Jangali
JANGALI
A nationalist and reformist movement in Iran in the early twentieth century.
The Jangali movement was formed in the forests (jangal) of northwestern Iran. Its members, under the leadership of Mirza Kuchek Khan and Ehsan Allah Khan, were intent on eradicating foreign influence in the country.
The Jangalis were active in the constitutional revolution of 1905–1911, and their aim was to restore the sovereignty and autonomy of Iran under a broad Islamic framework. They established a revolutionary council, Ettehad-e Eslam (Islamic unity), published a newspaper called Jangal, and enlisted the help of Ottoman and German military advisers. The Jangalis stole from the rich landowners of Gilan to give to the poor and to support their movement. The 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia enhanced their standing in Iran. The movement spread to Mazandaran, another Caspian province, and in 1918 the Jangalis nearly took Qazvin. In that year, the British signed an agreement with Mirza Kuchek Khan, in which Britain would recognize Jangali autonomy in Gilan in return for a cessation of hostilities between the two camps and the expulsion of all German and Ottoman Jangali advisers. The agreement was seen as a compromise by the more radical faction of the movement under the leadership of Ehsan Allah Khan, and their split enabled the Cossack Brigade, dispatched from Tehran, to temporarily quell the uprising. Following the Russian revolution of 1917, Russian troops invaded Rasht, the capital of the province of Gilan, in 1920, and Mirza Kuchek Khan proclaimed the Socialists Republic of Gilan. The Soviet–Iranian treaty of 1921 stopped Soviet aggression in the country; the Soviets withdrew their troops and Reza Khan, later to become the first Pahlavi monarch, obliterated the Jangalis by October 1921. Mirza Kuchek Khan was executed, and Ehsan Allah Khan fled to the USSR.
see also cossack brigade; kuchek khan-e jangali; pahlavi, reza.
Bibliography
Browne, Edward G. The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909, revised edition, edited Abbas Amanat. Washington, DC: Mage, 1995.
neguin yavari