Goharshad Mosque rebellion

Goharshad Mosque rebellion
Date1935
LocationGoharshad Mosque, Imam Reza shrine, Mashhad, Iran
Result Massacre of the besieged civilians
Belligerents
Shahrbani Police
Iranian Imperial Army 		Bazaaris and villagers
Commanders and leaders
Iran Mohammad Vali Asadi Shi'ite clergy
Casualties and losses
2 officers, 18 soldiers killed;
2 soldiers executed for disobedience, 1 committed suicide.[1]		 128 dead, 200-300 wounded, 800 arrested.[1]
Total: 151 killed

The Goharshad Mosque rebellion (Persian: شورش مسجد گوهرشاد) took place in 1935, when a backlash against the modernizing and westernizing, secularist policies of Reza Shah Pahlavi erupted in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran. Responding to a cleric, who denounced the Shah's "heretical" innovations, modernization, corruption and heavy consumer taxes, many bazaaris and villagers took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yezid", likening him to the tyrannical Umayyad caliph responsible for the massacre of Prophet Muhammad's family members at the Battle of Karbala.

For four full days local police and army refused to violate the shrine and the standoff was ended when troops from Iranian Azerbaijan region arrived and broke into the shrine,[2] killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shia clergy and the Shah.[3]

According to a British report, which has deliberately lowered the numbers, the outcome of the event resulted in 2 Army officers and 18 soldiers killed; 2 soldiers executed on the spot for disobedience; 1 soldier committed suicide; there were 800-1200 dead among the villagers, 100-500 wounded and 800 arrested.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ward, S.R. (2009). Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. p. 140. ISBN 9781589015876. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Ervand, History of Modern Iran, (2008), p.94
  3. ↑ Bakhash, Shaul, Reign of the Ayatollahs : Iran and the Islamic Revolution by Shaul, Bakhash, Basic Books, c1984, p.22

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