Iranian Religious-political Development in Light of Three Epochal Transformations Bahman Khodadadi

Abstract

Three epoch-making upheavals have had a tremendous impact on the Iranian polity throughout its long history. These upheavals have radically reshaped and restructured the society in terms of its religio-political and jurisprudential institutions. The invasion of the Arabs, the rise of Safavids, and the Islamic Revolution, respectively, changed the religion of the Iranians from Zoroastrianism to Islam, made Shiite Islam the official religion in the whole of Iran, and established the theocratic state based on Shiism. As the first phase begins with the prevalence of Islam in Iran, the body of discussion in this paper revolves around the Islam-inspired norms that have shaped the religio-political framework of the country. The paper seeks to highlight these seasons by analyzing the systematic-normative outcomes that the Iranian society witnessed.

Keywords

• islamic norms
• shiite ideology
• safavid dynasty
• islamic revolution