Makarem Shirazi began his seminary education at the Agha Baba Khan School in Shiraz, one of the city’s established centers of religious learning. He studied foundational Islamic sciences, including Arabic grammar, logic, rhetoric, theology, and principles of jurisprudence. Demonstrating notable intellectual ability and discipline, he completed the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels of study in approximately four years—a relatively short time by seminary standards.
During these formative years, he did not limit himself to learning alone. He also began teaching other students, gaining early experience as an instructor. This dual role as both student and teacher reflected his scholarly aptitude and foreshadowed his later prominence in the academic life of Shiite seminaries.
At the age of eighteen, he authored a marginal commentary on Kifayat al-Usul by Akhund Khorasani, a foundational text in Shiite jurisprudence. Writing such a scholarly work at a young age demonstrated his early mastery of complex legal and methodological debates.
Studies in Qom and Najaf
Following his initial education in Shiraz, Makarem Shirazi moved to Qom, Iran’s most important center of Shiite scholarship. There, he attended advanced courses under leading religious figures, including Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Boroujerdi. He spent nearly five years in Qom deepening his understanding of jurisprudence (fiqh) and principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), disciplines that form the core of Shiite legal reasoning.
