Journal of Razavi Culture

A Political Typology of Protest Movements in the Razavi Era

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Seyed Javad Hosseini

Assistant Professor of Political Sociology, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Political Sciences, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/farzv.2025.81606.1153
Abstract
The Alids have always been considered a political opposition group within the Abbasid rule. With the increase in protest movements during the era of Imam Reza (AS), the Abbasid caliph Ma’mun attempted, through a soft-power strategy, to both suppress these protest movements and eliminate the spirit of protest and uprising against usurping governments from society. Upon discerning this design, Imam Reza (AS) engaged in a three-pronged confrontation: to thwart the implementation of Ma’mun’s plan, to sustain the spirit of protest and uprising in society by introducing a standard model for protest movements, and also to identify deviant protest movements. This research essentially seeks to answer the question: How, and based on what propositions and components, did Imam Reza (AS) preserve and guide the protest movements endorsed by the Imamate current? To answer this question, it seems necessary first to enumerate the types of protest movements in the era of Imam Reza (AS) and then, in the second stage, answer the main question. The findings of this article, which are based on library research methods, historical sources, and data analysis, will categorize the typology of protest movements into four types: Government-seeking, Reform Movement, Deviation, and Method. Furthermore, Imam Reza (AS) endeavored to sustain the spirit of protest in society and transmit it to future generations of Shi’a by introducing the necessary components of the standard model for protest movements.

Keywords

Movement
Protest
Current Analysis (Jaryān-shenāsī)
Imam Reza (AS)

Subjects

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