501. The article deals with treatises up to Mahdi Bahr al-'Ulum (d. 1797).

72

  See the article by Robert Riggs in the present volume on this subject and on the other sources of revenue available to the 'ulama. 73 See particularly the work by Norman Calder, The Structure of Authority in Imami Shiʻi Jurisprudence (unpublished PhD dissertation, SOAS, London, 1980), chap. 5, pp. 108-46, and 'Khums in Imami Jurisprudence from the 10th to the 16th Century A.D.,' (BSOAS, N°45, 1982), pp. 39-47. See also Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam: From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marja' (Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996), pp. 218-26, and Isma'il Isma'ili, 'Usus altasarruf bi-l-huquq al-shar'iyya,' in Ara, pp. 521-59.

  Translated from the French by David Tresilian 74 Hossein Modarressi, Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam: Abu Ja'far ibn Qiba al-Razi and his Contribution to Imamite Shi'ite Thought (Princeton, 1993), pp. 12-18, and Liyakat N. Takim, The Heirs of the Prophet. Charisma and Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam (Albany, State University of New York Press, 2006), pp. 140-2.

  (Beirut, dar ihya' al-turath al-'arabi, 2010), p. 18. Les clercs de l'islam. Autorité religieuse et pouvoir politique en Arabie Saoudite, XVIIIe-XXIe siècles (Paris, PUF, 2011), pp. 175-9. The word iqtida' was equivalent to taqlid. Shah Tahsmap had already given the title of muqtada al-anam to 'Ali al-Karaki. See Said Amir Arjomand, 'Two Decrees of Shah Tahsmap Concerning Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh 'Ali al-Karaki,' in S.A. Arjomand (ed.), Authority and Political Culture in Shi'ism (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988), p. 253.

	6
	Nabil Mouline, 7

8 Abbas Amanat, 'In Between the Madrasa and the Marketplace: The Designation of Clerical Leadership in Modern Shi'ism

9

  Al-Shushtari al-Jaza'iri, Muhammad 'Abbas, Zill mamdud, p. 22. On the correspondence on the famous Oudh Bequest, see Juan Cole, 'Indian Money and the Shi'ite Shrine Cities', in Cole, Juan (ed.), Sacred Space and Holy War. The Politics, Culture and History of Shi'ite Islam (London & New York, I.B. Tauris, 2002), pp. 78-98. Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325) described the imamat as a riyasa. See ''Allama al-Hilli on the Imamate and Ijtihad', a translation of al-Hilli's text by John Cooper, in S. A. Arjomand, Authority and Political Culture, p. 240.

	10
	These fatwas are well-known, as are their authors (Mohammad Kazem Khorasani, Isma'il al-Sadr, 'Abdallah
	Mazandarani and Muhammad Taqi al-Shirazi). Al-'Irfan, Vol. I, N°5, March 1909, pp. 240-1. The journal was
	published in Saida, today in Lebanon.
	11
	Muhammad Husayn Al Kashif al-Ghita', al-'Abaqat al-'anbariyya fi al-tabaqat al-ja'fariyya (no publisher,
	1998), p. 12.
	12
	It should also be noted that al-'

  , pp. 503ff. 17 There are many such lists, and more and more of them are available online. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deceased_Maraj 18 Calmard, Jean, 'Marḏjaʿ-i Taḳlid', EI², VI, 1991, pp. 548-56 ; Abdul-Jabar, Faleh, 'The Genesis and Development of Marja'ism versus the State', in F. Abdul-Jabar, ed., Ayatollahs, Sufis and Ideologues: State, Religion and Social Movements in Iraq, London, 2002, pp. 76-9; Fischer, Michael M. J., Iran From Religious Dispute to Revolution, Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press, 1980, pp. 252-4; Hairi, Hairi, Abdul-Hadi, Shi'ism and Constitutionalism in Iran. A study in the Role Played by the Persian Residents of Iraq in Iranian Politics, E.J.Brill, Leiden, 1977, pp. 63-4.

21

  See the work by Amir Arjomand, particularly 'The Office of Mulla-Bashi in Shi'iteIran', Studia Islamica, N° 57 (1983), pp. 135-46; Devin, Stewart, 'Islamic Juridical Hierarchies…', op. cit.; Kazemi Moussavi, Ahmad, Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam. From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marja', Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996, passim. 22 Cole, Juan, 'Imami Jurisprudence and the Role of the 'ulama: Mortaza Ansari on Emulating the Supreme Exemplar', in Nikki Keddie (ed.), Religion and Politics in Iran. Shi'ism from Quietism to Revolution, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1983, pp. 33-46. Kazemi Moussavi, Ahmad, Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam…, op. cit. 23 'Atiyya al-sayyid Salman, Haydar Nizar, al-Marja'iyya al-diniyya fi al-Najafal-ashraf wa mawaqifuha alsiyasiyya fi al-'Iraq (1958-1968) (Beirut, dar ihya' al-turath al-'arabi, 2010, p. 18). Muhammad Bahr al-'Ulum, Afaq hadariyya li-l-nazariyya al-siyasiyya fi al-islam, dar al-zahra' (Beirut, 2003), p. 98. 24 See the work of Said Amir Arjomand, particularly the edited volume Authority and Political Culture in Shi'ism (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988).

Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi, Jawahir al-kalam fi sharh Shara'i' al-islam (11 th ed., Tehran, Dar al-kutub alislamiyya, 1385/1965), vol. 21, p. 402.

Interview with Jawad al-Khu'i (Najaf, 2011), who used the example of his grandfather Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i. The latter had only given out three or four ijaza, but he had also rewarded some of his disciples by describing them in very meaningful terms, which directly indicated how close they were to him or how much he valued them.

They can be found at the Kashif al-Getaa Foundation (mu'assasat Kashif al-Ghita') in Najaf, for example, and at www.kashifalgetaa.com


Ruben Badalyan

Pierre Lombard

Christine Chataigner

Pavel Avetisyan

S Melkonyan

I Gagnon

L Manoukyan

A Karakhkhanyan

V Trifonov

The Neolithic and Chalcolithic phases in the Ararat plain (Armenia): The view from Aratashen

The Armenian part of the plain of Ararat, situated on the great east-west route joining the region of Erzerum in Turkey to that of Tabriz in northwest Iran, is characterised by a mountainous, seemingly restrictive environment. Except for this large natural axis (which follows the course of the Arax to Nakhichevan, then turns south towards Lake Urmia), the traditional itineraries which might insure contact with the other neighbouring regions of eastern Turkey, Transcaucasia or the northern Near East are much more rare. They should not, however, be dismissed (map).

The Anatolian zone of Lake Van remains accessible, at least in summer, by a route which must cross a pass at an altitude of 2500 m. To the north, the middle valley of the Kura can be reached by skirting the Aragats range, either in the west by following the Akhurian river and then crossing the high plateaus of northern Armenia to southern Georgia, or in the east by the Razdan valley, then that of the Agstev which flows to northern Azerbaijan. To the east of the plain of Ararat, the mountain ranges of Gegham, Vardenis and Sjunik present obstacles to communication with the more southern steppes of Azerbaijan. However, today as well as in the past, the populations of these steppes and those of the plain of Ararat summered their herds in these very mountains, thus favouring contact and exchange.

This potential for contact with regions which have been occupied since the Neolithic or the early Chalcolithic (Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture of the Kura basin and the Karabakh plain, Kül Tepe of Nakhichevan culture in the lower basin of the Arax), even the Palaeolithic (western Georgia), is in total contrast to the lack of information observed in the plain of Ararat 1 .

For the periods before the Early Bronze (Kura-Araxes culture or Early Transcaucasian Culture), information is very fragmentary. A single site, Tekhut, was excavated at the beginning of the 1970's and published. This site produced circular mud brick habitations, as well as a lithic industry and pottery attributed to the late phase of the 1

Chalcolithic [START_REF] Torosian | Rannezemledel'cheskoe poselenie Tekhuta[END_REF]. At another site, Khatunakh, an exploratory trench revealed an earlier phase, considered to be Neolithic because of the scarceness of pottery (Torosian et alii, 1970, p. 386). A few other deposits were surveyed (Ada Blur, Masisi Blur, etc…), but this late Chalcolithic material, kept at the regional museum of Vagharshapat (former Echmiadzine), remains almost unpublished 2 .

For several years, the Franco-Armenian archaeological mission created in 1977 has endeavored to fill this lack in the knowledge of the late prehistory of Armenia. The mission has paid particular attention to the collection of chronological, stratigraphic, and material data pertaining to the crucial phases preceding the flowering of the Kura-Araxes culture, the expansion of which in the third millennium had a strong impact on Transcaucasia and the whole of the northern Near East. The site of Aratashen, briefly explored in the 1970S by Sardaryan, then in 1993 by Aslanyan (note), was again chosen in 1999 for a large program of excavations over several seasons.

The site of Aratashen

Situated some 40 km west of Yerevan and 1.5 km southwest of Vagharshapats, the settlement of Aratashen lies in a loop of the Kasakh River, which flows into the Araxes a few km to the south (Figure 1).

The central part of the site consists of a little elliptical elevation (blur) of about 90 x 60 m which dominates the surrounding plain at a maximum of 3 meters, at an absolute altitude of 852 meters. A thick alluvial layer of pebbles, vestige of an ancient and extensive spate of the Kasakh, covers the immediate vicinity of the blur. It probably hides the exact borders of the site, which possibly extended more to the north and the west originally. During its seasonal inundations, the river eats regularly into the embankment of the site to the north, where layers containing obsidian and pottery are exposed in section over about ten meters. During the 1950's substantial leveling work was carried out in the zone of Artashen, which appears to have greatly modified the original profile of the blur. Intended to counter the winter flooding of the Kasakh, two segments of an elongated earth dike are still visible to the east of the central elevation; it is now known that this dike was constructed of earth removed by bulldozer from the main elevation and its immediate surroundings. It is possible that this recent work could be superimposed upon an older protective construction, perhaps contemporary to the prehistoric site.

An obvious consequence of this partial scraping is profound alteration of the stratigraphy of the site and the acceleration of erosion. The first exploratory trenches in 1999, then the two excavation seasons carried out in 2000 and 2001, demonstrated the immediate proximity (-0.20 to -0.30 m beneath the present surface) of a series of three distinct horizons (Levels I to III) which represent the earliest occupation of the site, preserved here in a depth of a little more than 2.5 m. The lower Level III rests on virgin soil. No earlier deposit has been found, while the intrusive pottery of late phases (Iron Age, classical and medieval periods) can be found near the surface.

2

For Tekhut, see [START_REF] Torosian | Rannezemledel'cheskoe poselenie Tekhuta[END_REF] ; for Khatunarkh, see [START_REF] Torosian | Razvedki drevnejshikh pamjatnikov Armenii[END_REF], for Ada Blur, Mashtotsi Blur, Shengavit I, see Sardarian 1967. To better determine the obviously complex geo-archaeological development at Aratashen, a strategy of excavation in intermittant longitudinal trenches (A to K) was adopted and applied to a north-south median axis covering the whole of the blur over almost 80 meters. This strategy proved effective, as the stratigraphic sections in line provided a profile of the whole of the elevation.

An obvious dichotomy appeared very rapidly between the situation observed in the central exploratory trenches (A, B, D, E, F and H) and that revealed by the peripheral trenches (mainly C, J and K). The three successive archeological horizons which were clear in the former were nowhere evident in the latter, which presented a series of overturned destruction levels several of which contained abundant pottery material of Chalcolithic type, which is practically absent from the levels excavated on the highest part of the excavation.

A thorough study of the stratigraphic sections, combined with a sedimentological analysis of the exposed layers, explains this unusual situation as well as reconstructing the geomorphological sequence of Aratashen as a whole (Figure 2). 3 Geologists and archaeologists agree today that the occupation at Aratashen was without a doubt still active after the period represented by levels I-III. As we suspected at the beginning of our excavations, these later levels have completely disappeared today, partly victims of recent leveling work for agricultural purposes, but mainly because of long natural erosion of the blur; the products of this destruction have accumulated at the foot of the elevation in a thick layer of nearly 1m where the abundant Chalcolithic pottery recovered in 1999 abd 2000 in trial trenches C and J was found. This displaced and accumulated evidence of an occupation level which no longer exists today thus explains the scarcity of pottery of the same period at the top of the blur (presence limited essentially to Level I, and only in low quantity). This reconstruction influences the dating of levels I to III, older than this ruined phase, dated by its pottery to a late phase of the Chalcolithic.

The thick alluvial layers which cover the low areas of the site are thus due to a sudden rise of the waters of the Kasakh (from 2 to 2.5 m), after a probable tectonic accident (a sudden fault, in a seismically unstable region). These alluvions then covered the destruction/accumulation level, but not the upper part of the blur, which remained above the water. Somewhat later (probably very quickly, the river having rapidly modified its course by circumventing the obstacle), the level returned to its initial position, causing the formation of Terrace I of the Kasakh. It is not possible at the moment to date this sudden inundation of the Kasakh.

The three archaeological horizons identified at Aratashen are identified briefly.

Level I

This level is cleared over more than 170 m 2 . Its proximity to the surface (average depth of structures: -0.70 to -0.30 cm) renders its preservation extremely unequal: the surface vegetation, composed of little thorny bushes, produces here a deep, strong root system which once it breaks the coherance of the the bricks in place, causes rapid disintegration of the construction, already weakened by humidity and winter frost. A strategy of extensive 3 This study was carried out in september 2001 by A. Karakhanyan (Institute of Geology, Armenian Academy of Sciences, Yerevan) and V. Trifonov (Institutte of Geology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) from data collected from trenches dug in 2001.

excavations has however enabled discovery of the vestiges of four circular structures (and probably those of a fifth, to the east). In the south of the sector excavated at present, there are also the vestiges of three little orthogonal walls, separating two constructions of circular plan. With the exception of one of these, which is smaller, these round constructions present the same reconstituted diameter of about 5 m. All are built in flat, rectangular mud bricks of even size (about 45 x 25 x 8 cm). Remains of clay floors are evident is each of them, as well as in the orthogonal structure.

As Figure 3 indicates, two long, straight structures with coating cross the excavated zone from east to west. They are preserved respectively over 9.50 and more than 10 m in length, with an average width of 1.8 to 2 m; they have a slightly concave profile, in a "U" form, and appear to be edged here and there with a kind of border; they are carefully coated along all their length. In the waiting of a complementary excavation, we reserve our interpretation for the moment. We can of course see two areas intended for circulation in the middle of the constructed space, but this remains a simple and unsatisfactory hypothesis. The stratigraphic relation between the northern structure and the circular construction situated at its western extremity is not clear; it is possible that future work will demonstrate that these structures, with their slightly concave profile, could constitute the lower part of a construction dug from a higher level which no longer exists today; the nature of this possible entity remains unknown. A zone of hearths, dug into the ground and stone-lined, as well as two mud brick silos (?) have also been discovered outside the habitations.

The collected archaeological material consists of a very well represented obsidian industry, a bone industry, ceramic material which is less evident, and grinding tools. Except for this last category (grinding stones, mortars, etc.), more associated with built structures, the archaeological material appears to be dispersed over the whole of the excavated zone; this appears to confirm the existence of zones of technical activity in the spaces separating the constructions.

Level II

This level was cleared over a surface of only 45 m2. This limited area does not yet permit a vision of the whole of this "horizon" which, unlike the two others, has so far produced hardly any architectural structures.

In the excavated sector, several isolated structures consisting of rounded, formless basaltic pebbles are found associated with large amounts of collapsed mud brick, apparently mixing pisé (?) and brick fragments, some of which are charred; these bricks are thicker than those of Level I, made from a more plastic clay, which in general have preserved impressions of its plentiful plant filler (stems and grains of cereals). These concentrations of pebbles do not generally present a regular plan, but are clearly anthropic in nature. Two little isolated round structures in mud brick (Figure 5) were also discovered for the first time this season, notably in Sondage E; as there are no traces of ash, they would not appear to be hearths.

These various features do not appear for the moment to form a truly coherent whole, nor do they seem to rest on a prepared floor or a simple exposed surface. However, clearly evident are the remains of earth constructions of which the foundations would have been built or reinforced with pebbles. We should also consider the possible association of structures built with pebbles and light constructions built with perishable materials. However, the particularly meticulous excavation of these levels has not revealed a single posthole, adding to our questions.

One statement based on the evidence is certain: this "horizon" is so far the richest in archaeological material (more than 55% of the inventory); there are large concentrations of artefacts in obsidian (mainly blades) and especially bone. Pottery is only represented by a few sherds, but also by a little ridged vase which is complete (Figure 4 :1). This level also contains very rich faunal material, including many antlers; these sometimes present transverse perforations (Figure 4 :2), and are generally associated with the structures described above.

Level III

The earliest archaeological horizon at Aratashen has so far been found only in a narrow trial trench of 10 x 2 m. It is represented by a rather dense architectural network, made up of structures with rounded, usually irregular forms, often adjacent or attached by little curved walls (Figure 5). The main characteristic of this mud architecture is the use of pisé and not of brick, which is present in the upper levels; one also notes the presence of several ashy zones, of which at least one was associated with a circular hearth constructed of large basaltic pebbles (diameter: 15 to 18 cm); a little round structure with low elevation (0.13 m) and a diameter of about 0.70 m stands out in the western part of the trench. This horizon is dense with architecture and rich in objects (mainly obsidian and bone), and rests on a series of sandy virgin layers, partly reached by the level of the water table.

The objects discovered are apparently identical to that of Level II, but include no pottery.

Interpretation and discussion

With these preliminary results, we can propose a preliminary reconstruction of the occupation sequence at Aratashen. The village seems to have been founded by populations, which had no knowledge of pottery (Level III), and then progressively adopted (Levels II-I) the use of pottery which appears already developed. Moreover, the remains of one or several upper levels (Horizon "0"), which are completely eroded, have accumulated on the periphery of the site and present abundant pottery which is evidence of a cultural phase which is later but clearly precedes the Kura-Araxes culture.

With no radiocarbon dates for the moment, it is not possible to date this sequence precisely as dating still depends only on comparative data from the neighbouring regions of Transcaucasia and the northern Near East.

These analogies (or differences) will be determined according to the architectural data and the objects.

The pottery from Horizon "0" as terminus ante quem

The pottery from the eroded level or levels of the tell (sondages C and J near the river Kasakh) consists of two ensembles, both very far from Kura-Araxes productions: (a) an abundant production with plant filler mainly including hemispherical bowls with a scraped surface, which evoke the "Coba bowls" which became widespread in northern Mesopotamia in the first phase of the late Chalcolithic. 4 (b) a production with various mineral tempers (sand, crushed obsidian, baked clay fragments), often containing chopped straw, made up of hemispherical bowls and jars with flared rims or little cylindrical necks; the decoration of the bowls consists of incisions on the lip, rounded protuberances on the edge of the lip or on the sides, and one or two rows of perforations beneath the lip; this pottery is close to that of the Sioni culture which developed in the Kura basin after the disappearance of the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture. 5 4 Trufelli, 1997, p. 8-10. 5 Dzhaparidze, 1989, p. 338-339 and fig. 132 These two categories of pottery are found on several sites of the Ararat plain where surface collection has been carried out or trial trenches excavated: Mashtotsi-blur, Ada-blur, Shengavit I…, generally considered to belong to the Chalcolithic.

The pottery produced by the ruined and displaced Horizon "0" thus appears to date to the end of the fifth and the first half of the fourth millennium, a period in which the plain of Ararat was clearly in contact with the contemporary populations of northern Mesopotamia, and also with those of the "Sioni culture" of the Kura basin. Thus, the three levels of the blur should be placed before the late phase of the regional Chalcolithic; taking into account the existence of an aceramic phase (Level III), we cannot exclude that the Aratashen sequence began in the Neolithic.

Architecture

There does not appear to be continuity in the successive architectural traditions observable in the three identified archaeological horizons on the site. This would seem to be in opposition to the remarkable homogeneity of the lithic and bone industries over the whole of the occupation layer, which gives the impression of the development of successive phases of the same culture.

At first sight, the type of architecture which developed in the lower horizon (III) at first sight would appear to evoke that of the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture by the circular form of the buildings and their arrangement. But owing to the limited exposure of structure at Aratashen, some caution is necessary. In fact, they are too small to be considered true houses at present. At Shulaveri, units of round habitations appear in the first phase of occupation, and continue to the latest phase (V) of the culture. They are characterised by the use of planoconvex mud bricks arranged in corbelled construction which form domed roofs; in phase III appear "complexes" of buildings joined by little curved walls around closed courtyards. Not until phase V does a rectangular plan appear as well as semi-buried huts, which develop in the following period (Sioni culture). 6 At Aratashen, the construction technique is different: the plano-convex brick was unknown here and the inhabitants of Level III used pisé like their neighbours in southern Transcaucasia (Kül Tepe of Nakhichevan) and the northern Near East (Hajji Firuz, lower levels; Dalma Tepe; Tilki Tepe). 7 The fragments of crude mud brick, which appear in the intermediate horizon (Level II) of Aratashen, at the same time as the pottery, indicate an important change in the construction techniques. These mud bricks do not have a rounded upper surface and therefore do not belong to the Kura basin tradition, but again to that of southeastern Transcaucasia (Alikemek Tepesi) or the northern Near East (Hajji Firuz, upper levels). 8 In this level II, the absence of any constructed walls and of any floor plan suggests that the excavated zone, which is very rich in objects, corresponds to an activity zone outside the habitations.

The large circular mud brick buildings (4 to 5 m in diameter) of the standard module of the upper horizon at Aratashen (Level I), which appear to be near a rectangular construction, evoke Nakhichevan and the steppes of Azerbaijan, the only regions of Transcaucasia where circular and rectangular buildings in parallelepipedic mud bricks coexist. At Kül Tepe, the buildings are raised in the Halaf levels and later 9 ; at Ilanly Tepe (Karabakh steppe) or Alikemek Tepesi (Mugan steppe), they belong to the latest phase of the 6 Kiguradze 1976, p.157-164. 7 Kül Tepe of Nakhichevan, Abibullaev 1963, pp. 157-158 ;Hajji Firuz, Voigt 1983, p.31-33;Damla Tepe, Hamlin 1975, p.113;Tilki Tepe, Korfmann 1982, p.31. 8 Alikemek Tepesi, Narimanov 1987, pp. 58-59 ;Hajji Firuz, Voight 1983, pp. 31-33. 9 Abibullaev 1963, p.157. Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture. 10 In the northern Near East, this preponderance of the circular plan over the rectangular is consistent with the Halaf period, but the layout of the buildings is quite different (round tholos type with rectilinear chambers attached to them) as well as the construction technique (pisé, often with stone wall foundations) (for example : Girikihaciyan. 11

Bone industry

The three levels of Aratashen are characterised by a rich bone industry, apparently quite homogenous throughout the layer (Figure 6). It consists mainly of awls, drills and punches of various sizes, clearly from ovicaprine or bird bones; these are made either from simple slivers of long bones, or from larger bone segments having part or all of the epiphysis, in order to facilitate grasping (Figure 9). Frequently found scattered throughout the three levels are tools made from a goat horn or the pointed extremity of an antler, which usually have a hole for the handle in their proximal part; these are probably agricultural tools of dibble type. The intermediate horizon (level II)-the richest in bone industry-has also produced "hammers" of antler, which also have a hole for the handle perpendicular to the axis, as well as large "palettes", carved in deer scapulae and sometimes decorated with grooves. More finely carved spoons from long bones as well as tubular objects are more characteristic of the earliest horizon (Level III). As a whole, this industry appears to be part of the tradition of working bone and horn widespread throughout the northern Near East during the seventh and sixth millennia.

On most of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of Transcaucasia and the Near East, one finds objects in bone, horn and antler which are piercing tools (punches, awls, needles…), burnishing tools and spatulas in bone, intended for working fur and skins. But some sites have produced a large variety of these objects, including as at Aratashen spoons and palettes, as well as tools intended for working the earth (hoes, dibbles). The neighbouring site of Tilki Tepe on the southeastern bank of Lake Van is an example. Level III, of the Halaf period, produced many tools, often similar to those of Aratashen, consisting of "hammers" with a hole for the handle perpendicular to the axis of the tool, large palettes (ibid., fig. 17.3-5), here carved in ox scapulae, little spoons (ibid., fig. 18.12) of which the extremity of the handle is pierced by a hole, spatulas with the extremities sometimes pierced), fine tubes from bird bones, etc. 12 In the Kura basin, the objects in bone and antler flourished throughout the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, reaching a peak in the last phases 13 ; however, the Sioni culture, which was the local successor, is characterised by the almost total disappearance of these objects 14 . At Shulaveri-Shomutepe, the fine spoons are present from phase I onwards and the large "palettes" made from ox scapulae appear in phase IV. In eastern and southern Transcaucasia only the fine spoons are represented and they are rare: one example at Ilanly Tepe, in the Krabakh steppe and anothet at Kül Tepe in Nakhichevan. 15 However these objects, spoons and palettes, are a part of a common savoir-faire throughout the Near East in the horizon of the seventh and sixth millennia, They are found in the Zagros at Jarmo (fifteen spoons, with long and short handles, found in the upper levels with pottery, in Anatolia at Catal Hüyük in levels IV-II (spoons and palettes), as well as near the Sea of Marmara at Ilpinar (the occupation of 10 Narimanov 1987, p.48-49 and 57-60.

11 Watson, Le Blanc 1990, p.39. 12 Korfmann 1982, fig. 11.4, 15.6-7, 17.2-5 and 18.12. 13 Kiguradze 1976, p.163-165. 14 Dzhaparidze, 1989, p. 340. 15 Ilanly Tepe, Narimanov, 1987, fig. 43 ;Kül Tepe of Nakhichevan, Narimanov, 1987, fig. 57. the first half of the sixth millennium produced 77 spoons, fabricated from long bones and ribs) 16 i. At Hacilar, in the levels with pottery, bone spatulas with decorated handles were found, but the spoons themselves are in clay. 17 A tool characteristic of the levels of Aratashen, as we have seen, is the "dibble", made from a goat horn or an antler, sharpened and worked to receive a handle. This type of instrument is widespread in Transcaucasia, in particular in western Georgia (Samele Kldé level II), as well as in the Lake Van Basin (Tilki Tepe level III). 18 However, the "hoes" made of antler (from the bony base and the beginning of the sectioned branch), so characteristic of the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture where they appear from phase I and develop continuously until phase V, are totally absent from Aratashen; they are very rare too in southern Transcaucasia (Kül Tepe of Nakhichevan). 19

Lithic industry

The entire lithic industry of Aratashen is in obsidian, and is abundant (so far nearly 8400 artifacts) (Figure 7). Chemical analyses carried out on ten pieces collected on the surface of the site show that there were various sources (Table ). Four mountain ranges, situated on the periphery of the Ararat plain, were exploited (map): Arteni to the west (70%), Guansar to the north (ca. 17%), Ararat to the south and Geghasar to the northeast (8%). All the sources are situated within a radius of 70 km. The first three are easily accessible, as the obsidian outcrops are in contact with the plain; the Geghasar flows, however, are found on the high plateaux (between 2500 and 3000 m) which are free of snow only in summer.

According to J. Chabot, who is studying the lithic tools of Aratashen, they are characterised by a debitage which is almost exclusively for blades; the flakes discovered are so far rare (6% of the total number of artifacts) and only three have been transformed into tools by retouch 20 . A number of these blades are fragmented and come to us in the form of mesial and proximal segments; this fragmentation was apparently voluntary and probably related to the way these tools were used. This industry is in general one of quality, but there is no observable technological or typological development over the whole sequence of occupation. These tools, obtained mainly by indirect percussion and by crutch pressure, are clearly characteristic of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures throughout Transcaucasia and the northern Near East. In Transcaucasia (Imeretia, Kura and Araxes basins), debitage for blades generally characterises the Neolithic phase. The transition to the Chalcolithic is usually accompanied by the development of flake industries, and that to the Bronze Age by a general decadence of the lithic tools; this is clearly the case for the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture where flake debitage becomes significant in phase IV, and predominant in phase V.

Pottery

Totally absent from the first habitation level (III), pottery appears at Aratashen in level II, which produced some twenty sherds and a complete vase. This low quantity imposes caution in the determination of the origin of the pottery which penetrated into the Ararat plain. In the material of Aratashen, several sherds with an average brown-orange paste with a brown-gray heart have chopped straw as filler. One of these (AR99.016.002) is a fragment of a jar with a large flaring neck. The only complete form (AR99.016.001), a little ridged bowl 16 Jarmo, Watson 1983, p. 353-354 and fig. 144, 14-19 ;Catal Hüyük, Mellaart 1971, fig. 102 ;Ilipinar, Roodenberg,1995, p. 127-128 and fig. 6. 17 Mellaart, 1970, p. 162 and fig. 180-181. 18 Samele Kldé, Dzhaparidze 1989, fig. 64-65 ;Tilki Tepe, Korfmann, 1982, fig. 15. 19 Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, Kiguradze, 1976, pp. 160-165 ;Kül Tepe, Abibullaev 1959, p.161. 20 Chabot in press.

with a rounded lip, about 5 cm high, is in crude clay with a mineral filler (sand, gravel); its irregular sides are light brown with traces of charring. This simultaneous presence of plant filler and mineral filler is attested in the northern Near East from the second half of the seventh millenium; in this period the ridged forms are characteristic of the proto-Hassuna sites of northeastern Mesopotamia 21 .

In the absence of detailed similarities between a material which is rare at Aratashen and pottery from the other regions, we can only concentrate on the differences which enable exclusion of direct influence of this or that region on the appearance of pottery in the plain of Ararat. Thus the pottery of levels II-I of Aratashen has nothing in common with that of western Georgia, or with that that of the Kura basin. The regions of the upper Tigris-upper Euphrates should also be dismissed, as the brown pottery with mineral filler decorated with incised strips and protuberances, which develops at Cayönü, then in the Keban (Norsun Tepe), is unknown at Aratashen 22 . Neither is the red-slipped pottery which develops rapidly at the end of the seventh and during the sixth and fifth millennia in northeastern Mesopotamia and in the basin of Lake Urmia represented.

Conclusion

In his pioneering work on Transcaucasia, C. Burney stresses the scarcity of pre-Bronze Age remains discovered in the plain of Ararat, the only available data coming from exploratory trenches and surface collection 23 . Thirty years later, the situation has hardly changed: a single site, Tekhut, has been excavated, and all the general works on the region emphasize the lack of knowledge of the cultural phases which preceded the Kuro-Arax culture 24 .

The new excavation of Aratashen, which seeks to fill this gap, has produced preliminary results which are very encouraging. The land works and natural erosion which have affected the upper part of the site have resulted in a difference in preservation of the two phases of occupation: (1) the late Chalcolithic in the trial trenches near the river Kasakh; (2) the early Chalcolithic (and the Neolithic?) in the three levels of the blur, the lower level being preceramic.

In the sequence revealed in the blur, the lithic and bone objects appear very homogenous, whereas the architecture develops noticeably: round pisé structures in the lower level (III), absence of buildings but fragments of mud bricks with much straw filler in the middle level (II), circular houses and a rectangular building in finer mud brick in the upper level (I). For this first occupation phase at Aratashen, the parallels are to be found in southeastern Transcaucasia and northeastern Mesopotamia, where the same construction techniques (pisé, parallelepipedic mud bricks) are used, where the vessels have a ridged form (as in level II, when pottery appears), and where the lithic and bone tools present the same assemblages. The Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, which developed in the Kura basin and the Karabakh steppe, presents another type of architecture (domed buildings with walls in planoconvex bricks), different pottery (unridged forms), and bone and horn objects which include many types absent from the Ararat plain (hoes made with tubular bone and ox scapula, objects in the form of "knives"…).

The second occupation phase of Aratashen has produced pottery similar to that from the sites surveyed by Sardarian in the Ararat plain. It is evidence of the influence of the Late 21 Le Mière and Picon 1999, p. 15.

22 Cayönü, Ozdogan and Ozdogan, 1993 ;Norsun Tepe , Gülçür 2000. 23 Burney and Lang 1971, pp. 41-42. 24 Munchaev 1982, p. 122 ;Dzahparidze 1989, p. 245 ;Kushnareva 1993, p. 45. Chalcolithic horizon, which occurred (end of the fifth and first half of the fourth millennium) in the whole of northern Mesopotamia: development of straw-tempered ware, initial use of the slow wheel, early forms of standardization in manufacture and typological features ("Coba bowls"), a frequent surface treatment with light scraping… However, truly Transcaucasian features, present in the pottery of the Sioni culture, which locally suceeded the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, characterise much of the production (rim incisions, row of perforations or series of protuberances on the upper part of the belly…).

With the extension of the excavation of horizons II and III of the site, future discoveries in the excavation of Aratashen should lead to a more detailed vision of late prehistory in the Ararat plain and add to a body of artefacts which is already quite varied. The radiocarbon analyses in progress will enable this hitherto unique local sequence to be integrated with more precision into regional chronologies.

CAPTIONS

Map.

Aratashen in the context of Transcaucasia and Northern Mesopotamia.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1.Topographic map of Aratashen.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2.Stratigraphy of the site.

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3.Architectural remains in Level I (upper level of the blur), Aratashen.

Figure 4 . 1 .

 41 Figure 4.1. Small carinated vessel from Level II (middle level of the blur) ; 2. Antler and stucture of pebbles in Level II, Aratashen.

Figure 5

 5 Figure 5Architectural remains in Level III (lower level of the blur), Aratashen.

Figure 6 .

 6 Figure 6.Bone industry, Aratashen.

  Figure 7.Lithic industry, Aratashen.

Figure 7

 7 Figure 7

We wish to thank the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for funding the project, the armenian Ministry of Culture and A. Kalantaryan, director of the Institute of Archaeology at Yerevan, for their administrative support. We are most grateful to all the researchers who took part in the excavations and in the study of the material : G. Artine, A.