Transnational connections within Shi’ite scholastic circles have been manifested by the century-old migration movements of Shi’ite ‘ulama, students and ideas that connected today’s regions of Iran, Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq. The Shi’ite hawza of Najaf regarded for centuries as the center of Shi’ite scholarship forms one of the points of intersection into which these transnational movements flowed and were gradually transformed. The paper assumes a gradual shift in the transnational connections within the Shi'ite hawza in the early 20th century. This shift can be seen as a reaction to and expression of a general notion of crisis within the hawza that led to the rising emergence of ideas of reform and new forms of knowledge. The paper illustrates this shift by analyzing the emerging debate about a necessary reform of the hawza's educational system. The debate climaxed in the 1920s and 1930s and can be seen as one expression of the emergence of new transnational ideas and new forms of knowledge entering the hawza in this time. The paper traces the debate by analyzing articles published in some of the newly established journals of the time (f.e. al-‘Irfan, al-Hatif). These articles show rising discussions among Najafi students and ‘ulama raising questions about the actual flaws of the educational system, the outlook of a possible reform and reactions to the rising rivalry of newly established secular education institutes. As will be shown the debate got gradually split between two dominant positions that can both be seen as different approaches to differing transnational frames: While one group increasingly argues for the maintenance of the traditional clerical and religious system, another group – mostly comprised of young students like Husayn Muruwah and Mohsen Sharara – urges the need for radical reform and the adaptation to modern ideas within the religious education system that also contain a gradual dissociation from the religious reference frame. The paper illustrates the main protagonists of the debate within the hawza and enquires the main emphases of these debates. It seeks to locate the debate in its emergence within the hawza as well as within its transnational momentum and connections. It thereby challenges the notion of decline usually associated with this period and instead traces the negotiation of new transnational connections that are apparent in the debates. The paper is part of a larger project focusing on modernist challenges and ideas emerging within the hawza in the early 20th century.