The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 is widely understood through the lens of Shiite political theology, centred on the doctrine of Wilayat Al Faqih (rule of the qualified jurist) and the institutional authority of the clerical establishment. Our paper argues that such an interpretation captures only part of the story. The ideological foundations of Iran’s revolutionary project were shaped not only by Shiite jurisprudence but also by ideas drawn from the broader Sunni Islamist tradition. It examines how key concepts developed by the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami crossed sectarian boundaries between the late 1940s and the 1970s, ultimately becoming embedded within the political architecture of the Islamic Republic.

Our study begins by examining the emergence of modern Islamism as a transnational ideological movement rather than a collection of isolated sectarian traditions. While Sunni and Shiite Islamist movements are often treated as separate intellectual currents, the historical record reveals sustained interaction between their leading thinkers. Understanding the ideological origins of post-revolutionary Iran therefore requires tracing the institutional networks, personal relationships and intellectual exchanges that connected prominent Sunni Islamist figures with Iranian clerical activists in the decades preceding the revolution.

Three interconnected channels facilitated this transfer of ideas. The first was the Cairo-based Dar Al Taqrib initiative, which sought to promote intellectual cooperation between Sunni and Shiite scholars. The second consisted of personal relationships linking figures including Navvab Safavi, Ayatollah Khomeini and Abul A’la Maududi, creating direct avenues for ideological exchange. The third, and arguably most consequential, was the systematic translation of the works of Sayyid Qutb and Maududi into Farsi by Hadi Khosroshahi and Ali Khamenei. These translations introduced foundational Islamist concepts to a new Iranian audience and ensured that they became part of the country’s emerging revolutionary discourse.

Our paper finds that Iran did not simply adopt Sunni Islamist doctrine wholesale. Rather, it selectively incorporated its central ideological vocabulary while adapting it to a distinctly Shiite institutional framework. Concepts such as Islam as a comprehensive political system, divine sovereignty and the rejection of secular constitutionalism became integrated into a constitutional order centred on Wilayat Al Faqih — a doctrine without any direct Sunni equivalent. The result was a hybrid revolutionary model whose ideological language reflected Brotherhood and Maududian thought, while its governing institutions remained rooted in Shiite jurisprudence.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) represents the most significant institutional expression of this ideological synthesis. Our study argues that the organisation transformed Sayyid Qutb’s concept of the tali’a, or revolutionary vanguard, into a permanent state institution charged with safeguarding the revolution. In doing so, Iran achieved an institutional realization of a concept that remained largely theoretical within the broader Islamist movement.

The paper also examines how political alliances evolved after the revolution. Although strategic differences and regional conflicts weakened formal relations between Tehran and the Muslim Brotherhood from the 1980s onwards, the underlying ideological convergence did not disappear. Elements of this shared political vocabulary continue to shape selective relationships with actors such as Hamas and the Sudanese branch of the Brotherhood, while remaining visible within institutions promoting Islamic unity and in the constitutional language of the Iranian state itself.

The central argument of the paper is straightforward: Understanding the ideological origins of the Islamic Republic requires moving beyond a purely sectarian interpretation. Iran’s revolutionary model emerged through a cross-sectarian exchange of ideas in which Sunni Islamist concepts were adapted to a Shiite political framework, producing an ideological and institutional synthesis whose influence continues to shape the Iranian state more than four decades after the revolution.