Shaikh Hassan Juri, one of the prominent leaders of the Sarbadaran Movement

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On July 18, 1342 AD, Shaikh Hassan Juri, one of the prominent leaders of the Sarbadaran Movement was martyred in the Battle of Zava, near what is now Torbat-e Haideriyeh in northeastern Iran, because of disunity in his ranks. It is said that he was killed by traitors among his own forces, rather than by the opposite side led by Mu'iz od-Din Hussain, the ruler of the Kartid Dynasty of what is now western Afghanistan.
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 centered in Sabzavar from where it spread to neighboring cities. Its charismatic leaders included Hassan Juri and later Ali Mu’ayyad, all of whom revived the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
For the next 50 years, the Sarbadar (a Persian term which means, 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 Jamal od-Din al-Makki al-Ameli 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 (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 Iran.