Morteza Ansari

Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Shushtari (1799–1864; Persian: مرتضی انصاری شوشتری; Arabic: مرتضی الأنصاري التستري, romanized: Murtadha al-Ansari al-Tostari), known as Shaykh al-Ta'ifah (Persian: شیخ الطائفه; Arabic: شيخ الطائفة, romanized: Shaykh al-Ṭāʾifah) was an Iranian Shia Islamic scholar who was “generally acknowledged as the most eminent jurist of the time". He is considered to have laid the foundation of modern Shi'i jurisprudence, and his style has been imitated more than any other classical scholar of Shia Islam. Ansari is considered the "first effective" model or Marja of the Shia or "the first scholar universally recognized as supreme authority in matters of Shi'i law". In Iraq, al-Ansari is referred to with the honorific Ustād al-Fuqahā wa al-Muhaqiqīn.