This article forms part of the series Islam

Vocabulary of Islam

Five Pillars

Profession of faith

Prayer · Alms · Fasting

Pilgrimage to Mecca

People

Muhammad

Prophets of Islam

Caliphs · Shia Imams

Companions of Muhammad

Holy Cities

Mecca · Medina · Jerusalem

Najaf · Karbala · Kufa

Kazimain · Mashhad · Samarra

Events

Hijra · Islamic calendar · Eid ul-Fitr

Eid ul-Adha · Aashura · Arba'in

Buildings

Mosque · Minaret · Mihrab · Kaaba

Islamic architecture

Functional Religious Roles

Muezzin · Imam · Mullah

Ayatollah · Mufti

Interpretive Texts & Practices

Qur'an · Hadith · Sunnah

Fiqh · Fatwa · Sharia

Sects

Sunni: Hanafi · Hanbali · Maliki · Shafi'i

Shi'a: Ithna Asharia · Ismailiyah · Zaiddiyah

Others: Ibadi · Kharijite · Murjite · Mu'tazili

Movements

Sufism · Wahhabism · Salafism

Non-Mainstream Sects / Movements

Ahmadiyyah · Nation of Islam

Zikri · Druze

Related Faiths

Babism · Bahá'í Faith · Yazidi

Mullahs are Islamic clergy who have studied the Qur'an and the Hadith and are considered experts on related religious matters.

Mullahs are considered to be able to give direction and make judgments based on their religious studies.

"Mullah" derives from Urdu mulla through Persian, originally from Arabic mawla, meaning "master, friend". The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica pointed out that Arabic maula was a term which originally expressed the legal bond connecting a former owner with his manumitted slave, both patron and client being called maula.

Under Islam a mullah is a learned man, a teacher, a doctor of the law of Sharia. In India the term is applied to the man who reads the Qur'an, and also to a Muslim schoolmaster. The Encyclopedia Britannica noted in 1911 that mullahs are considered powerful social leaders:

"In countries like Afghanistan the mullahs exert an influence over the populace which sometimes rivals that of the amir himself, and they have been responsible for many disturbances in Kabul."