In the history of the Middle East, the Kurds have always been targeted by attacks and invasions and they have always resisted those attacks. For more than two centuries, the Safavids were a dynasty that under the name Shia religion, they have committed every kind of war and massacres without any regret.
Shah Abbas Safavi seized his father's power and fought all those whom he thought were against him. The massacre of the Kurds and the Georgia are among the most famous events in the Safavid's history.
When Shah Abbas became the king, he was 17 years old and he ruled for 41 years. His reign was at the same time as the Ottoman's reign. The Safavids represented the Shia religion and the Ottomans represented the Sunni religion.
These two powers, under the name of religion and against one another, committed many crimes most of which happened in Kurdistan. The most important catastrophe that happened as a result of these two powers' conflicts was the division of Kurdistan's land into two parts in Chalderan War.
There is a cave located in the Bokan city district called "Mukri Qran" which is a place where one of the greatest crimes of the Safavids against Kurds happened. Bokan City is located in the Mukeriyan region. Mukeriyan is one of the regions in the East part of Kurdistan located in the south of Urmia Province and it has been the Mukri lords' territory for centuries although there have been other clans living in this area in addition to the Mukris. However, most of the time the people living in this area have been called Mukri in general. Qran means massacre.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has changed this cave's name from "Mukri Qran" to "Mukri Qura'an". The reason for this is that in the Persian language the word "Qran" does not exist and they do not know its meaning.
The "Mukri Qran" cave is near Khorasana village near Bokan. According to the scientific data, a great catastrophe has happened in this cave.
Shah Abbas Safavi used this cave as a prison. He had ordered to capture of hundreds of Kurdish people from Mukeriyan in this cave and killed them by smoke. This has made this catastrophe so prominent that it has remained in the social memory of this region's people.
After this disaster, this cave has been called Mukri Qran. There has not been any detailed research on this cave. This piece of history has only been retailed from generation to generation. What comes in the following is only a part of this oral history:
Shah Abbas manipulated Qubad Khan Mukri and seized Maragha. He made the Kurdish people living in Maragha forcibly move to Mukeriyan. He even did not care about the women and children. The Mukri people hid their families, wives, and children, in a cave; the Qizilbash forces surrounded them and made a big fire in front of that cave's entrance and waited in front of that entrance with their rifles in their hands. The miserable women and children who did not want to die of the smoke would run out of the cave and the Qizilbash forces would shoot them cruelly and kill them. Those who remained inside the cave died of the smoke. Thus, Khorasana cave is called "Mukri Qiran" from that time on. Such attacks continued during the Qajar reign, too. Killing Hamza Agha Mangur and the massacre of people of Mahabad and the surrounding area happened during the Qajar reign which resulted in the massacre of seven thousand people. These events still have remained in the social memory of this region's people.
There are several rooms inside this cave linking to each other. There is a hole in the ceiling of this cave that had been used as an air conditioner and a window for receiving daylight. The cave looks like a horrible prison.
In the past few years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has discovered a quarry near this village and the extraction of stone from this quarry has destroyed a part of this cave blocking its entrance. Thus, the Mukri Qran cave which is a part of the history of the Mukeriyan region is being destroyed and no official organization of the Iranian government takes the responsibility to protect it.
