Shaikh Mohammad Khiābāni (sometimes spelled Khiyabani), also known as Shaikh Mohammad Khiābāni Tabrizi (1880–1920), was an Iranian

Iranian peoples

The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...

 cleric, political leader, and representative to the parliament

Majlis of Iran

The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...

.

He was born in Khameneh, near Tabriz

Tabriz

Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

 to Haji Abdolhamid from Khameneh, a merchant. He became active during the Persian Constitutional Revolution and was a prominent dissident against foreign colonialism, which subsequently led to his sending into exile by the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

s in 1918.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

, Khiabani re-established the Democrat Party of Tabriz after being banned for five years, and published the Tajaddod newspaper, the official organ of the party, edited by his supporter Taqi Rafat

Taqi Rafat

Taqi Rafat , more fully Mirza Taqikhan Raf'at Tabrizi , was an Iranian poet, playwright, critic, and journalist....

. Later, in a protest to the 1919 Treaty between Persia and the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, which exclusively transferred the rights of deciding about all military, financial, and customs affairs of Persia to the British, he revolted and took Tabriz and surrounding areas, calling it Azadistan ("land of liberty"); he was not, however, a separatist. After the fall of Vosough od-Dowleh

Vosough od-Dowleh

Hasan Vothuq al-Dowleh was a Prime Minister of Qajar era Iran.He served as Prime Minister of Iran on 3 separate occasions. He was an Leader of Constitutional Movement of Iran.He was the older brother of Ahmad Qavam....

, the then prime minister, the new prime minister sent Mokhber os-Saltaneh to Tabriz, giving him full authority, and he crushed and killed Khiabani in the late summer of 1920 (Mokhber os-Saltaneh claimed that Khiabani had committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

).

There is a biography by Abdolhossein Nahidi-Azar.

See also

• Mohsen Hashtroodi
  Mohsen Hashtroodi
  Mohsen Hashtroodi was an Iranian mathematician. His father, Shaikh Esmāeel Mojtahed was an advisor to Shaikh Mohammad Khiābāni who played a significant role in the establishment of the parliamentary democracy in Iran during and after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution.Mohsen Hashtroodi...