Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
military organization to protect the political system of the Islamic Republic in Iran
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as Sepah, Pasdaran, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service military force of Iran and one of Iran's two military forces, the other being the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. It consists of five service branches: Ground Forces, Aerospace Force, Navy, Quds Force, and Basij. It is led by a commander-in-chief, who is appointed by and reports to the supreme leader of Iran.
The IRGC was officially established by Ruhollah Khomeini as a military branch in May 1979 in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. Whereas the Iranian Army (the Artesh) protects the country's sovereignty in a traditional capacity, the IRGC's constitutional mandate is to ensure the integrity of the Islamic Republic. Most interpretations of this mandate assert that it entrusts the IRGC with preventing foreign interference in Iran, thwarting coups by the traditional military, and crushing "deviant movements" that harm the ideological legacy of the Islamic Revolution.
The IRGC has approximately 125,000 personnel, as of 2024. The main body is the IRGC Ground Forces, which focus on maintaining internal order, but have recently moved towards expeditionary warfare also, projecting power for the Islamic Republic. The IRGC Navy is now Iran's primary force exercising operational control over the Persian Gulf, serving as a de facto coast guard. The IRGC Aerospace Force is responsible for the Iranian ballistic missile program and act as the country's space force.
“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” enters the record as military organization to protect the political system of the Islamic Republic in Iran. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Islamic, Revolutionary and Guard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Islamic, Revolutionary and Guard provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q271110. VIAF identifies the subject as 129020283. The Library of Congress control number is n81142190. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 2024.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps primary sources, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps archive and Islamic research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.