Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tababataei Borujerdi (Luri/; 23 March 1875 – 30 March 1961) was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 to his death in 1961. Life Borujerdi was born on 23 March 1875 in the city of Borujerd in Lorestan Province in Iran. His family traced its lineage 30 generations to Hassan ibn Ali (the grand son of the Prophet Muhammad). His father Sayyid Ali Tabataba'i was a religious scholar in Borujerd and his mother, Sayyidah Agha Beygum, was the daughter of Sayyid Mohammad Ali Tabataba'i. Tenure as Ayatollah and Marja Borujerdi revived the hawza of Qom in 1945 (1364 AH), which had waned after the death of its founder Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi in 1937. When Sayyid Abul Hasan Isfahani died the following year, the majority of Shi'a accepted Ayatullah Borujerdi as Marja'. Scholar Roy Mottahedeh reports that Borujerdi was the sole marja "in the Shia world" from 1945-6 until his death in 1961. Outreach in the Islamic world Borujerdi was praised by Morteza Motahhari for attempting to bridge the gap between Sunnis and Shiites. Borujerdi sent representatives to Lebanon, Kuwait, Sudan and Pakistan. He also helped establish the Islamic Center of Hamburg. Borujerdi also sent missionaries to spread Islam in Europe and the United States. He established cordial relations with Mahmud Shaltut, the grand Shaykh of Al-Azhar University. Together, the two scholars established the "Organization for Rapprochement Among the Islamic Sects" ( Dar al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib al-lslamiyyah) in Cairo. Shaltut issued a famous fatwa legitimizing Ja'fari school of jurisprudence on par with the four major Sunni legal schools, and promoted its teaching at Al-Azhar. Permission for narrating Hadith Borujerdi was authorized as a Mujtahid by his teachers, which included Akhund Khurasani, Shaykh al-Shari'ah Isfahani and Sayyid Abu al-Qasim Dihkurdi. He was also given the permission of narrating Hadith by Akhund Khurasani, Shaykh al-Shari'ah Isfahani, Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Isfahani known as Aqa Najafi Isfahani, Sayyid Abu al-Qasim Dihkurdi, Agha Buzurg Tihrani and 'Alam al-Huda Malayiri. Teaching Method Borujerdi used a simple language in his lessons and avoided unnecessary extra discussions. Like early Shi'a 'ulama such as Shaykh al-Mufid and Sayyid Murtada, Shaykh al-Tusi, Shaykh Tabarsi and Allamah Bahr al-'Ulum, he had a comprehensive knowledge of different Islamic studies. He also studied jurisprudential verdicts of Shi'a and Sunni faqihs of the past. He had a unique method in ‘Ilm al-rijal by studying the chain of