حوزه

The howza is to Shia clergy what a research university is to academics, but the comparison only goes so far. Students enter young, often as teenagers, and progress through stages: مقدمات (basics, Arabic grammar and logic), سطح (the levels, where students work through classical legal and philosophical texts), and finally درس خارج ("external studies," advanced jurisprudence taught directly by senior مرجع (marjaʾs, sources of emulation)). Reaching the rank of مجتهد (mojtahed, qualified to derive law independently) usually takes 15 to 25 years.