Biography of Qazi Latif
Abdulatif Qazi, son of Mirza Ahmad Qazi and brother of Qazi Fattah and Mirza Qasim (the paternal grandfather of Peshawa Qazi), was born in the year 1240 of the Solar Hijri calendar (1861 CE). Latif first began his studies under his father and later continued them under the religious teachers of that era. He advanced sufficiently in religious and legal sciences that, in his youth, he attained a high level of scholarship and was appointed as the judge (qazi) of the city of Mahabad. Qazi Latif married a lady named Amina Khanum. From this marriage they had four sons and three daughters: Sultan Khanum, Gawhartaj Khanum, Nazakat Khanum, Mustafa, Karim, Azim, and Muhammad. Besides being a respected and decisive judge in the Mukriyan region, Qazi Latif also had a strong talent for poetry. He composed powerful verses in both Persian and Kurdish, and his poetry was often the subject of literary discussion in the gatherings of that time. Together with his two brothers, Mirza Majid and Mirza Ahmad, Qazi Latif purchased a village named Girdi Yaqub on the banks of the Mahabad River (which flows into Lake Urmia). After some time, Mirza Majid took his share of the village, founded a new settlement there, and named it Konade. The neighboring lands belonged to the Debokri aghas. The aghas of the village of Khorkhora—Hamza Agha, Fattah Agha, and Khalil Agha—acting according to the customary practices of agha-ship of that era, cast greedy eyes on the property and lands of the sons of Qazi Ahmad and began harassing and causing trouble for them. The situation eventually reached the point that Mirza Ahmad was killed by Hamza Agha. Grieving over the loss of his brother, and despairing of the government and authorities of the time because his brother’s blood had gone unavenged, Qazi Latif left the country. For a period he stayed at the house of Sheikh Muhammad Sadiq, son of Sheikh Ubaydullah, son of Sheikh Taha of Nehri. Sheikh Muhammad Sadiq sent a telegram to his brother Sheikh Abdulqadir, requesting assistance regarding asylum and citizenship rights for Qazi Latif in Ottoman Turkey.
The reply from the Ottoman government was very encouraging. It stated that, in addition to granting Ottoman citizenship to Qazi Latif and his family, the state was prepared to provide them with a suitable place to live and to allocate them state-owned (khaliseh) land and agricultural equipment. Following this telegram, Qazi Latif went to Istanbul. The deep rivalry between the Ottoman state and the Iranian government of the time led the Ottomans to receive Qazi Latif very warmly and to respond positively to his requests. On the other hand, the Iranian government, not wishing to give the Ottomans any pretext to cross the border or interfere in Iranian affairs, instructed its consul in Istanbul to promise Qazi Latif that all his demands would be met and that his brother’s blood would not go unavenged—provided he returned to Iran and did not remain in Ottoman territory. Qazi Latif accepted the Iranian consul’s promise and returned to Mahabad. The government fulfilled its promise: Hamza Agha and Fattah Agha, the owners of the village of Khorkhora, were arrested and held for a long time in prison in Tehran. This episode was reported in detail in the newspaper Nasiri, Year 4, Issue 22, Monday the 20th of Jumada al-Awwal 1315 AH (1898 CE). A copy is preserved at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Tabriz. A few years later the First World War broke out. After the martyrdom of Qazi Fattah in Mahabad, several members of Qazi Fattah’s family and relatives were arrested by the Russian army and deported to the Siberian region of that country. One of these captives was Qazi Latif. After two and a half years, following the victory of the October Revolution in Russia, these prisoners were released. Qazi Latif made his way through Lithuania to Turkey. In Istanbul he met the Ottoman Sultan, was warmly received, and stayed for a time with his son Mustafa, who was studying at the medical faculty in Istanbul. Because of his extensive travels to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, as well as his two-and-a-half-year captivity in Russia, Qazi Latif had become a worldly, experienced, and knowledgeable man. Not long after his return to Mahabad, the uprising of Ismail Agha Simko broke out. Simko attacked Mahabad in order to crush the military garrison there. Because of earlier conflicts with Qazi Ali and Sayfulquzat (the father and uncle of Peshawa), he ordered the killing of those two men. However, Simko’s armed men mistakenly killed Qazi Latif instead. This event took place in the year 1300 of the Solar Hijri calendar (1921 CE). In accordance with his own wishes, the body of Qazi Latif was buried at the Khanqah of Sharafkand, near Sheikh of Burhan. Here it is appropriate to record a few lines of Qazi Latif’s poetry as examples: Persian Ay zulf-e to mār-e siyahī yā ke shab-e tār Yā ‘aqrab-e jarrāre’ī bar gard-e rokh-e yār Yā kāferī yā hendu-ye khorshid-parastī Yā lashkar-e zangī ke barī hamle be Tātār Yā khāter-e deldār ke az jowr-e raqībān Tārīk o parishānī o āshofte o bīmār … Kurdish Bahār hāt ū shaqāyaq hāte der we‘dey temāshāye Sukūnī ‘āshiqān lēre bediwā bē weqe‘ ū bē jāye Weneūshe hāt ū xoy rānā le sehrāyī melāhet-dā Niqābī ‘ismetī lādā ke mehrū shēweyān wāye Çemen pirr būle būkī sāde reshki hūrī Rīzwānen Demen ārāyishī xoy dā delē fīrdows āwāye Lenēw xārī jefā gul hāte der xendan debē yekser Serāser lāleyī hemrā shebīhī būk be tārāye Leber sāfī hewa dinyā wekū āwīney sāfe Kefī hāmūn yedī beyza ū felek emroke Mūsāye Le jilwey sāqiyānī bezmī gul sergeshte bū bulbul Sebeb āshūftegī Mejnūn, kirīshmey çāwī Leylāye Le nāley bulbul ū dengī çekāwek shīwenī qomrī Wekū bāzārī Yūsufī Misrī dil pirr shor ū ghewghāye Ne tenhā min giriftārī kemendī zulfī miskinim Hemū zerrātī ‘ālem mestī çāwī kālī shehlāye Le nāley bāy sebā emwātī ‘ālem jumle bū īhyā Megher peyghāmī yārī pēye yā āhī Mesīhāye Nesīmī subh mūjdey dā ke yārī dilrubā emro Be wejhī merhemet meylī wefādārī leser dāye … Sources General History of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (by Qasim Qazi) A Short History of the Qazi Family (by Khalil Fattah Qazi) The book Manzumeh-ye Shamsi (by Abu Bakr Khwancheh Sepehr-e Din) Lost Days (memoirs and recollections of Rahman Qazi) Compiled by: Dr. Ahmad Fattah Qazi and Qasim Qazi Reviewed by: Naser Qazi