The Politics of the End: Political Theology and Resistance in Iran

by Mahdi Panjalipour

The belief in a savior, ultimate salvation, and the final battle between good and evil has deep roots in Iranian cultural imagination, even before Islam. This is particularly evident in late Zoroastrian eschatological traditions surrounding the figure of the Saoshyant and the final renovation of the world (Frashokereti). The “horizon of the end” in Iranian political theology cannot be solely reduced to Shi’a theology or its later political formulations. Over the centuries, in conjunction with Shi’a messianism, this developed a distinct form of religious and historical imagination that can be understood as a type of “Iranian Shi’ism.” This outcome is not merely an achievement of the modern state or ideology but a result of the historical sedimentation of two traditions in the collective consciousness of the people. Consequently, apocalyptic concepts in Iran typically intensify during times of crisis, instability, and disorder, becoming a language for interpreting the situation and the possibility of rupture. The reflection of this convergence can be found not only in official texts but also in popular narratives—for example, in the Rostam-nāmeh, an anonymous epic poem where Rostam, the legendary hero of the Iranian epic tradition, eventually converts to Shi’ism upon encountering Ali, the first Imam of the Shi’a. Its significance lies not in historical authenticity but in its cultural implications: the link between Iran’s mythical hero and the central figure of Shi’ism, and the fusion of Iranian epic imagination with the messianic eschatological horizon.

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