The Shiite seminary (hawza) in Najaf witnessed huge developments in its educational program in the mid-20th century, especially between the 1940s and 1960s. The number of students ranged between 15,000 and 20,000, and they came from various countries that have Shiite populations. More than 1,000 students used to attend the lessons of Sayed Abu al-Qassem al-Khoei alone. Khoei is considered the founder of the doctrinal approach that has prevailed in Najaf and Qom to a large extent. Coincidentally, the first academic faculty in Najaf was founded by Mohamad Rida al-Mozfer in 1958, and many prominent Najaf scholars graduated from it.

Since the 1970s, with the Baath Party’s rise to power, the hawza in Najaf slumped due to the political clampdowns targeting it. The suppression tightened following the Shiite political awakening (Sahwa) in Najaf and its supporters’ clashes with the ruling regime at the time. Moreover, due to the Iran-Iraq war, the number of foreign students significantly dropped. Finally, the crackdown on the 1991 Shiite uprising resulted in an almost complete paralysis of the hawza’s activities.

After the fall of former President Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, all the instructors of the hawza in Najaf disappeared, except for a generation of older teachers who had been deprived of educating new generations for a long time. At the time, the number of students was estimated at 3,000. They included old students who were educated under Khoei, like Ali al-Sistani himself, and also there were some young students who entered the hawza in the mid-1990s, following the emergence of the Sadrist Movement, in the context of the former regime’s “faith campaign.”

Since 2003, the Najaf hawza has followed the track of qualitative and quantitative development. The number of students increased from 3,000 to 13,000, according to a census carried out by Al-Monitor’s correspondent as part of a field study about the situation of the hawza. Foreign students were heading to Najaf once again, and they were estimated at a total of 50 students, from India, Thailand, France, the United States, Canada, Iran and other countries.