ABSTRACT
Islamic history is punctuated with the phenomenon of revival movements. Iran is only the latest of a long line. While some have chosen to use different terms to describe this phenomenon – reform, revolutionary, fundamentalist, resistance or protest movements – ‘revival movements’ is perhaps the most appropriate, in that they do consistently seek to revive something that has been lost or corrupted. They have occurred at all times and in all places within the Islamic world; they have not always been fringe or heretical movements, and some have been at least as responsible for the maintenance of Islam as have the orthodox ‘ulama. 2
