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Islamic Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court (), also known as the Revolutionary Tribunal (''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) is a special system of courts in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try "mainly (but not exclusively) ... high-profile" political cases, specifically those suspected of crimes such as smuggling, blaspheming, inciting violence, insulting the Supreme Leader, and attempting to overthrow the Islamic government. It has been described as less regulated than ordinary Iranian courts, and tending to be more hardline and unpredictable in its judgements. In the years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution when it was founded to prosecute ideological enemies, the court was known for its secretiveness, for coming to verdicts with "no jury, no defence lawyers and often no evidence beyond a confession extracted ... by means of torture". From 1979-1989 the Revolutionary Court sent "more than 16,000 people" to their deaths, ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. With a Ethnicities in Iran, multi-ethnic population of over 92 million in an area of , Iran ranks 17th globally in both List of countries and dependencies by area, geographic size and List of countries and dependencies by population, population. It is the List of Asian countries by area, sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and one of the world's List of mountains in Iran, most mountainous countries. Officially an Islamic republic, Iran is divided into Regions of Iran, five regions with Provinces of Iran, 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's Capital city, capital, List of cities in Iran by province, largest city and financial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evin Prison
Evin Prison () is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for detaining Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the high number of students and intellectuals detained there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against detained political dissidents and critics of the government. History Evin Prison was constructed in 1972 under the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It is located at the foot of the Alborz mountains on the land that was the former home of Ziaeddin Tabatabaee, who briefly served as prime minister in the 1920s. The prison grounds include an execution yard, a courtroom, and separate blocks for common criminals and female inmates. It was originally operated by the Shah's security and intelligence service, SAVAK. It was initially designed to house 320 inmates—20 in solitary cel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People's Mujahedin Of Iran
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) (), is an Iranian dissident organization. It was an armed group until 2003, afterwards transitioning into a political group. Its headquarters is currently in Albania. The group's ideology was influenced by Islam and revolutionary Marxism; and while it denied Marxist influences, its revolutionary reinterpretation of Shia Islam was shaped by the writings of Ali Shariati. After the Iranian Revolution, the MEK opposed the new theocratic Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, seeking to replace it with its own government. At one point the MEK was Iran's "largest and most active armed dissident group", and it is still sometimes presented by Western political backers as a major Iranian opposition group. The MEK is known to be deeply unpopular today within Iran, largely due to its siding with Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War and continued ties with the governme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tudeh Party
The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and his term as prime minister. From the Iran crisis of 1946 onwards, Tudeh became a pro-Soviet organization and remained prepared to carry out the dictates of the Kremlin, even if it meant sacrificing Iranian political independence and sovereignty. The crackdown that followed the 1953 coup against Mosaddegh is said to have "destroyed" the party,Abrahamian, Ervand, ''A History of Modern Iran'', p.122 although a remnant persisted. The party still exists but has remained much weaker as a result of its banning in Iran and mass arrests by the Islamic Republic in 1982, as well as the executions of political prisoners in 1988. Tudeh identified itself as the historical offshoot of the Communist Party of Persia. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan (; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Interim government of Iran, 1979, Iran's interim government. One of the leading figures of Iranian Revolution of 1979, he was appointed Prime Minister of Iran, prime minister in February 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini, making him Iran's first prime minister after the revolution. He resigned his position in November of the same year, in protest at the Iran hostage crisis, takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and as an acknowledgement of his government's failure in preventing it. He was the head of the first engineering department of University of Tehran. Early life and education Bazargan was born into an Iranian Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani family in Tehran on 1 September 1907. His father, Hajj Abbasqoli Tabrizi (died 1954) was a self-made merchant and a religious activist in ''bazaar'' guilds. Bazargan went to France to receive university education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hassan Tabatabai-Qomi
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hassan Tabatabaei Qomi (; ; also Seyyed Hassan Qomi, 1912–2007) was a prominent Shia marja' who (despite his name) was born in Najaf but lived in Mashhad, Iran. He was the son of Seyyed Hussein Qomi, and the brother of Seyyed Taqi Qomi. Seyyed Hassan's teachers included Mohammad Hussein Naini, Seyyed Hussein Qomi, Mohammad Hussein Qaravi Esfahani, Sheikh Kazem Shirazi, Mirza Mohammad Aqazadeh. He opposed the Pahlavi dynasty, but after the Iranian Revolution also repeatedly criticized velayat-e faqih -- the new doctrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini and because of this was kept under house arrest from 1984 until his death in 2007. His younger brother Taqi Tabatabaei Qomi is also a Twelver Shia Marja'. Background Hassan Tabatabaei Qomi, the son of the Grand Ayatollah Qomi from Mashhad, remained under house arrest from 1984 to 2007. Beside his house arrest and limited opportunity to lecture and advice students, his importance as a theological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari
Sayyid Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari (), also spelled Shariat-Madari (5 January 1906 – 3 April 1986), was an Iranian Grand Ayatollah. He favoured the traditional Shiite practice of keeping clerics away from governmental positions and was a critic of Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, denouncing the taking hostage of diplomats at the US embassy in Tehran. Biography Early life and education Born in Tabriz in 1906 in an Azerbaijani family, Shariatmadari was among the most senior leading Twelver Shia clerics in Iran and Iraq and was known for his forward looking and liberal views. After the death of Supreme and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi (Marja' Mutlaq) in 1961 he became one of the leading marjas, with followers in Iran, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Kuwait and the southern Persian Gulf states. In 1963, he prevented the Shah from executing Ayatollah Khomeini by recognizing him as a Grand Ayatollah, since according to the Iranian constitution a Marja' could not be executed. Khomeini w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abrahamian, Ervand
Ervand Abrahamian (; ; born 1940) is an Iranian-American historian of the Middle East. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Early life Ervand Vahan Abrahamian was born in 1940 in Tehran to Armenians in Iran, Armenian parents. He attended three grades at the Mehr School in Tehran and was later sent off to Rugby School (1954-59), a prestigious boarding school in England. He received his B.A. in modern history from St John's College, Oxford, in 1963. During this period, he studied with Keith Thomas (historian), Keith Thomas and mainly focused on European history. He later moved to New York City, where he studied at Columbia University and received his first Master of Arts, M.A. in 1966. He received a second M.A. from Oxford in 1968. Abrahamian then earned a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1969. His thesis was titled "Social Bases of Iranian Politics: The Tudeh Party, 1941-53." He has stated that his "understa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 Iranian Coup D'état
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (), was the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953. Led by the Iranian army and supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, the coup aimed at strengthening the autocratic rule of the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A key motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after its government refused to concede to western oil demands. It was instigated by the United States (under the name TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax) and the United Kingdom (under the name Operation Boot). This began a period of dissolution for Iranian democracy and society. Mosaddegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a British corporation (now part of BP), to verify that AIOC was paying the contracted royalties to Iran, and to limit the company's control over Iranian oil reserves. Upon the AIOC's refusal to cooperate with the Iranian government, the parl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pahlavi Dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Iranian soldier of Mazanderani people, Mazanderani origin, who took on the name of the Pahlavi scripts of the Middle Persian, Middle Persian language from the Sasanian Empire of Muslim conquest of Persia, pre-Islamic Iran. The dynasty largely espoused this form of Iranian nationalism rooted in the pre-Islamic era (notably based on the Achaemenid Empire) during its time in power, especially under its last king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The dynasty replaced the Qajar dynasty in 1925 after the 1921 Persian coup d'état, 1921 coup d'état, beginning on 14 January 1921 when 42-year-old soldier Reza Shah, Reza Khan was promoted by British General Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, Edmund Ironside to lead the Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shia Clergy
The Shia clergy are the religious leaders of Shia Islam. Shia Islam places great importance on the guidance of clergy, and each branch of Shi'ism maintains its own clerical structure. The most well-known Shia clergy belongs to the largest branch of Shia Islam, Twelver Shi'ism. As in other branches of Islam, Shia scholars are collectively known as the ''ulema''. Individual clerics are referred to as mullah or '' ākhūnd'', but because those terms have developed "a somewhat pejorative connotation" since at least the 1980s, the term ''rūḥānī'' has been "promoted" as an alternative, "especially by the clerical class itself". Twelver Usooli school Among the different schools of Twelver Shi'i Islam are Usooli and Akhbari. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Usooli "triumphed" over the Akhbari Twelver.Momen, ''An Introduction to Shi'i Islam'', 1985, p.127, 204 Usooli Shia argued that "since only someone who has expended the time and effort to become a mujtahid could p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world's Major religious groups, second-largest religious population after Christians. Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a Fitra, primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier Prophets and messengers in Islam, prophets and messengers, including Adam in Islam, Adam, Noah in Islam, Noah, Abraham in Islam, Abraham, Moses in Islam, Moses, and Jesus in Islam, Jesus. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God in Islam, God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous Islamic holy books, revelations, such as the Torah in Islam, Tawrat (the Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Gospel in Islam, Injil (Gospel). They believe that Muhammad in Islam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
