1.
Dicle University
–
Dicle University, is a public university located on the eastern side of the Tigris river. The university is one of the oldest and largest higher education institutions in southeastern Anatolia, built on a twenty-seven-thousand-acre area in the eastern side of the historical city of Diyarbakır, Dicle University takes its name from the river which splits the university from the city. Apart from its campus in Diyarbakır, the university has vocational schools in Ergani, Çermik, Çüngüş, Bismil. The Faculty of Medicine, which was opened in 1966 as a part of Ankara University, with the opening of the Faculty of Art and Sciences in 1974, Dicle University was officially founded including two faculties. The Faculty of Dentistry was founded in 1976 and the Faculty of Agriculture in 1981, the name Diyarbakir University was changed to Dicle University in 1982. The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, The Faculty of Law, The Faculty of Education, Dicle University is at the centre of the GAP
Dicle University
–
While Dicle University students celebrating Newroz in the university campus
2.
History of the Kurds
–
The Kurds also the Kurdish people are a Northwestern Iranic ethnic group in the Middle East. They have historically inhabited the areas to the South of Lake Van and Lake Urmia. Most Kurds speak Northern Kurdish or Sorani, which belong to the Kurdish languages. There are various hypotheses as to predecessor populations of the Kurds, the earliest known Kurdish dynasties under Islamic rule are the Hasanwayhids, the Marwanids, the Rawadids, the Shaddadids, followed by the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin. The Battle of Chaldiran of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, the Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a sense of Kurdish nationhood focused on the goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. There are different theories about the origin of name Kurd, according to one theory, it originates in Middle Persian as kwrt-, a term for nomad, tent-dweller. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, this term is adopted into Arabic as kurd-, the ethnonym Kurd may ultimately derive from an ancient toponym in the upper Tigris basin. According to the English Orientalist Godfrey Rolles Driver, the term Kurd is related to the Sumerian Karda which was found from Sumerian clay tablets of the third millennium B. C and this view is supported by some recent academic sources which have considered Corduene as proto-Kurdish region. Alternatively, kwrt- may be a derivation from the name of the Cyrtii tribe instead, sherefxan Bidlisi in the 16th century states that there are four division of Kurds, Kurmanj, Lur, Kalhor and Guran, each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Kurdish is a language of the Northwestern Iranian group which has separated from the other dialects of Central Iran during the early centuries AD. Kurdish has in turn emerged as a group within Northwest Iranian during the Medieval Period, the Kurdish people are believed to be of heterogeneous origins combining a number of earlier tribal or ethnic groups including Lullubi, Guti, Cyrtians, Carduchi. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the territory of the Kurds remains D. N. Mackenzies theory. He has tried to reconstruct such a Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the parts of Iran. In 641 AD, Arab commander Utba ibn Farqad conquered Kurdish forts of Adiabene, around this time, Kurds lived a partly sedentary life and raised sheep and cattle in the regions of Beth Begash and Beth Kartewaye above Arbil in Adiabene. In 696, Kurds joined the Khariji revolt near Hulwan, under the caliphs of Baghdad there were numerous uprisings. Al-Dinawari, from Dinawar near Kermanshah, lived in this period, there is no consensus regarding his ethnic background among scholars, some say he was Persian or Kurdish, while others indicate he was an Arab. A Kurd named Nasr or Narseh converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Theophobos during the reign of Emperor Theophilus and was the intimate friend
History of the Kurds
–
Saladin, painted 1568
History of the Kurds
–
A drawing of a Kurdish prince in an Italian book called Giro Mondo
History of the Kurds
–
Kurdish Soldiers One of 274 Vintage Photographs,
Brooklyn Museum
3.
Kurds
–
The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred to the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
Kurds
–
Kurdish-inhabited areas in the
Middle East (1992)
Kurds
Kurds
–
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, or
Saladin, founder of the
Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt and Syria
Kurds
–
Karim Khan, the Laki ruler of the Zand Dynasty
4.
Kurdish population
–
The Kurdish people live in the historical Kurdistan region, which today is split between Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. The estimated population is 35 million, recent emigration has resulted in a Kurdish diaspora of about 1.5 million people, about half of them in Germany. This groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990, the bulk of Kurdish groups in Kurdistan are Sunni, but there are significant minorities adhering to Shia Islam, Yazidism, Yarsanism, Christianity and Judaism. According to a report by Turkish agency KONDA, in 2006, out of the population of 73 million people in Turkey there were 11.4 million Kurds. The Turkish newspaper Milliyet has reported in 2008 that the Kurdish population in Turkey is 12.6 million, According to the World Factbook, Kurdish people make up 18% of Turkeys population. Kurdish sources put the figure at 10 to 15 million Kurds in Turkey, Kurds mostly live in southeastern and eastern parts of Anatolia. But large Kurdish populations can be found in western Turkey due to internal migration, According to Rüstem Erkan, Istanbul is the province with the largest Kurdish population in Turkey. From the 7 million Iranian Kurds, a significant portion are Sunni, Shia Kurds inhabit Kermanshah Province, except for those parts where people are Jaff, and Ilam Province Province, as well as some parts of Kurdistan, Hamadan and Zanjan provinces. The Kurds of Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran are also adherents of Shia Islam, during the Shia revolution in Iran the major Kurdish political parties were unsuccessful in absorbing Shia Kurds, who at that period had no interest in autonomy. However, since the 1990s Kurdish nationalism has seeped into the Shia Kurdish area partly due to outrage against governments violent suppression of Kurds farther north, Kurds constitute approximately 17% of Iraqs population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in northern Iraq which are known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds also have a presence in Kirkuk, Mosul, Khanaqin, around 300,000 Kurds live in the Iraqi capital Baghdad,50,000 in the city of Mosul and around 100,000 elsewhere in southern Iraq. Kurds led by Mustafa Barzani were engaged in fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years, however, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, moreover, in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, between 1975 and 1978,200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up nine percent of the countrys population, Syrian Kurds have faced routine discrimination and harassment by the government
Kurdish population
–
Kurdish girl in Turkey
Kurdish population
–
Kurdish family in Iran
Kurdish population
–
Samand Siabandov, awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union during the
Soviet war against Nazi Germany.
Kurdish population
–
Kurdish demonstration against
ISIS,
Vienna, Austria, 10 October 2014
5.
Kurdistan
–
Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges. Contemporary use of the term refers to four parts of Kurdistan, which include southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran. Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government, there is a province by the name Kurdistan in Iran, it is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to control of large sections of northern Syria as government forces, loyal to Bashar al-Assad. Having established their own government, they called for autonomy in a federal Syria after the war, various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai, and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity. The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, the region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I. At its zenith, the Roman Empire ruled large Kurdish-inhabited areas, corduene became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC and remained allied with the Romans until AD384. After 66 BC, it passed another 5 times between Rome and Persia, corduene was situated to the east of Tigranocerta, that is, to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey. When the Sasanian Marzban asked Mar Abdisho about his place of origin, he replied that according to his parents, they were originally from Hazza, a village in Assyria. However they were driven out of Hazza by pagans, and settled in Tamanon. Tamanon lies just north of the modern Iraq-Turkey border, while Hazza is 12 km southwest of modern Erbil, in another passage in the same document, the region of the Khabur River is also identified as land of the Kurds. According to Al-Muqaddasi and Yaqut al-Hamawi, Tamanon was located on the south-western or southern slopes of Mount Judi, Kurdistan in the Middle Ages was a collection of semi-independent and independent states called emirates. It was nominally under indirect political or religious influence of Khalifs or Shahs, a comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the text of Sharafnama, written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1597. The emirates included Baban, Soran, Badinan and Garmiyan in the south, Bakran, Bohtan and Badlis in the north, the earliest medieval attestation of the toponym Kurdistan is found in a 12th-century Armenian historical text by Matteos Urhayeci. He described a battle near Amid and Siverek in 1062 as to have taken place in Kurdistan, the second record occurs in the prayer from the colophon of an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels, written in 1200. A later use of the term Kurdistan is found in Empire of Trebizond documents in 1336 and in Nuzhat-al-Qulub, written by Hamdollah Mostowfi in 1340. According to Sharafkhan Bitlisi in his Sharafnama, the boundaries of the Kurdish land begin at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and stretch on a line to the end of Malatya. In the 16th century, after prolonged wars, Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between the Safavid and Ottoman empires, a major division of Kurdistan occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and was formalized in the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab
Kurdistan
–
Kurdish -inhabited areas
Kurdistan
–
Ancient Kurdistan as Kard-uchi, during
Alexander the Great 's Empire, 4th century BC
Kurdistan
–
19th-century map showing the location of the Kingdom of Corduene in 60 B.C
Kurdistan
–
Map by
Mahmud al-Kashgari (1074), showing Arḍ al-Akrād Arabic for land of Kurds located between Arḍ al-Šām (Syria), and Arḍ al-ʿIrāqayn (Iraq Arabi and Iraq Ajami).
6.
Turkey
–
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
Turkey
–
Some
henges at
Göbekli Tepe were erected as far back as 12,000 BC, predating those of
Stonehenge,
England by almost ten millennia.
Turkey
–
Flag
Turkey
–
The Lion Gate in
Hattusa, capital of the
Hittite Empire. The city's history dates back to the 6th millennium BC.
Turkey
–
The
Library of Celsus in
Ephesus was built by the
Romans in 135 AD. The
Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, built by king
Croesus of
Lydia in the 6th century BC, was one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
7.
Northern Kurdistan
–
Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan refers to portions of Turkeys Eastern Anatolia Region and Southeastern Anatolia Region where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. There are an estimated 18-20 million Kurds living in Turkey, but many Kurds live outside the disputed Kurdish regions in major cities of Turkey like Ankara and Istanbul. According to Encyclopædia Britannica there are 13 Kurdish majority provinces of Turkey, Iğdır, Tunceli, Bingöl, Muş, Ağrı, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis, Van, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, and Hakkâri. The Encyclopaedia of Islam stresses at the time that the imprecise limits of the frontiers of Kurdistan hardly allow an exact appreciation of the area. Since 1987, four new provinces - Şırnak, Batman, Iğdır, the region has no unified administrative identity and the Turkish state rejects the use of the term Kurdistan to describe it. In addition to the already mentioned, the region forms part of the wider geographic subdivisions of Southeastern Anatolia Region. The region forms the edge of Anatolia. It is dominated by high peaks rising to over 3, 700m and arid mountain plateaux and it has an extreme continental climate — hot in the summer, bitterly cold in the winter. Despite this, much of the region is fertile and has traditionally exported grain, the local economy is dominated by animal husbandry and small-scale agriculture, with cross-border smuggling providing a major source of income in the border areas. Larger-scale agriculture and industrial activities dominate the life of the lower-lying region around Diyarbakır. Elsewhere, however, decades of conflict and high unemployment has led to migration from the region to other parts of Turkey. During the Middle Ages, the Kurdish-inhabited regions of the Middle East came under the rule of local Kurdish chieftains, during 10th and 11th centuries, the region was ruled by the Kurdish dynasty of Marwanid. From the 14th century onwards the region was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. A tax register dating back to 1527, mentions an area called vilayet-i Kurdistan, the document refers to Kurdish emirates as eyalet, an indication of the autonomy enjoyed by these principalities. In a ferman issued by Suleiman I, around 1533, he outlines the rules of inheritance, hereditary succession was granted to Kurdish emirates loyal to the Ottomans, and Kurdish princes were granted autonomy within the Empire. The degree of autonomy of these emirates varied greatly and depended on their geo-political significance, the weak Kurdish tribes were forced to join stronger ones or become a part of Ottoman sancaks. However the powerful and less accessible tribes, particularly close to the Iranian border. The Kurdish sanjaks like ordinary sanjaks, had some military obligations and had to pay some taxes, on the other hand, the Kurdish hükümet neither pay taxes nor provided troops for the Ottoman Army
Northern Kurdistan
–
Batman city
Northern Kurdistan
–
A map displaying the Kurdish-majority region of southeastern Turkey.
8.
Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
Iran
–
Cave painting in Doushe cave,
Lorestan, Iran,
8th millennium BC
Iran
–
Flag
Iran
–
A depiction of the united
Medes and
Persians in
Apadana,
Persepolis
Iran
–
Ruins of the
Gate of All Nations,
Persepolis
9.
Eastern Kurdistan
–
Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan, is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran inhabited by Kurds which borders Iraq and Turkey. It includes Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, Hamadan Province most of Ilam Province, Kurds generally consider northwestern Iran to be one of the four parts of a Greater Kurdistan, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, and northern Iraq. From the 4 to 5 million Iranian Kurds, a majority are Sunni Muslims, Sunni Muslim Kurds inhabit Kurdistan province and some parts of Kermanshah and West Azerbajani province. Shia Kurds inhabit Kermanshah Province, except for parts where people are Jaff. The Kurds of Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran are also adherents of Shia Islam, for the origin of the Kurds see History of the Kurdish people and Kurdish people. From the 10th century to 12th century A. D. two Kurdish dynasties were ruling this region, the Hasanwayhids and the Ayyarids, the Ardalan state, established in the early 14th century, controlled the territories of Zardiawa, Khanaqin, Kirkuk, Kifri, and Hawraman. The capital city of the state was first in Sharazour in present-day Iraqi Kurdistan, the Ardalan Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah ended their rule in 1867. In the 12th century CE, Sultan Sanjar created a province called Kurdistan centered at Bahar and this province included Hamadan, Dinawar, Kermanshah, Sanandaj and Sharazur. It was ruled by Sulayman, the nephew of Sanjar, in 1217, Kurds of Zagros defeated the troops of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, the Khwarazmid king, who were sent from Hamadan. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Safavid family came from Iranian Kurdistan and they finally settled in the 11th century C. E. at Ardabil. During Safavid rule, the government tried to extend its control over Kurdish-inhabited areas in western Iran, at that time, there were a number of semi-independent Kurdish emirates such as the Mukriyan, Ardalan, and Shikak tribes around Lake Urmiye and northwest Iran. Kurds resisted this policy and tried to keep some form of self-rule and this led to a series of bloody confrontations between the Safavids and the Kurds. The Kurds were finally defeated, and as a result the Safavids decided to punish rebellious Kurds by forced relocation and deportation in the 15-16th century and this policy began under the reign of the Safavid King Tahmasp I. Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp I began the destruction of the old Kurdish cities. Large numbers of Kurds from these found themselves deported to the Alborz mountains and Khorasan. At this time the last remnant of the ancient royal Hadhabâni tribe of central Kurdistan was removed from the heartland of Kurdistan and deported to Khorasan, there is a well documented historical account of a long battle in 1609–1610 between Kurds and the Safavid Empire. The battle took place around a fortress called Dimdim located in Beradost region around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran, rebuilding Dimdim was considered a move toward independence that could threaten Safavid power in the northwest. Many Kurds, including the rulers of Mukriyan, rallied around Amir Khan, after a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, Dimdim was captured
Eastern Kurdistan
–
A view of
Sanandaj, the second-largest city in Iranian Kurdistan
Eastern Kurdistan
–
Mazanderani
10.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
–
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE,
hematite. The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Iraq
–
Flag
Iraq
–
Victory stele of
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
–
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in
Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
11.
Southern Kurdistan
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Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi constitution, is located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the countrys only autonomous region. The region is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats. Masoud Barzani, who was elected as president in 2005, was re-elected in 2009. In August 2013 the parliament extended his presidency for two years. His presidency concluded on 19 August 2015 after the parties failed to reach an agreement over extending his term. The new Constitution of Iraq defines the Kurdistan Region as an entity of Iraq. The four governorates of Duhok, Hawler, Silemani, and Halabja comprise around 41,710 square kilometres and have a population of 5.5 million. In 2014, during the 2014 Iraq Crisis, Iraqi Kurdistans forces also took much of the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. The establishment of the Kurdistan Region dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting, further, the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, especially the Iraqi Armys Al-Anfal Campaign, devastated the population and environment of Iraqi Kurdistan. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, in 1992, the major political parties in the region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, established the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new constitution in 2005, the name Kurdistan literally means Land of the Kurds. The suffix -stan is Iranian for place of or country, in English translations of the Constitution of Iraq, it is called Kurdistan, four times in the phrase region of Kurdistan and once in the phrase Kurdistan region. The regional government calls it the Kurdistan Region, the full name of the government is the Kurdistan Regional Government, abbreviated KRG. Kurds also refer to the region as Başûrê Kurdistanê or Başûrî Kurdistan, during the Baath Party administration in the 1970s and 1980s, the region was called the Kurdish Autonomous Region. The Kurdistan Region is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 m point known locally as Cheekha Dar, the mountains are part of the larger Zagros mountain range which also extends into Iran. There are many rivers running through the region, which is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, the Great Zab and the Little Zab flow from the east to the west in the region. The Tigris river enters Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkish Kurdistan, the mountainous nature of Iraqi Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its wealth of waters make it a land of agriculture and tourism
Southern Kurdistan
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Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Southern Kurdistan
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Flag
Southern Kurdistan
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Lake Dukan
Southern Kurdistan
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Greater Zab River near Erbil Kurdistan
12.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
Syria
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Female figurine, 5000 BC.
Ancient Orient Museum.
Syria
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Flag
Syria
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God head, the kingdom of
Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)
Syria
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Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC
13.
Western Kurdistan
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On 17 March 2016, its de facto administration self-declared the establishment of a federal system of government as the Federation of Northern Syria–Rojava. While entertaining some foreign relations, the NSR is not officially recognized as autonomous by the government of Syria or any state or organization. The protagonists of the NSR consider its constitution a model for a federalized Syria as a whole, the updated December 2016 constitution of the polity uses the name Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria. Also known as Western Kurdistan or Syrian Kurdistan, Rojava is regarded by Kurdish nationalists as one of the four parts of Kurdistan. However, Rojava is polyethnic and home to sizable ethnic Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and Turkmen populations and this diversity is mirrored in its constitution, society and politics. Rojava lies to the west of the Tigris along the Turkish border and it is composed of three cantons, Jazira, Kobanî, Afrin Canton, as well as the proposed Shahba region. Jazira Canton borders Iraqi Kurdistan to the southeast, other borders are fluid in the Syrian Civil War. All cantons are at latitude approximately 36 and a half degrees north and they are relatively flat except for the Kurd Mountains in Afrin Canton. In terms of governorates of Syria, Rojava is formed from most of al-Hasakah Governorate and the parts of Raqqa Governorate. Rojava is part of the Fertile Crescent, and includes archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic, in antiquity, the area was part of the Mitanni kingdom, its centre being the Khabur river valley in modern-day Jazira Canton. It was then part of Assyria for a long time, the last surviving Assyrian imperial records, from between 604 BC and 599 BC, were found in and around the Assyrian city of Dūr-Katlimmu in what is now Jazira Canton. Later it was ruled by the Achaemenids, Hellenes, Artaxiads, Romans, Parthians, Sasanians, Byzantines, Kurdish settlement in Syria goes back to before the Crusades of the 11th century. A number of Kurdish military and feudal settlements from before this period have been found in Syria, such settlements have been found in the Alawite and north Lebanese mountains and around Hama and its surroundings. The Crusade fortress of Krak des Chevaliers, which is known in Arabic as Hisn al-Akrad, was originally a Kurdish military settlement before it was enlarged by the French Crusaders, similarly, the Kurd-Dagh has been inhabited by Kurds for more than a millennium. The Kurdish regiments that accompanied Saladin established self-ruled areas in and around Damascus and these settlements evolved into the Kurdish sections of Damascus of Hayy al-Akrad and the Salhiyya districts located in the north-east of Damasacus on Mount Qasioun. The Kurdish community’s role in the continued under the Ottomans. Kurdish soldiers and policeman from city were tasked with maintaining order and protecting the pilgrims’ route toward Mecca. Many Kurds from Syria’s rural hinterland joined the local Janissary corp in Damascus, later, Kurdish migrants from diverse areas, such as Diyarbakir, Mosul and Kirkuk, also joined these military units which caused an expansion of the Kurdish community in the city
Western Kurdistan
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Map from 1911 showing ethnic groups.
Western Kurdistan
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Flag
Western Kurdistan
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Map of Syria's ethno-religious composition in 1976
Western Kurdistan
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Kurdish-inhabited areas in 1992 according to CIA
14.
Kurdish diaspora
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The Kurdish people live in the historical Kurdistan region, which today is split between Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. The estimated population is 35 million, recent emigration has resulted in a Kurdish diaspora of about 1.5 million people, about half of them in Germany. This groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990, the bulk of Kurdish groups in Kurdistan are Sunni, but there are significant minorities adhering to Shia Islam, Yazidism, Yarsanism, Christianity and Judaism. According to a report by Turkish agency KONDA, in 2006, out of the population of 73 million people in Turkey there were 11.4 million Kurds. The Turkish newspaper Milliyet has reported in 2008 that the Kurdish population in Turkey is 12.6 million, According to the World Factbook, Kurdish people make up 18% of Turkeys population. Kurdish sources put the figure at 10 to 15 million Kurds in Turkey, Kurds mostly live in southeastern and eastern parts of Anatolia. But large Kurdish populations can be found in western Turkey due to internal migration, According to Rüstem Erkan, Istanbul is the province with the largest Kurdish population in Turkey. From the 7 million Iranian Kurds, a significant portion are Sunni, Shia Kurds inhabit Kermanshah Province, except for those parts where people are Jaff, and Ilam Province Province, as well as some parts of Kurdistan, Hamadan and Zanjan provinces. The Kurds of Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran are also adherents of Shia Islam, during the Shia revolution in Iran the major Kurdish political parties were unsuccessful in absorbing Shia Kurds, who at that period had no interest in autonomy. However, since the 1990s Kurdish nationalism has seeped into the Shia Kurdish area partly due to outrage against governments violent suppression of Kurds farther north, Kurds constitute approximately 17% of Iraqs population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in northern Iraq which are known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds also have a presence in Kirkuk, Mosul, Khanaqin, around 300,000 Kurds live in the Iraqi capital Baghdad,50,000 in the city of Mosul and around 100,000 elsewhere in southern Iraq. Kurds led by Mustafa Barzani were engaged in fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years, however, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, moreover, in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, between 1975 and 1978,200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up nine percent of the countrys population, Syrian Kurds have faced routine discrimination and harassment by the government
Kurdish diaspora
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Kurdish girl in Turkey
Kurdish diaspora
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Kurdish family in Iran
Kurdish diaspora
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Samand Siabandov, awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union during the
Soviet war against Nazi Germany.
Kurdish diaspora
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Kurdish demonstration against
ISIS,
Vienna, Austria, 10 October 2014
15.
Kurds in Armenia
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The Kurds in Armenia mainly live in the western parts of Armenia. The Kurds of the former Soviet Union first began writing Kurdish in the Armenian alphabet in the 1920s, followed by Latin in 1927, then Cyrillic in 1945, the Kurds in Armenia established a Kurdish radio broadcast from Yerevan and the first Kurdish newspaper Rya Taza. There is a Kurdish Department in the Yerevan State Institute of Oriental studies, during the Soviet period a large number of Kurdish literature was published in Armenia, national schools and radio were opened. According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the Soviet Armenia was the center of Kurdish literature. In 1925 more than fifty schools were opened for the Kurds of Armenia, during the period of stalinism in 1937, the Kurds in Armenia became victims of forced migration, thousands of Kurds were forcibly deported from Armenia. According to the director of the Center of Kurdish research, the situation with Kurds in Armenia today is normal, in the period between 1992-94 the Kurdish population of Lachin and Kelbajar districts of Azerbaijan was forced to flee due to Armenian invasion during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Armenia has effectively occupied the former region Red Kurdistan as it is used as a land corridor that connects Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Prominent Armenian composer Komitas notated many Kurdish folk songs included Lur dalur, Komitas was a guest of Hasan-agha in Aslan village, where he participated at the Kurdish evenings. Komitas loved the Kurdish popular art and in 1897 he made a research at Frederick William University. Armenian writer Vrtanes Papazian translated the legend of Lur dalur into Armenian, Armenian poet Hovhannes Shiraz used the motives of Kurdish legend in his famous poem Siamanto and Khjezare. Najm ad-Din Ayyub and his brother, Shirkuh, who were born near the ancient city of Dvin, ayyubs son, Saladin would establish a dynasty under his fathers name and led the Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant
Kurds in Armenia
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Armenia's Kurdish population (dark green).
16.
Kurds in Australia
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Kurdish Australians refers to Australians of Kurdish origin or descent. Approximately 7,000 people in Australia claim to be of Kurdish ancestry, in Australia, Kurdish migrants first arrived in the second half of the 1960s, mainly from Turkey. In the late 1970s families from Syria and Lebanon were also present in Australia, since the second half of the 1980s, the majority of Kurds arriving in Australia have been from Iraq and Iran, many of them were accepted under the Humanitarian Programme. However, Kurds from Lebanon, Armenia and Georgia have also migrated to Australia, the majority live in Melbourne and Sydney. Assyrian Australians Iranian Australians Turkish Australians Iraqi Australians Syrian Australians
Kurds in Australia
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Traditional Kurdish areas
17.
Kurds in Azerbaijan
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Kurds settled what is now Azerbaijan in waves at various times beginning in the ninth century. Safavids resettled Shia Kurds where borders of the regions of Karabakh. In the eighteenth century, many Kurdish tribes had formed unions with Azeris in Karabakh lowlands. Nineteenth-century Russian historian Peter Budkov mentioned that in 1728, groups of Kurds, in 1807, amidst the Russo-Persian War over the South Caucasus, a tribe chief by the name of Mehmed Sefi Sultan moved from Persian to the Karabakh khanate followed by 600 Kurdish families. By the second half of the century, Kurds were found in large numbers in the uyezds of Zangezur, Javanshir. In 1886, they constituted 4. 68% of the population of the Elisabethpol Governorate, small populations of Kurds were also found in the uyezds of Nakhchivan, Sharur-Daralagoz and Aresh. The Kurdish population of the South Caucasus was prone to internal immigration, common religion and shared elements of culture led to rapid assimilation of Azerbaijans Kurdish population already by the end of the nineteenth century. Statistical data from 1886 shows that Kurds of Jabrayil, Arash, according to the first Soviet census of 1926, only 3,100 of Azerbaijans Kurdish population spoke Kurdish. According to the 1926 census, 73% of its population was Kurdish, in 1930 it was abolished and most remaining Kurds were progressively recategorized as Azerbaijani. In the 1930s, a traditional Kurdish puppet theatre kilim arasi in Aghjakand, Soviet authorities deported most of the Kurdish population of Azerbaijan and Armenia to Kazakhstan in 1937, and Kurds of Georgia in 1944. Starting from 1961, there were efforts by deportees for the restoration of their rights, spearheaded by Mehmet Babayev who lived in Baku, Kurds continued to assimilate into the dominant culture of the neighbouring Azeris. Historically mixed Azeri-Kurdish marriages were commonplace, however the Kurdish language was passed on to the children in such marriages. The Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan spilled across the region of Nagorno-Karabakh into the traditionally Kurdish populated areas in both of these countries, in 1992–1993, Armenian troops advanced into Kalbajar, Lachin, Qubadli and Zangilan, forcing all the non-Armenian civilian population out. As much as 80% of the Kurdish population of those settled in IDP camps in Aghjabadi. Shamil Asgarov, poet and folklorist Suleyman Rahimov, writer Nurmammad bey Shahsuvarov, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Khosrov bey Sultanov, Minister of Defence
Kurds in Azerbaijan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
18.
Kurds in Canada
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Kurdish Canadians may refer to people born in or residing in Canada of Kurdish origin. In Canada, Kurdish immigration was largely the result of the Iran–Iraq War, thus, many Iraqi Kurds immigrated to Canada due to the constant wars and suppression of Kurds and Shiites by the Iraqi government. Like all Canadians with origins in West Asia, Kurdish Canadians are legally defined as a visible minority, Kurdish population Assyrians in Canada Iraqi Canadians Iranian Canadians Turkish Canadians
Kurds in Canada
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Traditional Kurdish areas
19.
Kurds in France
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Kurds in France may refer to people born in or residing in France of full or partial Kurdish origin. There is a large Kurdish community in France, numbering around 150,000 people and this makes the Kurdish community in France the second largest Kurdish community in the Kurdish diaspora, after Germany. In France, Kurdish immigrant workers from Turkey first arrived in the half of the 1960s. In October 2014, Kurds in France and other European countries marched in protest over the ISIS offensive on the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab, on 25 July 2015, Kurds in France march in Paris to protest Turkish Army airstrikes on Kurdish party PKK. Amira Casar Lila Azam Zanganeh Zana Allée Yazidis in France
Kurds in France
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Traditional Kurdish areas
20.
Kurds in Georgia
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Georgian Kurds are members of the eponymous ethnic group that are citizens of Georgia. In the 20th century, most Kurds fled religious persecution in the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire, the Kurds also have their own schools, school books and a printing press in Georgia. Illiteracy among them disappeared in the early 1900s, Kurds in Georgia are politically neutral, however, in 1999 they staged a huge demonstration in Tbilisi, demanding the release of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Öcalan. Kurds in Georgia today use Cyrillic script, earlier, in the 1920s, they used the Latin script. The first Kurds came to Georgia during the reign of George III in the 12th century, Kurdish tribes appeared in Georgia in the 16th century in the city of Mtskheta. During the 18th century, Kurds arrived in Tbilisi to get assistance from King Erekle II of the Kingdom of Kakheti during the Kurdish liberation in Turkey, when Russia and Iran signed the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, Kurds got the opportunity to work in Georgia. Most Kurds left Van and Kars for Georgia in 1918 after Turkey oppressed them politically and religiously, the Kurds of Georgia also became victims of Stalin’s purges in 1944. Between 1979 and 1989, the Kurdish population in Georgia increased 30%, when Georgia became independent, the Kurdish population in Georgia decreased. David Comas and colleagues found that mitochondrial sequence pools in Georgians and Kurds are very similar, both populations present mtDNA lineages that clearly belong to the Western Eurasian gene pool. These similarities are trivial at best, however, considering similar mtDNA can even be found between populations in France and India, Kurdish population Yazidis in Georgia Wikileaks. Cable 08TBILISI516, Meeting with Union of Kurds of Georgia
Kurds in Georgia
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Georgian Kurds
21.
Kurds in Germany
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Kurds in Germany may refer to people born in or residing in Germany of full or partial Kurdish origin. There is a large Kurdish community in Germany, numbering around 650 and this makes the Kurdish community in Germany the largest Kurdish community in the Kurdish diaspora. In addition, most probably the Kurdish community in Germany is expanding as a result of the turmoil in Syria, in Germany, Kurdish immigrant workers from Turkey first arrived in the second half of the 1960s. Hatun Sürücü was murdered at the age of 23 in Berlin, by her own youngest brother, the incident was widely debated and led to demonstrations against gender violence across Germany. In October 2014, Kurds in Germany marched in protest over the ISIS offensive on the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab, on 8 August 2015, thousands of Kurds in Germany marched against Turkish Army air strikes on the Kurdish PKK. According to the German authorities, there were 8 Russian,57 Turkish,11 Lithuanian and 4 Kurdish gangs in 2013, the group is not well known and its existence is controversial. Other Kurdish motorcycle club and gangs include Median Empire and Red Legion, hatun Sürücü was murdered at the age of 23 in Berlin, by her own youngest brother, in an honor killing. In a well-known case, Eren T. killed his pregnant girlfriend in Berlin, in 2016 a Kurdish woman was shot dead at her wedding in Hannover for refusing to marry her cousin in a forced marriage
Kurds in Germany
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Traditional Kurdish areas
22.
Kurdish Jews in Israel
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Kurdish Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Kurdish Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. The thriving period of Safed however ended in 1660, with Druze power struggles in the region, since the early 20th century some Kurdish Jews had been active in the Zionist movement. One of the most famous members of Lehi was Moshe Barazani, whose family immigrated from Iraqi Kurdistan, the vast majority of Kurdish Jews were forced out of Northern Iraq, being evacuated to Israel in the early 1950s, together with other Iraqi Jewish community. The vast majority of the Kurdish Jews of Iranian Kurdistan relocated mostly to Israel as well, the Times of Israel reported on September 30,2013, Today, there are almost 200,000 Kurdish Jews in Israel, about half of whom live in Jerusalem. There are also over 30 agricultural villages throughout the country that were founded by Kurdish Jews, Today, the large majority of the Jews of Kurdistan and their descendants live in Israel
Kurdish Jews in Israel
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Traditional Kurdish areas
23.
Kurds in Japan
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Kurds in Japan refers to Kurdish people residing in Japan. Most Kurds in Japan are from shepherding villages in Southeast Turkey and reside in the Warabi and Kawaguchi areas of Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. Warabi, especially, has been nicknamed Warabistan by those who are interested in Kurdish people, culture, a documentary directed by Masaru Nomoto entitled Backdrop Kurdistan documented the legal struggles of one Kurdish family from Kahramanmaraş Province. A clash took place outside the Turkish embassy in Tokyo between Kurds and Turks in Japan, japanese and Kurdish sources claimed the clash began when the Turks assaulted the Kurds after a Kurdish party flag was shown at the embassy. Kurdish diaspora Newroz Turks in Japan Newroz New Year celebration in Japan
Kurds in Japan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
24.
Kurds in Jordan
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Kurds in Jordan refers to people born in or residing in Jordan who are of Kurdish origin. The Kurdish population in Jordan is approximately 30,000 and they live in the cities of Amman, Irbid, Salt. The approximately 100 years old community are almost completely integrated into the Jordanian society, because of the integration of the Kurdish community, they do not have a granted seat in the Parliament of Jordan. Kurds have been living in Jordan since 1173 with the establishment of Saladins Ayyubid dynasty, Kurds in the military of the Ottoman Empire later settled in Salt. There are also many Iranian Kurds in Jordan as refugees as a result of the Islamic revolution of Iran, the former Jordanian Prime Minister Saad Jumaa was of Kurdish origin. Yazidis al-Akrād al-Urdunīyūn wa-dawruhum fī bināʾ al-Urdun al-ḥadīth / taqdīm wa-iʻd̄ad Muḥammad ʻAlī al-Ṣuwayrakī al-Kurdī, الأكراد الأردنيون ودورهم في بناء الأردن الحديث / تقديم وإعداد محمد علي الصويركي الكردي. Muhammad ʻAli ̄al-Suwayriki. ̄ Kurdi, Kadri Yıldırım, Ürdün kürtleri ve modern Ürdünün yapılandırılmasındaki rolleri
Kurds in Jordan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
25.
Kurds in Kazakhstan
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Kurds in Kazakhstan refers to the people born in or residing in Kazakhstan who are of Kurdish origin. Most of the Kurdish population in Kazakhstan were deported by Stalin from Armenia, Azerbaijan, years later, Kurds immigrated to Kazakhstan from the neighbouring countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In cities with a substantial Kurdish population, Kurdish literature and Kurdish language is taught in the primary and secondary schools, in the village of Kashkabulak, Kurdish students can study Kurdish through 12th grade. And since 1990, Kurds also have had their own newspaper, Kurds were deported twice to Central Asia from Caucasia. The first deportation occurred in 1937 where Stalin deported Kurds from Nakhchivan, Stalin feared a Turkish invasion and he saw Kurds as unreliable, even though many Kurds served in the Soviet military. Many of them died during the deportations, after the Osh riots and the riots in Fergana Valley between Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks, many Kurds moved to Kazakhstan
Kurds in Kazakhstan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
26.
Kurds in Lebanon
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Kurds in Lebanon refers to people born in or residing in Lebanon who are of Kurdish origin. Estimates on the number of Kurds in Lebanon prior to 1985 were around 60,000, today, there are tens of thousands of Kurds in Lebanon, mainly in Beirut. Most Lebanese Kurds have come to Lebanon in recent decades, but the Kurdish community of Lebanon dates back to the 12th century, the Ottomans also sent loyal Kurdish families to modern-day Syria and Lebanon, where they got administrative roles. These Kurdish groups settled in and ruled many areas of Lebanon for a period of time. The first modern wave of Kurdish immigration to Lebanon was in the period of 1925-1950 when thousands of Kurds fled violence, the second wave of Kurds entered in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most of whom fled from political repression in Syria and Turkey. During the early 1990s, the Lebanese government destroyed many squatter quarters in Beirut, during the Lebanese Civil War, Kurds fought for the Lebanese National Movement. As of 2012, around 40% of all Kurds in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship, Kurdish diaspora Turks in Lebanon Syrians in Lebanon Iranians in Lebanon The Kurds in Lebanon, a social and historical overview Lokman I
Kurds in Lebanon
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Map of
Lebanon.
27.
Kurds in the Netherlands
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Kurds in the Netherlands may refer to people born in or residing in the Netherlands of Kurdish origin. There are different accounts for the actual Kurdish population within the Netherlands, other sources claim that the number of ethnic Kurds in the Netherlands is around 70,000 people. The Kurdish community in the Netherlands among which the Turkish Kurds and Iraqi Kurds make up the largest group of Kurds in the Netherlands, exceeding the numbers of Iranian Kurds, in the Netherlands, Kurdish immigrant workers from Turkey first arrived in the second half of the 1960s. On 13 May 2015, Dutch police raided a meeting of members of the Kurdistan Workers Party in the Netherlands. The office of Dutch prosecutors explained that the Kurdish PKK recruits young Kurds in the Netherlands for its struggle against the Turkish army. The Kurdish minority within the state of Turkey who want more autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan, Kurdish population Assyrians in the Netherlands Turks in the Netherlands Iraqis in the Netherlands Iranians in the Netherlands
Kurds in the Netherlands
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Traditional Kurdish areas
28.
Kurds in Pakistan
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Kurds in Pakistan comprise people residing in Pakistan who are of Kurdish origin. They are a population consisting mainly of expatriates and transient migrants. As many as 4,000 Kurds, originating from Iraqi Kurdistan, a large number of them were based in Islamabad. As of 2013, up to 240 Iraqi Kurds were still living in the country, the majority of them were secondary migrants and asylum seekers, and were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees operating in Pakistan. Among them is a generation which is born in Pakistan. Over the years, these transient migrants have been able to obtain immigration and have resettled in other countries in Europe and North America, as Pakistan is not a signatory of the 1951 refugee convention, most Kurdish migrants are not able to acquire Pakistani citizenship. Due to their status, many tend to face social challenges relating to economic constraints, finding employment, healthcare, resettlement. Members of the Kurdish community have raised their concerns with the UNHCR and other authorities, nusrat Bhutto Ali Mardan Khan, military leader and administrator, buried at his tomb in Lahore Kurdish diaspora
Kurds in Pakistan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
29.
Kurds in Russia
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The Russian census of 2010 registered a total of 63,818 ethnic Kurds living in Russia. During the early 19th century, the goal of the Russian Empire was to ensure the neutrality of the Kurds in the wars against Persia. In the beginning of the 19th century, Kurds settled in Transcaucasia, in the 20th century, Kurds were persecuted and exterminated by the Turks and Persians, a situation that led Kurds to move to Russian Transcaucasia. From 1804–1813 and again in 1826–1828, when the Russian Empire and the Persian Empire were at war, during the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War, Kurds moved to Russia and Armenia. According to the Russian Census of 1897,99,900 Kurds lived in the Russian Empire, abdullah Öcalan sought asylum in Russia in 1998. Kurdistan Uyezd Republic of Mahabad Armenian Genocide Assyrian Genocide
Kurds in Russia
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Russian Kurds
30.
Kurds in Sweden
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Kurds in Sweden may refer to people born in or residing in the Sweden of Kurdish origin. Most Kurdish people in Sweden live in the capital Stockholm or in Uppsala, a majority of Kurdish political refugees choose Sweden as their host country and therefore they have a cultural presence in Sweden. As of 2017,6 MPs in the Swedish parliament are of Kurdish descent, 1967-1970 Two Kurdish students from south Kurdistan were expelled and fled to Sweden where they continued their studies. 1971-1975 A military coup in Turkey and the agreement in Iraq was established. Many Kurds left those countries and went to Uppsala,1975 Huddinge becomes the first municipality offering Kurdish as a primary language. 1984 The education of Kurdish teachers in Stockholm begins, 1981-1985 During the military junta in Turkey, the Kurdish opposition fled to Syria and Iraq. The war between Iran-Iraq and the subjugation of Kurds in both of the countries intensified, 1986-1990 The Turkish regimes mistreatment of the Kurdish population fuels immigration to Sweden. 1991-1995 The crises in Kuwait due to Iraqi invasion, the war in south Kurdistan, the 26-year-old Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal was murders by her father in an honour killing in 2002. Kurdish organizations were criticized by prime minister Göran Persson for not doing enough to prevent honour killings, Pela Atroshi was a Kurdish girl who was shot by her uncle in a brutal honour killing. The murder of Pela and Fadime gave rise to the formation of the human rights organization GAPF - Never Forget Pela, GAPF is a politically and religiously independent and secular nonprofit organization working against honor-related violence and oppression. The organizations name is taken from Pela Atroshi and Fadime Sahindal which is Swedens best-known, the honor killing of Sara, an Iraqi Kurdish girl, was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden. These three prominent cases of Sara, Pela and Fadime, brought the notion of honour killings into Swedish discourse and they are Serkan Köse, Amineh Kakabaveh, Jabar Amin, Roza Güclu Hedin, Lawen Redar and Shadiye Heydari. Eldén, Åsa, Life-and-Death Honour, Young Women’s Violent Stories About Reputation, Virginity, in, Mojab, Sharzad/Abdo, Nahla, Violence in the Name of Honour. Istanbul, Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 91-100 Rizvi, Javeria, Violence in the Name of Honour in Swedish Society, in, Mojab, Shahrzad/Abdo, Nahla, Violence in the Name of Honour. Istanbul, Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 211-223 Wikan, Unni, In Honor of Fadime, Murder, Chicago, University of Chicago Press Wikan, Unni Deadly Distrust, Honor Killings and Swedish Multiculturalism. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 192-204 SKVF - Svensk Kurdiska Vänskaps föreningen
Kurds in Sweden
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Traditional Kurdish areas
31.
Kurds in Turkmenistan
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Kurds in Turkmenistan refers to people born in or residing in Turkmenistan who are of Kurdish origin. In the 17th century, Abbas I of Persia and Nader Shah settled Kurdish tribes alongside the Iranian-Turkmen border, more Kurds arrived to Turkmenistan in the 19th century to find unclaimed land and to escape starvation. After the dissolution of Kurdistan Uyezd, many Kurds were deported to Turkmenistan, stalin deported many Kurds from Caucasus to Turkmenistan in 1937 and again in 1944. Since the 1980s, The Kurds of Turkmenistan have been subject to government sponsored assimilation programmes, the majority of the Turkmen Kurds are followers of Sunni Islam, with a small minority of Shia Islam followers
Kurds in Turkmenistan
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Traditional Kurdish areas
32.
Kurds in the United Kingdom
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Kurds in the United Kingdom may refer to people born in or residing in the United Kingdom of Kurdish origin. Kurdish people first arrived to Britain in large numbers during the 1980s, mostly from the territories of Kurdistan, fleeing the suppression of their language. They have settled across the country including in cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds. Kurdish is not one of the predefined tick-box answers for the ethnicity question on the UK Census, in the 2011 Census, the number of respondents writing in Kurdish was 47,871 in England,1,106 in Wales,844 in Scotland and 20 in Northern Ireland. The number of people in England and Wales that speak Kurdish as their language was recorded as 48,239. In Scotland, the figure was 924, there have been reports about discrimination and cultural problems among Iraqi Kurds. The report finds that the patriarchal or male-dominated values that underpin these communities often conflict with the values and this makes it particularly hard for second or third generation women to define their own values. Instances of HBV often result from conflicting attitudes towards life and family codes. Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurd woman from Mitcham, south London, was killed in 2006, in an orchestrated by her father, uncle. Her life and murder were presented in a documentary called Banaz, A Love Story, the Iranian and Kurdish Womens Rights Organisation has called for a national strategy to address the problem of honour killings. Other UK-based Kurdish organisations attempting to tackle the issue of honour killings include Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing
Kurds in the United Kingdom
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Traditional Kurdish areas
33.
Kurdish Americans
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Kurds in the United States may refer to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin. The majority of Kurdish Americans are recent migrants from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Kurdish emigration to the United States began in the twentieth century and has increased in recent years. In recent years, the Internet has played a role in mobilizing the Kurdish movement, uniting diasporic communities of Kurds around the Middle East, European Union, Canada, the US. Kurdish immigration to the US began in the 20th century, Kurdish immigration started after World War I, with several waves of migration to the United States from the area considered Kurdistan. Following the war, the Iraqi Revolution increased the emigration of Kurds to the United States, after the war, the Kurds had been promised an autonomous region, Kurdistan in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. After the reversal of Kurdish land claims and ensuing persecution, Kurdish emigration from the Middle East began, many diaspora communities were established in Europe and other Kurds emigrated to the US. Following the wave of migrants that left in the aftermath of the World Wars, many of the Kurds who emigrated at this time did so because they rejected the theocratic system agar the Iranian Revolution. There were also groups of Kurds that left because of the socio-political turmoil. Many of the immigrants who made the journey in 1979 had hopwd to overthrow the Shah or at least opposed him, the opposition to the shah, many immigrants from Iran were granted asylum with little trouble and received assisted travel to the US. Other byproducts of the revolution were border disputes between Iran and Iraq, which culminated in the Iran–Iraq War, from 1980 to 1988, the third distinguished wave of Kurdish migrants arrived between 1991 and 1992 and is considered to be the largest of the four waves. Although there was support for Iran from Iraqi Kurds, the war caused severe internal divisions within the Kurdish population. The Iraqi army began targeting hundreds of individuals accused of working against Saddams regime, the International Organization for Migration initiated an evacuation. Kurdish refugees crossed the Turkish border, after which they were evacuated to Guam, a US territory, the collapse of Saddam Husseins regime in April 2003 led to a massive influx of Kurds returning to lands they were displaced from during the Baathist policies. Many of the migrants had worked in some capacity either with United States military or humanitarian efforts, international humanitarian organizations, the Kurdish Pride Gang or KPG is a street gang that formed in 2000 in Nashville that consists mainly of Kurdish members. The gang was involved with drug dealing, home burglaries, assault, two members are serving long prison sentences for the attempted murder of a police officer. The total Kurdish population in the United States according to the 2000 census was 9,423, more recent accounts estimate the total Kurdish population in the US at around 15,361. Other sources claim that the number of ethnic Kurds in the United States is between 15,000 and 20,000 people, the city of Nashville has the USs largest population of Kurdish people. Based on the 2000 census, the Kurdish population in Tennessee is 2,405, and in Nashville, Nashville, known as Little Kurdistan by many of its Kurdish residents, estimates that more than 10,000 Kurds are living in Nashville
Kurdish Americans
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Hanna Jaff
Kurdish Americans
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Hamdi Ulukaya
Kurdish Americans
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Azad Bonni
34.
Kurdish clothing
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Kurdish traditional clothing is an ongoing part of Kurdish heritage. Star Xani Kattafi Kawa u Salta Pishten Puzawana Kolwana Klash The traditional Kurdish dresses are for everyday wear and are not reserved only for holidays, the Kurdish costume was worn many days in the past. Currently some women wear them on a daily basis, especially by the older generation. The dresses worn on a daily basis tend to be modest in colour and have little or no accessories or embroideries, in the present day the Kurdish dress is more commonly worn on special occasions. The traditional Kurdish womens outfit includes either a vest or long-sleeved jacket or long overcoat worn over a gown, an underdress and puffy pants are worn beneath the gown. A belt over the gown is also needed, traditionally women wore Kurdish hats ornamented with valued coloured stones, beads and gold pieces. Over time this has become less common, now it is more popular among women to only accessorise with gold jewellery. Usually younger women and young girls wear brightly coloured dresses adorned with beads and sequins. However, older women tend to wear more gold jewellery because traditionally when women married they would receive a dowry of gold pieces from their groom. The tradition implied that the amount of pieces a woman wore signified her status amongst other women in their society. This still applies today to a lesser extent, vest, long-sleeved jacket and overcoat, This is either made from a plain fabric, a velveteen fabric or a sequin covered fabric. Gown, This is usually the dazzling masterpiece of the outfit, most commonly, Kurdish women wear a mesh fabric or a sheer fabric which is ornamented skillfully with many beads or sequins, or both. The embroidery can be the colour as the fabric, or multicoloured to create a bright dress. The brightly coloured outfits characterize the spirit of the Kurdish people, there are many different structural designs of the gown. The most common today are the traditional Kurdish region gown, which is straight top to bottom with very long sleeves. These are not to be confused with puffy Aladdin style garments, under layers, The under dress and trousers are made of a plain satin fabric usually matching the colour of the gown. Belt, Fabric belts are colour coordinated with any piece of the outfit, married women tend to wear gold belts. It consists of two parts, rank and chogha
Kurdish clothing
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Kurdish women in traditional dress, 1973
35.
Kurdish cuisine
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Kurdish cuisine consists of a wide variety of foods prepared by the Kurdish people. The Kurdish diet includes a variety of fruits and vegetables. Lamb and chicken are the primary meats, breakfast is typically flat bread, cheese, honey, sheep or cow yogurt, and a glass of black tea. For lunch, lamb and vegetables are simmered in a sauce to make a stew usually served with rice. Kurdistan has a climate and soil suited to grapes, pomegranates, figs, Kurdish honey has a clear light taste and is often sold with the honeycomb. Kurdistan also produces dairy products from sheep and cow milk, Kurds make many types of kofta and kubba, dumplings filled with meat. Kurdish cuisine makes abundant use of fresh herbs, sweetened black tea is a very common drink, along with bitter strong coffee. Another favourite Kurdish drink is mastow or Ava Mast, which is yogurt, sawarr, a traditional dish among Kurdish farmers, is made of wheat grain that is boiled, sun dried and pounded in a mortar to get rid of the husk. The wheat is then crushed in a mill, the resulting grain food can be boiled and served. Tapsi is a dish of aubergines, green peppers, courgettes and potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce. Tashreeb consists of layers of naan in a sauce of green pepper, tomato, onions, a typical Kurdish breakfast consists of cheese, butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, reçel and honey usually consumed on top of kaymak. Sausage, baked goods and even soups can be taken as a meal in Kurdistan. Perhaps more so than traditional breads such as pide, a crusty white loaf is widely consumed, a common Kurdish speciality for breakfast is called menemen, which is prepared with roasted tomatoes, peppers, olive oil and eggs. Invariably, black tea is served at breakfast, during the festival of Nawroz, Kurds enjoy picnics in the countryside, often taking a large pot of Dolma, Dolma is a dish of freshly picked vine leaves stuffed with rice, meat, herbs and garlic. Kurdish people also enjoy Eid food such as Chicken and Dolma, Kurdistan portal Food portal Kubbah hamousta, prepared by Kurdish Jews
Kurdish cuisine
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Deep-fried Kurdish
kubbeh
Kurdish cuisine
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Traditional Kurdish food
Kurdish cuisine
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Dolma
Kurdish cuisine
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Paklawa (Baklawa)
36.
Flag of Kurdistan
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The flag of Kurdistan is used by Kurds as a symbol for the Kurds desire for independence. The flag is banned in Iran, Syria and Turkey because of its association with Kurdish nationalism and it is the official flag of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The main characteristic of the flag is the golden sun emblem at its center. The emblems sun disk has 21 rays, equal in size and shape, with the single odd ray at top, number 21 is a venerated number, standing for rebirth/renaissance in the ancient and native Kurdish religion of Yazdanism and its modern offshoots. The flag appeared then again in 1932 and in the media one of its creators described it as red, white. A similar flag was used by the Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic known as the Republic of Mahabad in 1946. A document dealing with the adaptation to international standards of the National Flag of Kurdistan was prepared by Mehrdad Izady. It was instantly adopted by the international Flag Institute, in 1999, the Parliament of the Kurdish Regional Government adopted the standardized flag to be the official and standard presentation of the Kurdish National Flag in all its aspects. Kurdish flag day High Resolution Kurdistan Flag For Print
Flag of Kurdistan
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Flag of Kurdistan
37.
Kurdish languages
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Kurdish is a continuum of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in Western Asia. Kurdish forms three dialect groups known as Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, and Southern Kurdish, a separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million Kurds. Recent studies estimate between 8 to 20 million native Kurdish speakers in Turkey, the majority of the Kurds speak Northern Kurdish. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, today, there are two principal written Kurdish dialects, namely Northern Kurdish in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan and Central Kurdish further east and south. Central Kurdish is, along with Arabic, one of the two languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish. The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and they are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that Kurdish has a strong south-western Iranian element, whereas Zaza, windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the territory of the Kurds remains D. N. Mackenzies theory. He has tried to reconstruct the alleged Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the parts of Iran. Kurdish is divided into three groups, where dialects from different groups are not mutually intelligible without acquired bilingualism, Northern Kurdish is the largest dialect group, spoken by an estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran. Central Kurdish is spoken by an estimated 6 to 7 million Kurds in much of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sorani is a written standard of Central Kurdish developed in the 1920s and was later adopted as the standard orthography of Kurdish as an official language of Iraq. Southern Kurdish is spoken by about 3 million Kurds in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces of Iran, in historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Kermanshahi group has influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, a writing in 1992, says. Sorani is normally written in a form of the Arabic script. Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as dialects of one language are their common origin, for example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both. Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable, according to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two groups, northern and central
Kurdish languages
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Road signs near
Diyarbakır showing the place names in Turkish and Kurdish
Kurdish languages
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Map of Kurdish-speaking areas of the Middle East
Kurdish languages
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Kurdish restaurant sign written in
Arabic script
38.
Kurdish literature
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Kurdish literature refers to literature written in the Kurdish language. Literary Kurdish works have been written in each of the four dialects of Zazaki, Gorani, Kurmanji. Ali Hariri is one of the first well-known poets who wrote in Kurdish and he was from the Hakkari region. Some of the earliest texts written in Kurdish are in the Hawrami dialects, the earliest of these are the classical poems attributed to Elder Shalyar the son of Jamasb, an ancient Zoroastrian priest who lived in the Horaman region. His works are said to back to several centuries before Christ. His literary works are collected in what is called marefat, one of the first literary works in Kurdish is a poem from the 7th century, written in the Hawremani dialect. The poem, called Hurmizgan, talks about invading Muslims, some of the well-known Gorani language poets and writers are Parishan Dinawari, Mustafa Besarani, Muhammad Kandulayi, Khana Qubadi, Shayda Awrami and Mastoureh Ardalan). A Yezidi religious work, the Meshefa Reş, is in a form of Kurmanji. It is held to have been written by Sheikh Hasan, a nephew of Sheikh Adi Ibn Musafir, based on this date, Meshef can be considered as the oldest piece of prose in Kurmanji. The Kurdish poet Muhammad Faqi Tayran collected many stories in his book In the Words of the Black Horse. He also wrote a book of Sufi verse, The Story of Shaykh of San’ân, faqi-Tayran also had versified correspondence with the poet Malaye Jaziri. Some of the well-known Kurmanji poets and writers are listed below, ismail Bayazidi, author of a Kurmanji-Arabic-Persian dictionary for children, entitled Guljen. The drama of Mem û Zîn, was written in 1694 by Ahmad Khani from Hakkari, is a source of Kurdish culture, history. This work also emphasizes the national aspirations of the Kurdish people, Mam of the Alan clan and Zin of Buhtan family are two lovers from Alan and Butan families, respectively. Their union is blocked by a person named Bakr of the Bakran clan, Mam eventually dies during a complicated conspiracy by Bakr. When Zin receives the news, she dies while mourning the death of Mam on his grave. The immense grief leads to her death and she is buried next to Mam, the news of the death of Mam and Zin, spreads quickly among the people of Jazira Butan. Then Bakrs role in the tragedy is revealed, and he takes sanctuary between the two graves and he is eventually captured and slain by the people of Jazira
Kurdish literature
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Hazhar, Kurdish poet, in Iraq (1970).
39.
Kurdish music
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Kurdish music refers to music performed in Kurdish language. Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers - storytellers, minstrels and bards, there was no specific music related to the Kurdish princely courts, and instead, music performed in night gatherings is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre, many songs are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawiks which are heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love, lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed specifically in autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other songs, erotic poetry. Another style of singing that originated as practice to recite hymns in both Zoroastrian and Islamic Sufi faiths is Siya Cheman and this style is practiced mostly in the mountainous subregion of Hewraman in the Hewrami dialect. However, some artists, have adopted the style and blended it with other Kurdish music. Siya Cheman can also be classified as çîrokbêj because it is used to for storytelling. Musical instruments include the tembûr, biziq, qernête and bilûr in northern and western Kurdistan, şimşal, cûzele, kemençe and def in the south, zirne and dahol are found in all parts of Kurdistan. The most frequently used song form has two verses with ten syllable lines, Kurdish songs are characterized by their simple melodies, with a range of only four or five notes. The sufi music of the Yarsanî sect with its 72 meqams is thought to be one of the most authentic, the Kamkars from the city of Sanandaj is a leading ensemble in Kurdish music today. They are internationally renowned for their performance of Kurdish folk music and with great dynamism, some members of the group, including Arsalan and Hooshang Kamkar, have also worked individually and produced successful works. Nasir Razazî, who now resides in Sweden, performs Kurdish music from all genres, ali Akbar Moradi is the greatest master of the religious tembûr music of the Yarsan sect to which he belongs. Aras Ibrahim, the violinist, built martyr Karzan music group in 1981 which was the group who could record revolutionary songs in the mountain in the PUK released areas of Kurdistan. The group recorded 5 cassettes and published them, in 1990, the group participated in the First festival of Halabja & Nawroz in Saqz-Iran with the famous coral of Halabja which was about the chemical weapon used against the Kurds there. Despite the lack of any musical educational infrastructure, several famous Kurdish musicians arose from Syria, gerabêtê Xaço was a great classical stranbêj, Muradê Kinê was another great stranbêj and kemençe player. Seîd Yûsif is acclaimed for his virtuosity on the biziq and his authentic teqsîms. Mihemed Şêxo was a master of symbolic nationalistic lyrics who was imprisoned several times for expressing his opinion through his songs
Kurdish music
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The Kamkars in
Kurdish costume. The Kamkars are a famous group in Kurdish music.
40.
Corduene
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Corduene was an ancient region located in northern Mesopotamia, present-day south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Gordyene is the ancient name of the region of Bohtan and it has been cited as the country of the Carduchians, a fertile mountainous district, rich in pasturage. The Kingdom of Gordyene emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire and for most of its history, it was a province of the Roman Empire, from 189 to 90 BC, it enjoyed a period of independence. The people of Gorduene were known to have worshipped the Hurrian sky God Teshub, according to Arshak Safrastian, the Medes and Scythians mentioned in classical Greek literature existed only as preconceived notions. A people called the Carduchoi are mentioned in Xenophons Anabasis and they inhabited the mountains north of the Tigris in 401 BC, living in well-provisioned villages. They were enemies to the king of Persia, as were the Greek mercenaries with Xenophon and they have been also mentioned as Gordi by Hecataeus of Miletus c.520 BC. Targum, a Rabbinic source of Talmudic period, consistently assumes Mount Ararat to be located in Corduene and this region is traditionally identified with the landing site in Deluge mythology. According to Aggadah, Noah landed in Corduene in Armenia, the early 3rd century BCE Babylonian writer Berossus was also of the opinion that Xisthros landed with his ship in Corduene. In Nashim, the order of Talmud, Rav Nahman bar Jacob has allowed proselytization of Kurds from Corduene. According to the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, the region of Gorduene referred to the mountains between Diyarbakır and Muş and he recorded its main cities as Sareisa, Satalca and Pinaca, and considered its inhabitants as descendants of the ancient Carduchians. Ammianus Marcellinus visited this region while on a visit to the satrap of Corduene. Eretrians who were exiled and deported by the Persians to Mesopotamia, were said to have taken up their dwelling in the region of Gordyene. According to Strabo the Gordyaeans received their name from Gordys son of Triptolemus, who assisted in searching after Io, both Phraates III and Tigranes the Great laid claim to this province. However, it was conquered by the Roman troops under Pompey, the local population did not defend the Armenian rule since according to Plutarch, Tigranes had demolished their native cities and had forced them into exile in Tigranocerta. In 69 BC, Zarbienus, the king of Corduene, was planning for a revolt against Tigranes. He was negotiating with Appius Claudius for Roman help, however the plan was revealed and he was killed by Tigranes. After this, Lucullus raised a monument to Zarbienus and then he took over the region of Corduene and he took part in the funeral of Zarbienus, offered royal robes, gold and the spoils, and called him his companion and confederate of the Romans. After Pompeys success in subjugating Armenia and part of Pontus, however, Pompey held him in contempt and demanded back the territory of Corduene
Corduene
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60 BC Kingdom of Corduene
Corduene
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Castle of Pinaca (or Finik), northwest of Cizre
Corduene
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Korduene in northern and northeastern Mesopotamia; map from the Encyclopaedia Biblica
Corduene
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Map showing kingdoms of Corduene and
Adiabene in the last centuries BC. The blue line shows the expedition and then retreat of the ten thousand through Corduene in 401 BC.
41.
Shaddadids
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The Shaddadids were a dynasty of Kurdish origin who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1174 AD. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia. They began ruling in the city of Dvin, and eventually ruled other major cities, such as Bardhaa, a cadet line of the Shaddadids were given the cities of Ani and Tbilisi as a reward for their service to the Seljuqs, to whom they became vassals. From 1047 to 1057, the Shaddadids were engaged in wars against the Byzantine army. The area between the rivers Kura and Arax was ruled by a Shaddadid dynasty, in 951, Muhammad bin Shaddadid established himself at Dvin. Unable to hold Dvin against Musafirid incursion, he fled to the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan and his son, Ali Lashkari bin Muhammad, ended Musafirid influence in Arran by taking Ganja in 971. He later expanded into Transcaucasia as far north as Shamkur and as far east as Bardhaa, the reign of his brother, Marzuban bin Muhammad, also lasted only a few years. Muhammad bin Shaddadids third son, al-Fadl I ibn Muhammad, expanded his territory during his lengthy reign and he took Dvin from Armenian Bagratids in 1022, and his campaigns against them met with varying degrees of success. He also raided the Khazars in 1030, while holding parts of Azerbaijan, later that year, while returning from a successful campaign in Georgia, his army encountered Georgian and Armenian forces and was decisively defeated. The poet Qatran Tabrizi praised Ali II Lashkari for his victory over Armenian and Georgian princes during his stay in Ganja, Abul-Aswar Shavur I ibn al-Fadl I took power in 1049 with Ganja as his capital. He was the last independent ruling Shaddadid until 1067, when Tugrul I arrived at Ganja, with this, the Seljuqs imposed direct rule over Arran and ended Shaddadid influence there. As their influence continued to decline, Abul-Aswars son, al-Fadl II ibn Shavur I, was captured by the Georgians, a cadet branch of Shaddadids continued to rule in Ani and Tbilisi as vassals of the Great Seljuq Empire until 1175, when Malik-Shah I deposed al-Fadl III. Shavur Abul-Aswar Shavur II Fadl IV b, kurds, from Home of Tour Armenia A Chronology of World Political History Arran, By, C. E. Bosworth, From Encyclopaedia Iranica, page 522
Shaddadids
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Shaddadid territories during their rule in
Ani, 1072–1174.
Shaddadids
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The ruins of Manuchihr Mosque, an 11th-century Shaddadid mosque built among the ruins of Ani
42.
Marwanids
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The Marwanids were a Kurdish dynasty in the Diyar Bakr region of Upper Mesopotamia and Armenia, centered on the city of Amid. Other cities under their rule were Arzan, Mayyāfāriqīn, Hisn Kayfa, Khilāṭ, Manzikart, according to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Kurdish and western historians, the Marwanids were a Kurdish dynasty, while the Encyclopaedia of Iran consider them as an Arab dynasty. He left his cattle, took up arms and became a valiant chief of war, when a member of the Buyid dynasty, Adud al-Dawla, who ruled Iraq, died in 983, Badh took Mayyāfāriqīn. He also conquered Diyarbakır, as well as a variety of sites on the northern shores of Lake Van. Elias of Nisibis, a Syriac chronicler, mentioned shortly the life of Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan, after the death of his uncle Badh, the elder son of Marwan came back to Hisn-Kayfa, married the widow of the old warrior chief. He fought the last Hamdanids, confused them and took all the fortresses. Elias related the tragic end of this prince who was killed in Amid in 997 by rebellious inhabitants and his brother Abu Mansur Sa’id succeeded to him, under the name of Mumahhid al-Dawla. In 992, after Bads death and a series of Byzantine punitive raids around Lake Van, Mumahhid, a skilful diplomat, could make use of the Byzantines ambitions. The relations of this prince with the Emperor Basil II were quite friendly and he annexed Davids state, received Mumahhid al-Dawla with honours and made peace with him. Mumahhid al-Dawla took advantage of the peace to restore the walls of his capital Maïpherqat, in 1010, Mumahhid al-Dawla was assassinated by his ghulam, Sharwin ibn Muhammad, who assumed rulership. He legitimized his rule with the ancient law of the Turks, however this archaic rule and Sharwins rule were soon contested, and Sharwin was overthrown. Coins are known from his brief reign and he was the third son of Marwan to ascend the throne. A clever politician, he skilfully navigated between the great powers, the Buyid emir Sultan al-Dawla, the Fatimid caliph of Egypt al-Hakim. Elias of Nisibis has written that Nasr al-Dawla Ahmad ibn Marwan and he signed with the BYzantine Empire a pact of mutual non-aggression, but violated it once or twice. The renown of this Kurdish Muslim prince grew so much that the inhabitants of al-Ruha, at the west, Nasr al-Dawla took the city of Edessa in 1026, and added it to his possessions. This event has been reported by the famous western-Syriac author Bar Hebraeus, so Nasr al-Dawla annexed Edessa, but the city was retaken by the Byzantine general George Maniakes in 1031. In 1032 he sent an army of 5000 horsemen, under the command of the his general Bal, the Kurdish commander Bal took the city and killed the Arab tribal chief, then he wrote to his lord asking for reinforcements if you want to save your Lordship on Kertastan. The long rule of Nasr al-Dawla represented the apogee of Marwanid power and he built a new citadel on a hill of Mayyafariqin where stood the Church of Virgin, as well as built bridges and public baths
Marwanids
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Merwanid Said, 391 AH (ca. 1000 AD), Silvan, Diyarbakır, Turkey
Marwanids
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Inscription with Nasr al-Dawla's name, 405 AH (ca. 1014 AD), Silvan, Diyarbakır, Turkey
Marwanids
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Inscription with Nizam al-Dawla's name, 464 AH (ca. 1072 AD), Amida, Diyarbakır, Turkey
43.
Ayyubid dynasty
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The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, Saladin had been the vizier of Fatimid Egypt before toppling the Fatimids in 1171. Three years later, he proclaimed himself sultan following the death of his former master, most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestines coastline in the 1190s, by then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by al-Muazzam Turanshah, however, the latter was soon overthrown by the Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt, attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, in 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341 and this period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas in their major cities. The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, Ayyubs ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and his friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhis death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh, together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid, in his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River, as a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in an incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them all the facilities they needed. Ayyub was made commander of Baalbek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangis son, according to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead a force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt
Ayyubid dynasty
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Ayyubid Sultanate (in pink) after Saladin's death in 1193
Ayyubid dynasty
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Flag
Ayyubid dynasty
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Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty which reached its height under his reign
44.
Zand dynasty
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The Zandiyeh dynasty was an Iranian dynasty of Lak a branch of Lurs origin founded by Karim Khan Zand that initially ruled southern and central Iran in the 18th century. It later quickly came to expand to include much of the rest of contemporary Iran, as well as Azerbaijan, and parts of Iraq and Armenia. The dynasty was founded by Karim Khan, chief of the Zand tribe, which is a tribe of Laks and he became one of Nader Shahs generals. Nader Shah moved the Zand tribe from their home in Lakestan to the steppes of Khorasan. After Nader’s death, the Zand tribe, under the guidance of Karim Khan, abolfath Khan was the Prime Minister, Karim Khan became the army chief commander and Ali Morad Khan became the regent. Karim Khan declared Shiraz his capital, and in 1778 Tehran became the second capital and he gained control of central and southern parts of Iran. In order to add legitimacy to his claim, Karim Khan placed the infant Shah Ismail III, Ismail was a figurehead king and real power was vested in Karim Khan. Karim Khan chose to be the commander and Alimardan Khan was the civil administrator. Soon enough Karim Khan managed to eliminate his partner as well as the king and in 1760. He refused to accept the title of the king and instead named himself The Advocate of the People, by 1760, Karim Khan had defeated all his rivals and controlled all of Iran except Khorasan, in the northeast, which was ruled by Shah Rukh. His foreign campaigns against Azad Khan in Azerbaijan and against the Ottomans in Mesopotamia brought Azerbaijan, but he never stopped his campaigns against his arch-enemy, Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar, the chief of the Qoyunlu Qajars. The latter was defeated by Karim Khan and his sons, Agha Mohammad Khan. Karim Khans monuments in Shiraz include the famous Arg of Karim Khan, Vakil Bazaar and he is also responsible for building of a palace in the town of Tehran, the future capital of the Qajar dynasty. Karim Khans death in 1779 left his territory vulnerable to threats from his enemies and his son and successor Abu al-Fath was an incompetent ruler who was heavily influenced by his half uncle, Zaki Khan. Other rulers such as Ali Morad and Jafar Khan also failed to follow the policies of Karim Khan and soon enough, the biggest enemies of the Zands, the Qajar chiefs, led by the former hostage, Agha Mohammad Khan, were advancing fast against the declining kingdom. Finally, in 1789, Lotf Ali Khan, a grand-nephew of Karim Khan and his reign was spent mostly in war with the Qajar khan. He was finally captured and brutally killed in the fortress of Bam, politically, it is also important that the Zands, especially Karim Khan, chose to call themselves Vakilol Roaya instead of kings. The Zand era was an era of peace and economic growth for the country
Zand dynasty
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Flag
Zand dynasty
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Karim Khan, The founder of dynasty (1750)
Zand dynasty
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Vakeel mosque,
Shiraz. Karim-khan Zand, and Lotf-ali Khan Zand are remembered well by the people of Iran.
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Ardalan
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Ardalan Family dynasty Ardalan or was the name of a Kurdish vassaldom in north-western Iran during the Qajar period. Ardalan vassaldom was established in an area encompassing the present-day Iranian province of Kurdistan from the period up to the mid-19th century. Ardalan is also the name of the family of that vassaldom. Their capital was in the town of Sinne, Ardalan was mainly composed of the Kurdish tribe of Ardalan of present-day north-western Iran, now dispersed in and around the city of Sanandaj. The ruling family of this tribe claimed descent from the Marwanids of Diyarbakir, according to Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi, the renowned Kurdish historian, the earliest known leader of the tribe, Bawa Ardalan, was a descendant of Ahmad b. He settled down among the Gorani in Kurdistan and toward the end of the Mongol period took over the Şare Zur and it is not known when the Ardalans established themselves in Sinne, but it was probably in the 14th century. The territories of Zardiawa, Khanaqin, Kirkuk, and Kifri, the capital city of the principality was first in Zalm Sharazor, but was moved to Sinne later on. The Ardalan state was independent until it was incorporated into Safavid Empire as a semi-autonomous frontier province. Moreover, it is believed that people who carry the Surname Miran in Northern Erbil are the sons of Ambez, mainy founded in Shaqlawa, Ardalans reigned from Safavid period to mid-nineteenth century. The Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah was determined to undermine the power and he first interfered in the affairs of the province in 1851. In 1941, the Ardalans participated in the first Kurdish revolt in Iran during the World War II, however, they were not involved in the establishment of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946, and the territory of that short-lived autonomic state did not include Sinne. This outcome was moreover characteristic for most of the families of the former vassaldom-state system of Iran. Today the family is known for being a noble family, thus in means of a symbolic. Because the official religion of Ardalan principality was Yarsan, and because this religion was tied to the Gorani dialect, it came to be used for poetry, next to Persian, in Ardalan principality. Via the Yarsan religious teachings, the Gorani language was spread intensively, especially among the segments of the population. Ln addition, many of the intellectual Kurds living outside the Gorani dialect territories adopted next to Persian, the most famous poets of the Yarsan down through the centuries wrote solely in Gorani language. These include Baba Yadegar, Yal-Bagi Jaff, and Khan Almas Khani Kandoolei, many other famous Kurdish-Muslim poets have, down the centuries, written in Gorani, such as Mala Pareshani Dinawari. He was a Shiite Muslim who was opposed to the Yarsan beliefs
Ardalan
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Erdelan state
Ardalan
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Gholam Reza Khan Ardalan, b. 1881, also known as Fakhr ol-Mamalek, from the house of Ardalan.
Ardalan
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Abol Hassan Khan Ardalan (b. 1862), also known as Fakhr ol-Molk, son of the last Ardalan Wali.
Ardalan
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Amanollah Khan Ardalan, Wali of Ardalan (1846-1848, 1860-1867)
46.
Soran Emirate
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Soran was a Kurdish emirate based in the geographic region of Kurdistan, specifically in what is today known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Its Kurdish-speaking rulers were of different ethnic origins, despite their assimilation into the Kurdish cultural and its capital for most of that time was the city of Rawandiz, however, much of the wealthy nobility were staying at the town of Shaqlawa. During its time as a vassal state to the Ottoman Empire. In sources from the Sassanid era as well as the early Islamic period and this name seems to be related to the Arian clan of Soren, who during reign of Yazdgerd of Persia, ruled what is today known as Iraqi Kurdistan. The name of the founder of Soran Emirate is said to be Kulos and it is also said that Soran rulers were a mixture of different Kurdish-speaking Armenian, Circassian and Kurdish tribe chiefs, who were all united under Kulos. In the 1530s, when Suleiman the Magnificent captured Baghdad, he executed the Emir of Soran and installed a Yazidi, Hussein Beg, however, a cousin of the Emirs managed to retake Hawler while Beg was absent. Beg was summoned back to Istanbul and executed, however, shortly afterwards, the Sorans submitted to Ottoman rule and served as a client faction before gaining their second independence in the ensuing centuries. Meanwhile, during this stage it is believed that Ottomans depended on Circassian noble families to manage the client states, descendants of these rulers are believed to be still living in Iraqi Kurdistan today. Places like Barwar, Shaqlawa, and Erbil still have the descendants of these people, Mir Muhammad replaced his father as the ruler of Soran in 1814. He was also a descendant of Saladin and he set about eliminating potential opponents in ruthless fashion, including his uncles and their sons. He then proceeded to subdue the tribes, killing any chief who would not submit to his absolute rule. He seized the town of Harir, the capital of Soran. He also went on to capture Hewler, in his campaigns he massacred a large number of Yazidis. Concerned at what Mir Muhammad might do next, the Governor of Baghdad declared him as a Pasha, in 1834 the Ottomans sent Rachid Muhammad Pasha to restore their authority. He was joined by forces from Mosul and Baghdad, according to the Kurds, he was a traitor to the Kurdish cause. A very famous woman beside Khanzad is Amber, called Ambar-Khatun, the Kurdish dialect Southern Kurmanji, which is commonly known in Kurdistan as Sorani, was named after this emirate. The present-day region of Soran in Kurdistan was named after this Emirate. –, Pir Budak ibn Shah Ali Bey. -. Mir Saidi ibn Shah Ali Bey. -, saifeddin ibn Mir Hussain ibn Pir Budak. -
Soran Emirate
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Flag of the Emirate of Soran [
citation needed]
47.
Baban
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The house of Baban ruled a Kurdish principality which encompassed areas of present-day Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran from the early 17th century until 1850. The Baban principality played a role in Ottoman-Persian conflict. The founder of the princely Baban family is thought to be Ahmad Faqih or Faqi Ahmad from the district of Pijder, the Babans claimed descent from a Frankish woman, Keghan, who was taken prisoner in a battle. According to the Sharafnama the clans first chief was Pir Badak Babe, Baban princes retained some autonomy in return for providing security for the Ottoman Empire along the Iranian border. Sulaiman Beg was the first Baban prince to gain control of the province of Shahrizor and its capital and he invaded Iran, defeating forces from the principality of Ardalan in 1694. Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II assigned him the district of Baban, which included the town of Kirkuk, the city of Sulaimaniyah was founded by Baban prince Mahmud Pasha in 1781. Baban rulers encouraged cultural and literary activities in their domain, during the first half of the 19th century a school of poetry was established under Baban patronage, of which classical Kurdish poet Nali was the central figure. Baban princes aided Ottoman forces in Iranian wars from 1723–1746, from 1750 to 1847, Baban history was dominated by rivalries with other Kurdish principalities and its opposition to centralization by the Ottomans and the Qajars. The principality was destroyed during the mid-19th century Ottoman modernization period, the Baban revolt lasted for three years, but was defeated by a coalition of Ottoman forces and Kurdish tribes. Ahmed Pasha Baban, the last Baban ruler, was defeated near Koya in 1847, the last Baban prince left Sulaimaniya in 1850, after fighting the Turks for the independence of southern Kurdistan. Khana Mohammad Pasha takes the city of Senna, capital of the Ardalan principality, in 1132, suliman Baba travels to Constantinople in 1678, gaining Ottoman recognition of the familys hereditary rights. Baban princes helped Ottoman forces in the Iranian wars of 1723–1746, abdulrahman Pasha becomes mirimiran prince of Kurdish princes in 1788. Abdurrahman Pasha marches on Ottoman Pasha of Baghdad Suleyman in June 1810 with 10,000 men, and the Chief technology officer in it. Ahmad Mukhtar Baban, the last Prime Minister of Iraq under the monarchy in 1958, List of Kurdish dynasties and countries List of Sunni Muslim dynasties Narrative of a residence in Koordistan, Claudius James Rich, James Duncan, Paternoster Row,1836. The Sharafnama, Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī,1597, the Emirate of Baban between the grinding stones of the Persians and Turks, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Zargata,1998. The caravan of death, Karl Friedrich May, Seabury Press,1979, first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, M. Th Houtsma, BRILL,1993. Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters, a modern history of the Kurds, David McDowall, I. B. Tauris,2000. Politics of Alliance and Rivalry on the Ottoman-Iranian Frontier, The Babans, metin Atmaca, Self-publishing, Freiburg im Breisgau 2013
Baban
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Omar Agha (officer for Mahmoud Pasha of Baban), 1820
Baban
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Baban Principality, ca. 1835
48.
Simko Shikak revolt
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The Simko Shikak revolt refers to an armed Ottoman-backed tribal Kurdish uprising against the Qajar dynasty of Iran from 1918 to 1922, led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak from the Shekak tribe. The Shikak rebellion resulted in some 5,000 killed, including many Assyrian civilians, the patriarchal ring was stolen at this time and the body of the patriarch was only recovered hours later, according to the eye-witness account of Daniel d-Malik Ismael. After the murder of Mar Shimun, the Hakkari Christians took revenge on the Muslim population of Salmas and most of the villages of Salmas County, while Simko, christian brigades terrorized Christians as well as Muslims. A missionary described this period as a reign of terror for Muslims hard to imagine, Simko also instigated the massacre of 1,000 Christians in Salmas. By summer 1918, Simko had established his authority over the regions west of Lake Urmia, in 1919, Simko organized an army of 20,000 Kurds and managed to secure a self-governed area in northwestern Iran, centered in the city of Urmia. Simkos forces had reinforced with several hundred soldiers and mercenaries from the Ottoman Empire, including Kurdish deserters. After taking over Urmia, Simko appointed Teymur Agha Shikak as the governor of the city, in the battle of Gulmakhana, Kurdish forces under the command of Simko Shikak took control over Gulmakhana and the Urmia-Tabriz road from Iranian forces. In the battle of Shekar Yazi, the commander of the Iranian Army, in the battle of Miandoab, Reza Shah, dispatched Khaloo Qurban to counter Kurdish expansion, but he was defeated and killed by Simkos forces in 1922. In the battle for the conquest of Mahabad, Simko himself commanded his forces with the help of Seyyed Taha Shamzini, after a tough battle in October 1921, Iranian forces were defeated and their commander Major Malakzadeh along with 600 Iranian Gendarmeries was killed. Simko also conquered Maragheh and encouraged the Lurs tribes of western Iran to revolt, at this time, the government in Tehran tried to reach an agreement with Simko on the basis of limited Kurdish autonomy. Simko had further organized a Kurdish army, which grew stronger and stronger, since the central government could not control his activities, he continued to expand the areas of western Iran under his control. By 1922, the cities of Baneh and Sardasht were under his administration, the strength of the Iranian Army force dispatched against Simko was 10,000 soldiers. Simko and one thousand of his soldiers, took refuge in what was now Turkey. By 1926, Simko had regained control of his tribe and begun the another rebellion, when the army engaged him, half of his troops betrayed him to the tribe’s previous leader and Simko fled to Iraq. In 1930, the commander of the Iranian Army, General Hassan Muqaddam sent a letter to Simko, who was residing in the village of Barzan, colonel Norouzi convinced Simko to go to the outskirts of the town to welcome the generals arrival. However, this was a trap, and Simko was ambushed and killed on the evening of June 30,1930, Tehran repeatedly accused Britain and Iraq of encouraging unrest, and deeply resented the asylum given by Iraq to Simko in 1922 and to Sardār Rashid in 1923. According to The New York Times, July 10,1922, Simkos revolts are seen by some as an attempt by a powerful tribal chief to establish his personal authority over the central government throughout the region. It lacked any kind of organization and Simko was primarily interested in plunder
Simko Shikak revolt
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Simko (center)
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