Colonel Pessian

Mohammad-Taqi Khan Pessian (; 1892 – 3 October 1921), more commonly known as Colonel Pessian, was an Iranian gendarme of Kurdish origin. He was born to Moḥammad-Bāqer Khan Pesyān and his wife Fāṭema Solṭān, into a prominent, apparently Amir Solaymāni Kurdish family, who had emigrated from the Caucasus after Iran’s defeat in the Russo-Persian War of 1826-28 and the incorporation of territories into the Russian Empire (Pesyān, pp. 26–27). He was a fighter pilot and warlord who formed and led the short-lived Autonomous Government of Khorasan in 1921. He was killed in a skirmish by Kurdish tribal forces in a battle with forces sent by Ahmad Qavam, the prime minister at the time.

Biography Pessian was born into an aristocratic Kurdish family in Tabriz. Pessian's family possessed strong military traditions, his uncle General Khan Pessian was a commander in the Persian Cossack Brigade, his cousins Heydar Qoli Khan Pessian – father of Iranian author and journalist, Mahtalat Pessian, – Ali Qoli Khan Pessian, Gholam Reza Khan Pessian and he himself served in the Gendarmerie.

In Tabriz Mohammad Taqi was educated In 1907 he left for Tehran to continue his education. He was promoted to major when World War I broke out. He also translated many works from Persian to/from French, German and English, some of these included Alphonse de Lamartine and Rabindranath Tagore. He also wrote two books in Persian, Sargozasht-e yek javan-e vatandoust and Jang-e Moqaddas az Baghdad ta Iran. thumb A Khorasani Kurdish soldier standing beside his severed head. His head was brought to Tehran to prove that he had been killed. For five continuous years after his death, on 3 October people of Khorasan mourned his death.

He is buried in Mashhad, Khorasan in the same garden that contains Nader Shah's tomb.

Legacy The day after the Shah left Iran in February 1979 during the Iranian Revolution, the revolutionary leaders declared Colonel Mohammad Taqi Pessian as the first Martyr of the Revolution although Pessian was a Secularist. Other anti-Pahlavi figures such as Mirza Kuchik Khan and Hassan Modarres were also declared as matyrs.