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Iran
Unorthodox Shia Religious Movements
Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, who established
Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion of Iran at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, was revered by his followers as a Sufi
master. Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, has a long tradition in
Iran. It developed there and in other areas of the Islamic empire
during the ninth century among Muslims who believed that worldly
pleasures distracted from true concern with the salvation of the
soul. Sufis generally renounced materialism, which they believed
supported and perpetuated political tyranny. Their name is derived
from the Arabic word for wool, suf, and was applied to
the early Sufis because of their habit of wearing rough wool next
to their skin as a symbol of their asceticism. Over time a great
variety of Sufi brotherhoods was formed, including several that
were militaristic, such as the Safavid order, of which Ismail
was the leader.
Although Sufis were associated with the early spread of Shia
ideas in the country, once the Shia clergy had consolidated their
authority over religion by the early seventeenth century, they
tended to regard Sufis as deviant. At various periods during the
past three centuries some Shia clergy have encouraged persecution
of Sufis, but Sufi orders have continued to exist in Iran. During
the Pahlavi period, some Sufi brotherhoods were revitalized. Some
members of the secularized middle class were especially attracted
to them, but the orders appear to have had little following among
the lower classes. The largest Sufi order was the Nimatollahi,
which had khanehgahs, or teaching centers, in several
cities and even established new centers in foreign countries.
Other important orders were the Dhahabi and Kharksar brotherhoods.
Sufi brotherhoods such as the Naqshbandi and the Qadiri also existed
among Sunni Muslims in Kordestan. There is no evidence of persecution
of Sufis under the Republic, but the brotherhoods are regarded
suspiciously and generally have kept a low profile.
Iran also contains Shia sects that many of the Twelver Shia clergy
regard as heretical. One of these is the Ismaili, a sect that
has several thousand adherents living primarily in northeastern
Iran. The Ismailis, of whom there were once several different
sects, trace their origins to the son of Ismail who predeceased
his father, the Sixth Imam. The Ismailis were very numerous and
active in Iran from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; they
are known in history as the "Assassins" because of their practice
of killing political opponents. The Mongols destroyed their center
at Alamut in the Alborz Mountains in 1256. Subsequently, their
living imams went into hiding from non-Ismailis. In the nineteenth
century, their leader emerged in public as the Agha Khan and fled
to British-controlled India, where he supervised the revitalization
of the sect. The majority of the several million Ismailis in the
1980s live outside Iran.
Another Shia sect is the Ahl-e Haqq. Its adherents are concentrated
in Lorestan, but small communities also are found in Kordestan
and Mazandaran. The origins of the Ahl-e Haqq are believed to
lie in one of the medieval politicized Sufi orders. The group
has been persecuted sporadically by orthodox Shias. After the
Revolution, some of the sect's leaders were imprisoned on the
ground of religious deviance.
Data as of December 1987
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