Sattar Khan

Sattar Khan (1868 – 9 November 1914), honorarily titled Sardar-e Melli, "National Commander", was a military leader of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and is considered a national hero in Iran. From the Amirkhiz district of Tabriz he led the defence of the city against Mohammad Ali Shah's forces through the siege of 1908-09. ^{1 2}

His dates are split across the sources: the Encyclopaedia Iranica gives his birth at Janali village in 1868 and his death at Tehran on 9 November 1914, while the English Wikipedia infobox gives 20 October 1866 at Sardar Kandy and 17 November 1914. This record follows the Iranica readings, with the variants stated. ^{2 1}

He was the third son of Haj Hasan Bazzaz, a cloth merchant from Qaradagh. When his eldest brother, who had become a highway robber, was executed by the authorities, the family moved to Tabriz. There Sattar was imprisoned for two years in Narin Qal'a for sheltering two Caucasian fugitives, then himself turned to brigandage and was imprisoned again, before serving in the gendarmerie on the Khoy-Marand road and in the armed escort of the crown prince Mozaffar al-Din Mirza, from whom he received the title of khan. The Persian article counts him among the Sheikhi lutis of Tabriz, the city's lutis following two currents, the Sheikhiyya and the Shar'iyya. ^{2 1 3}

In 1894-95 he made the pilgrimage to the holy shrines, the Atabat, in Iraq. At Kazemayn he heard the grievances against the guards of the shrine at Samarra, tasted their harsh treatment of the Shi'ite pilgrims himself, and reported the situation to the marja' Mirza Hasan Shirazi; afterwards he assembled a gang of young men in Tabriz. ²

Sattar Khan rose to head the constitutionalist rebels of the Amirkhiz district. After the shelling of the Majles in June 1908, a High Military Council was established at Tabriz with Sattar Khan as commander-in-chief and Bagher Khan as his deputy. Through the blockade that followed — from February 1909 the city was completely cut off from its supply routes — the mojahedin under his leadership prevailed over the anti-constitutionalist forces and drove the government troops from the town. In recognition of their courage, the provincial assembly awarded Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan the honorary titles Sardar-e Melli and Salar-e Melli. ^{2 1}

Committees bearing his name were formed in Tehran, Rasht, Qazvin and Isfahan, and the Bakhtiyari tribal leaders threw in their lot with the Tabriz rebels. ¹

In March 1910 Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan set out for Tehran with their followers and were received with a great ceremony at the National Assembly. When the Majles ordered the constitutionalist fighters disarmed, Sattar Khan's men refused; in the confrontation at Atabak Park on the night of 7 August 1910 the police chief Yeprem Khan's forces disarmed them, some thirty warriors were killed, and Sattar Khan was wounded in the leg. ¹

He lived his remaining years in isolation, disabled by the wound, and died at Tehran on 9 November 1914. He was buried in the Shah-Abdol-Azim shrine cemetery at Shahr-e Ray. ^{2 1}

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