Chahar Cheragh Square (Chuar-chira) — Mahabad city center

Names and location

The place is known by multiple names in Kurdish, Persian and in various English transliterations, reflecting the city’s multilingual environment. The municipal designation emphasizes its role adjacent to city hall and civic services, while the traditional name remains in everyday use. The square’s central position within Mahabad makes it a regular route for markets, processions and daily movement through the city.

Historical significance: 1946–1947

Chahar Cheragh Square is most widely remembered for events that followed the short-lived Republic of Mahabad. After Iranian forces reasserted control in the late 1940s, the republic’s leaders were tried and several were executed in public places in Mahabad and surrounding towns. Among the most prominent figures executed was the republic’s president, Qazi Muhammad. These episodes are a central element of the square’s modern historical memory and are frequently cited in accounts of Kurdish political history in the region.

Later 20th and early 21st century events

The square continued to be used for political demonstrations, commemorations and public ceremonies in subsequent decades. In 2005 the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran reported a large demonstration in Mahabad centered on the square after the death of Shivan Qaderi, an event that drew widespread attention and underscored continuing tensions between local communities and national authorities. Accounts of that period also refer to related events in nearby towns such as Bukan.

Role in civic life

Today Chahar Cheragh / Shardari Square serves several overlapping functions. It is an everyday urban space where markets, small vendors and municipal services meet the flow of traffic and pedestrians. It is also a ceremonial site for official events, local commemorations and religious or cultural gatherings. For residents the square often serves as a meeting point, a landmark and a place of memory where public and private histories intersect.

Memory and commemoration

For historians, activists and visitors, the square is frequently discussed as a location where memory is publicly performed. Plaques, informal memorial practices and oral histories keep the memory of the 1940s events alive alongside later protests. Local commemorations sometimes combine cultural and political elements, reflecting the layered nature of the square’s significance for different groups within Mahabad.

Research and visiting

Researchers approaching Chahar Cheragh Square are advised to consider both its physical layout and its symbolic meanings: the square’s architecture, adjacent municipal buildings and market activity provide context for its social functions, while recorded testimonies and contemporary reporting illuminate its political history. For further background on the period of the republic and the military intervention that followed, see contemporary accounts and historical summaries of the Iranian intervention in 1947 (state intervention 1947).

• Alternate names: Chahar Cheragh, Chuar-chira, Shardari/Shahrdari Square.
• Historic events: Executions after the fall of the Republic of Mahabad; later demonstrations, including those reported after the death of Shivan Qaderi.
• Role today: Market and transit hub, municipal ceremonies, site of memory and public protest.