Qazi Muhammad

Qazi Muhammad (1893 – 1947) was the Nationalist and religious Kurdish leader and the Head of the Republic of Mahabad, the second modern Kurdish state in the Middle East (after Republic of Ararat). He acted as the president of the Russian backed Republic of Mahabad, in Kurdistan of Iran (Eastern Kurdistan) in 1946. He was also the founder of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. A year later, the Kurdish national movement (Komeley Jiyanewey Kurd) that he helped organize was crushed by Iran's central government. The Iranian military court sentenced him to death, and he was hanged in Chuwarchira Square in the center of city of Mahabad at 30 March 1947. Mustafa Barzani, the father of nationalist Kurdish movement in Iraqi Kurdistan (Southern Kurdistan), was the defence minister in his cabinet. One of his sons Ali Qazi is today an active member in the Kurdish movement.

Literature

• Archie Roosevelt, Jr., "The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad" ,Middle East Journal, no. 1 (July 1947), pp. 247–69