Goharshad Mosque rebellion

Date	1935
Location	Goharshad Mosque, Imam Reza shrine, Mashhad, Iran
Result	Massacre of the besieged civilians

Belligerents

Shahrbani Police

Iranian Imperial Army

Bazaaris and villagers

Commanders and leaders

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]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c 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.
^ Ervand, History of Modern Iran, (2008), p.94
^ Bakhash, Shaul, Reign of the Ayatollahs : Iran and the Islamic Revolution by Shaul, Bakhash, Basic Books, c1984, p.22

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1910s	Italo-Turkish War World War I Middle Eastern theatre Battle of Robat Karim Arab Revolt Armenian genocide Assyrian genocide Mount Lebanon starvation Unification of Saudi Arabia Simko Shikak revolt 1919 Egyptian revolution Turkish War of Independence Anglo-Turkish War Al-Jazeera Front Greco-Turkish War Turkish–Armenian War Franco-Turkish War Revolts United States Mahmud Barzanji revolts
1920s	Franco-Syrian War Iraqi Revolt (1920) Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine Adwan Rebellion Arab separatism in Khuzestan Great Syrian Revolt Sheikh Said rebellion
1930s	Ararat rebellion Ahmed Barzani revolt Simele massacre Saudi–Yemeni War (1934) Goharshad Mosque rebellion 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts 1935 Yazidi revolt 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Dersim rebellion
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See also

References