An Analytical Survey of the Political-Religious Approaches of Babak and Tahir in Their Encounters with Abbasid Caliphate

</strong> Despite the diverse religious-political Iranian movements against Abbasid Caliphate, addressing the typology of the approach taken by the leaders of such movements to Caliphs and the Arab domination is important. Various approaches can be seen in the Iranians' encountering Arabs. Using predominantly historical sources, the present descriptive-analytical comparative paper, while discussing the two approaches of idealism and realism, tries to show the manifestation and the consequences of the aforementioned approaches in Babak Khorramdin and Tahir Dhul-Yaminayn's encountering Abbasid Caliphate. Babak's approach, despite the continuity and vastness of his movement that applied some kind of idealism was less likely to succeed in the long-run whereas Tahir who employed a realist policy (in spite of his swerving from it prior to his doubtful death) opened the way for Iranian independence. In other words, a movement with an idealistic approach that applied combinatory or non-Islamic ideology and enjoyed mass popularity, had a lesser chance for success than a realist movement with a religious legitimacy but no mass popularity. The main question concerns the weaknesses of Babak's movement and the strengths of Tahir's movement. The answer to this question can be found in the idealist and realist approaches the manifestations and consequences of which have been dealt with in this study.