Goharshad Mosque rebellion

{{Infobox military conflict

| conflict = Goharshad Mosque rebellion

| image =

| caption =

| date = August 1935

| place = Goharshad Mosque, Imam Reza shrine, Mashhad, Iran

| result = Massacre of the besieged civilians

| combatant1 = {{nowrap|{{flagicon|Pahlavi Iran|1925}} Shahrbani Police}}
{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Pahlavi Iran|1925}} Imperial Iranian Army}}

| combatant2 = Unarmed civilians

| commander1 = {{flagicon|Pahlavi Iran|1925}} Mohammad Vali Asadi

| commander2 = Shia clergy

| strength1 = 2,000

| strength2 =

| casualties1 = 2 officers, 18 soldiers killed;
2 soldiers executed for disobedience, 1 committed suicide.

| casualties2 = (disputed) 2,000–5,000{{cite book |last1=Hovsepian-Bearce |first1=Yvette |title=The Political Ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei: Out of the Mouth of the Supreme Leader of Iran |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317605829 |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwkXCgAAQBAJ&q=Goharshad+Mosque+rebellion&pg=PA44 |access-date=15 January 2019 |language=en}}
(128 dead, 200-300 wounded, 800 arrested according to a British report")

| casualties3 = Total: 151 killed

}}

The Goharshad Mosque rebellion ({{langx|fa|واقعه مسجد گوهرشاد}}) took place in August 1935,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVObCwAAQBAJ|title=Iran at War: 1500-1988|last=Farrokh|first=Kaveh|date=2011-12-20|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78096-240-5|pages=264|language=en}} when a backlash against the westernizing and secularist policies of Reza Shah of the Pahlavi regime erupted in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran.

The incident is described as a "genocide".

Background

The Shah's violent Westernization campaign against Shiite society saw a spike in hostilities with the regime in the summer of 1935 when Reza Shah banned traditional Islamic clothing{{cite web|url=http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_134.html|title=Guel Kohan|work=Talash-online|access-date=17 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717055031/http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_134.html|archive-date=17 July 2012|df=dmy-all}} and ordered all men be forced to wear European-style bowler hats.Milani, Farzaneh (1992). Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, pp. 19, 34–37, {{ISBN|9780815602668}}Majd, Mohammad Gholi (2001). Great Britain and Reza Shah: The Plunder of Iran, 1921–1941, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 209–213, 217–218, {{ISBN|9780813021119}}Katouzian, Homa (2003). "2. Riza Shah's Political Legitimacy and Social Base, 1921–1941" in Cronin, Stephanie: The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921–1941, pp. 15–37, London; New York: Routledge; Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|9780415302845}}Katouzian, Homa (2004). "1. State and Society under Reza Shah" in Atabaki, Touraj; Zürcher, Erik-Jan: Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernisation in Turkey and Iran, 1918–1942, pp. 13–43, London; New York: I.B. Tauris, {{ISBN|9781860644269}}

Katouzian, Homa (2006). State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis, 2nd ed, Library of modern Middle East studies, Vol. 28, London; New York: I.B. Tauris, pp. 33–34, 335–336, {{ISBN|9781845112721}}

Beeman, William Orman (2008). The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other, 2nd ed, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 108, 152, {{ISBN|9780226041476}}

Event

The event occurred in response to the de-Islamization activities by Reza Shah in 1935. Responding to a cleric,{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} who denounced the Shah's "heretical" innovations, westernizing, corruption, and heavy consumer taxes, many merchants and locals took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yazid," likening him to the Umayyad caliph.

For four full days, local police and the army refused to violate the shrine. The standoff was ended when reinforcements from Iranian Azerbaijan region arrived and broke into the shrine,Ervand, History of Modern Iran, (2008), p.94 killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shia clergy and the Shah.Bakhash, Shaul, Reign of the Ayatollahs : Iran and the Islamic Revolution by Shaul, Bakhash, Basic Books, c1984, p.22

Toll

According to a report of the Research Institute of Baqir al-'Ulum, which may have deliberately exaggerated the numbers, the number of killed by Reza Shah's forces was between 2000 and 5000. According to a British report, which may have deliberately underplayed the numbers{{why|date=January 2021}}, 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.{{cite book|title=Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces|author=Ward, S.R.|date=2009|publisher=Georgetown University Press|isbn=9781589015876|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eUTLaaVOOQC|page=140|access-date=10 April 2015}}