When are the Sarbadars shown on the map?

The border data draws the Sarbadars 1344–1394. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.

How large were the Sarbadars?

At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Sarbadars covered about 420,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.

Central Asia · The Mongol uluses

Sarbadars

drawn on the map 1344–1394

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Shown on the map: 1344–1394
Peak area: 420k km²
Region: Central Asia

Overview and identity

The Sarbadars (Persian sarbadār, "head on the gallows" — i.e., men ready to risk execution) were a remarkable hybrid state of religious dervishes and secular notables that ruled western Khurasan from the city of Sabzevar between 1337 and 1381, emerging from the collapse of the Mongol Ilkhanate. Unique among the post-Ilkhanid successor states, none of its leaders had any dynastic claim to legitimacy — no Chinggisid or royal blood, no high Ilkhanid office — and the state functioned as what modern historians have called an oligarchy or even a republic amid feudal neighbors. The project assigns it a peak area of 420,000 km², representing its brief widest extent across Khurasan in the 1350s.

Origins and ethnolinguistic background

The revolt began around early 1337, when 'Abd al-Razzaq, a member of the local feudal class in the Sabzevar district, murdered a tax official of the oppressive governor 'Ala' al-Din Muhammad (a subject of the Ilkhanid claimant Togha Temur). The rebels took Sabzevar in summer 1337. The population was Persian-speaking; the movement fused the Sunni urban gentry with the Shi'i dervish following of Shaykh Khalifa of Mazandaran and his successor Hasan Juri, whose adherents were known as "Sabzavaris."

Chronology and major rulers

'Abd al-Razzaq took the title amir and minted coins, but was stabbed by his brother Vajih al-Din Mas'ud (1338–1343), who ruled jointly with Hasan Juri — Mas'ud commanding 12,000 armed peasants and 700 Turkish slave guards, Hasan an army of artisans and merchants. They destroyed Togha Temur's army, took Jajarm, Damghan, Simnan and Gurgan, but Hasan Juri was killed at the Battle of Zava against the Kartids (18 July 1342) and Mas'ud was captured and executed campaigning against Togha Temur in 1344. After rapid turnovers, the dervish Shams al-Din 'Ali (1347–c. 1352) reorganized finances, paid officials in cash and suppressed vice, before being murdered. Yahya Karavi (1353–1356) audaciously murdered Togha Temur himself in his tent at Sultan-Duvin (1353), eliminating the last serious Ilkhanid claimant and expanding the state to Ray, Tus, Astarabad and beyond. After further violent successions, Khwaja 'Ali-yi Mu'ayyad (1362/1364–1381) — the longest-ruling Sarbadar — raised Shi'ism to the state religion, destroyed the rival theocratic state of Darvish 'Aziz at Mashhad, reformed the coinage, and fought the Kartids, the Ja'un-i Qurban and the Muzaffarids.

Government, religion and society

Power oscillated between secular gentry rulers and dervish leaders, producing drastic policy swings; several rulers met violent deaths. Religiously the state was led by Shi'is, though its conquests included Sunni cities, and Mas'ud's party repeatedly kept the government Sunni against dervish pressure.

Decline, submission and legacy

Beset by Amir Vali of Astarabad, 'Ali-yi Mu'ayyad submitted to Timur at Nishapur in 1381. As a reward for loyalty — 'Ali died in 1386 on Timur's Luristan campaign — Timur never garrisoned Sabzevar, making the Sarbadars one of the few powers to escape his brutality; Sarbadar relatives later governed Baghdad and Basra for him. The Sarbadar model influenced the Shi'i dervish states of Mazandaran (Mar'ashis) and Gilan (Kar-Kiya), and a separate "sarbadar" movement in Samarkand helped defeat Ilyas Khoja in 1365 and aided Timur's rise. Historians have variously cast them as a robber-state, a class revolt, or a proto-republican experiment — and, after the Safavids, the most successful dervish order-state in Persian history.

Common questions

What were the Sarbadars?: The Sarbadars (Persian sarbadār, "head on the gallows" — i.e., men ready to risk execution) were a remarkable hybrid state of religious dervishes and secular notables that ruled western Khurasan from the city of Sabzevar between 1337 and 1381, emerging from the collapse of the Mongol Ilkhanate.
When are the Sarbadars shown on the map?: The border data draws the Sarbadars 1344–1394. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large were the Sarbadars?: At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Sarbadars covered about 420,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.
Who ruled the Sarbadars?: 'Abd al-Razzaq took the title amir and minted coins, but was stabbed by his brother Vajih al-Din Mas'ud (1338–1343), who ruled jointly with Hasan Juri — Mas'ud commanding 12,000 armed peasants and 700 Turkish slave guards, Hasan an army of artisans and merchants.
How did the Sarbadars end?: Beset by Amir Vali of Astarabad, 'Ali-yi Mu'ayyad submitted to Timur at Nishapur in 1381. As a reward for loyalty — 'Ali died in 1386 on Timur's Luristan campaign — Timur never garrisoned Sabzevar, making the Sarbadars one of the few powers to escape his brutality; Sarbadar relatives later governed Baghdad and Basra for him.
How were the Sarbadars governed?: Power oscillated between secular gentry rulers and dervish leaders, producing drastic policy swings; several rulers met violent deaths.

Sources

Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.

Wikipedia: Sarbadars en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbadars
Peter Jackson (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6 — cited as the Wikipedia article's principal reference en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbadars#References

This entry was written from the sources above and last updated 27 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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