Global InformationIslam in Iran information
Islam in Iran (2021)[1]
Islam entered Iran (or "Persia") with the Muslim conquest (637–651) and led to the end of the Sasanian Empire and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran (Persia). Since its establishment after the 7th-century conquest, Islam has remained the state religion of Iran except for during a short period after the Mongol invasions and subsequent establishment of the Ilkhanate in the 13th century. Following the Muslim conquest, there was a slow but steady movement of the population toward Islam, despite notable resistance, with nobility and city-dwellers being the first to convert, and the peasantry and the dehqans, or land-owning magnates slower to do so. By the 10th century, the majority of Persians had become Muslims.
While Sunni Islam dominated Iran from the 7th century to the 15th century, in the 16th century the Safavid dynasty made Shi'ism the state religion,[2][3][4][5] and aggressively proselytized the faith by forced conversion.[6][7][8] It is believed that by the mid-17th century most people in Iran, (and some surrounding areas), had changed their religion from Sunni to Shia,[9] an affiliation that has continued. Over the following centuries, with the state-fostered rise of an Iran-based Shia clergy, a synthesis was formed between Iranian culture and Shia Islam that marked each indelibly with the tincture of the other.[10][11][2][3][4][5] The 1979 Islamic Revolution brought yet another change, ending the historic Persian monarchy, and establishing Iran as a theocratic Islamic republic.
According to the Islamic Republic's 2016 census[12] almost all of Iran's 89 million as of 2023 population are Muslims with 99% reporting that they are Muslim.[13] with 88% adhering to Shia Islam, which an overwhelming majority of those following the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. Approximately 12% adhere to Sunni Islam, most of them being ethnic minorities such as the (Arabs, Kurds, Achomi Persians, Turkmens, and Baloch).[14][15][16]
According to the 2020 Wave 7 World Values Survey 96% of those surveyed in Iran followed and Identified with Islam while according to another 2020 online survey by GAMAAN, there has been a sharp decline in religiosity in the survey, and only 40% of Iranians who took part of the online survey identified as Muslims.[17][18][19][20] Subsequent GAMAAN surveys in 2022 showed that, depending on how the question is asked, 38% to 56% identify as Shia Muslims, 5% as Sunni Muslims, and that roughly a quarter of them were susceptible to a form of deism (belief in God without identifying as religious). In all of the GAMAAN's surveys, 7-10% identified as atheists. Moreover, the online surveys offered respondents a unique opportunity to express themselves, leading to fluctuating numbers of self-identified Zoroastrians.[21]
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2021-08-12. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (2017), Psycho-nationalism, Cambridge University Press, p. 40, ISBN 9781108423076,
Shah Ismail pursued a relentless campaign of forced conversion of the majority Sunni population in Iran to (Twelver) Shia Islam...
- ^ a b Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Lure of the Other, Routledge, 2017, p. 92, ISBN 9781317159780
- ^ a b Islam: Art and Architecture, Könemann, 2004, p. 501, ISBN 9783833111785,
Shah persecuted the philosophers, mystics, and Sufis who had been promoted by his grandfather, and unleashed fanatical campaigns of forcible conversion on Sunnis, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities
- ^ a b Melissa L. Rossi (2008), What Every American Should Know about the Middle East, Penguin, ISBN 9780452289598,
Forced conversion in the Safavid Empire made Persia for the first time dominantly Shia and left a lasting mark: Persia, now Iran, has been dominantly Shia ever since, and for centuries the only country to have a ruling Shia majority.
- ^ Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (2017), Psycho-nationalism, Cambridge University Press, p. 40, ISBN 9781108423076,
Shah Ismail pursued a relentless campaign of forced conversion of the majority Sunni population in Iran to (Twelver) Shia Islam...
- ^ Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Lure of the Other, Routledge, 2017, p. 92, ISBN 9781317159780
- ^ Islam: Art and Architecture, Könemann, 2004, p. 501, ISBN 9783833111785,
Shah persecuted the philosophers, mystics, and Sufis who had been promoted by his grandfather, and unleashed fanatical campaigns of forcible conversion on Sunnis, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities
- ^ Akiner, Shirin (5 July 2004). The Caspian: politics, energy and security, By Shirin Akiner, pg.158. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780203641675. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
- ^ "The Origins Of The Shiite-Sunni Split". NPR.org. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
- ^ John Obert Voll (1994). Islam, continuity and change in the modern world. Internet Archive. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2639-8.
- ^ "3.18. Population by Religion and Ostan, 1395 Census". IRAN STATISTICAL YEARBOOK 1399 (2020) (PDF). p. 154. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
population total (of Iran)=79926270; Muslim population=79598054
- ^ "Iran Population (2023) - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
- ^ "Middle East :: IRAN". CIA The World Factbook. 21 December 2021.
- ^ Kameel Ahmady (2019). From Border to Border Comprehensive research study on identity and ethnicity in Iran. London: Mehri publication. pp. 124–125. ISBN 9781914165221.
- ^ "Iran - Religion, Islam, Shia | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
- ^ "WVS Database". www.worldvaluessurvey.org. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
- ^ "IRANIANS' ATTITUDES TOWARD RELIGION: A 2020 SURVEY REPORT". GAMAAN (The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran). 2020-09-16. Archived from the original on 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
- ^ Maliki,Tamimi Arab, Ammar ,Pooyan (2020-09-16). "Iran's secular shift: new survey reveals huge changes in religious beliefs". Retrieved 2020-09-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "IRANIANS HAVE LOST FAITH ACCORDING TO SURVEY". 2020-08-25. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
- ^ Stausberg, Michael; Arab, Pooyan Tamimi; Maleki, Ammar (August 2023). "Survey Zoroastrians: Online Religious Identification in the Islamic Republic of Iran". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 62 (4): 823–844. doi:10.1111/jssr.12870. hdl:11250/3094992. ISSN 0021-8294.