republic · Mesopotamia and Iran
Sarbadars
Origins
In the 1330s, as the Ilkhanate disintegrated, villagers at Bashtin near Sabzevar rose against abusive Mongol officials. Their leaders took the name sarbadar, 'head on the gallows', meaning they would rather die than submit. Under Abd al-Razzaq and his brother Wajih al-Din Mas'ud they took Sabzevar and built a state in western Khurasan.
Rule and society
The Sarbadars had no hereditary dynasty: power passed among military chiefs, often violently, and alongside them stood the Shaykhiyya, a Shia Sufi movement founded by Shaykh Khalifa and Shaykh Hasan Juri, whose dervishes expected the coming of the Mahdi. The state minted coins with Shia formulas and defeated the Mongol claimant Togha Temür. Ibn Battuta described their egalitarian, puritanical regime.
Decline and legacy
The last leader, Ali-yi Mu'ayyad, submitted to Timur in 1381 and died in his service in 1386, after which the Sarbadar lands joined the Timurid Empire. Historians see them as an early Shia state in Iran.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Sarbadars was conquered by Timurid Empire1381 CE – 1386 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sarbadars. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sarbadars
- MLA
- “Sarbadars.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sarbadars. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Sarbadars.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sarbadars.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sarbadars’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sarbadars (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻