- Khurramites
The Khurramites (PerB|خُرّمدينان - "Khorrām-Dīnān" "Those of the Joyful Religion"; _ar. خُرَّميه "Khurrāmīyah") were an Iranian religious and political movement which appeared in Āzarbāyjān and the rest of Iran in
814 . An alternative name for the movement is the Arabic expression "Muḥammira" (rtl- _ar. محمره "the red-wearing ones"; Persian alternative: rtl- _fa. سرخجامگان - "Surḫjāmagān"), a reference to their symbolic red dress.Origins And History
The sect was founded by the Persian cleric
Sunpadh and was a revitalization of an earlier sect that had mixed Shī‘a Islam andZoroastrianism ; however, its true claim to fame was its adoption by Bābak Khorramdin as a basis for rebelling against the Abbasid Caliphate.The sect grew out of a response to the execution of Abu Muslim by the Abbasids, and denied that he had died, rather claiming that he would return as the
messiah . This message was further confirmed by the appearance of a prophet named al-Muqanna‘ "The Veiled", who claimed that the spirit of God had existed inMuhammad , ‘Alī andAbu Muslim .Under the leadership of Bābak, the Khorammites proclaimed the breakup and redistribution of all the great estates and the abolition of
Islam . In816 they began making attacks onMuslim forces in Iran and Iraq. The Abbasid Caliphal-Ma'mun sent four armies to deal with the problem, but they were defeated each time with Byzantine support.Fact|date=February 2007Legacy
The sect would continue to attract followers until the sixteenth century when the
Safavid s took control ofPersia . According to Turkish scholar Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, the "Kizilbash " ("Red-Heads") of the 16th century - a religious and political movement in Azerbaijan that helped to establish theSafavid dynasty - were "spiritual descendants of the Khurramites". [Roger M. Savory (ref. Abdülbaki Gölpinarli),Encyclopaedia of Islam , "Kizil-Bash", Online Edition 2005]See also
*Bābak
*Islamic conquest of Persia
*Shiism
*Mazdak
*Zoroastrism
*Abu Muslim Notes
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