POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF SECT AND SECTARIANISM IN IRANIAN POLITICS: 1960-1979, THE

Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2006 by Dorraj, Manochehr

With Umayyad's (661 -650) "secularization" of the state, a new distinct body of learned men, independent from the state, emerged who functioned as jurists and formed a clerical elite. This "separation" of state and mosque transformed "theocratic ideal into a political ideology."16 Many sects emerged that aspired to restore the perceived ideal theocracy in the pristine Islamic community. One such example was the Khurasanian movement that overthrew Umayyad and brought the Abbassids to power in 750.

The death of the eleventh Imam who had no son to succeed him gave rise to the doctrine of occultation. According to this doctrine, the twelfth Imam is alive and he will return to earth on the resurrection day (Qayamat) to punish the oppressors and to restore the reign of justice. This doctrine gave rise to intense chiliastic sentiments and apocalyptic expectations. Throughout the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries under the Abbasids rule, many individuals claimed to be either the vice-regent, lieutenant, or gateway of the lord of age, the twelfth Imam. Perhaps more significant consequence of the death of the eleventh Imam and the ensuing conflict over the legitimate successor and the doctrine of Imamat was the permeation of several sectarian splits among the Imami Shi'ites. Imami Shi'ites splintered into some fifteen sects.17

The second significant phase in the development of religio-political sects in Islamic Iran was the emergence of Adventist and millenarian sects during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These sects emerged in the milieu of Shi'ite extremism and Sufism. They synthesized the chiliastic militancy of Gullat (the extremists) and the plebeian unworldliness of Sufis (the mystics). Among the most prominent of these sects were Isma'ilis, Qarmatian, Sarbidaran and Hurufyya.

The common underlying vicissitudes of these sects lie in their chiliastic militancy, raw egalitarianism and Adventism. A splinter group within Isma'ilis led by Hassan-e-sabbah (d. 1124) known as the Assassins used terrorist tactics against their sunni opponents during the reign of the Seljuq dynasty. The main base of support of Sarbidaran came from the poor peasants and the slaves. Those who joined them received certain belongings and a horse. Both Sarbidaran and Hurfyya expected the immediate parousia of the Mahdi who will punish the oppressor and restore justice on earth.18 Both Isma'ilis and Sarbidaran were highly intolerant of dissent in their ranks and persecuted many of their opponents.

With the ascendance of the Safavids to power and the conversion of Iran to a Shi'ite state in 1501, the Gullat sectarian movements were suppressed and for the most part became ineffective. The next significant phase in the evolution of sectarian religio-political groups took place under the Qajar dynasty. The most important sects of this period were the Shaikhis and Babis who are known among Shi'ites as heretical sects. Shaikhis emerged in the milieu of Gnostic Shi'ism. Their leader, Shaikh Ahmad Asa'i (d. 1826), was an advocate of the Akhbari traditional school of jurisprudence. By the nineteenth century the twelver Shi'ism was intellectually well entrenched in the Usuli School of Thought which considered Akhbaris as heretic. Shaikhis experienced a brief period of success and managed to win over one of the key intellectual figures of the period, Haj Mirza Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani (d. 1870). Threatened by their appeals, the leading Mujtahids launched a relentless campaign against Shaikhis that ultimately led to a schism in the sect. Those who continued to follow Shaikh Ahmad Asa'i, formed a separate sect and others were referred to as Balasaris. In the ensuing period, the Shaikhis became a target of persecution by the Ulama (the clergy), and the state alike, and as more Shaikhis converted to the Babi movement, Shaikhism withered away as a viable sect.