Overview
Ṭāghūt
Quick Reference
Quranic term for false god or idol. Also applied to tyrannical rulers who arrogate God's absolute power and use it to oppress people. In modern Iran it is applied to the fallen shah and all those who supported him. In the same way that jahiliyyah is used in Islamic history to refer to the pre-Islamic age of paganism, taghut stands for the pre-Islamic-revolution period in the history of modern Iran.
From: Taghut in The Oxford Dictionary of Islam »