Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to dorustdin "orthodoxy" and Behdin "Good Religion" (Zoroastrianism),[1] and are considered an offshoot of neo-Mazdakism.

[4] Babak was born in 795 (or 798) in Bilalabad in the Mimadh district of the Ardabil area, which was part of Azerbaijan, a region in north-western Iran.

However, Dinawari, a contemporary of Babak, concludes and states that there is ample evidence to support that his father's true name was Mutahar, a descendant of Abu Muslim through his daughter, Fāṭema.

Bosworth argues that more credence should be lent to this latter account, as other sources are hostile and are eager to propose lowly or otherwise less honorable origins for Babak.

[11] According to the 11th-century writer Abu'l Ma'ali, Babak played the lute and sang songs for the locals whilst working as a fruit vendor in the village.

There he worked under another Arab warlord, Muhammad ibn Rawwad Azdi for two years, until he reached adulthood and left for his village, Bilalabad.

There Babak encountered a wealthy and influential landlord named Javidhan, who was reportedly impressed with the latters cleverness, and as result recruited him into his service.

Unlike the previous men Babak had served, Javidhan was a local Iranian, and the leader of one of the two Khurramite movements in Azerbaijan.

During one of the clashes, Abu Imran was defeated and killed, whilst Javidhan was mortally wounded, dying three days later.

Javidhan, when stuck in the snow on his way back from Zanjān to Badd, had to seek shelter at Balalabad and happened to go into the house of Babak's mother.

Javidhan therefore asked the woman for permission to take her son away to manage his farms and properties, and offered to send her fifty dirhams a month from Babak's salary.

[1]Under the direction of his mentor Javidhan, a leader of one of the sects of the Khorramdin, Babak's knowledge of history, geography, and the latest battle tactics strengthened his position as a favorite candidate for commander during the early wars against the Arab occupiers.

He made every possible effort to bring Iranians together and also with leaders such as Maziar to form a united front against the Arab Caliph.

According to the medieval historian, Ibn Esfandyar, who composed the book Tarikh-e Tabaristan (History of Tabaristan), Maziar said: I (Maziyar), Afshin Kheydar son of Kavus, and Babak had made an oath and allegiance that we re-take the government back from the Arabs and transfer the government and the country back to the family of the Khosrows (Sasanians).

[1] According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th–10th century:[23] The original sedentary population of Azarbayjan consisted of a mass of peasants and at the time of the Arab conquest was compromised under the semi-contemptuous term of Uluj ("non-Arab") – somewhat similar to the raya (*ri’aya) of the Ottoman empire.

They spoke a number of dialects (Adhari (Old Azeri language), Talishi) of which even now there remains some islets surviving amidst the Turkish speaking population.

Babak's victories over Arab generals were associated with his possession of Babak Castle on Badd, an inaccessible mountain stronghold according to the Arab historians who mentioned that his influence also extended even to the territories of today's Azerbaijan – "southward to near Ardabil and Marand, eastward to the Caspian Sea and the Shamakhi district and Shervan, northward to the Muqan (Moḡan) steppe and the Aras river bank, westward to the districts of Jolfa, Nakjavan, and Marand".

Babak tried to capture the money being sent to pay Afshin's army, but was himself surprised, lost many men and barely escaped.

[citation needed] He was eventually seized by Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin and was handed over to the Abbasid Caliph.

During Bābak's execution, the Caliph's henchmen first cut off his legs and hands in order to convey the most devastating message to his followers.

[1][25] He was then gibbeted alive whilst sewn into a cow's skin with the horns at ear level to gradually crush his head as it dried out.