Babak Khorramdin (Formally known as
"Papak" meaning
"Young Father") (, alternative spelling:
Papak Khorramdin; 795, according to some other sources 798— January 838) was one of the main
Persian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian
Khorram-Dinan ("Those of the joyous religion"), which was a local freedom movement fighting the
Abbasid Caliphate. Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to
dorustdin "
orthodoxy" and
Behdin "Good Religion" (
Zoroastrianism), and are considered an offshoot of
neo-Mazdakism. Babak's Iranianizing rebellion, from its base in
Azerbaijan in
northwestern Iran, called for a return of the political glories of the
Iranian past. The Khorramdin rebellion of Babak spread to the Western and Central parts of
Iran and lasted more than twenty years before it was defeated when Babak was betrayed. Babak's uprising showed the continuing strength in Azerbaijan of ancestral
Iranian local feelings.