Mapping the internal organisation of the al-Khu'i family's leadership structures offers a second illustration that the legitimacy of clerical figures flows from the nature of their networks, wherever they might be. An Iranian immigrant to the shrine city of Najaf, Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i built his career in the Iraqi seminaries, in the early 1970s becoming the most widely followed religious authority. He sustained his status by relying on a network spreading from Najaf into local communities worldwide. Towards the end of his life, he also sponsored and lent his name to the Al-Khoei Foundation, an NGO-type charitable institution representing the marja'iyya in an innovative way from its headquarters in London.

Interpersonal ties were significant in cementing together the elements of the transnational authority networks of the marja'iyya and the Al-Khoei Foundation. The role of Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i's sons, the strategic selection of his sons-in-law and the centrality of his students are evidence of the endogenic nature of both leadership structures – one being traditional, informal and the other modern, institutionalised. In the context of an increasingly institutionalised form of religious leadership in the contemporary Shi'i world, attested by the fact that maraji’ tend to associate themselves with a plethora of institutions that are likely to survive them, the al-Khu'i case also helps explain the endurance of the marja'iyya's networks over time. Research into this topic identifies trends with possible relevance for future successions at the top of the Shi'i community.

The Marja'iyya's Local and Transnational Networks

THE MAKING OF A NAME

The story of Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i's life exemplifies the fact that the marja'iyya is open to newcomers. He had an inherent sacred lineage by being born into a sayyid family descended from Imam Husayn. Originally from Medina, his ancestors moved first to Kufa in today's Iraq before settling in the twelfth century in the city of Khuy in Iranian Azerbaijan. The al-Khu'i family had a scholarly tradition, yet not to the same extent as the renowned families of Najaf who are proud of having produced a myriad of prominent religious scholars for generations. Abu al-Qasim's father was a cleric named 'Ali Akbar who studied in the Iraqi seminaries of Najaf and Samarra’ for eight years before returning to Iran to work as the ‘alim of his hometown.