Old Usage
This term was traditionally a slang term in Iran, and it has been completely a derogatory term since the Shah's efforts at westernization. Today in Iran it is almost invariably used as a term of insult, ridicule or disparagement. Ironically, Ayatollah Khomeini himself used the term "Akhoond" as an insult against those clerics that he considered hypocrites and misguided (mostly low-level seminarians who collaborated with the Shah, and unqualified, ignorant village preachers who falsified their own credentials). In Iran, they are also called mullah, molavi, sheikh, haj-agha or rohani. The word 'rohani' means 'spiritual' or 'holy'. 'Rohani' is considered as a more polite term for Muslim clerics, used by Iranian national television and radio, and by devout Muslim families. The term "Akhoond" in Iran is increasingly outmoded, usually with only the older clerics having the title "Akhoond" as part of their name. It has not been used widely as a title since the Qajar era.
In Afghanistan, and among the Pashtun tribes of the Afghan-Pakistan border region, the term is still current in its original sense as an honorific one.
Other names for similar Muslim clerics include Shaykh and Maulana.
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