THe Nayeby Saga - Part one بخش اول جنبش نایبیان.

The Nayeby Saga

The Extraordinary Lives of Nayeb Hossein and his son Sardar

 Manoochehr Aryanpur Kashani. M.A.,Ph.D.

San Diego, 2004

FORWARD

I am the son of Abbas, the grandson of Sardar, and the Great-grandson of Nayeb Hossein. All my life, I have been mesmerized by the stories of my ancestor's exploits. There was hardly a family gathering in which no reference was made to the Nayebies (i.e. Nayeb Hossein's clan). Though I was born more than ten years after the execution of my grandfather and great-grandfather, I was lucky enough to meet several Nayebies, including two of Nayeb Hossein's daughters and three of his sons. The stories that I heard from them, and my father and uncles, fired my adolescent imagination.

Later on in life, I read a number of books and articles about my ancestry. These inclined me to write "my" account of what happened long ago. This inclination was intensified by the Iranian revolution of 1979 and by our families' immigration to America, an event that made my sense of affinity with my ancestors even stronger. The reason is obvious: in 1739, they were exiled from Lorestan to Kashan. They lost their high status as tribal leaders. They lost much property. Within a few decades, they gained high status in Kashan. Later, they became the most powerful warlords in central Iran. They had wealth and power.

In 1919, they were destroyed, and their property was lost a second time. Their children, including my father Abbas, had to start from scratch. They worked hard, and once again, gained fame and fortune. Some of us became well-regarded professors, writers, physicians, scholar\s.

But in 1979, we had to leave our birthplace - and lose almost everything for the third time. The first loss took place in 1739, the second in 1919, and the third in 1979. Two-hundred and forty years is a long time, but to me, who was struck by this ancestral affinity, it seemed too brief a period for the cycles of rise and fall to work themselves out. Consequently, I have become more interested than ever to put down my thoughts on it.

The reason why I am writing this in English is simple. Our family is once again doing well both in the United States and in Iran. But some of our children, and all of our grandchildren, are more at home with written English than in written Persian; yet they all want to know about their long-ago ancestors. This is dedicated to them. May they prosper!

Now, a few words on this book. It is based primarily on the following

 sources:

MEMOIRS OF SARDAR (ZENDEGI NAMEH...SARDAR)

THE NAYEBY EPIC (HAMASEH FATHNAMEH NAYEBY)

THE NAYEBY UPRISING (TOGHYAN NAYEBYAN)

HEMASEH TOGHYANTHE

MEMOIRS OF ABBAS   ARYANPUR   KASHANI (IN HANDWRITTEN FORM)

Furthermore, where relevant, I have included some of the things I heard about when I was younger. Most of these come from the mouths of people who had witnessed or had first-hand knowledge of the events.

Also, to liven things up, I have introduced some of my own interpretations and commentaries on various things. I feel that a lifetime of exposure to the Nayeby saga, and my irresistible sense of affinity with it, somewhat qualify me to do this. To those who may not agree, I offer my apologies.

Finally, a word on the text. The existing accounts of the Nayebies focus almost exclusively on their battles. As a result, they are very episodic and hard to follow. I have tried, first of all, to skip the minor battles and arrange them chronologically. Secondly, I have tried to give information about the Nayebies daily lives and family affairs. I hope these attempts have made my book less episodic and easier to follow.

M. ARYANPUR KASHANI

Chapter one

THE NAYEBY SAGA

NAYEB HOSSEIN

It was late in the summer of 1919, but the weather was still brutally hot. When the ninety-six-year-old man walked toward the gallows, the mob fell silent. His white beard and six-foot-five stature, erect and defiant; his grating voice cursing the treachery of the government; his searching eyes... everything about him was extraordinary. As the time came for his captors to put a noose around his neck, he became pensive. What was he thinking about? About his son, Sardar, who had been hanged less than a month before in this very place on the corner of Topkhaneh Square ( later on called Sepah square). About his two other sons, Akbar Shah and Shoja who had been killed in battle a few years before? About his nineteen-year-old son, Reza, who was dying a painful death with a bullet wound turned gangrenous?

            When they kicked the stool from under him, his tall figure dangled for a fraction of a second, then the rope snapped and sent him crashing to the ground. His hands were tied, but he sprang up with agility. They put another rope into the gallows, and ordered him to mount the stool again. The crowd roared in protest, for it was customary to spare the life of a person whose gallows rope snapped. Somebody shouted, "you haven't even tried him! Now you want to hang him twice?" Another yelled, "It's a sin to execute Nayeb Hossein; he is ninety-six years old!" The mob was becoming agitated.

            Pale and sweating, the officer put the noose around Nayeb Hossein's neck himself. His hands were shaking. Then he kicked the stool. There was a sharp click. Silence engulfed the square.

            Who was this man, and why was he executed? To answer this question, it is necessary to go back to the lorestan of two hundred years before. The Lors were nomadic people  who lived in a mountainous area in west-central Iran. They consisted of a number of tribes whose pastoral life, love of horses, hospitality, codes of clan loyalty and warlike chivalry were legendary. Much like Scottish clans of olden times, the Lors were constantly involved in fighting the government or each other.

One of these Lor tribes was called Bayran Vand. In the early part of the eighteenth century, a feud developed between two cousins vying for the chieftaincy. Not much is known about the details of the feud but must have been serious enough, for in 1739, Nader Shah (the mighty king of Iran ordered the banishment of one of the cousins. Hashem Bayk, to kashan. Hashem Bayk with some of his clans collected some of their belongings that they could carry, and left Lorestan, for Kashan, never to return again.

            In Kashan, he opened a wool-dying shop, and became Fairly prosperous. Carpet weaving has always been a major industry in Kashan, and weavers need high-quality, well-dyed wool.

            Hashem Bayk was also interested in traditional Persian sports, especially wrestling, and became renowned, first as an athlete, and later as a member of athletic club. He lived to be eighty years old.

            Hashem Bayk had two sons, Ghassem and Ebahim. Ghassem was a mystic, but he was also highly ambitious. In 1797, he sided with Hossein gholi who had rebelled against his own brother (Fathalli Shah), the king of Iran. Hossein Golli proclaimed himself king, and chose Ghassem as his chief minister (or vizier). Soon, however, Hossein Golli was defeated by the shah's forces, and his supporters, particularly Ghassem were captured and imprisoned. Ghassem spent a few years in jail. and then he either escaped or was mistakenly released, because for the rest of his life, he led a clandestine life. He paid a number of secret visits to his relatives in Kashan. nothing more is known about him. His career demonstrated the same pattern of meteoric rise and fall that characterizes the careers of so many future members of his family.

Ebrahim, Ghassem's brother, lead a more cautious life. All is  known about him is that he pursued his father's trade of wool-dying, and became, again like his father, a renowned athlete. He died in 1819.

Ebrahim's son was Mohammad Ali. He, too, was a wool-dyer, and like his father, became an accomplished athlete. He also got involved in politics and conflicts concerning succession to the crown. This is what happened:

Fathalli Shah, the king of Iran, died in 1834. His grandson, Mohammad Shah, succeeded him, but one of his uncles rose up in arms and claimed the crown was rightfully his. Mohammad Ali supported Mohammad shah, and marshaled the people of Kashan on his behalf. Soon, it turned out that he had bet on the right horse. Mohammad shah won the crown, and rewarded him generously. Mohammad Ali throve. He became not only the head of the city's guild, but the leader of Kashan's gallant athletes. These were men who adhered to a code of chivalry, loyalty and sportsmanship. Mohammad Ali lived a long life, and died in 1867. Just as Ghassem's involvement in big-time politics had diminished the family's standing in Kashan, Mohammad Ali's action brought the family renewed prestige and power.

Mohammad Ali had two sons, Hashem (born in 1822) and (Nayeb) Hossein (born in 1823), the same ninety-six-year-old who was hanged in the Tehran square where his son had been hanged barely a month before. Mohammad Ali's sons were also wool dyers and leaders of the city's gallant athletes. They both married rather late in life. Hashem married a local woman, and had a son, Hamzeh. Hossein (Latter called Nayeb) traveled back to his ancestral homeland, and married a Lor girl named Taj. He and Taj were not just man and wife, but a pair of devoted lovers. But Taj died at childbirth and Hossein never recovered from his loss. He composed songs for Taj, and sang them lament fully. He had a nice singing voice, and he could play the flute. As the passage of time did not heal his sore heart, he began wandering. In one of his wanderings, he met a dervish (mystic), who initiated him into mysticism and the occult. The two traveled together. Eventually, his peregrinations took him to various towns in Northeast Iran, central Asia, Afghanistan and India. His travels seem to have lasted nearly fifteen years.

When he finally went back to Kashan, his aged father and brother were delighted to see him, for they had presumed him dead. His father wanted him to get married again, but he wouldn't hear of it. When his father, Mohammad Ali, died in 1867, (Nayeb) Hossein, wanting to fulfill his father's wish, married a Kashani woman. In time, they had two sons, Mehdi and Mostafa.

Things were going well for the two brothers, Hashem and Hossein. They were happily married. Their wool-dying business was doing well. And, they both ranked high among the city's gallant athletes. Hashem was tall and well-built. However, it was Hossein whose features were most impressive. He was six-feet-five, broad-shouldered, handsome, with dark, penetrating eyes and a voice that, when angry, was like a lion's roar or distant thunder. The loss of his beloved Taj, his errantry through many foreign lands and his mystical-poetic bent of mind gave him an expression that was at once melancholy and dignified. He ate and slept little. He entertained himself by intoning and playing his flute.   He was deeply religious, and spent much time in prayer and meditation. He also composed poetry.

But for a single event, these two brothers, Hossein and Hashem. would have lived a peaceful life. This single event, which had far more to do with chance than with design, changed the course not only of their own lives, but those of thousands of others including their children and their children's children. In a way, we who are their direct descendants are still feeling the consequence of it.

In 1870, Zel Sultan, the brother of the king and the tyrannical governor of Esfahan, added another wife to his harem. A group of his servants, who were carrying the bride's trousseau, happened to be passing through Kashan (on their way from Tehran to Esfahan). A few of them, having gorged themselves with food and alcoholic drinks, went traipsing through the bazaar. Not far from Hashem and Hossein's wool-dying shop was a grocery shop where the owner's son was tending the store. He was a handsome lad. Zel Sultan's servants were attracted by him. They asked him to accompany them to their lodging. When he refused, they dragged him away. His screams and pleas for help drew a crowd, but nobody dared to intervene, for everyone was in awe of the dreaded Zel Sultan. [i]

Soon the two brothers got the news. They each took up a wool-dying club and rushed to the servant's lodging. They trounced the servants, and set the boy free. The servants sent a telegram to Zel Sultan, claiming that they had been robbed and beaten by the two brothers. Zel Sultan ordered the governor of Kashan to punish the brothers. The governor's men captured Hashem and strangled him with a rope. Hossein took his rifle and went into the high minaret of a nearby shrine. Nobody dared to get close. He stayed there a few days. Sympathetic neighbors sneaked food and water to him. In the dawn of the fourth day, he sneaked out of the city and joined a band of outlaws. This was the beginning of an outlawry or rebellion that lasted almost fifty years, and ended with the execution of (Nayeb) Hossein and his son Mashallah Khan Sardar in 1919.  [ii]

He did not stay with the outlaws for long. He took Hashem's corpse, hoping, to take it all the way to the holy city of Najaf (in today's Iraq). Near the city of Sultanabad, he was recognized and arrested. His fellow travelers promised him that they would take the corpse to Najaf.

A few nights later, Hossein escaped from his tower-like prison by climbing down a long rope. He hurried to Najaf and oversaw his brother's burial. Then, he was advised by a few wise men of Kashan  to go to the capital Tehran, and ask for justice. There, nobody listened to him, for Zel Sultan was the king's brother. In fact, instead of giving him justice, they imprisoned him.  This was the last time he would ever trusted the government.

In jail, his manly features, his impressive athletic and acrobatic ability, his knowledge of foreign lands, his warm singing voice, his mysticism, his flute playing, and his mesmerizing narrative skills made him popular among prisoners and prison guards. Soon, rumors of his prowess radiated outward. The king's mother, then a widow of around fifty, heard the rumors too, and wanted to see this extraordinary prisoner.

She was so impressed with him that she had him released from jail and  appointed him as one of her own guards. Before long, she gave him the title of Nayeb (lieutenant), and made him the commander of her private guards. She also invited him to her bed. Rumor had it that she even entered into a common-law marriage  (seegheh) with him.

He served the queen mother for two years. Later on, he would refer to this period in his life with distaste, not only because he felt exploited, but also because of his firsthand experience with court corruption and intrigue.

When the queen died in 1872, Nayeb Hossein went back to Kashan, only to find out that in his absence, the agents of the same governor who had ordered Hashem's death had killed Hashem's teenage son by throwing him into a baker's blazing oven. Upon hearing the news, the teenager's mother had collapsed and died, too. Nayeb Hossein further found out that the same agents had caused the death of his own wife by throwing her down violently.

However, he decided it was no time for revenge, for he had other things to do. Upon the recommendation of some friends in Tehran, he had been given the job of overseeing the security of all the roads around Kashan. In those days, the government had a small standing army that was not large enough to patrol all roads; so, it would contract out patrolling tasks to local strongmen and warlords who would recruit and equip their  own patrolmen. In return, they would either get a fixed salary, or would be allowed to keep part of the road-toll they collected. Nayeb Hossein now devoted his full attention to the performance of his many duties as the chief of patrolmen.

For most of the time between 1872 and 1919, the year of the hangings, Nayeb and his sons retained the right of patrolling the roads around Kashan . and for a time, all of the roads in central Iran. When the government: delayed payments, they would retain the road-tolls. When it cancelled their-charter, they would continue their patrolling anyway, claiming they could not terminate the employment of their hundreds of patrolmen at the whim of every new prime minister. It must be stated that in those days, especially the years 1896-1919, chaos reigned over much of Iran, and few prime ministers, lasted more than a year. A few prime ministers were favorably disposed toward Nayeb Hossein and his men, but most considered them a bunch of outlaws whom the government could only leash by giving them a charter to keep the roads safe.  As we shall see, some of them even sent armies to destroy them. Having the road charter, allowed Nayeb Hossein and his sons to have a small army of patrolmen under their command. Before 1910, this army consisted of about three hundred mounted men; after that date, it consisted of between two and three thousand men. But theirs was not a disciplined army. When times, were good, their number would swell; when times were bad. the number would shrink considerably.

Soon after his return from Tehran, Nayeb Hossein married again. In due time, his wife bore him six children, four of whom were sons: Mashallah (later to be given the title of Sardar); Shoja Lashgar,Akbar Shah and Saif. She also had two daughters, who were named Taj and Keshvar. After the death of his third wife, Nayeb Hossein married for the fourth time, and had three more sons (Hassan Khan, Reza Khan, and Amir Khan) and a daughter, Mehri. All in all, he had nine sons and three daughters.

Each of his sons was sent to Maktab ( A primitive one room school) for a few years, and later, when they were old enough became the group leader of his militia army   They were all tall (Sardar was around six-feet-three; Shoja six feet four; the rest, around six feet), good horsemen, excellent shots, nimble athletes, and more or less, given to their father's mystical, anti-establishmentarian, almost recalcitrant bent of mind.

Among his sons, Sardar (or Mashallah) stood out as having extraordinary leadership qualities, as well as a gift for folksy eloquence and courage in adversity. In the course of years, as Nayeb Hossein aged, he relegated more responsibility to Sardar. They became a duo: Nayeb, the aged, experienced leader; Sardar, the daring executor. They operated together to the very end — and died together.

Sardar's childhood and early youth was engulfed by the turbulent vicissitudes of his father's career. In 1873, there were factional disturbances in Kashan, and the city fathers asked Nayeb and his men to restore law and order in the city. They did such a good job that they were appointed to a number of key positions in the city. Having these positions entailed getting involved in factional rivalries and making enemies. Seven years later, in 1880, the new governor of Kashan took away their city jobs, and cut their road-patrolling salary. He told them they could instead keep the road-toll they collected from travelers. In 1886, another governor, influenced by Nayeb Hossein's enemies, took away their road-patrolling charter. Suddenly, Nayeb and his multitudinous men were out of their jobs. [iii]

Out of desperation, they refused to hand over their posts along the roads .This was open defiance. Now they were outlaws, and the tolls they collected were termed "robbery and extortion." There were a number of clashes, major and minor, between Nayeb Hossein's men and government forces. But Nayebies familiar both with the barren mountainous region to the south of Kashan and the hot desert to the north of it, and skilled in guerilla tactics, they usually prevailed.

This rebellion, or as their enemies called it, "outlawry," lasted seven years. In 1894, having failed to subdue them, the government restored their charter to patrol the roads in central Iran. Two years later (1896), Nasser-Ed-Din, the Shah of Iran died, and the country was plunged into chaos. The governor of Kashan appealed to Nayeb for help in maintaining law and order in the city. He also gave Sardar, then about twenty two years old, the rank of colonel and appointed him as city marshal. Soon after, Shoja, Sardar's brother, was awarded the rank of mayor and the sheriffdom of a nearby town.

For eight years (1896-1904), Nayeb Hossein and his sons (henceforth known as the Nayebies) prospered. They bought themselves nice homes and increased the number of their armed men. They established law and order, opened (for the first time in Kashan) a school and a clinic, repaired the city's infrastructure, and protected the rights of Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities.

In his memoirs, Sardar mentions the following episode to show the kind of law and order he established in the city:

"When I first became city marshal, I announced to the bazaar merchants that the king has died, and I have been given the job of keeping order, and if anyone suffers a loss of property, I would personally compensate them. To impress them further, I said that during the first three nights, they must leave their shop doors open and the lights on all night, and go home with peace of mind ... I appointed several men to patrol the bazaar . . . The next morning, the merchants went to their shops and found nothing missing . . . During the second night, two of my watchmen saw a black cat inside a butcher's shop.   It had jumped on a sheep carcass hanging from a hook, and was busy tearing and eating the meat.  One of them hit the cat so hard with his nightstick that it fell to the ground dead.   He then picked it up and hung it from a hook so that next morning the butcher would know why some of his meat was missing."

Nayeb Hossein and Sardar were religious men who believed in giving alms and treating others fairly. But theirs was an undisciplined army. Some of their followers abused their power. [iv] Some resorted to extorting money and Nayeb Hossein and his sons were blamed for this.  Never mind that the government's own agents were guilty of similar infractions. [v]

In 1904, a new governor was sent to Kashan. Influenced by Nayeb Hossein's enemies, he fired Sardar and his brothers from their city jobs, and decreed that their men patrolling the roads should stay in their bases and not enter the city. Hard times were back. Most of their men went back to their former jobs. Sardar went to Zanjan (in Northwest Iran) and became the commander of a detachment of the governor's troops there.

In his memoirs, Sardar mentions the following events:

"All my life, I have never violated any woman's honor and I consider no sin greater than that. Even though I have been tempted many times, I have always mastered myself and defeated Satan's temptations. In this respect, I wish to recount an event for the edification of the youth. When I was in Zanjan, I was dispatched at the head of a hundred men, to Abhar.

While riding, I felt very sleepy, so 1 stopped and told my men to ride on while I rested. After a short rest, I resumed my ride. Suddenly, I heard a woman crying. I went forward. The moonlight revealed a beautiful woman sitting by the roadside. She seemed terrified. I asked why she was crying. She said "my husband and I were riding toward the city. We were both tired and fell asleep on horseback while our horses ambled on. My horse must have stopped because when I woke up, I found myself all alone in the middle of this desert. I am terrified. And my horse ran away a short while ago, too. I asked her to get on my horse. First, she hesitated. I assured her that she would be safe with me. She mounted, and I walked along side of her to the city. At the city gate, we saw a man crying. He was her husband. When he saw her, he became ecstatic. He took her in his arms, and they went inside a shelter nearby. After a while, he rushed out and thanked me effusively. The next day, he sent me a gift, which I respectfully returned."

Nayeb Hossein and his sons seemed content with their reduced - but peaceful - circumstances. Then an event happened that changed everyone's life and sank the country into greater chaos and insecurity. This was the great constitutional revolution that started in 1905, and rippled through the next two decades. People wanted to limit the king's rights and to establish a parliament. [vi] The king resisted. In 1906 (the birth date of my father, Abbas, Sardar's second son), the dying Mozzafar-Ed-Din Shah was forced to sign the new constitutional charter. Two years later (1908), the new king, Mohammad Ali, revoked the constitution. His soldiers bombarded the parliament with artillery Guns. Uprisings sprouted all over the country.

Kashan was no exception. There were factional clashes and Nayeb Hossein and his men (the Nayebies) were inevitably drawn in. For a while, their enemies had the upper hand. They took away their last source of income, the charter to patrol the roads. Furthermore, a large group of their opponents gathered in the city's main mosque, demanding the ouster of Nayeb Hossein's clan from Kashan. To the crowd's surprise, Sardar himself appeared on the platform and answered his opponent's charges. His folksy eloquence convinced some, but enflamed his inveterate enemies. They approached to mob him. At that moment, Sardar's men appeared on the roofs with pointed rifles. The mob stepped back. The talks continued. It was finally agreed that the Nayebies would leave town. In return, the city's marshal - hostile to the Nayebies - would be replaced and their grievances addressed. [vii]

The Nayebies left Kashan, and settled in their summer retreat, a small village called Dook. Dook was about ten miles south of Kashan. It had a fortified tower, and its mountainous surroundings made it difficult to attack. Here, they stayed for a few weeks, leading a communal life. They each had their assigned duties. Nayeb was the elder, and Sardar, the leader. But in the evening, when they held their council (shoura), everyone had an equal voice. This was an ancient Lor tradition which the Nayebies observed at all times. Every major decision was debated in clan councils.

Meanwhile, in Kashan, things went badly for the Nayeby wives and children. Contrary to the promises made, their enemies looted and trashed their homes. They took some of their children hostage. Then, with the help of the soldiers dispatched from Tehran, they moved toward Dook. The Nayebies, concerned about the fate of their hostages, decided not to fight. They retreated to the holy city of Qom and sent several letters to Tehran, (Nayeb Hossein's letters to Persian congress dated April 1907 A.D.. Iranian National archives records pages 5 , 21& 42) stating their grievances and asking for justice. The interesting thing is that now, as in the past and the future, they believed as sincerely in the justice of their cause as their enemies believed the opposite. In the end, this belief was their undoing. The same belief it must be mentioned here, today motivates their sympathizers and detractors alike.   One group believes they were aggrieved, oppressed, and had no choice but to take up arms. Another group thinks they were cutthroats and bandits. What almost everyone agrees is that they were extraordinary in courage, in stamina, and in clan loyalty, and in unbending resolution.

SARDAR'S FIRST TRIP TO TEHRAN

Responding to the Nayebye's pleas, the government invited Nayeb Hossein to go to Tehran for negotiations. Nayeb Hossein, who remembered his last journey to the capital in search of justice, refused. A family council was held. Sardar volunteered to go in place of his father. His father, Nayeb Hossein, was against it. He believed that the government would break its promise. "They'll put you in the slammer, maybe even kill you. Don't go!" But Sardar insisted. He said he was tired of endless fights and bloodshed. He wanted peace, and he was willing to risk his life for it. His eloquence finally won everyone over.   Nayeb Hossein, too, reluctantly gave his permission. So, early in 1908, Sardar went to Tehran. He was then about 33 years old. (Iranian National archives records pages 85- 86 )

Sardar's negotiations in Tehran did not go far. He was not familiar with the white lies and duplicities of Tehran's Byzantine politicians. His was the code of verbal agreements sealed with a handshake. Instead, he was caught in a political whirlpool. His enemies, meanwhile, intensified their machinations. Before he knew the meaning of what was going on, he was accused and summoned for trial. As the trial proceeded, the weight of accusations brought against him and his initial neglect in stating his case effectively, led to his arrest. Things were beginning to get serious.

The accusations brought against him were either baseless or related to other people, some of them his men. Realizing the danger, however, he defended himself fairly well and gained some sympathy from the judge. Then he made another fatal mistake. In the audience were seated two members of parliament from Kashan. Sardar had done them favors and, misled by their past obsequiousness, he naively believed that they were on his side. In reality, they were two of his staunchest enemies. He asked them to testify for him. This is how Sardar reports it:

"I thought they would take pity on me; I thought they favored me and would declare my innocence. But, O, God, what did they do. They took over the meeting and attributed all kinds of crimes and atrocities to me. They made me responsible for all the crimes committed since Adam. The judge who had received a bribe of 100 tumans did not ask them for any proof. He ordered me to be shackled and taken back to jail. My enemies cheered. In jail, they put additional chains around my neck and ankles ... In my absence, the judge condemned me to death. I would be hanged in two days . . . That night, I had a dream. A shining saint told me not to worry; I would find freedom. The next day, I prayed most of the time. I also decided to escape. There were four other death-row inmates in my large cell. Fifteen soldiers were guarding us. At night, they would take turns watching us in groups of five. I thought if tonight, too, five of them stay up and the others sleep, I would have no chance to escape. I decided to keep all of them awake so that they would all go to sleep together. That night, I kept the inmates and the guards awake by telling them stories and offering them pipes and cigarettes. Late at night, I noticed that they were all deep asleep in our cell. My shackles did not allow me to move, so I took the bowl of water and sprinkles water on the inmates faces. They awoke. I told them of my plan of escape and, after some hesitation, they agreed to cooperate. That day, my wife had sent me a file hidden at the bottom of a bowl of rice. I asked one of them to get the file from under the pillow. With the file, I quickly cut the lock on my chains. I got up and asked the four inmates to follow me. The cell door was locked. I broke the lock with one jerk. We got into the prison yard. The royal guards were all sleeping in their posts around the yard. At the far end, a few guards were chatting. We turned into a hallway. 1 saw a broom with a thick handle, and picked it up. The hallway was blocked by a thin partition. I gave it a push, and some of the bricks fell. I saw soldiers guarding the exit. The noise drew their attention. I turned back and ran to a corner of the yard, and with the help of the broomstick, climbed on to the roof. Then, I helped my friends up, too. By now, the guards had noticed us. We ran, and they gave chase. It was dark. We disappeared."

Sardar and his four companions ran through the deserted alleyways until they came to a public bath. A few early-risers were going in. Sardar and his companions joined them. They took their time, taking a bath. Soon it was daylight. They left the bath and mingled with the crowd of people that were going out of the city gate. Once past the gate, two of his companions said farewell and went their own ways. Sardar had a friend who lived in a nearby village. He and his two remaining companions hiked all morning to the man's house. He received them warmly. That night, he got them three camels and a guide. He also gave a rifle to Sardar. He refused any monetary compensation.

The next day, they headed for Qom  [viii] through a desert shortcut. Half way to Qom, Sardar asked his other two jail companions to part ways with him because he suspected they were planning to grab his rifle and, perhaps deliver him back to the government in return for amnesty and a reward. As he approached Qom, he also let the guide go back.

In the village of Alborz, the sheriff wanted to take his camel and rifle Sardar pleaded with him to let him go, but to no avail.  In the ensuing firelight, the sheriff was wounded, and Sardar got away. He says in his memoirs:

"The lights in the minarets of Qom guided me on. Near the entrance of the city, I saw a few soldiers sitting under a tree, chatting. They were talking about my escape and my physical description. Assuming that they had received a telegram from Tehran and were expecting me, I dismounted and tip-toed away, cutting through farms. It was late at night when I, having waded across the Qom River, knocked on the door where my folks were living. My father, who is a light sleeper, came to the door. He had heard news of my condemnation to death, but not of my escape. So he asked twice who I was. Recognizing my voice, he opened the door in astonishment and embraced me. Soon, my brothers, too, gathered around. They thanked God for this unexpected deliverance. Briefly, I told them what had happened. My father reminded me of his objections to the Tehran trip, and said "promise to listen to my advice in the future." I promised that from then on I would bear his advice in my mind and never, ever do anything contrary to his wish."

Meanwhile, the false news of Sardar's execution reached Kashan. Saham Saltaneh, a local magnate, got the government's permission to capture the remaining Nayebies. He and his armed men arrived in Qom one day before Sardar did. The news of Sardar's escape made them seem keener. They surrounded the house where the Nayebies were staying. Entrapped, the surprised Nayebies held a council, and decided to fight their way out. They rushed out of the house, their guns blazing. This desperate move surprised the besiegers. They hesitated, and the Nayebies ran free. They took the mountain path to the village of Sedeh.

Saham Saltaneh, frustrated again, moved back to Kashan, where he amassed a larger army. He then moved toward Sedeh. He was so sure of victory that he took with him a load of chains and shackles with which to bind his captives.

Sardar and a few men waited in ambush. When Saham Saltaneh entered the narrow valley, Sardar and his men rained bullets on them. Soon, the enemy was routed. The victorious Nayebies now rode to Dook, their summer retreat, but found it half ruined by their enemies. Within a few weeks, they rebuilt the tower and resumed their communal life. One of their old enemies , Agha Baig, was then the sheriff of Kashan. He kept putting pressure on the Nayeby relatives in Kashan, and sending threatening messages to Sardar that they must leave Kashan and its environs. The  Nayebies decided to act. This is how Sardar describes it:

"As we didn't pay attention to his threats, he became bolder. Finally, our men had enough, and extinguished the fire of his being with the water of retribution . . . One day, accompanied by his guards; he went to a public bath. Akbar Shah, my brother, hears this and, accompanied by one other person goes to the bath. Upon seeing them, the guards at the entrance take to their heels. Akbar shah and his companion enter the bath. They see Agha Baig sitting in a corner, dying his hair with henna. Seeing them, he reaches for his gun, but he is too slow and is shot dead. Soon news of this event reached Tehran. Within a few days, an army headed by Hozhabr Saltaneh was dispatched to Kashan. To avoid  bloodshed, we decided to go to Khonsar. Hozhabr sent a group of his riders to the village of Niasar, where our wives and children had taken refuse. When we heard of this dastardly intention, we rushed toward Niasar. Upon arrival, we discovered that they had plundered everything but, thank god, our loved ones were unharmed."

There ensued a few skirmishes, in all of which the Nayebies had the upper hand. In the last skirmish, Sardar's men captured three of the enemy, one whom was a commander. Despite the opposition of others, Sardar treated these men well and set them free a few days later. Realizing his inability subdue the Nayebies, Hozhabr took his army and left Kashan for good.

Late in the summer of 1908- 1909 the whole country was engulfed in civil war. The bombardment of the parliament by the royalists was the main spark of a  fire that swept through Iran. Kashan, too, was in turmoil. The Nayebies tried to stay out of trouble by staying in their stronghold, Dook. There, they lived in a kind of tribal commune consisting of about one hundred families. They ate together, and shared in the daily chores. They sent several letters and representatives to Kashan, and asked that their grievances be considered. All in vain. Instead of negotiating, the government sent three more expeditionary forces against them. The first one laid a siege on Dook, but the defenders' nighttime sorties and stubborn defense sent them reeling back to Kashan. The second one was larger. This time, the Nayebies resorted to the Parthian tactic of retreating into the mountains and setting ambushes. The government forces took the bait. But after suffering heavy casualties, this exhausted group, too, limped back to Kashan. The third one was much larger and was supported by a number of cannons. They camped near Kashan and waited for reinforcements. They seemed confident that this time, they would put an end to this insurgency. The Nayebies took advantage of this confidence, and launched a surprise attack. After a brief combat, this army was also easily defeated and its cannons taken. It limped all the way back to Tehran.

After these victories, the Nayebies went back to Kashan in force. Their numbers were growing, and they were the virtual rulers of the city. Now they did something that raised eyebrows and made the government consider them a major threat. With the approval of the family council, five men including Sardar raided a government caravan carrying ammunition to Esfaham. They loaded the loot on ninety mules and camels, and hurried to the mountainous village of Nashalg, where they assumed a defensive position. Sardar's explanation for this raid is as follows:

"My whole purpose in taking the armaments and raising the flag of insurrection was to draw the government's attention, so that they would ask why and I would get a chance to state my case and ask        for justice . .. Yet nobody listened." [ix]

But the city fathers of  Kashan did. They asked the Nayebies to stay put in Nashalg for a week so that they could arrange a lasting peace and the return of the stolen armaments.

The Nayebies waited for ten days. It soon became evident that the city had failed to convince the government. Instead of negotiators, the government sent yet another army numbering between 7,000 and 10,000 men, including 300 Bakhtiaries, who were good mountain fighters. Taking the Nayebies by surprise, they surrounded Nashalg. In the ensuing battle, they inflicted casualties and took many captives. Every day, the situation was becoming more tense. Many new Nayeb recruits deserted. The battle raged for eighteen days. On the nineteenth day, another army headed by Salar Massood joined the attackers. Now, the attacks intensified. Once again, the Nayebies had to resort to the Parthian tactic of retreat and rear-action fighting. Usually, they were only a couple of hours ahead of their pursuers.

This cat and mouse game continued for over twenty days. Desertions had. reduced the Nayebies to a handful. One early morning while at breakfast they were subjected to a three-pronged surprise attack. Far outnumbered and in mortal danger, they decided to risk everything. They mounted the: horses, and instead of running away as the enemy had expected, they attacked head-on. "I and my brothers," Sardar says, "attacked them fearlessly. Each minute, thousands of bullets were fired in our direction, but we did not fear. We fought on for about three hours. We took five of their foxholes. They fired around sixty cannon balls, but with God's help, not one of them did us harm. One of our men captured a cannon, but as we did not have the means to move it, we broke its wheels and abandoned it. The attacker retreated to Kashan with their dead and wounded. We went to the mountainous village of Karmeh and prepared for the next round of fighting."

THE LOW TIDE OF THE NAYEBIES

Within a short time, the government forces regrouped and went toward  Karmeh. The Nayebies tried the old Parthian tactic again. But, now numbers were really low.   As a result, they could not spring effective ambushes.   The weather was also becoming a problem.   It was snowing hard, and getting unusually cold. In one clash, they were so hard-pressed that they had left their horses and supplies, and took to the mountains on foot. For two months, they moved through mountains, trying to avoid enemy.   Everyone thought that this time they were doomed.   To make matters worse, a warlord named Nayeb Hossein Narraghi, seeking fame and  fortune, also joined the hunt.   He had sixty armed men.   One day, he ambushed the Nayebies, killed five of their men, and captured eight. The remainder. numbering five or six, waded through deep snow and took refuge in a straws barn in the deserted village of Nezamabad. The night was bitterly cold. they crawled under the straw for warmth, and pondered their next move. Shoja and Akbar shah, two of Nayeb Hossein's sons, and another man volunteered to launch a daring raid. At about seven p.m., the three started their five-mile trek toward the village where Narraghi was staying. The snow was ankle deep.  They sneaked into the hallway leading to the room where Narraghi was seated amidst a group of village elders, boasting that he would finish Nayebies by tomorrow night.  He held a pomegranate. Some of his men were resting in the adjoining room; the others were in the next-door house  The three took aim.  Suddenly, two shots rang out. One hit the kerosene lamp, sinking the room in darkness. The other hit Narraghi in the left eye killing him instantly. Bed lamp broke loose. The three went to the adjoining kitchen, and took three pots of food ready to be served. They headed back through the blowing snow. That night, cold, hungry men in the straw barn feasted on the stolen food.

The next day, Narraghi men took his body and headed back to their little town. Nayeb's men anticipated their route. They attacked them in a mountain gorge. The dispirited men of Narraghi put their hats on their rifles, and raised them as a token of surrender. The Nayebies disarmed them, took their horses, and let them go in peace. In the next few weeks, a number of other clashes took place between the Nayebies and the government forces. In all of these, the Nayebies were victorious. Gradually, the other government forces, too, lost hope, and the campaign petered out. There were a number of reasons for this: the Nayebies were nimble horsemen, good marksmen, well-familiar with the terrain, and secretly supported by many locals. There was another major factor: they were fighting for their lives.

THE GOVERNMENT'S NEW RUSE

In 1909, Sepahdar A'zam became prime minister. In response to the letters of Sardar, he sent word that if they dismissed their men and quit armed resistance; he would grant them protection and, soon after, assign them suitable employment.

Sardar dismissed his men. He, his sister, and his father Nayeb Hossein, who was then about 86, took sanctuary in the shrine of Habib Moosa in Kashan. They stayed there for two months, little suspecting that the whole thing had been a ruse, and another surprise attack was being planned.

One day, a friend sent a message that a group of soldiers were headed toward Kashan. The aging Nayeb Hossein, who had given many of his duties to Sardar, suggested that they move to Dook. But Sardar, who still believed in the government's good faith, decided they should stay put.

The next morning, a little before sunup, Nayeb Hossein went down to the shrine's courtyard to wash his hands and feet in preparation for his matins. Two armed men tiptoed toward him. His white head made them think he was the shrine's caretaker. One of them whispered if he knew where Nayeb and Sardar were sleeping. He answered, "yes, and if you wait here. I'll go and lure them here for you to capture them." He got up, and went inside the cloister where he lived. He locked the door from inside, took up his rifle and went upstairs where his daughter and Sardar were sleeping. He woke them up. They took their rifles. Sardar crept to the roof, and noticed that the shrine was surrounded by soldiers, He opened fire. So did Nayeb and his daughter. The first volley felled the commander and a few other soldiers. An instant later, the soldiers fired back from every direction. A soldier who had crawled up near the roof tossed a grenade at Sardar. It missed, but shrapnel gashed Sardar's chest. Bleeding profusely, he went up the minaret and resumed firing.

The sound of firing alerted the Nayebies in the neighborhood. They attacked the soldiers from behind. The fighting lasted for a few hours In the end, some of the soldiers surrendered, and the others fled. The Nayebies suffered one death while inflicting sixteen casualties.

After this battle, the Nayebies once again recalled their men, armed them, and headed for the mountainous village of Maragh to have Sardar's wound treated by a local physician. They stayed there until the wound was healed. The pain, however, persisted for the rest of Sardar's life, and forced him to smoke opium for relief.

The Nayebies, now numbering over three hundred, moved back to a neighborhood on the fringe of Kashan and fought the soldiers who had taken position in the city center. For almost twenty days, they sniped at each other. Eventually, the Nayebies were forced to leave the city for the barren desert in the center of Iran. They captured the fortress of Biabanak. The government forces did not dare to pursue them in the desert.

THE NAYEB RESURGENCE AND THE FIRST SEIGE OF KASHAN

The Nayeby's success in defying the government caused a number of other rebels to join them. Their number was now over five hundred. So they decided to go back to Kashan. When they arrived, they found the soldiers, hearing of their return in force, had already left the city. A large crowd welcomed them at the city gate. This triumphant return in 1910 marked a new phase in their insurgency. From then on, they maintained a large army, sometimes numbering more than three thousand, and virtually turned Kashan into an autonomous region. From then on, too, destroying them became a government priority.

For a while, they ruled unopposed. They coined money, had a flag and an anthem. They hired a German engineer to repair and fortify the ancient fortress of Karshahy in the middle of the desert. This fortress had two thick walls, designed to withstand artillery shells. It had its own fresh-water spring. Inside, there was room for hundreds of men and horses, and enough food and ammunition to last months. They built other strongholds in strategic places around Kashan, and stored arms in secret locations. Also, they executed six of their enemies, and confiscated a huge shipment of goods belonging to the British company lynch. The British protested and demanded action, for up to then; no one had dared to touch British property.[x]

The government reacted by sending a large force of between 6,000 and 12,000, supported by eight artillery pieces. They surrounded Kashan with its 2,500  Nayeby fighters. The siege lasted seventeen days. There was bloody house-to-house combat in parts of the city. The Nayebies were bombarded with artillery fire. On the fifth day, major battles took place in the southern and western gates of the city, but the invaders could not breech the defensive line. The bombardments became more intense. There were a few civilian casualties.

The city fathers begged the Nayebies to leave and save the city from ruin. The Nayebies consented. At dawn, they sallied out of the city — over two thousand men and around five-hundred camels and males laden with supplies. The besiegers were too surprised to react effectively. Assured that the Nayebies had left, they poured into Kashan and began looting, first the shops in the bazaar and then, homes.

DESERT CAMPAIGN AND THE DEATH OF AKBAR SHAH

The commander of the government forces, Shahab Saltaneh, and six-hundred men went after the Nayebies, who once again, resorted to their old Parthian tactic of retreat and attack. For days, the two sides zigzagged the desert. One day, a big battle took place. In his memoirs, Sardar describes it thus:

"Shahab Saltaneh and his riders were approaching, but we were unaware.   Near Shahrab ( a village), they attacked en masse.   Our men were moving in a column stretching three miles long. I realized we were in grave danger. Our scattered forces could sustain heavy losses. I gathered all my courage, and seemed to turn into a flame of fire. Without regard for our own lives, six men and I charged the enemy's center. This unexpected counteraction made the enemy lose heart. They ran away, leaving behind eight dead or wounded. One of our men died. The enemy limped back to Kashan. We headed toward the fortified city of Tabas."

As a result of this success, a few hundred other rebels joined the Nayebies, swelling their number to more than three thousand. They went to the desert city of Tabas, but the head of the city refused to open the gates. Tabas was circled by a strong wall, and it was difficult to assail it, but there was no other town nearby. The Nayebies were getting short of food and water. So, they decided to attack. A hard-fought battle ensued. The Nayebies made several attempts to scale the wall. On the second day of fighting, Akbar Shah, the younger brother of Sardar, was killed along with some others. Nayeb and Sardar were outraged. They vowed to take revenge. An all-out attack was ordered. While the battle was raging, a band of Nayebies crawled through a narrow rainstorm sluice, and entered the city undetected, confounding the defenders by shooting at them from behind. They ran away toward the city center. Soon, the city was taken and plundered. Many-people lost their lives. Many more lost their belongings. It became a dark chapter in the history of the Nayeby insurgency.

THE RECAPTURE OF KASHAN

From Tabas, they moved to the desert town of Biabanak, where they stayed four months, mourning the death of Akbar Shah. Then they decided they were strong enough to march back to Kashan. The town of Ardestan was on their way. Emam Gholikhan and his men, who were stationed there, were ordered to hold the town and block the Nayebies. But after a short battle, he and his men surrendered. Their weapons were taken, and they were let go. After two days, news was received that two-hundred soldiers and three-hundred tribal fighters (Bakhtiary fighters) were lurking ahead, waiting to be reinforced from Kashan before they would launch their attack. Sardar forestalled them by sending fifty of his crack troopers to launch their own surprise attack. This unexpected move was spectacularly successful. Twelve of the enemy were killed, more than thirty were taken captive. The rest ran away, leaving much of their supplies and arms behind.

After the Nayebies got to Natanz, another large group of Bakhtiary fighters launched a retaliatory surprise attack. The Nayebies were in danger of being encircled. As was common with irregular armies, some Nayeby men ran away. The remaining ones fought valiantly. In the middle of the fury, Sardar's horse received five bullets and collapsed. His sixteen-year-old brother, Reza Khan, brought him a horse, and they fought their way out of the trap. But once again, they were defeated, and the enemy took their reserves of money, victuals, and armaments. Soon, however, the Nayebies regrouped and resumed their journey. Near Kashan, they learned that the city was held by about five-hundred soldiers and Bakhtiaries. One of Sardar's commanders, Pahlevan Reza, said, "Tonight, I'll go and capture the city!" He took twenty-five trusted men, and secretly entered the city. Unlike the government commanders, he knew the meandering alleys of the city. He and his men surprised the drowsy sentries in one of the defensive positions on the city's perimeter. The sentries were on guard against attacks from outside the walls of the city. These Nayebies jumped in from inside, from the rear. Without firing a shot, they disarmed and tied down the soldiers, and tiptoed to the next position. By five in the morning, many of the soldiers on the perimeter had been disarmed and captured. Then, some of the raiders climbed minarets and shouted, "long live Nayeb Hossein! Long live Sardar!" The other government soldiers, thinking the town had already fallen, panicked and left their posts. They took refuge in one of the city's caravansaries.

The next day (27 Ramadan, 1911), the Nayebies entered the city triumphantly. The commander of the government's forces wrote a letter asking for safe passage out of Kashan. This was granted, and they left. Thus, the Nayebies took Kashan without firing a bullet. They also captured lots of armaments including a cannon and two Cannoneers. These two joined the Nayebies and participated in a number of future engagements. Once again, Nayeb Hossein and Sardar established their semiautonomous regime in Kashan. [xi]

THE HEIGHT OF NAVEBY POWER

The Nayebies governed Kashan uninterruptedly for four years. They opened a new school for the poor, and helped in the re-establishment of the health clinic. Once again, they sponsored the repair of mosques and public buildings. More importantly, they brought peace and security to the city. True, during the early months of their establishment in Kashan, there has been a number of clashes with government forces; but all of these, except one, took place outside Kashan.

The exception was this: in 1912, a group of government soldiers (called Cossacks) commanded by two Russian officers and Reza Khan (who later on  became Reza Shah Pahlavi, the king of Iran) [xii] were sent to take Kashan. After a few skirmishes, Reza Khan sent a message to Sardar. It went something like this: true patriots don't fight each other. To spare bloodshed, you and your men should leave and allow us to take the city After a short time, we will leave and you can come back. The Nayebies left Kashan for a while. After a few weeks of wandering and some clashes, they returned and resumed their semiautonomous rule over central Iran.

Three factors caused the government to become conciliatory:

1) It had tried and failed repeatedly to subdue the Nayebies.

2) The world was on the  threshold of the First World War, and the Russian army had occupied Azerbaijan. There were calls for national unity and avoidance of intern strife.

 3) In 1907, the two British and Russian governments had signed a secret pact dividing Iran into three sections: the north was to be the Russian zone of influence; the south the British; the center, including Tehran and Kashan, the neutral zone. When this pact became known five years later, many patriots were outraged and there were many murmurs of rebellion.                                                   

Sardar was now running the show, for his father, Nayeb Hossein, (though still fit) was approaching ninety. He had the control of Kashan and the charter to patrol the roads from Qom to Yazd. For a while, he was even asked to go to Yazd and restore law and order there.  His men numbered over two thousand.

AN UNUSUAL WEDDING!

The Fallah family was prominent in Kashan for a number of reasons. They were "Seyyeds".[xiii]   For two centuries, a number of them had attained high positions in the theological and clerical hierarchy of the city. One of them, Seyyed Ebrahim , was a leader of the Democratic Party in Kashan and wielded considerable power. Seyyed Ebrahim had other assets: he was intelligent, he had connections in Tehran, he was eloquent in speech and writing, and he had beautiful handwriting.

Early on, the relationship between the Nayebies and the Fallah family was not good. The Fallahs were pro-democratic, while the Nayebies were suspicious of both the democrats and the royalists. But since these two families were both from the same neighborhood (Poshte-e-Mashad), they knew one another well and were in occasional contact. Sardar and Sayyed Ebrahim were about the same age, and had probably been childhood friends. In any case, around the year 1911, there developed a strong friendship between them. Soon, Sayyed Ebrahim became a counselor of Sardar, and took a number of trips negotiating with the government on Sardar's behalf. [xiv]

To make the ties between the two families even stronger, they decided to marry Sardar's second son, Abbas, to Sayyed Ebrahim's only daughter, Robab. Abbas was nine,  and Robab was six. Today, such a marriage seems strange, but in those days, it was not uncommon among prominent families. In the case of minors, the custom was to perform all the rites and rituals of marriage except one: the consummation. This would be delayed until both parties came of age.

The wedding ceremonies of Abbas and Robab lasted several nights, and hundreds of people participated in the feasts while thousands watched. This was the biggest wedding party the town had ever seen in Kashan, and people talked about it for years!

A short time afterward, Sayyed Ebrahim died. He was in his mid-forties. Sardar's death came four years later. The bride and groom did not see each other for many years. Some relatives talked of annulling the marriage. A lot of changes had taken place since the "wedding." But Abbas and Robab, now twenty and seventeen, insisted to remain married. Subsequently, the bride was brought to Tehran and the long-delayed consummation took place. I am one of the fruits of this marriage!

THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE NAYEBIES

This state of affairs continued until 1915. Although In this year Persia informed the world's Nations that Persia remain neutral,  [xv]  a new pact was signed by the government and the Russo-British allies, dividing the country into two zones of influence: 50% Britain, 50% Russia. Also, the Great War was in full swing. The British occupied southern Iran, the Russian forces were still in the north, and German agents were active in central, southern and western Iran. Iranians generally favored the Germans because they feared and resented the imperial policies of Britain and Russia. The Germans, by contrast, had no record of colonialism in the Middle East. They posed as friends. [xvi]

In 1915, Nayeb Hossein wrote a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm, indicating his readiness to unite with the Germans if and when they came to drive the Russians and the British out of Iran. Consequently, the German ambassador sent gifts to Nayeb and Sardar, and sent the German military attache to train their men. Other Germans (Pugin, von Hetic, von Niedemayer, and the famous Wassmuss) visited the Nayebies, filmed them, and wrote glowing articles about them. Naturally, the British were alarmed, and pressed the Tehran government to act.  [xvii]

The government had other reasons to act against the Nayebies. It had asked them to send some of their men to Tehran to bolster the city's defenses. As a gesture of good will, Sardar sent his brother Mansur with one hundred men. For a while, everything went well. But the government's gendarmes resented their presence. They demanded that they surrender their arms, promising to give them back in case of need. Mansur reported the situation to Sardar, who ordered him to return forthwith. Mansur and his one hundred men left the capital abruptly, and taking the treacherous shortcut through the salt desert, they made it back to Kashan. Heat and lack of water, however, cost the lives of twenty two men. The government, on the other hand, took this as insubordination.

There was yet another reason: a few years back, a rebel named Reza Juzani seeking security in greater numbers, had joined the Nayebies. He had about one hundred men, and accompanied the Nayebies in a number of campaigns. In late 1914, the government demanded that they disarm him and his men and surrender them to the gendarmes. To the Nayebies, with their code of Lor chivalry and hospitality, this was taboo. They refused. [xviii]

THE SECOND SEIGE OF KASHAN

As a result of all these, the government sent a large army against tht Nayebies. This consisted of a group of Bakhtiary fighters headed by Sarda Saulat and a gendarmerie force commanded by two Swedish officers, Major Nystrom and Major Killander. The gendarmes had cannons, machine guns and armored cars. It is interesting to note that one of the people who were intimidated by this mighty force and secretly agreed to cooperate with the invaders (in return for amnesty) was the same Reza Juzani, whom the Nayebies had refused to surrender.

The Nayebies fortified the city walls and prepared for battle. The invader surrounded Kashan, and rained artillery fire on it.  The defenders fought during daytime, and repaired the damaged fortifications at night. One night-Shoja', Sardar's younger brother, sneaked out of the wall and perched on a  pine tree a few hundred yards away.  There he waited all night.  He was athletic, and an excellent shot. Some considered him a better fighter than even his elder brother, Sardar. It was said that once he had astounded the  German visitors with the following feat: in a marksmanship contest, one of the Germans had aimed and hit a bird sitting on a wall a few feet away. Shoja', it is said, took the gun, and fired a shot in the air. When the bird started flying away, he aimed and fired a second time, bringing down one bird.

Shoja' perched on the tree until sunrise and then started taking out the artillery men one after another. Since the city walls were far away, it took them some time to find out where the shots were coming from. Shoja run back to the city under a hail of bullets.

The siege lasted for twenty-eight days. Food and water were becoming scarce. Constant bombardment was making the people desperate. They went to Sardar, and begged him to leave the city with his men. The Nayebies held a council and decided to leave. It was summertime and in the afternoon everyone stayed indoors to avoid the heat of the sun. Many were used to taking siestas. Sardar ordered his men to get ready to leave the next day at noon. At the appointed hour, the Nayebies massed behind the city's northern gate. At twelve sharp, the Nayebies dashed out of the city. This astonished the dozing besiegers. They reacted too late to cause any serious threat to the galloping Nayebies. Two-thousand strong, they headed for the fortress of Karshahy in the desert. Thus ended the second siege of Kashan. It had cost the lives of twenty-one Nayebies and over fifty government soldiers. Many buildings were left in ruin.

THE DEATH OF SHOJA', SARDAR'S YOUNGER BROTHER

Instead of giving chase to the retreating Nayebies, the soldiers (fearing a trap) entered the city gingerly and then proceeded to loot Nayeby homes. Ordered by Sardar Saulat, their commander, they destroyed Shoja's house as a payback for his feat outside the city walls.

Meanwhile, the Nayebies arrived at Karshahy, a double-walled fortress with room for over two-thousand men and horses, and supplies to last for months. They would have probably done much better if they had just stayed there but, to their loss, they didn't.

Outraged by the news of the destruction of his house, Shoja' decided to retaliate by blitzing the city of Ardestan and destroying the British-owned Indo-Europe Telegram Company's office and Sardar Saulat's own house. [xix] Against his father's advice, he left Karshahy with three hundred mounted men, and accomplished his mission. Saulat learned of this, and rushed toward Ardestan with a large army. Shoja', unaware of this, was in mortal danger. Scouts reported the situation to the Nayebies in Karshahy. Nayeb and Sardar rushed out of Karshahy to aid Shoja', leaving fifty men behind to protect the fortress. When they reached Kohafr, a Saulat base, the local commander would not admit them, nor would he offer them fodder and water. Instead, he asked Sardar to approach and negotiate. Nayeb Hossein objected to Sardar going. Finally, two people were sent, one of them a Sardar look-alike.   The enemy commander shot both of them dead! The Nayebies surrounded the base, and captured it. Here Shoja' and his men joined them. Since the roads back to Karshahy were now blocked by gendarmes, the Nayebies moved south into the mountains. Saulat's men were in hot pursuit.

One night, when the Nayebies had camped in the village of Josheghan, Saulat sent some of his men to take positions ahead of the Nayebies. In the morning, he attacked from the rear. The Nayebies fought for three hours. When they started their usual Parthian retreat tactic  they found themselves trapped in a narrow valley with the enemy on the ridges on both sides. Bullets rained on them, and they lost men and horses. They decided to make a run for it. With Shoja' and his men leading the way they galloped through the gorge. But a number were hit, including Shoja'. A bullet fired from the ridge had entered the shoulder and gone past the lung and intestines.

Nayeb and Sardar rushed to his side. They carried him under an overhanging cliff. Tears welled in everyone's eyes for they knew Shoja' was dying. Breathing hard, he urged them to not be disheartened. A few minutes later, he died. His death was the greatest blow the Nayebies had suffered to date. Some believed they would never recover from it. Many of his devotees left the ranks and went home. Nayeb Hossein, who had already lost a son, Akbar Shah, in the battle of Tabas, took the body of Shoja' and the train of supplies, and moved on. Sardar and other: stayed to protect their  rear.

THE SEIGE OF KARSHAHY

They carried the body to the village of Maragh, where they buried it in an unmarked grave. From there, they took a circuitous course back to Karshahy The death of Shoja' had been a severe blow, but other dangers pressed them doggedly and they had little time for mourning.

Many of their allies had defected with their men. When the Nayebies limped back to Karshahy, they numbered only three hundred, plus fifty who had stayed behind in the fortress. Barely a month before, they had numbered over two thousand! They quickly got busy strengthening their defensive positions in and around Karshahy. [xx]

Saulat, on the other hand, moved to Maragh, exhumed Shoja's body, took it to Kashan, put it on a horse, and paraded it around the city. Then he ordered the ten-day old corpse to be decapitated and the head sent to Tehran. Disgusted by this brutality, the government authorities in the capital ordered it to be buried immediately.

From Kashan, Saulat and his army moved to Karshahy, and bombarded it with cannon fire. But cannon balls did little damage to Karshahy's thick walls. Since the area around Karshahy was flat desert, the enemy did not dare to come close to within rifle range. So aside from a few men who were manning the tree towers and the walls of the fortress, the others settled down to a communal life, with everyone having assigned duties. Years later, Sardar's oldest son, Mehdi Khan, recounted the following two episodes: "my father had a yen for vegetable soup. We had beans and dried vegetables, but not fresh ones. I was about twelve years old, small enough to slip out of the big gate and crawl toward the nearby vegetable field. Late one night, I did just that, and came back with a sack full of vegetables. The next day, we had a huge pot of vegetable soup! On another occasion, my stepmother was trying to cook bean soup. She had set the big pot in the open, and left it simmering overnight. A few men were mending the wall where it had been damaged by cannon fire. A cannon ball hit one of the workers, and sent his skull flying into the pot. The next morning, the stepmother went to check the soup. She stirred it, and what she saw made her pass out. The soup was dumped out"

Cannon fire was becoming a threat. Late one night, Sardar sent twenty fighters to take the cannons out. Silently, they tiptoed toward the enemy. When they got close, they opened fire. Enemy gunners ran away in their underwear. The commotion caused hundreds of others to jump on their horses bareback and gallop away. As per agreement, the Nayeby fighters lit a fire to indicate victory.

Sardar sent Reza Juzani and his men to help bring the abandoned cannons into Karshahy. He was a trusted commander whom Sardar had refused to surrender to the government, thus causing the present conflict But as said before, Reza Juzani had already agreed secretly to aid the enemy and even to assassinate Sardar if given a chance. In return, he wanted amnesty and a reward.

Reza Juzani and his men approached the Nayeby men in the dark, and fired. The men, fearing encirclement, left the cannons and ran back to Karshahy. A few minutes later, Reza Juzani and his men rode back, too. He vehemently denied charges of treason. Sardar believed him, but Nayeb Hossein did not. Later events proved the latter right.

The next morning, Sardar Saulat and his men returned to their camp and took the cannons. A great victory had eluded the Nayebies, and the siege and cannonades continued for twenty-nine days. The Nayebies were relatively comfortable in the safety of their fortress. The government forces by contrast, lived in tents a couple of miles away. They had to endure the desert heat, and water had to be carried to them from miles away.

One day, a dust-covered messenger came to Karshahy. He delivered severe letters from various authorities in Tehran, all stating that the Russians were poised to attack Tehran, the country was in grave danger, and Iranians should stop fighting one another.   Instead, they should unite to fight the  Anglo-Russian invaders.  They announced the formation of the "National defense committee, (N.D.C.)" and asked the Nayebies to go to the defense of Tehran at once.   On the other side, too, the government gendarmes received the same message and decided to leave for Tehran. But Sardar Saulat refused to join them.   The rumors about the gold coins and armaments hidden in Karshahy tempted him to keep his Bakhtiary fighters around the fortress. he  aimed to capture it sooner or later.

Despite Saulat's intransigence, the Nayebies decided to leave. Late at night, they left Karshahy through a back door, leaving Reza Juzani and his men to guard Karshahy. Sardar and few men, being the rearguard, left last. He had galloped a few feet when Reza Juzani opened fire. Darkness and good luck saved Sardar's life. Now his treachery became obvious. Later  that day, he opened the gate to Sardar Saulat's men. They dug here and there, tore down walls, but whether they found anything is not known?

The Nayebies took the shortcut to Tehran through the inhospitable Salt desert. They spent five days traveling in the hot wasteland. Mehdi Khan Sardar's oldest son, remembered the journey: "traveling in the salt desert  had made everyone tired. The only full meal we had during those five days was Onager Kebab. Onagers are plentiful in that region, and each day we hunted some. We made a fire with tamarisk branches that grow wild. Even though we were hungry, we ate little lest we get thirsty and use too much of the little water we were left with."

When they got to Varameen, a village near Tehran, they received fresh orders from the National Defense Council to proceed to Qom.

The National defense council and the mohajerat or migration westward

The Nayebies camped in the outskirts of Qom and waited for further instructions. While waiting, on a number of occasions, they invited the leaders of The National Defense Council (N.D.C.) and German advisors, and entertained them with feats of acrobatics, marksmanship and horsemanship. Nayeby leaders, too, participated in the demonstrations. Of particular interest were the feats performed by the aged Nayeb Hossein, who was then over ninety.

Gradually, the number of N.D.C.'s adherents increased. Many politicians and tribal fighters joined in. The aim was to stop the advance of the Russian forces. Naturally, the Ottomans and Germans supported the nationalists with funds, arms and some military advice. The German military attaché, Kantis, advised them on military matters, and the consul general in Kermanshah, Shunemann, organized and coordinated them. Van Reuss, the German ambassador, oversaw the entire operation. But, not having any armies available, Germans left the fighting to Iranians. [xxi] The Tehran government, on the other hand, supported the Anglo-Russian invaders, and called the N.D.C. fighters "rebels."

These fighters had two advantages and a few disadvantages. They were well-motivated and knew the terrain, but they lacked a central command, at times they feuded, and they were lightly armed. They lacked the discipline and the armaments (armored cars, artillery, etc.) of the foreign invaders.

In a meeting between the N.D.C. leaders and Sardar, presided over by the famous nationalist Modaress, the Nayebies swore loyalty to the Council, and in return, received assurances that after the expulsion of foreign invaders, their grievances would be remedied and they would be given suitable employment. It was also decided that the Nayebies and some other forces should defend Saveh against the advancing Russians, while the bulk of the nationalist army would operate in the Qom-Tehran road and stop any future advances? by the Russians from that direction. In Moharram of 1916, the Nayebyeis spearheaded a move to Saveh and beyond. They took position in a caravansary on the Tehran-Ghazvin road.

The Russian army, under the command of General Baratov, had started a two-pronged attack toward Saveh and Tehran. The Nayebies resorted to a ruse. Aware of the approach of the Russian column, a group of Nayebies dressed as cameleers and drove their arms-laden camels past the Russian vanguards.   A few minutes, later, they ambushed the main body of the Russians? who, taken by surprise, retreated and regrouped.  Meanwhile, the Nayebies in the caravansary attacked the isolated vanguards and decimated them. The Russian losses were considerable: one officer and around three hundred! men killed, and three cannons, one armored car and over a hundred rifles were taken by the Nayebies. Furthermore, the Nayebies' control of the mountain passes made the Russian capture of Saveh very difficult. Consequently, General Baratov wrote a letter to Nayeb Hossein, praising the bravery of his men and promising that if he would reject the Germans and collaborate with the Russians, he would receive funds and support. Nayeb answered that they did not take orders from any foreigners.

The Nayeby success gladdened the Nationalists. But unfortunately, they were not allowed to stay where they had been so effective. They were ordered to leave their positions, and go to support the forces that were fighting; on the Qom-Tehran road. The Nationalists' vacillating tactics and their lack of a unified command on the one hand, and the superiority of the Russians in numbers and armaments, on the other, soon tipped the balance They fought their way to Saveh and attacked Qom from two sides. The ( forces fighting on the Tehran - Qom road, fighting on flat terrain, had been no match for the Russian armor and superior fire power. As the enemy approached, the Nationalists panicked. On horseback, on foot and in carriages, they evacuated Qom. Some followed the Nayebies to Kashan others hurried to Esfahan. In a meeting of NDC in Kashan, Sardar made the following suggestions:

1) Since we don't have armored vehicles and cannons, we should resort to guerilla warfare.

2) There should be a unified command.

 3) Each of the fighting groups should go back to their own territories, so that their knowledge of terrain and citizen support would give them an added edge.

 and 4) Kashan should be the center of operations.

The leaders of NDC accepted the first two suggestions, but opted for retreating westward and joining the Ottoman forces in Mesopotamia (today's Iraq).

         The NDC asked the Nayebies to block the Russians' movement from Qom to Kashan, so that the NDC leaders and their forces could go toward Ottoman territory. The Nayebies stayed behind, and engaged the Russians in a number of bloody battles. In a successful night attack in Shurab, they inflicted heavy casualties on the Russians. Later on, they lured the pursuing Russians into the mountainous area south of Kashan, and again inflicted heavy losses. They could probably have kept the Russians bogged down for a long time, because they knew the terrain, and the mountains rendered the Russian armor and artillery useless.

At this time, too, the Tehran government sent a mission to Kashan, trying to dissuade the Nayebies from following the NDC. In return, they promised to give them amnesty and military positions. The Nayebies rejected these overtures, and continued their fight against the Russians.  By now, the Nationalist leaders had reached the city of Sultanabad. But the Russians were getting closer and, in desperation, they asked the Nayebies to leave Kashan and serve as the Nationalists' rearguard. So, the Nayebies left Kashan and soon after, the Russians moved in. They made Sardar's mansion their headquarters.

Victory at Gadook pass

The Nayebies reached Sultanabad in time to save the Nationalists from likely capture by the Russians. The winter was particularly cold that year, and many Nationalists went back to their hometowns. But the rest pushed west with six-hundred Nayebies acting as rearguard. In Malayer, Garrass, and Kangavar, bloody clashes took place between the Nationalist forces and the pursuing Russians whose aim was to stop them from joining up with the Ottomans. Near Gadook Pass, the Nationalists discovered that another Russian contingent had already occupied the pass. Thus, the Nationalists' forward movement was blocked. Cold and hungry, they asked Nayebies to change from being rearguard to be vanguard. The latter accepted, and resorted to their previously-tried ruse. One night, a group of them disguised themselves as muleteers following a train of mules seemingly laden with merchandise. They approached the Russians guarding the pass, singing muleteer songs and chatting loudly, the bells on their mules jingling. The Russians were fooled, and let them get  close. The Nayebies suddenly-jumped in the Russians dugout, and using only daggers, dispatched them noiselessly. They did the same thing in the other dugouts. Thus, they took control of the pass, while on the other side of the hill, the Russians in the main camp were sleeping. The Nayebies on the pass lit a bonfire to inform their comrades of their success. Soon, other Nayebies joined them and together, they launched a night attack on the main Russian camp. The Russians moved back. The pass was open, and the shivering Nationalist moved through, heading toward Kermanshah.

The victory at Gadook enhanced the Nayebies popularity among the Nationalists. Once in Kermanshah, the Nationalists made a mistake. Upon the suggestion of the Germans and the recommendation of Modarress, the NDC called itself "The Temporary National Government of Iran," and gave its top position to Nezam-al-Saltaneh. This entity then signed an agreement with the German government, according to which it became an ally of Germany and the Ottomans, and accepted General Von Der Goltz as the commander-in-chief of the Iranian army. This, despite the fact that the Germans and the Ottomans had not committed any forces to defending Iran and their help had been limited to funding and military advice. This was big mistake, and alienated a number of NDC followers.

In February of 1916, the Nationalists left Kermanshah and went to Ghasre Sheerin, a few miles from the Ottoman border. The Nayebies were the last defenders of Kermanshah, and left as the rearguard of the retreating Nationalists. For a while, they succeeded in blocking the Russian advance But the Nationalists were in dire circumstances. Ghasr Sheerin was too small to accommodate such large numbers. The cold, lack of supplies and disease were taking their toll. Also, there was dissention. Some groups including the Nayebies, disapproved of the agreement made with Germany and questioned the efficiency of the leadership. They believed that the Nationalists should not become a tool of the Germans , that their forces should go back to their various home bases, where they had local support and start a nationwide armed resistance against the foreign invaders. they also agreed secretly to replace Nezam Saltaneh with Haydar Amoghli,  [xxii] One of the supporters of the constitutional revolution.

In March, Nayeb Hossein, Sardar and fifty of their men went secretly to Baghdad for the purpose of bringing Haydar Amoghli back to Ghasr Sheerin. They were received by Ottoman governor of Baghdad, Khallil Pasha, and treated as guests of the State. But they never met  Haydar Amoghli, for he had already been transferred to Istanbul.  Also, Nezam Saltaneh and his supporters had gotten wind of the Nayeby intentions, but chose not to react immediately. The Nayebies, on the other hand, pretending that the aim of their trip had been to visit holy places, went on a pilgrimage to Karbala and Najaf. In Najaf they visited the tomb of Hashem, Nayeb Hossein's brother whose murder forty-four years before had caused the Nayeby rebellion. Also while there, a delegation of the pro-British Iranians visited them and invited them to switch to the English side. They predicted the impending victory of the Allies, and warned that in that case, the supporters of the Nationalists would be punished. The Nayebies did not heed this warning. Instead, they hurried back to Ghasr Shireen, where Nezam Saltaneh coldly received them and said they could go back to Kashan. A number of other groups were also asked to leave. The remaining Nationalists stayed there a few more months. When the British occupied southern Iraq, the Nationalists moved to Kirkuk, and then to Istanbul. There, they stayed until the defeat of the Axis in 1918 brought their movement to an end.

Those Nationalists who had decided to go back to their hometowns had had to pass many ordeals. Individuals and smaller groups had been victims of the harsh terrain, unusually cold weather, and bandits. Many gendarmes had to barter their rifles for food or safe passage. A large number were captured by the Russians or perished trying to go through the mountains.

The Nayebies, who were familiar with mountainous terrain (especially those of Lorestan) and wished to avoid Russian attacks, chose a rarely-trodden path through the mountains of central Iran. Excessive rainfall and the nightly attacks of local bandits made their progress arduous. Passing rain-swollen rivers, particularly Karkheh, was a big challenge. They blew air in sheepskins, tied them together and used them as rafts.

In Lorestan, their journey became easier, for here many tribal leaders were their distant kinsmen and treated them as guests. In Borujerd, the chiefs of the Bayranvand tribe received them warmly and invited them to return with their families and once again live in their ancestral homeland. The Nayebies promised to do so at an appropriate time. At this time, they also received a message from Tehran, promising them future amnesty and asking that, in return, they should avoid any clashes with the government or Russian forces. The Nayebies responded favorably, and promised to act only in self-defense. However, on the road to Sultanabad, they were ambushed by the Russians and suffered casualties.

They finally reached their stronghold, Dook, a few miles from Kashan. The Russian garrison in the city reacted quickly,   a  large group of  Russian  soldiers moved toward Dook. The Nayebies left Dook, and hurried into desert with the Russians in hot pursuit In a deserted village near the Qom  salt lake, the two groups clashed.    The Russian commander and his lieutenant were killed, and the Russians pulled back.

Resorting to the familiar Parthian tactic, they moved into the mountains and inflicted heavy casualties on their pursuers. The Russians made peace overtures, but the Nayebies would have nothing but the complete Russian withdrawal from Kashan. Skirmishes continued. When the Russian consul in Esfahan was on his way to Tehran with armed escorts, the Nayeby ambushed them, inflicting casualties and taking the consul's belongings and documents. The Russians decided to retaliate decisively. They pretended to be evacuating Kashan, but suddenly changed course and moved against Nayeby positions. The latter lured them into the mountains, and plagued. them with ambushes, sniping and night attacks. Finally, they trapped them  in a narrow gorge, and rained bullets on them from the ridges on either side  Having suffered seventy dead and fifty wounded, the Russians finally left Kashan for Qom.

A new period of power and prosperity

In August of 1916, the victorious Nayebies returned to Kashan. They promised to re-establish law and order, and began repairing the city's war damaged buildings and infrastructure.   They had the bazaar repaired, opened a boarding school for 150 students.  The new prime minister in Tehran, Vossogh-ed-Douleh, also pretended to seek a peaceful solution of the Nayebies' problem. He asked Zell-Sultan, the new governor of Esfaha to stop by in Kashan and negotiate with them. In a meeting with Sardar, he gave them not only amnesty, but the charter to patrol all the roads from Qom to Nain. Once again, the Nayebies went from rags to riches, their men increased to two thousand. Of them, one thousand were stationed  on roads, five hundred were under Nayeb Hossein, and five hundred Sardar. In central Iran, nobody else had so many armed followers. [xxiii]

In the fall of 19!7, the Bolshevik revolution took place. Russian forces left Iran. The tides of war were also turning against the Germans. The British and the pro-British government of Vossogh-ed-Douleh were gaining ascendancy in Iran. With the defeat of Germany in 1918, the British and their Iranian allies became all-powerful. Now the British wanted a strong central government that could protect the country against the communist threat. They favored the strengthening of the Iranian army and the elimination, by hook or by crook, of all local militias and warlords. The Nayebies, because of their proximity to Tehran, posed a great threat and had to be dealt with first.

There was also another threat. Modarress and other Nationalists opposed to the governments pro-British stance were planning a coup d'etat. As in the past, the Nayebies sided with Modarress. The months of contact with Nationalists during the skirmished with the Russians and the retreat to Iraq had infused Nayeb Hossein and Sardar with new ideas concerning governments and the people's rights. They no longer wanted justice only for themselves. Their aspirations were much higher.

The Nationalist's plan was to secure the cooperation of the capital's police force, and then have the rebels from the north and the Nayebies from the south attack Tehran. Apparently, all the parties involved agreed, and a series of coded letters and telegrams were exchanged. But evidently, through their spies, the British and the government were aware of these plots. Years later, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the strongman who came to power with British support, is supposed to have said, "If I hadn't staged a coup d'etat, Modarress and his allies would have done so."

Vossogh-ed-Douleh, the pro-British prime minister of Iran, tried to strengthen the government's armed forces. Within a few months, the gendarmerie grew from three thousand to eleven thousand men. The army also grew considerably, but the government did not yet feel strong enough to take on the Nayebies. So, Vossogh-ed-Douleh faked a conciliatory stance, but secretly planned to have Sardar assassinated. Nayeb Hossein was too old, and without Sardar, the Nayebies would disintegrate.

Early in 1919, Colonel Kazem Tabrizi was sent to assassinate Sardar. A friend of the Nayebies who worked in the Interior Ministry learned of the plot, and informed Sardar's oldest son, MehdyKhan, who was a student in Tehran. Mehdy rode post haste to Kashan, and informed his father. The Colonel was arrested, and mercifully expelled from Kashan. [xxiv]

Another time, a man named Yahya Khan and two of his collaborators were sent to kill Sardar. They went as guests, but at night, tried to climb to the roof where Sardar was sleeping. They were caught, and again, mercifully expelled. Later on, a disgruntled Nayeby commander, Nasrollah, and some of his men tried to jump Sardar. Sardar, who had been tipped off beforehand, had them arrested in the act. This time, the would-be assassin, Nasrollah, was executed.

Parallel to these assassination attempts, Vossogh-ed-Douleh suborned smaller outlaw bands, like those of Reza Juzani and Jaffar Charmin, to harass Nayebye patrols, and rob travelers and put the blame on the patrols. [xxv]  But: these were mere nuisances, and the Nayebies kept consolidating their rule over Kashan and its surrounding areas. They built fortresses in mountain passes and stashed arms in strategic locations. Much of the taxes and road tolls they collected was spent on public works. [xxvi]

Sardar's Harem

The Nayeby men were mostly monogamous. Nayeb Hossein married four-times, but that was because each of his first three wives had died. He was never married to more than one woman at any given time. His children, too , were monogamous, all except one - Sardar. He had many wives; nobody-knows how many for sure. The names of up to seventeen of them are known.

Sardar seems to have been proud of his sexual prowess. In his memoirs, he says, "I have a particular love and admiration for women, and I take full advantage of what my religion allows." The Moslem religion allows up to four regular (aghdi) wives, and a limitless number of common-law wives (seegheh).

Sardar's residence consisted of a ten-acre garden with a number of buildings for the wives, the guards, the horses and the servants. In the middle of the compound was Sardar's own living quarters. It contained a large hall, called "the Gallery," where he received visitors.

All of his wives, however, did not live with him. Wherever he went in his campaigns or travels, he would marry the daughter of some local dignitary. This was done for the dual purpose of pleasure and forming alliances. many of these wives chose to stay with their parents and pay occasional visits to Sardar.

Interestingly enough, Sardar had children from only three of his wives. From one, Mehri Khanom, he had three sons and one daughter  Two other wives bore him a son each.

Sardar's last common-law marriage took place during his fateful last journey to Tehran, two or three weeks before his death. My father recalls in his memoirs that though this woman had been married to Sardar for only a few days, she showed a great deal of loyalty to the memory of Sardar, and lovingly took care of his orphans for a few months until their mothers joined them and took over.

After Sardar's death, some of his wives remarried and formed new families. But a few, including the three who had born him children never married again.

Events leading to the fatal trip to Tehran

In January of 1919, the British made a final attempt to reach an accommodation  with Sardar.   The British consul in Isfahan, Haig, went personally to Kashan. [xxvii]

During the course of a meeting with Sardar, Haig offered Sardar amnesty and protection. He said that England would like to see Iran ruled by a strong leader, and the Nayebies could, through friendship with England, become instrumental in providing such leadership. Sardar rejected this offer and said that he would accept amnesty and protection only from the Iranian government. Despairing of an accommodation with Sardar, Haig and Havard, the attaché of the British Embassy, met Vossogh-ed-Douleh. and plotted the final destruction of the Nayebies. [xxviii]

They agreed to send a large contingent of the British "South Persia Rifle'' [xxix] to Esfahan to strike the Nayebies from the south if need be. Another large group of gendarmes and Bakhtiary fighters was sent to Qom. [xxx]

 These military moves were coupled with friendly letters and telegrams, inviting Sardar to Tehran. [xxxi]

Whereas a week before Tehran had postponed the election! The government by appointing Mashallah khan to supervise the election tried to indicate its good will towards him and buy his thrust!?

To encourage Sardar to go, Vossogh-ed-Douleh not only gave him amnesty and safe-conduct, but also promised to send him north at the head of an army to subdue the rebels and become the governor of Gillan Noticing Sardar's hesitation, he even signed a copy of the Koran guaranteeing Sardar's protection while in Tehran. For a  Moslem, signing the Koran is the most solemn and sacred declaration. [xxxii]

Sardar had a dilemma. Pursuant to his secret agreement with Modarress, was waiting impatiently for the order to move on Tehran and participate the planned coup d'etat. But time was running out. His delay would make Vossogh-ed-Douleh suspicious, and force him to take military action. His forces in Qom and Esfahan were superior to his, and Prime minister had access to more soldiers in Kerman and Tehran that could also be ordered to join the attack against Kashi sawars?

The Nayebies called a council. It was to be their last. The discussions turned into a heated debate between Sardar and his aged father. Nayeb Hossein was against his son's plan to go to Tehran. He reminded him that almost fifty years before, he had gone to Tehran to seek justice, and instead, he had been imprisoned. That he, Sardar, had once before gone to Tehran to negotiate, but had come awfully close to being executed. When Sardar countered that this time, Vossogh-ed-Douleh had signed the Koran, Nayeb Hossein answered by referring to the fate of Dr. Heshmat, [xxxiii] to whom Vossogh-ed-Douleh had also sent a signed Koran. Once in Tehran, he had been summarily executed.

Sardar stated that this time, the government was busy fighting insurgents in Gillan. and would be disinclined to engage in another war with the Nayebies. Besides, he would go to Tehran with armed men, who would serve as a deterrent to any treacherous plan by the government. Sardar finished by stating that he was tired of constant fighting, that the government forces were getting stronger daily, and that sooner or later, they would subdue the Nayebies.  In light of this, it would be better, he said, now that they still had relative parity with government forces in central Iran, to go to Tehran and strike a deal. (Mean time the British consul in Isfahan reports to his superior in Tehran that the South Persia rifles with the assistance of  Bakhtiari Chief Sardar-i- jang have been able to get rid of most of the rebels in central Persia. [xxxiv]

At the end of the talks, Nayeb Hossein softened his opposition, and it was decided that Sardar would make the momentous trip to Tehran. The next day, Sardar informed Vossogh- ed-Douleh of this decision.

Sardar was planning to go with six-hundred armed men, but Vossogh- ed-Douleh, arguing that it was difficult to lodge such a large group or to prevent clashes with gendarmes in Tehran, coaxingly suggested that Sardar come with a much smaller force. [xxxv] He also sent him gifts and a check for ten-thousand tumans - a large amount then - to cover his travel expenses.

At the same time, the government was busy mobilizing for action against the Nayebies. Forces were massed in Esfahan, Ardestan, Yazd, Nain, and Qom. Their probable mission was to attack the more than one-thousand Nayeby  patrols scattered on roadside posts. By far, the most potent force was the new "mobile gendarme brigade," (equipped with machine guns, artillery and armored vehicles) that the government claimed, was on its way to Esfahan and would pass through Kashan. Commanded by Major Amir Sepahi, it had moved to within a few miles of Kashan. It was this force that later on attacked Nayeb Hossein and captured him along with two of his sons. [xxxvi]

The point that has not been settled yet, at least for this writer, is whether Vorsoogh-ed-Dalleh was really interested in peace. His supporters state that he was genuinely interested in bringing the Nayeby rebellion to an end by giving a deserving position to Sardar and granting Nayeb Hossein's wish to retire in the holy city of Najaf. His positioning of forces around Kashan, they claim, was merely a precautionary measure. But when he discovered that Sardar was in secret contact with Modarress and others, and especially when he learned of the plans for a coup d'etat, he had to do what he did. His detractors, on the other hand, claim that the invitation of Sardar to Tehran and the positioning of forces were parts of an elaborate plan, devised with the help of the British, to destroy the Nayebies once and for all. Vossogh-ed-Douleh, they believe, never intended to give Sardar any position. He lulled the Nayebies with insidious promises and sprung his deadly trap at the right time.  One of his motives, they say, was to get possession of the Nayeby's caches of arms and treasures.                             

Rumor had it that the Nayebies had amassed fabulous amounts of gold coins and jewels. [xxxvii]  In addition to household items, the Nayebies each owned a house and some farmland.  After their fall, these were all confiscated. Also, customarily, Nayeb Hossein and Sardar each carried a double saddlebag full of gold coins out of which they paid for the routine needs of their families and armed men .    Sardar's saddlebag was confiscated upon his arrest. Nayeb Hossein's was stolen by the men who shot and wounded him. (The saddlebag ended up in the hands of Vossogh- ed-Douleh and Major Sepahi.)

During their many interrogations, they both denied having any hidden treasures. The fact that after them, their children, especially Sardar's, lived in relative poverty lends credence to this.  But to this day, there are those who believe that: someday, someone will stumble on these fabulous hoards. [xxxviii]

Before Sardar  had decided to accept the invitation of Prime Minister and proceed to Tehran for face to face discussions, The British commanders in charge of South Persia Rifles realized their forces are no match for Nayebies Militia forces if Sardar moves to one of his bases in the middle of Central desert. for this reason a telegram was sent to the officials involved with the fight against Nayebies, and in detail explains his reasons why( SPR) should not be invoved!? The Telegram is as follows:

 (Received with Army Department memorandum No. P672, dated the 17th July 1919.) Telegram P., No. 840—133-G., dated the 15th (received 19th) July 1919. From—Colonel Orton, Shiraz, To—The Chief of the General Staff, Simla.

            The following is a telegram from Fraser at Ispahan, dated 13th July 

Begins. That Mashallah Khan has made all preparations for flight is the latest news from Kashan. It is unlikely that he will accept offer of safe conduct by Fazlullah Khan, and will probably not wait to fight at Kashan, but will move eastwards, probably towards Siyahkuh or Yanaak. He will , probably get into country where it would not be advisable for this column to follow him, and I think the chances of now bringing operations to a successful conclusion are small.        

A wire from Minister, Tehran,  to Haig, states that Gendarmes have been ordered to stand fast at Qom until the return of the Prime Minister, who is at present away from Tehran. On his return the matter will be discussed. In the event of Mashallah Khan escaping from Kashan, I think it should be understood that South Persia Rifles will not follow him, unless there is a reasonable chance of catching him within a period to be laid down by you." Fraser's telegram ends.

The factor of surprise has been eliminated by the intervention of Fazlullah'a Gendarmes, and given Mashallah Khan time to remove valuables and make preparations for flight into the desert.

There are reasonable grounds for fear that Fazlullah's Gendarmes may loot Kashan, and if South Persia Rides troops were there, they would not escape odium, even if they could be restrained by British officers. In the event of South Persia Rifles column operating towards Kashan, I would like to stipulate the South Persia Rifles would not enter Kashan if Gendarmerie were there, and also that Mashallah Khan would not be pursued into the desert by South Persia Rifles, unless Fraser saw reasonable chance of quick success, viz, of bringing  Mashallah Khan to action not  more than one day's march from Kashan.

In the event of Mashallah Khan succeeding in escaping, I would prefer that South Persia Rifles troops should discontinue operations and leave Kashan affairs in the hands of Fazlullah's Gendarmes.

My own remarks have been repeated, under the same number, to Isfahan and Tehran."

{ The commanding officer of the S.R.P clearly has pointed out that his men are not in any position to handle well experienced and trained  fighting men of Naybies in the desert areas! }

The fatal trip to Tehran

Despite the misgivings of Nayeb Hossein, Sardar started preparing for his journey. He decided to station three-hundred men within a few miles of Tehran and take two-hundred uniformed, well-armed men with him to Tehran. On the day of his departure, Kashan came to a virtual standstill. Many people went to the city gate to see him off. His father and brothers escorted him for a few miles before bidding a fond farewell.     Following Sardar and his two-hundred riders was a caravan of ten Nayeby men  carrying crates of German rifles destined to reach Mirza Kuchic. who had risen up in Gillan. He was one of the people who were supposed to move to Tehran when and if Modarress gave the signal for the coup d'etet. This ten man caravan took a shortcut through the desert and the Alborz mountains and delivered the arms. Their return, however, coincided with Sardar's arrest. They, too, were apprehended and sent to jail. It is probable that their confession about the mission, if they ever did confess, would give another reason to the government to act ruthlessly against the Nayebies.

A few more miles out of Kashan, Sardar met with two officers representing the "mobile gendarme brigade." They said that their group was going to stay in Kashan for only a few days and, to avoid any clashes, it would be better if the Nayebies left the city. Sardar agreed, gave the necessary order, and continued his horseback journey to Qom and from there, to Tehran.

According to an eyewitness, Rey (the southern suburb of Tehran) "was caught in the excitement of the moment. Not only the local people, but also a large number of government officials and friends of the Nayebies, had come to welcome (Sardar). Carriages and automobiles of well-wishers filled the streets. Officials of the Ministry of the Interior received Sardar in the garden of Saraj-al-molk," They informed him that he and his men would be guests of the government. They also suggested that since the house they prepared for him in the north of the city could not accommodate two-hundred men, it would be better if he took only fifty men with him, and left the rest in Rey. This would effectively cut him off from the bulk of his men but, as a gracious guest, he had to accept the host's wishes. Thus began Sardar's 24-day stay in Tehran: 16 days of negotiations and 8 days in jail.

The next day, Sardar went to see Vossogh- ed-Douleh in his house located in the northwest of Tehran. Vossogh-ed-Douleh was favorably impressed by Sardar's looks, personality, and folksy eloquence. After the usual exchanges of good intention and the agreement to meet further, Vossogh-ed-Douleh asked his guest to beware of getting involved in the intrigues of "wily politicians" and political factions. He stated that Sardar would do well to consult the prime minister's staff before meeting the capital's political figures. In the afternoon of the same day, Havard, the attache' of the British Embassy paid Sardar a visit, and stated unequivocally that his friendship with Modarress was dangerous. Sardar responded that this friendship dated back many years and had to do with the latter's religious and spiritual eminence.

Sardar knew that Tehran had been under martial law for some time and that everything was under tight government control. What he didn't know was that agents were appointed to report his every movement. The names of his visitors were noted, and his private correspondence was read. In reality, he was already entrapped.

Despite these, the next day he paid a visit to Modarress. During the next few days, along with visiting Vossogh-ed-Douleh, he met with a number of Kashani residents of Tehran and a few opponents of the government. Little is known of what went on in these meetings. Years later, Sardar's oldest son remembered that in a meeting with Modarress and five others, he, then a young lad, had been asked to leave the room. Were they having a friendly gathering? Were they refining the plans for a coup d'etat? If they were, did any of those present betray them?

Most of the meetings Sardar held with Vossogh-ed-Douleh took place in the Latter's summer residence in the foothills  north of Tehran.   The topic of discussion was the dispatch of Sardar to Gillan to fight the rebels and to stay there as governor.   They talked about whether Sardar's Nayeby fighters should be incorporated into the government's army or hired as mercenaries. Vossogh-ed-Douleh also devoted a number of meetings to the extent of Sardar's jurisdiction and rights in Gillan.  Was the wily Prime Minister dragging things out until his plans against the Nayebies were complete?   He had moved his forces closer to the Nayeby positions in the Kashan area. In Tehran, too, he was not only watching Sardar's every movement but also secretly encircling his men in Rey. In Tehran and the surrounding area, the government forces were put on full alert.

Didn't Sardar suspect that government spies were watching or that Vossogh-ed-Douleh may be using delay tactics? Was he naive, unschooled in the devious ways of wily politicians and the Byzantine power struggles of the capital? Was he being used as an unsuspecting pawn in the political struggles of Modarress and Vossogh-ed-Douleh? Finally, was he, in turn, trying to buy time until the Modarress-hatched plot for coup d'etat would be ready to be put into action? Who was plotting against whom?

Anyway, the fact is that as the negotiations continued, Vossogh-ed-Douleh's attitude became less friendly. He ordered the "mobile gendarme brigade" to stay in Kashan and get ready for action. His agents contacted Rasheed Sultan, promising him amnesty and rewards in return for killing Nayeb Hossein. Rasheed Sultan was a rebel who had sought asylum with the Nayebies and had fought for them in a number of battles, thus gaining their confidence. He accepted the government's offer.

In the penultimate meeting with Sardar, Vossogh-ed-Douleh changed his tune and said that instead of sending him to Gillan, he would like to make him the governor of a province but he must go alone. His men, he said, might be incorporated into the gendarme forces provided they first surrender their weapons. Sardar answered that his men had fought against foreign invaders and deserved better treatment. If the government wanted to disarm them, it should first give them suitable jobs or monetary compensation so that they could return to civilian life. Vossogh-ed-Douleh retorted in a harsh tone that he would not be thus blackmailed and, on second thought, he would not give any jobs either to him or to his men. He said bluntly that what he now demanded was their complete disarmament and departure from Iran! At the end, he said, he would expect Sardar's final answer in the next day's meeting. After the meeting, fearing an escape, he ordered that Sardar and his scattered forces be put under closer surveillance, and their telegrams be received but not transmitted. Sardar's telephone line was also cut due to "necessary repair work."

It has been conjectured that Vossogh-ed-Douleh's motive, now that his forces were ready for action, was to force Sardar into open defiance so that he would have a good excuse for breaking his solemn vows and arresting his guest.

The same afternoon, though suffering from a bad toothache, Sardar hurried to visit Modarress. After hearing what had passed, Modarress warned his visitor that Vossogh-ed-Douleh had very likely gotten wind of the coup d'etat plan and Sardar should leave Tehran as soon as possible to avoid danger. After this visit, Sardar went to a dentist friend and had the bad tooth extracted. He also ordered his men in Rey to be on the alert and sent telegrams to his father, to his kinsmen in Lorestan, and to his other commanders to be mobilized. These were never transmitted.

Why didn't he leave that very night? Was it because he knew he was being watched and he, with his few men, had no chance of shooting their way out of Tehran? Was it because he was hoping to coax Vossogh-ed-Douleh in the next meeting and gain more time to mastermind a breakout? Was he hoping for decisive reaction from those to whom he had sent the telegrams?

In any case, the next morning (a Saturday in August of 1919), Sardar and his companions entered Vossogh-ed-Douleh's residence, but two high-ranking officials informed him that the Prime Minister had gone to the city center to attend a cabinet meeting and that they were empowered to carry on the negotiations. Then, they repeated the demand for the Nayebies' immediate disarmament and departure from Iran. Sardar repeated his grievance against the government and asked for another meeting the next day. They insisted on another meeting that very evening. Sardar agreed, and left.

At sunset, he and his companions returned to a tent where Vossogh- ed-Douleh received them and suggested that they resume negotiations after diner. Sardar's guards were being served in a hall nearby. Dinner over, Vossogh-ed- Douleh gave a signal. Suddenly, Colonel Gleerup, the Swedish command-of the Persian Gendarmerie, entered that tent, accompanied by a number of men with drawn guns. Through a translator, Gleerup politely informed Sardar that by the order of the Prime Minister, he was under arrest. Sardar was taken aback. Then, he started cursing at Vossogh-ed-Douleh, accusing him of  b reach of promise and guest betrayal. The latter quietly left the tent. Meanwhile, Sardar's guards were also similarly surprised and disarmed  Soon, Sardar was hustled into the Prime Minister's Rolls Royce and driven to a prison in the gendarme garrison called Bagh-e-Shah. Three gendarme were standing on each running board, and another car filled with gendarme was following behind.

Simultaneously, government agents raided Sardar's temporary resident arrested all the males there, and took away the saddlebag with gold coins Also, having gotten hold of his seal, they forged letters stating that pursue to an agreement between the two sides, all Nayebies were to surrender their weapons. They put Sardar's seal to every letter. When the gendarme approached the Nayebies in Rey, they were fired at, but upon showing the letters with Sardar's seal and realizing that they were outnumbered and surrounded, they laid their weapons down. The same happened to the three hundred Nayebies stationed near Qom and along the roads.

The next day, Vossogh-ed-Douleh's agents began their interrogation of Sardar They were particularly interested in knowing where he had hidden "fabulous hoards." They asked him about the nature of his relationship with Modarress, with the Gillan insurgents, with the Germans, and with Russian Bolsheviks. Sardar, who was running a fever because of gumboil, refused to answer and demanded an open trial.   The next day, Colonel Gleerup (the Swede) went to Sardar's cell, and stated politely that in order to have a trial there would have to be an interrogation. Sardar consented. the interrogation started right away and lasted more than three hours. Sardar denied any relationship with the Bolsheviks, admitted only admiration for the Gillan insurgents, proclaimed mere friendship with Modarress, and claimed that his contact with the Germans had been for the sole purpose of driving the Russians out.

Vossogh-ed-Douleh did not favor a trial. He was concerned about what would be said in an open trial. He was also fearful of what Nayeby supporters and sympathizers would do. In fact, Nayebye supporters had already appealed to Ahmad Shah, the Ghajar monarch who was in Paris at the time, and he had sent a telegram demanding that Sardar be spared. So Vossogh- ed-Douleh, pretending that he hadn't received the Shah's telegram yet, decided to act fast. He got the gendarmerie's High Tribunal to summarily condemn Sardar to death. He then sent a message to Sardar, saying that if he cooperated in giving all the demanded information and confessed to the "crimes" he had committed as an outlaw, and begged for leniency, his life would be spared. Sardar adamantly refused. A few hours later, he was informed that he would be executed the next morning, and that his children would be allowed to visit him in the morning.

Years later, his fifteen and thirteen-year-old sons,  Amir Mehdi and Amir Abbas, remembered their last meeting with their father. " These two lads had been kept in adjacent cell since the moment their father Sardar was arrested. Then they were taken  to their dad's solitary cell. He was running a fever on account of the gumboil. He seemed depressed and betrayed. With tears in his eyes, he said that they were sure to kill him. you two should be strong while taking care of your mother and younger brother and sister.

Before they left his cell he took out of his pocket a small bundle and told his sons: These three diamonds  are the  only wealth I have on me . take it and when you are released  from jail after I am executed , sell them and with what you get for them continue your life and pursue your education . Then we kissed him and said farewell, for the last time.

A young police officer who was assigned to watch them while talking to their father through an small opening on the cell door and report to his superiors. He had noticed the handing over of the small bundle, After he took the two lads to their cell, took the bundle by forcing  the tearful lads . Many years later on 1940 . Those two lads had grown to two well educated 37 and 35  year old young men with high managerial position in a modern textile factory in the city of Mashhad in north- east Iran. That young police officer was then a colonel and the head of Khorasan Province police force. We never asked our fathers: Did they ever talked to that colonel about the diamonds he had taken from them by force!?

Early on Saturday morning, eight days after his arrest and twenty-four days after his ballyhooed arrival in Tehran as the guest of the government, Sardar, handcuffed and feverish, was put in a doroshky and taken to the execution place on the corner of Toop khaneh Square. His doroshky was escorted by more than a hundred armed riders. On the wooden platform in the corner of the square, there were two gallows - one for Sardar and the other for his loyal lieutenant Pahlevan Reza. A large crowd of spectators were gathered, some shouting anti-Nayeby slogans, many others sadly staring.

Pahlevan Reza requested to be hanged before his master. When the officers agreed, he bowed to Sardar and bid him farewell. He said, "I served you faithfully, Sardar, and now I go ^"sar-e-dar" (i.e. to the gallows)." Sardar answered, "Go, I won't be far behind!" A few seconds later, he was hanging lifeless. When Sardar stepped toward his gallows, somebody shouted "Long live his excellency Vossogh-ed-Douleh!" Sardar shouted back,"down with Vossogh- ed-Douleh the traitor! These were his last words.

His body was left hanging for a few hours. Pictures were taken, quickly copied, and sent out to demoralize the remaining Nayebies. It is said that one of these reached the trembling hands of his ninety-six-year-old father Nayeb Hossein, who had not heard from him for days. Sardar's body according to his own wish, was buried near the mausoleum of shah Abodal Azim: in Rey.

Nayeb Hossein's last stand

Ever since the departure of Sardar, Nayeb Hossein and his men had camped in Farahabad, a village about fifteen miles northwest of Kashan. Absence of any news from Sardar and persistent reports of threatening moves by government forces was disconcerting. he ordered a clan council. It was agreed that they had three options: 1 ) launch a surprise attack against the Mobile Gendarme Brigade; 2) to retreat to Karshahy fortress and fight a defensive war; 3) to wait and, if attacked, retreat into the mountains. Nayeb liked the third option because his force were scattered, the Mobile Brigade was very powerful, and (most importantly) he didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize Sardar's position in Tehran. He didn't know of Sardar's arrest, but not having received any telegrams gave him a strong feeling that something was wrong So it was decided to stay put.

Government forces, on the other hand, having disarmed most Nayeby forces by presenting the forged letter, finally decided to move toward Farahabad A shepherd saw them on the move and hurried to inform Nayeb Hossein. Nayeb and his men hurriedly detonated their extra ammunitions and galloped toward the mountains around Ghamsar.

The gendarmes surrounded the evacuated village and poundered it with artillery fire, then cautiously entered it  Finding the Nayebies gone, they went after them.  To neutralize the gendarme's artillery and superior fire power, Nayeb Hossein divided his forces into groups, each consisting between twenty and forty men, and assigned them positions on various  mountain defiles in a twenty-mile-wide area. He hoped thus to be able to engage in guerilla warfare and hopefully trap and destroy some of the gendarmes. Group leaders got their instructions and fanned out with their men. Nayeb Hossein's group consisted of his two sons, Amir Khan and Reza Khan, and twenty riders. But Rasheed Sultan, who had been suborned by the government before, asked to be allowed to join Nayeb's group for, he claimed, he knew the mountains around Mahallat. Nayeb, who had no reason to doubt his loyalty, agreed. So the whole group, now numbering over forty, wound its way into the mountains, followed by a small group of riders who had the duty of scouting and maintaining contacts between the various groups.

The government forces split into three parts. One stayed behind to guard Kashan; another went to Karshahy and (after some fighting) showed the forged letter and got the defenders to surrender; the third and the largest pursued Nayeb Hossein and his scattered forces. In addition to the forged letter, another thing that broke the morale of many Nayeby groups and made them either surrender or melt away into the countryside, was the printed pictures of Sardar on the gallows. One of these, as said before, even reached the hands of Nayeb Hossein, who in desperation decided to cut through the mountains all the way to Lorestan. There, his kinsmen, the Bayran Vand, who were also in rebellion, would give him sanctuary.

Nayeb Hossein's Parthian tactic of fight and retreat was fairly effective. The small size of his group (now about fifty) made it elusive.  There were a number of skirmishes and the Nayebies resorted to a number of ingenious tricks. For example, they would dynamite boulders, sending them tumbling down, thus blocking the progress of gendarme horses and heavy armaments. Hiding on the ridges, they would roll heavy rocks toward the gendarmes passing below. They would dig pits on mountain paths and cover them up to trap the enemy's heavy equipment. To deprive the enemy of sleep at night, they would fire flairs toward them or utter loud war cries and shoot their guns simultaneously.         To confuse the enemy and make their own numbers appear much greater, at night they would light bonfires on adjacent peaks. According to one gendarme officer who participated in this campaign, the gendarme's morale was deteriorating daily because the unfamiliar mountains and the Nayeby tactics had forced them to leave their cannons and heavy machine guns behind and spend day and night in chilly open air. The progress of the gendarmes was thus slowing down, and the Nayebies were getting farther and farther ahead. Some gendarme officers were murmuring that they may not only fail to capture Nayeb Hossein, but become a prey to ambushes and surprise attacks themselves. But the commander of the force Major Amir Sepahi, threatened sluggards with court martial and ordered them to press ahead.

Major Amir Sepahi's main hope was the traitor Rasheed Sultan, who was still with Nayeb Hossein and his band of fighters. Rasheed Sultan secretly reported that because of the love the fighters had for Nayeb, it was difficult to assassinate him, but he would do his best to slow the retreat down. he also revealed the mountain route which the Nayebies intended to take. This information allowed the gendarmes to waylay the fugitives and inflict casualties.

One day, the Nayebies were trapped in a narrow valley, both ends of which were occupied by gendarmes. Attacked from both sides, the Nayeby suffered heavy losses: four dead and two wounded. They were now reduced to thirty-seven fighting men. Rasheed Sultan hinted that since there was no way out of this trap, it was better to surrender. But Nayeb Hossein angrily disagreed and ordered his men to hide behind boulders and fire at the advancing enemy. The gendarmes retreated to a safe distance, knowing the trapped men would sooner or later have to surrender.

Taking advantage of the lull, Nayeb Hossein dressed the wounds of his men and helped with the burial of the dead. When nightfall came, he ordered his  men to abandon their horses and destroy their surplus  supplies. Then, he ordered two of his nimblest men to climb the sheer rocky side of the valley and pull the others up with ropes. Starting with the wounded, the men were one by one helped up the wall-like cliffs. Nayeb Hossein, who had helped others up the cliff, was the last one left below. To the astonishment of all the ninety-six-year-old man grasped the rope and pulled himself up the sheer cliff. Once on the ridge, he ordered his men to tie the ropes to smaller rock and put these under a pile of rocks on the edge of the ridge. He ordered them to let the lose end of the ropes hang all the way down.

Then, the Nayebies started hiking along the ridge beyond the besieging gendarmes. Soon, lack of sleep and fatigue caused by having to carry the wounded on their backs forced them to halt and take a nap until sunrise. Nayeb Hossein knew that the enemy, being on horseback, could travel much faster and could easily bottle them up again. So, he ordered about half of his best men to leave in groups of two. Their mission was to procure horse from the surrounding farmers and meet Nayeb and his remaining men the next sun rise at a spot near the hamlet of Veshnaveh. Then they could move speedily toward Mahalat. From there, it should be a short hop to Lorestan and the safety of Bayran Vand tribe. This challenge over, they would be home safe!

The gendarmes at the two ends of the valley waited until daylight and then cautiously moved forward. Their commanders thought the trapped Nayebies would be finished soon. But they found the place deserted. Soon, they noticed the ropes hanging down from the ridge and realized how the quarry had fled. Trying to pursue, some of them started to climb with the help of the ropes, but their weight caused the rocks to come crashing down on them. Two were killed, and a few were wounded. Stung by the setback, Amir Sepahi led his riders along the valley floor and bombarded the Nayebies on the ridge with light artillery. This forced the Nayebies to take a more roundabout course to Veshnaveh.

Then, Amir Sepahi sent a group of his speedy riders ahead to block the next gorge which he knew the Nayebies would have to cross. His riders got there in good time. They left their horses and supplies with two guards below and climbed to the ridge overlooking the gorge. There, they lay waiting for the Nayebies.

The Nayebies waited until nightfall, and then crawled closer to the ridge and started exchanging fire with the gendarmes blocking the gorge. This kept the gendarmes busy. Nayeb Hossein then ordered his son Reza Khan and two nimble fighters to do what he had instructed them to do. They took a flask of gunpowder and some rope, and crawled toward the horses left with the two guards at the end of the gorge. When they got close enough, they made a dash for the two guards and dispatched them with their daggers. Pouring the gunpowder on the pile of supplies, they lighted one end of a powder-smeared rope and tossed it on the pile. Then, they crawled away.

A few seconds later, the sound of a huge explosion, followed by the neighing of frightened horses, echoed through the gorge. The gendarmes on the ridge were terrorized. They stopped shooting. Amir Sepahi ordered some men to run down and put the fire out. Taking advantage of this momentary confusion, the Nayebies, some shooting and others carrying the wounded, ran through the defile and out of the gorge. Two of the Nayeby rearguard was killed. Also, the jolting movements led to the death of one of the previously wounded fighters.   But once again, Nayeb Hossein had escaped capture or death. The gendarmes, especially the officers, were admiringly astounded by the old man's ingenuity and stamina. Amir Sepahi alone was angry.

Nayeb Hossein and his exhausted men  hiked all day. At midnight, they got to within a short distance of the place where they were supposed to meet with the other Nayebies who had gone to procure horses. So, they decided to rest a few hours and then walk a short distance, join their waiting comrades, and ride away. There really seemed to be light at the end of " the tunnel". They had been fighting and running, running and fighting for nearly two weeks - and the end was near.

Rasheed Sultan knew that this night was his last chance. At dawn tomorrow the Nayebies would join together and ride into the mountains beyond the reach of the attrited gendarmes. So he approached Nayeb Hossein and volunteered to take care of things for the night. The old man needed rest. He accepted. Rasheed Sultan stationed the able men about a hundred yard away, and the wounded about thirty feet away, from where Nayeb Hossein and his two sons were to sleep close to a large cliff. Soon, everyone fell asleep.

Rasheed Sultan waited some time, then he tiptoed to three of his trusted men. He awakened them and asked them to join him a few hundred feet away. He told one of them to go to the nearest gendarme vanguards and inform them of the place where Nayeb Hossein was sleeping, and the location where the other Nayebies were supposed to be waiting with horses Then, he informed the other two of his plan of action.

At about four in the morning, he went to the men sleeping about a hundred yards away and awakened them, whispering that because they were about to be encircled by the gendarmes, Nayeb Hosseain would like for them to take  the wounded and go quietly to the place of rendezvous.  He promised to  escort Nayeb and his sons soon after.  The men obeyed.  Their footsteps however, awakened Nayeb, who was a very light sleeper.  He got up his  rifle at the ready. Rasheed Sultan called him through the darkness and said that he had sent the men ahead to guard against any ambush. If there was no sound of shooting, he would escort Nayeb and his sons to the place of rendezvous, just before sunrise.

Nayeb Hossein sat on a rock, holding his rifle on his knees. It was about four a.m. Ten feet away, his sons Amir and Reza Khan were fast asleep. He was still tired. Gradually, his head slumped down and he dozed off. At about five a.m., Rasheed Sultan and his two conspirators, their rifles at the ready, tiptoed on. Not daring to get too close, they took position behind a berm and aimed. Suddenly, shots rang out. Nayeb Hossein was hit in the hand. Another bullet grazed his neck. He passed out. A couple of bullets hit his son, Amir, in the arm and leg. But by far the most seriously hurt was his youngest son, the brave nineteen-year-old Reza Khan. He was hit in the groin and lower stomach.

Rasheed Sultan and his two conspirators cautiously approached the wounded men, took their weapons and tossed them down a ravine. Then, they took Nayeb Hossein's saddlebag and hurriedly departed. This saddlebag, the Nayeby's mobile treasury, was filled with gold coins. The government never came into possession of it, because Rasheed Sultan and his two conspirators disappeared with it at that moment.

The story of the gold saddlbag

But Rasheed Sultan could not get away with the betrayal for long. He and his two fellow traitors took the mountain path to the city of Golpayegan. One night, the two fellow traitors killed Rasheed Sultan and took the bag of gold. A few nights later, one of the two killed the other, and took possession of the gold. But the curse of the gold bag did not spare him either. One day, his wife and her brother, Shoja-Nezam, killed him and took the gold bag. They decided to play it smart; they hid the gold in a secure place.

A short time later, two brothers who had been in Nayeb Hossein's retreating group, decided to avenge Rasheed Sultan's betrayal. Upon finding out what had happened, they went after Shoja-Nezam. Late one night, they surprised and captured him. Finding no gold, they tied him up and deposited him close to a gendarme station and run away. The next day, the gendarmes found the tied man and reported the event to Amir Sepahi, who immediately journeyed to the station.

Shoja-Nezam broke down under torture and revealed where he had hidden the gold. Amir Sepahi had this man hanged, and then he searched for and found the gold. Nobody knows what happened to the bag, which was worth about 50.000 tumans .Rumor had it that he and Vossogh-ed-Douleh divided it.   What is known  however, is that soon after he finished his mission in Kashan, he promoted to the rank of colonel.   A few months after that, he went to Europe. He lived and died there.

The capture of Nayeb Hossein

A few minutes after he was shot, Nayeb Hossein came to. He was alone with his two wounded sons. A few feet farther were two of his previous wounded men. These two were nearly dead. That was all that was left of his once-mighty force. Not having any medical supplies left, he tore up his own shirt and dressed his sons wounds. Then he sat on a rock, murmuring Lori song, which he had learned a long time ago when he wooed the love of his life, the Lor girl named Taj. Far away, there was the sound of gunfire. Closer by, he could hear footsteps.

Tipped off by Rasheed Sultan the night before, the gendarmes approached the three wounded men cautiously. But, they didn't dare to get too close. such was the fear they had of the old man. Amir Sepahi disguised one of the men as a beggar, and sent him to make sure that Nayeb and his sons were wounded. Only after this man came back, affirming what had been reported, did the gendarmes venture close.

Angry of the hardships and casualties they had suffered during the Two weeks of cat-and-mouse war games in inhospitable mountains, they treated the wounded men harshly. They forced them down the rocky mountain leaving a trail of blood behind. Once down in the valley, they tied Nayeb's hands from behind and put him on a mule. They placed two boxes on either side of another mule and put the wounded sons in each box. Then they-hurried toward Kashan. [xxxix]

Along the road, Amir Sepahi not only did not offer any medical aid to the wounded, but he kept pressing them about the locations of the fabulous treasure-houses and arms caches which the Nayebies had supposedly hidden in a number of places.

They reached Kashan in the afternoon. To humiliate the captives They paraded them in the streets. Nayeb Hossein, the ninety-six-year-old man seated on a mule, was preceded by a musical band. Behind him came his wounded sons on an improvised palanquin. A group of road-weary gendarmes brought up the rear. A few enemies cheered, some shed tears, and most had a look of sad disbelief at the vicissitudes of human life. Barely a month before, the Nayebies had been the rulers of that region with more than two thousand armed men. And now!

Nayeb Hossein and his sons were taken to Vazeer-Homayoon caravansary. That afternoon, Amir Sepahi, angry at his failure to find the location of the supposed '"treasures" and intent on breaking the old man down, held a party to which he had invited the enemies of the Nayebies. When Nayeb Hossein was brought in, his hands tied behind him, they hooted. Some asked derisive questions and hurled insults. Nayeb took all of this with dignity and calmness, even when some referred disparagingly to his son, Sardar, who had been executed a mere ten days before. Then, one of them dashed forward and spat on him. This was too much. Two gendarme officers who were present protested, and Amir Sepahi ordered the old man to be taken down to his cell.

A while later, he ordered Nayeb Hossein to be paraded in the bazaar where he and his forefathers had operated a dyer's workshop for years. Here too, Nayeb Hossein, who had hardly slept for two nights and whose wounds were still fresh, walked with dignity, holding his head up, his back unbent, a foot taller than the gendarmes who surrounded him. Many bazaar merchants and bystanders removed their hats.

The next day, they took him to witness the torture and execution of some of his followers. Amir Sepahi's cruel treatment of the old man outraged many people, including two of his own officers. One of them - to this day nobody is sure of his identity - acted as a liaison between Nayeb Hossein and a group of his captured men who were kept nearby. The plan, still not fully elaborated, was for the captured men to overwhelm their guards while the two officers freed Nayeb Hossein. The two groups would then combine and start a new insurgency.

But luck was against them. On the third day, the prime minister's car arrived from Tehran. It brought three of the people who had held secret meetings with Sardar a few days before, and opposed the new treaty with the British.  Ironically, Vossogh-ed-Douleh was exiling them to the hometown of the very man with whom they had allegedly conspired to stage a coup d'etat. In fact, they were to be lodged in  Sardar's own mansion.

The car was due to go back the same day. So, Nayeb Hossein and his two  sons were put in the back seat of the car and driven under guard to Tehran . Thus, the availability of the car - a rare commodity in those days - allowed Amir Sepahi unknowingly to forestall the escape plan. It also had another sad consequence. Reza Khan's wound was serious and demanded immediate care. The rough transportation from the mountains to Kashan, and then from Kashan to Tehran, plus denial of adequate medical care, caused the wound to fester and become incurably gangrenous. He suffered excruciating pain on the road and a few days in the Tehran jail. He would die five days after his father was executed.

Upon arrival in Tehran, Nayeb was taken to the gendarmerie garrison in Bagh-E-Shah, where Sardar had been imprisoned a few says before. He, too, refused to answer interrogators questions and demanded an open trial . On the third day of his imprisonment, he was coaxed into speaking he started by recounting the whole story of his ancestor's exile to Kashan, the  fateful clash with Zel-Sultan's men, the murder of his brother Hashem and  Hashem's son, his own imprisonment and two-year stay in Tehran, the affair with the King's mother, the charter for the safeguarding of roads, the government's vacillating policies and injustices, the collaboration with Nationalists and the battles against the Russian invaders, the retreat to Mesopotamia, Vossogh-ed-Douleh's blandishments, the invitation of Sardar to Tehran, and the betrayal or as he termed it, guest-killing, perpetrated by Vossogh-ed-Douleh.

At this point, Nayeb Hossein was visibly moved. To change the subject, one of the interrogators asked: "Did you extort money from travelers on the roads around Kashan?"

"We were given the task of safeguarding the security of all the roads around Kashan.  We charged a road toll - and the poor did not have to pay. times when the government paid us the agreed road-patrol stipends, delivered the road toll to the government's treasury; when they didn't pay the agreed amount, we kept the road toll to cover our expenses."

Question: "Did you appropriate other's belongings?"

Answer: "Any time the government engaged in a campaign against us and attacked our folks and homes, we naturally retaliated by taking the property of the government and of the foreign companies dealing with the government. There's a tit for every tat!"

Question: "Do you know that confiscation is the exclusive right of the government alone?"

Answer: "The government . . . claims to be responsible for the establishment of justice. If it fails to do this, it loses its legitimacy. As the Kashanies say: 'a hen is valued for the eggs it lays, not for the clucking it make? Rebellion against such a government is right - indeed a duty ..."

Question: "So you consider yourself a government against the government of Iran?'

Answer: "The government of Iran, or rather the government of Tehran, has done nothing but injustice, injustice toward the whole nation including our clan .. . But fifty years ago, their misgovernment reached a new height. We became like seeds on a frying pan. Finally, the goblet of our patience cracked. When a camel wants fodder, it raises its head. We, too, raised our heads, up rose, became outlaws! We put the axe to the government's roots. We cut its tentacles off. We disrupted its infernal hegemony. We introduced our own rule. We replaced government rule with our own rule. In truth, what we were and what we did, we were with the people and for the people..."

Question: "But if each group establishes its own rule, there will be chaos. Order will disappear. The government is there to safeguard law and order."

Answer: "What law and order? As far as I can remember, this country has always wallowed in chaos even though we have had a government. If you want the truth: the government is not only incapable of stopping chaos, it is itself the cause of chaos. Chaos is a bastard fathered by the government. . . Whatever rule or regulation there is, is for the benefit of the rich and the privileged ..."

Question: "But don't you think the power of the king and parliament and government is to the advantage of the people, and they should be respected?"

Answer: "This pompous system's respect should come from its actions . Any system that serves the people will draw the people's respect, not the other way."

The officer then referred to the rumored Nayeby hoards, saying, "If you don't reveal their locations, if they remain hidden, the poor will not have  a chance to have a share of them."

Nayeb sneered. "You and I know full well that if I reveal what Vossogh-ed- Douleh is dying to know, a penny will not go to the needy."

The interrogators reported Nayeb's words to Vossogh-ed-Douleh.  The latter hoping to use his own slyness and smooth talk to draw the secret out of Nayeb, ordered him to be taken to his residence that same afternoon. the officers now dressed his wounds and put new clothing on him and, despite his protest, took him to the Prime Minister's garden.

Vossogh-ed-Douleh and his aides received the towering old man with courtesy. Vossogh-ed-Douleh dangled the prospect of amnesty, and then read parts of Amir Sepahi's report concerning the operations against him and asked him they were accurate.   Nayeb Hossein said sarcastically, "Yes, sir, it's true!" Then, the aids showered him with questions about his political allies , the caches of arms and gold, and his real estate holdings.

Nayeb answered that all the oppressed are the allies of the Nayebies, a: that he hoped that the caches of arms would reach the hands of the right people. He listed the  few   real estates that he and his sons owned. He further stated that he and Sardar each carried with themselves a saddlebag of gold coins. These two bags were their mobile treasury. Sardar's bag, he said snidely, must be in the possession of the Prime Minister and his own bag stolen by Rasheed Sultan, is probably in Amir Sepahi's possession. As for the "hoards," he adamantly denied that any had ever existed.

Frustrated, Vossogh-ed-Douleh now threatened to have him executed. Nayeb Hossein calmly answered that Vossogh-ed-Douleh, having broken his Promise  to Sardar, had orchestrated his execution, had caused the death of many other Nayebies, and had imprisoned him and his wounded sons. "I am your prisoner, but I will not betray my allies, or tell you where my arms caches are, nor will I reveal the location of the non-existent "hoards" to anyone, least of all to a dog like you!"

The attending officers cursed and hit the old man and took him out of the hall. There and then, Vossogh-ed-Douleh ordered Nayeb Hossein to be executed the next morning. When Nayeb heard the news, he requested to meet with his sons and his oldest grandson, Mehdi Khan. That night, he met with them. (Reza Khan, who would die five days after his father's execution, was too ill to attend.) Nayeb Hossein recounted what had transpired and encouraged them to be patient and not to lose hope. Then he kissed them, and said his last farewells.

Early the next morning, the old man was put in a droshky and driven to the same Sepah Square, where his son Sardar had been executed barely a month before. A few people had gathered in the Square. Some shouted slogans against the Nayebies and in favor of Vossogh-ed-Douleh. The old man kept his calm and surveyed the crowd as if searching for familiar faces.

Near the gallows, once again some officers asked him about the "hoards." He said defiantly, "even if I had any, I wouldn't reveal it to such dogs as you!" They asked him about the number of his heirs. He retorted that when they were all alive, he had twelve - three daughters and nine sons - but truly-speaking, he said, he had thousands of children, for anyone who rebelled against tyranny was his child. Then he recited this line of poetry, which he had composed himself: Anyone who rebels is a Nayeby / Where there's revolt, there I shall be.

Nayeb Hossein stepped toward the gallows, a wounded old man inwardly mourning the death of so many of his loved ones, but outwardly unbent, unbroken, still tall and erect. When they pulled the plank from under him, his weight caused the rope to bust. He fell to the ground. The officers hurriedly helped him up, and mounted him on the plank again. A few people protested. An officer pulled the plank a second time. There was a snap, and all was silent Thus was extinguished the flame of a rebellion that had been kindled forty-nine years before, a flame that had caused much destruction and consumed many lives.

Reza Khan, Nayeb Hossein's youngest son, as said before, died of his wounds five days later. He wished to be buried next to his brother, Sardar. They had asked Nayeb Hossein where he would like to be buried. With characteristic indifference, he had said they could bury him where they pleased. "I have no riches to leave for my heirs, nor do I know of a tomb: that would bring me back to life."

The British Minister in Iran, after his long  standing  plans was fulfilled and all the wheels were turning in their direction, specially the 1919 treaty of protectorate of the whole country of Persia; he sends his report to :

PERSIA.                                              (November,81919.)1919)

CONFIDENTIAL.      

[150067]                                                                     No. I.

Sir P. Cox. to Earl Curzon. —(Received November 8.)

(No. 149.)                            Tehran, September 19, 1919

   

My Lord,                    

I Have the honor to transmit for your Lordship's information            copies of the Tehran Intelligence Summary, No. 27, for the  period ending the 31st August, 1919.

                                                                        I have,  &c.  P. z. Cox.

Enclosure in No. 1.

Tehran Intelligence Summary, No. 27,for period ending August 31,1919.

Political Situation.

AT the instance of I his Majesty's Government, His Imperial  Majesty the Shah hastened his departure for Europe in order to pass through the Caucasus prior to the British evacuation. He arrived in Constantinople on the 19th August by H.M.S. "Ceres " and sailed in her for Taranto on the 30th.

His Majesty is accompanied by Prince Nosret-ed-Dowleh, who has succeeded his Excellency  Mushaver-ul-Mamelek as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

An agreement between Great Britain and Persia providing for the reform of the administration with British aid was signed on the 9th August, and has been received with general approval in both countries. [ Read Protectorate]

Five ringleaders of a small fraction of sell-interested persons, who either for purposes ;  of blackmail or enmity were endeavoring to excite opposition to the agreement, were deported to Kashan on the 10th September.

Mashallah Khan, the well-known brigand of Kashan, after two months  hesitation, obeyed the summons of the Government to appear in Tehran. He arrived, however, with 150 sawars armed to the teeth, and having, after three weeks argument with the Central Government, refused to disarm them except on payment of 100,000 tomans  compensation, he was arrested and his sawars forcibly disarmed after a skirmish with  the gendarmerie, Mashallah Khan and his adjutant were executed a few days later. His father, Nayeb Hussein, has since been captured in the neighborhood of Kashan and brought to Tehran.

Owing to the British evacuation of the Caucasus, the mails between Persia and Europe are now sent via Bagdad.  Travelers, however, still use the Baku route.

The British peace with Afghanistan has not yet restored quite normal conditions on the Persian borders, and further raids have occurred in Seistan territory. A serious outbreak of rinderpest, in the Bushire district has been notified.

Aftermath

After the executions, the government took a number of drastic measures against the Nayebies. Nayeb Hossein's surviving sons, ( Mansour & Amir) were also condemned to die.  But the change of government and the protests launched by sympathizers forced the government to hold back. They were kept in jail for two years, and released. Sardars younger sons, Abbas, Ahmad, and Yadollah (all under fourteen years), were released within two weeks; but the oldest son, Mehdi (age sixteen), was held in prison for more than eighteen months. A number of Nayeby commanders were also executed and many were imprisoned. All of the belongings of Nayeb Hossein and his children were confiscated so that the survivors, who had once lived in affluence, were  reduced to abject poverty. 

The Nayebies in Kashan were treated even more harshly. Many went to jail and even more were forced into exile. Almost all lost total or most of their belongings. For almost a year after the executions, Kashan was under strict martial law.

In the ensuing years and decades, Sardar's children made several appeals to regain some of their father's properties to no avail. Following the advice of their father, they exchanged guns for pens and endeavored to receive a good education. Within a few decades, they - and later, their offspring's - became  prominent members of the Iranian society. As Sardar's second son, Abbas,, used to say, "Oil tends to rise to the top, no matter how thoroughly the water is stirred."