Diyako Shaswari
Atta Kal and the Lords and Peasants' Struggles Period:
"Atta Kal" or "Seyyed Atta Kal" is one of the brightest names in the oral history of Kurdistan. This person was born in 1897 in a village called "Qalata Rashka" near Sna city. He was killed in 1937 and was buried in "Girdi Saywan" cemetery in Suleimani. Seyyed Atta Kal, son of "Seyyed Sa'd al Din", was from the Seyyed families of Qalata Rashka village. This village is located 60 kilometers from Sna city. How come a man like Atta Kal can become so famous at that time and in that area that his name crosses all their regional borders. This is a question that needs to be answered.
Obviously, like any other uprisings at that time, "Atta Kal's" uprising was a movement of the oppressed people against their oppressors. Seyyed Atta's uprising did not have a political aspect at the beginning. We will discuss it later that due to the structural system of the society at that time and the formation of Kurdistan's society and other parts of Iran, at the time when Atta Kal began his uprising, a system of lords controlling the peasants was common in Kurdistan. In such a system, the society is divided into two groups of upper class and the lower class. The upper class included the lords, Khans, and wealthy families who possessed lands and the lower class were all farmers, laborers, and workers who were forced to work on the lands of their lords. In the end, it was the lords or the Khans who would determine how much the workers and farmers who had harvested the products could take as their share. All the regional historical sources talk about the cruelty and oppression of the landlords towards those who worked on their lands especially a book recently written by "Dr. Amir Hassanpour", a professor at "Ottawa, Canada" University, titled "Majidkhan Region's Farmers Uprising" talks about this issue at that time.
Atta Kal (the armed man on the left) and his friend
Not only the landlords force some traditional economic system on the people like ten to two system which means the product harvested by the farmer should be divided into ten shares, eight shares of which the lord would take and only two shares would be given to the farmer. There was also another system that had a suffix of "-ana" at the end of it (in the Kurdish language) which said that every product that is made by the people must be shared with the lord like "froujana", "tapalana" and … and the lord had not done anything for those products to be made not even spent any capital or money on them. Accordingly, Atta Kal was working in his village and producing goods like any other farmer or worker within the Lords and Peasants system. The land he was working on, however, was about to be invaded by the lord of that region called "Khosraw Khan". Since Atta Kal's father died when he was still very young and since he had to support his family financially, he could not obey Khosraw Khan's demand.
On the other hand, Khosraw Khan, like any other lord at that time, considered himself as the owner of the farmers' lands and properties so he was confident that he could take Atta Kal's land as well as all his other properties. In the beginning, after the lord confiscated Atta Kal's properties, he attacked Khosraw Khan's house and took his horses and a part of his stuff as a reaction to what Khosraw Khan had done to him. Then, in order to escape Khosraw Khan's avenge, he went to "Haji Mo'tamed" one of the powerful lords in Sna however, he supported Khosraw Khan due to being in the same social class within the system of lords and peasants at that time in Iran and the East part of Kurdistan because they used to be working like a network together. They used to support each other like a powerful network in Kurdistan. Thus, Atta Kal soon realized that seeking the help of a more powerful lord who supported the previous one was one of the social damages of that time in the Kurdish society and it would not end well. Now, he was forced to go to Marivan and seek "Mahmoud Khan of Kani Sanan's" help who was a powerful man and a military officer who had received an honorary military rank.
Mahmoud Kahn of Kani Sanan
Mahmoud Khan of Kani Sanan suggested Atta Kal start a new job in a new field of work so that he would give up the idea of revenging Khosraw Khan and also could make money and support his life. Since Mahmoud Khan realized that Atta Kal was a strong man and was very good at using guns, he ordered Atta Kal the head officer of the "Siwar" village police station to control people's transportation and movements. However, after some time the lords' network found Atta Kal's footprints and his position.
Khosraw Khan sent some people to Mahmoud Khan of Kani Sanan who had helped Atta Kal via Haji Mo'tamed whom Atta Kal had sought his help before. During the negotiation they had with Mahmoud Khan, they began to quarrel and insult Mahmoud Khan. As a head officer of the police station, Atta Kal witnessed these insults and decided not to stay quiet. He could not ignore the quarrels and insults that had been done towards Mahmoud Khan of Kani Sanan because he had helped Atta Kal in times of need and now it was his turn to repay the favor so he attacked Haji Mo'tamed's messenger and an officer who accompanied him and killed both of them. This was the beginning of a new phase of Atta Kal's life. If the young "Atta Kal" had revolted against his lord and the regional system of lords and peasants, after this incident he left this system and began to work as a police officer fulfilling another task. Now, however, he saw himself in front of the central government's law. He had to revolt against that law that was in favor of the upper class of the society thus beginning his armed revolution.
