The Sarbadar (heads bound on gallows) movement in Khorasan

Compiled by: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 12th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban in 738 AH, the Sarbadar movement was launched in Khorasan by Imami religious scholar, Sheikh Khalifa Mazandarani, against the repressive rule of the Ilkhanid Mongols, especially the local governor Togha Timur, who was notorious for his cruelty and high taxation of the people.
The movement, which was mostly made up of the downtrodden was centred in Sabzavar from where it spread to other cities. Its charismatic leaders included Hassan Juri and later Ali Mu’ayyad, all of whom revived the teachings of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. For the next 50 years, the Sarbadar, a Persian term which mean, heads bound on gallows, to signify their readiness for martyrdom, ruled most of Khorasan, although not on dynastic basis. They regarded as their spiritual leader, Shaikh Mohammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili of what is now Lebanon, who was subsequently martyred in his homeland by the enemies of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and earned immortality as Shaheed al-Awwal or the First Martyr.
When Amir Timur swept from Central Asia across Iran ending the Ilkhanid Dynasty, he respected the Sarbadaran and even appointed many Sabzavaris to high posts in Iraq and elsewhere.