Bābak Khurramdīn (in persianoبابك خرمدين, Bābak Khurramdīn o Pāpak Khorramī; medio-persianoPāpak Khorramī,[1] vissuto tra il 795 (o il 798 secondo alcune fonti) e gennaio dell'838[2] è stato uno dei più importanti riformatori religiosi persiani[3][4][5] del movimento iranico della Khurramiyya (in persianoخرم دین, khorram dīn), religione gioiosa; (in araboخرمية?, khuramiyya): un movimento indipendentistico dell'Iran da poco conquistato dagli Arabi musulmani, che lottava contro il califfato arabo degli Abbasidi.
^M. Whittow, The Making of Byzantium: 600-1025, Berkeley, University of California Press, pp. 195, 203, 215: «Azerbaijan was the scene of frequent anti-caliphal and anti-Arab revolts during the eighth and ninth centuries, and Byzantine sources talk of Persian warriors seeking refuge in the 830s from the caliph's armies by taking service under the Byzantine emperor Theophilos. [...] Azerbaijan had a Persian population and was a traditional centre of the Zoroastrian religion. [...] The Khurramites were a [...] Persian sect, influenced by Shiite doctrines, but with their roots in a pre-Islamic Persian religious movement».
^Lo storico armeno Vardan Areweltsʻi (ca. 1198-1271) scrisse: «In these days, a man of the Persian race, named Bab, who had went from Baltat killed many of the race of Ismayil (what Armenians called Arabs) by sword and took many slaves and thought himself to be immortal. ... Ma'mun for 7 years was battling in the Greek territorties and ... came back to Mesopotamia». Si veda anche "La domination arabe en Arménie", della Histoire universelle de Vardan, traduzione dall'armeno e annotato da J. Muyldermans, Louvain e Parigi, 1927, p. 119: «En ces jours-là, un homme de la race Perse, nommé Bab, sortant de Baltat, faiser passer par le fil de l’épée beaucoup de la race d’Ismayēl tandis qu’il... »
^Lo storico arabo Ibn Hazm (994-1064) ricorda le differenti rivolte iraniche contro il califfato nel suo libro al-Faṣl fī l-milal wa l-nihal, e scrive «The Persians had the great land expanse and were greater than all other people and thought of themselves as better... after their defeated by Arabs, they rose up to fight against Islam, but God did not give them victory. Among their leaders were Sanbadh, Muqanna', Ostadsis and Babak and others». In lingua araba:
«أن الفرس كانوا من سعة الملك وعلو اليد على جميع الأمم وجلالة الخطير في أنفسهم حتى أنهم كانوا يسمون أنفسهم الأحرار والأبناء وكانوا يعدون سائر الناس عبيداً لهم فلما امتحنوا بزوال الدولة عنهم على أيدي العرب وكانت العرب أقل الأمم عند الفرس خطراً تعاظمهم الأمر وتضاعفت لديهم المصيبة وراموا كيد الإسلام بالمحاربة في أوقات شتى ففي كل ذلك يظهر الله سبحانه وتعالى الحق وكان من قائمتهم سنبادة واستاسيس والمقنع وبابك وغيرهم ». Si veda al-Faṣl fī al-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-l-niḥal / taʾlīf Abī Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-maʿrūf bi-Ibn Ḥazm al-Ẓāhirī; taḥqīq Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Naṣr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿUmayra. Jiddah, Sharikat Maktabāt ʿUkāẓ, 1982.