International Journal of New Political Economy

International Journal of New Political Economy

A Lens into the Dynamics of Arbitrary Rule, Religious Politics, and State Formation in 1920s in Iran: The Political Economy of Miracles at the Saqqa-khaneh

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Homa Katouzian
St Antony’s College, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
10.48308/jep.2026.107608
Abstract
In June 1924 Tehran woke up to the news that a famous saqqa-khanih had performed miracles. The most widespread story was that a Babi/Baha'i girl had tried to poison the saqqa-khanih's water and had suddenly gone blind. This happened against the background of an acute power struggle between Reza Khan and the opposition which had recently ended with the failure of his campaign to turn Iran into a republic. The news of the miracles led to anti-Babi demonstrations as well as a rush by the sick and the disabled to seek cure from the saqqa-khanih. And when the American vice-consul Robert Imbrie and his friend went to take photos of the scenes they were murdered by a mob, probably helped by police and soldiers. The government and the opposition both blamed each other for the incident, but the likeliest explanation is that the demonstrations had been fomented by the royal court and a few conservative clerics close to them, though the murder of Imbrie had been totally unplanned. The aim is not simply to reconstruct an episode of violence, but to use it as a lens through which the dynamics of arbitrary rule, religious politics, and state formation in early twentieth-century Iran can be examined with greater clarity.
Keywords
Power Struggle
Arbitrary Rule
Religious Politics
Conservative Clerics
International Journal of New Political Economy

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 09 October 2026