History of the Kurds

The history of the Kurdish people stretches from ancient times to the present day. The Kurds are an Iranian-speaking ethnolinguistic group who have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Caucasus (Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges), a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. This area covers northern Iraq, western and northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. Kurds are also found in southwestern Armenia and an enclave in Azerbaijan (Kalbajar and Lachin, to the west of Nagorno Karabakh). They are also found in northeastern Iran in Khorasan. The Kurds speak in the Kurdish language of the Iranian branch.

Origins

With regard to the origin of the Kurds, it was formerly considered sufficient to describe them as the descendants of the Carduchi, who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains in the 4th century BC. Modern research traces them far beyond the period of the ancient Greeks. However, there is evidence of more ancient settlements in the region of Kurdistan. The earliest known evidence of a unified and distinct culture (and possibly, ethnicity) by people inhabiting the Kurdish mountains dates back to the Halaf culture of 6,000 BC to 5,400 BC. This was followed by the spread of the Ubaidian culture, which was a foreign introduction from Mesopotamia. In 1927, Ephraim Speiser discovered remains of ancient Halaf and Ubaid settlements in Tepe Gewre (Great Mound) 24 km northeast of Mosul. These settlements date back to between the 5th and 2nd millennium B.C., and include 24 levels of civilizations including Halaf and Ubaid. This site includes an acropolis with monumental remains and fine architecture.

In their own histories, they are proud to mention the Hurrian period in the mid third millennium BC as the earliest well documented period. The 3rd millennium was the time of the Guti and Hattians. The 2nd and 1st millennium BC were the time of the Kassites, Mitanni, Mannai (Mannaeans), Urartu, and Mushku. All of these peoples shared a common identity and spoke one language or closely related languages or dialects. These groups are thought to have been non-Indo-Europeans, apart from the original Mitanni leadership. Kurds consider themselves to be Indo-European as well as descendants of the above groups. According to the Encyclopaedia Kurdistanica, Kurds are the descendants of all those who have historically settled in Kurdistan, not of any one particular group. A people such as the Guti (Kurti), Mede, Mard, Carduchi(Gordyaei), Adiabene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only one ancestor.

Hurrian period

Ancient Orient

The Hurrian period lasted from possibly as long ago as 4,300 BC, until about 600 BC. The Hurrian language was similar to later Urartean, and perhaps distantly related to the Northeast Caucasian family of languages (or Alarodian), and kin to modern Chechen and Lezgian. The Hurrians spread far and wide, dominating much territory outside their Zagros-Taurus mountain base. Like their Kurdish descendants, they did not expand very far from the mountains. Their intrusions into the neighboring plains of Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau were primarily military annexations with little population settlement. The Hurrians (whose name may be seen today in the dialect and district of Hawraman in Kurdistan) were divided into many clans and subgroups, who set up city-states, kingdoms, and empires known today after their respective clan names. The major peoples in the mountain region during this era (some of whom spoke languages known to be unrelated to Hurrian) included the Gutis, Kurti, Khaldi, Mards, Mushku, Manna (Mannaeans), Hatti, Mittanni, Urartu, and the Kassites, to name just a few. Hurrian cultural influence was strong among the inhabitants of Corduene centuries later, to the extent that they worshipped the Hurrian sky God Teshub.

Sumerian records

According to the British scholar G. R. Driver, the earliest account of the Kurds comes from a Sumerian cuneiform clay tablet in 3rd millennium BC, on which the name of a land called Karda or Qarda is inscribed. This land south of Lake Van, was inhabited by the people of Su or Subaru who were connected with the Qurtie, a group of mountain dwellers. It is with this name Qurtie that Driver makes his first etymological connection.

Indo-European migration

By about 2,000 BC, the first vanguard of the Indo-European-speaking peoples were trickling into the present-day Kurdish areas in limited numbers and settling there. They formed the aristocracy of the Mittani and Hittite kingdoms, while the common peoples there remained solidly Hurrian and Hattian, respectively. By about 1,000 BC, the trickle had turned into a flood, and Indo-Europeans quickly outnumbered the Hurrians. Medes, Scythians and Sagarthians are the better-known clans of the Indo-European-speaking Aryans who settled in the area. By 1200 BCE, Medes conquered Hurrian cities and by 850 BCE, the old language of the Kurds (probably from a Dene-Caucasian family) had changed to Indo-European. By about 600 BC, the Medes had set up an empire that included all of the present-day Kurdish areas and vast territories far beyond.

Assyrian records

In the earliest recorded history, the mountains overhanging Assyria were held by a people named Gutii, a title which signified "a warrior", and which was rendered in Assyrian by the synonym of Gardu or Kardu, the precise term quoted by Strabo to explain the name of the Cardaces. These Gutii were a tribe of such power as to be placed in the early Cuneiform records on an equality with the other nations of western Asia, including Syrians and Hittites, the Susians, Elamites, and Akkadians of Babylonia; and during the entire period of the Assyrian Empire, the Gutii seem to have preserved a more-or-less independent political position.

The first records of the name Kurd appeared in Assyrian documents around 1000 BCE. Assyrians called the people living in Mt. Azu or Hizan (near Lake Van) by the name Kurti or Kurkhi. The country of the Kurkhi included regions of Mount Judi and districts that were later called by the names Sophene, Anzanene and Gordyene. The Kurkhi fought numerous battles with Tiglath-Pileser I who eventually defeated them and burnt down 25 of their towns.

Medes

Median Empire, ca. 600 BC

After the fall of Nineveh, the Gutii coalesced with the Medes and, along with all the nations inhabiting the high plateaus of Asia Minor, Armenia and Persia, became gradually Aryanised, owing to the immigration of tribes in overwhelming numbers who, from whatever quarter they may have sprung, belonged certainly to the Aryan family. Herodotus (I, 101) had recalled a Mede tribe to be called "Magoi", better known as "Magis", a tribe known to have included many priests, who served both Medes and Persians. By the time of the Median empire (est. 612 BC), Zoroastrianism is known to have been well established in both Pars region (later capital of Persia) as well as in the Western regions.

Achaemenid, Greek, and Parthian periods

The Gutii or Kurdu were reduced to subjection by Cyrus before he descended upon Babylon, and, having furnished a contingent of fighting men to his successors, were mentioned under the names of "Saspirians" and "Alarodians" in the muster roll of the army of Xerxes preserved by Herodotus.

Governor of Gordyene (Gutium) was a Median general named Gobryas who had worked for the ally of the Medes Nebuchadrezzar earlier in his career. He was later appointed as governor of Babylonia by Cyrus. Darius I sought to limit the growing Median influence at the emperial court. Medes resented his policy and revolted under the leadership of nobles of the old Median line such as Smerdis.

Although the Carduchi were subjugated by Cyrus, but they frequently rebelled against the Achaemenids and by the end of the 5th century BCE, during the reign of Artaxerxes II, they were no longer under Persian control. According to Xenophon, Carduchis even defeated a large Persian army sent against them and at times concluded treaties with Persian satraps.

In 401 BCE, the 10,000 Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger fought their way across the Carduchi's territory. The Greeks chose the path in Carduchi's territory, partly because Carduchis were known to be the enemy of the Persians and were accustomed to defend themselves against the huge armies of the Persians. Carduchis seem to have inhabited the mountanis of Niphates, not far from the source of Tigris.

According to Xenophon, Carduchis were very warlike, living in the mountains and did not obey the Persian king. On one occasion, a royal Persian army of 120,000 men penetrated into Carduchi country and not one of them returned. The Greeks were later forced to fight their way through the Carduchi territory for seven days. Despite this, it has been argued that Carduchian mountains in effect presented a refuge to the Greeks, who were trying to escape the attacks of the Persian armies, since the Persian cavalry could not act freely in the range of Carduchian mountains.

In later times they passed successively under the sway of the Macedonians, the Parthians, and Sassanids. They were befriended by the Arsacid monarchs. Gotarzes, whose name may perhaps be translated chief of the Gutii, is traditionally believed to be the founder of the Gurans, the principal tribe of southern Kurdistan. His name and titles are preserved in a Greek inscription at Behistun near Kermanshah. (For a map of the region during the Parthian era see:)

Kurds in the Seleucid period

During the Seleucid/Macedonian period, at least one major episode of resettlement of Kurds into western and southwestern Anatolia can be historically evidenced. The episode unfold sometime before 181 BC when a large number of Cardaces are brought to settle in the strategic region of Lycia as a reservoir for military conscript and frontier guardsmen. It is likely that it was the Seleucids who settled these Kurds in Lycia for the stated military purposes (against the Romans), possibly in the last decades of the 3rd century BC. For the year 190 BC, the Roman historian Livy records the presence of several thousand Kurdish soldiers fighting in the army of Antiochus III. The name "Cardaces" or "Cardacian" appears again in the Battle of Rhaphia in Palestine in spring of 217 BC between the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great and King Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt.

Kurds in the Sassanid period

A very early record of confrontation between Kurds and Sassanid Empire appears in a historical text named Book of the Deeds of Ardashir son of Babak. In this book, the author explains the battle between Ardashir I and Madig king of the Kurds in the early 3rd century. Ardashir killed one thousand of the Kurds, while others were wounded and taken prisoners; and out of the Kurds that were imprisoned, he sent to Pars their king with his sons, brothers, children, his abundant wealth and property. This battle has also been reported by the Persian poet Firdawsi in his epic Shahnama (Volume 6, Chapters 61,71,72), in which the name of the Kurdish King appears as Mádík.

In the spring of 360, Shapur II captured the city of Sangara (probably modern Shingar or Sinjar north-west of Mosul). From Singara, Shapur proceeded to attack the strong fort known indifferently as Phoenica or Bezabde on the east bank of the Tigris. It may be considered the representative of the modern Jezireh (Cizre in south-eastern Turkey). It was much valued by Rome, was fortified in places with a double wall, and was guarded by three legions and a large body of Kurdish archers. After a long siege, the wall was at last breached, the city taken, and its defenders indiscriminately massacred.

Some Middle Persian sources suggest Kurdish deportations, particularly in the later Sassanid era. In addition to the deportation of a number of the Barzanis to the province of Carmania (modern Kerman), the Baluchis were forced en masse into the far-off volcanic wastes of Makran (now Balochistan) by Chosroes I Anoshervan (Khosrau I) (r. 531-579) and Chosroes II Aparviz (Khosrau II) (r. 591-628). The Sassanids further resettled the Kirkuk region with Neo-Elamite Khuzis from Mishan/Maysan region several times during the course of the third century AD.

There is evidence of sun-worship among Kurds in the late Sassanid period. Sun-worshipping Kurds lived in the mountains of present-day northern Iraq in the fifth century CE. Also early 7th century references describe the rituals of sun worship and sacrifice of an ox in the region around Adiabene and sacrifice for demons in Beth Nuhadra among Kurds.

Kurdish vassals of the Roman Empire

Kurdish Kingdoms of Corduene-Sophene (Kurdistan)

Classical histories of Polybios(133 BCE) and Strabo(48 CE) referred to the Kurds as Kurts. The Zelan Kurdish clan of Commagene (Adiyaman area), spread to establish in addition to the Zelanid dynasty of Commagene, the Zelanid kingdom of Cappadocia and the Zelanid empire of Pontus, all in Anatolia. These became Roman vassals by the end of the first century BC. Also the Kurdish Kingdom of Corduene became a province of the Roman Empire in 66 BC when Lucullus helped the Cordueni to throw off the yoke of Tigranes who had earlier killed their king Zarbienus. After defeating Tigranes, Lucullus built a memorial for Zarbienus and called him a friend and confederate of the Romans. Corduene remained under Roman control for four centuries until 384 AD. In the east the Kurdish kingdoms of Cortea, Media, Kirm, and Adiabene had, by the first century BC, become confederate members of the Parthian Federation. Strabo, the Greek geographer considered Gordys son of Triptolemus, as the ancestor of Gordyaei(Cordueni). He has an article on Gordiaea(Corduene), an ancient district thought to be part of Kurdistan.

Kurds under Arab rule

In 641 CE, Arab commader 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 Irbil in Adiabene. In 696, Kurds joined the Khariji revolt near Hulwan.

Under the caliphs of Baghdad the Kurds were always giving trouble in one quarter or another. In 838, and again in 905, formidable insurrections occurred in northern Kurdistan; the amir, Aqpd-addaula, was obliged to lead the forces of the caliphate against the southern Kurds, capturing the famous fortress of Sermaj, whose ruins are to be seen at the present day near Behistun, and reducing the province of Shahrizor with its capital city now marked by the great mound of Yassin Teppeh. One of the very well known Kurdish scholars, Al-Dinawari (828 - 889), from Dinawar near Kermanshah, lived in this period. He has written a book about the ancestry of the Kurds.

A Kurd named Nasr or Narseh converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Theophobos during the reign of Emperor Theophilus and was emperor's intimate friend and commander for many years. Narseh joined Babak's rebellion in southern Kurdistan, but Abbassid armies defeated his forces in 833 and according to the Muslim historian Tabari around 60,000 of his followers were killed. Narseh himself fled to the Byzantine territories and helped form the Kurdish contingent of Theophilus. This Kurdish force invaded the domain of caliphate in 838 to help Babak's rebellion. After the defeat of Babak, Narseh and his followers settled in Pontus (north-central Anatolia).

The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine power by the Muslim caliphate, and its own subsequent weakening, let the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" set up new independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia, the Hasanwayhids, Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros are some of the these Kurdish dynasties.

Medieval Kurdish states

In 837, the Kurdish lord Rozeguite, founded the town of Akhlat on the banks of Lake Van and made it the capital of his principality, theoretically vassal of the caliph, but in actual fact virtually independent. In the second half of the 10th century, Kurdistan was shared amongst five big Kurdish principalities. In the North the Shaddadid (951-1174) (in parts of Armenia and Arran) and Rawadid (955-1221) in Tabriz and Maragheh, in the East the Hasanwayhids (959-1015), the Annazid (990-1117) (in Kermanshah, Dinawar and Khanaqin) and in the West the Marwanid (990-1096) of Diyarbakır. Remnants of the Shaddadid Kurds are found nowadays in the Kalbajar and Lachin regions of Azarbaijan, between Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.

Later in 12th century, Kurdish dynasty of Hazaraspid established its rule in southern Zagros and Luristan and conquered territories of Kuhgiluya, Khuzestan and Golpayegan in 13th century and annexed Shushtar, Hoveizeh and Basra in 14th century.

One of these dynasties would have been able, during the decades, to impose its supremacy on the others and build a state incorporating the whole Kurdish country if the course of history had not been disrupted by the massive invasions of tribes surging out of the steppes of Central Asia. Having conquered Iran and imposed their yoke on the caliph of Baghdad, the Seljuk Turks annexed the Kurdish principalities one by one. Around 1150, Ahmed Sanjar, the last of the great Seljuk monarchs, created a province out of these lands and called it Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sanjar, had as its capital the village Bahar (which means "spring"), near ancient Ecbatana (Hamadan), capital of the Medes. It included the vilayets of Sinjar and Shahrazur to the west of the Zagros mountain range and those of Hamadan, Dinawar and Kermanshah to the east of this range. A brilliant autochthonous civilization developed around the town of Dinawar (today ruined), located 75km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was than partially replaced by that of Senna, 90km further North

Marco Polo (1254 – 1324), famous for the first “world trip”, met Kurds in Mosul on his way to China, and he wrote what he had learned about Kurdistan and the Kurds to enlighten his European contemporaries. The Italian Kurdologist Mirella Galetti, sorted these writings which were translated into Kurdish.

The Ayyubid period

The Middle East, c. 1190. Saladin's empire and its vassals shown in red; territory taken from the Crusader states 1187-1189 shown in pink. Light green indicates Crusader territories surviving Saladin's death.

Main article: Ayyubid dynasty

The most flourishing period of Kurdish power was probably during the 12th century, when the great Saladin, who belonged to the Rawendi branch of the Hadabani(or Adiabene) tribe, founded the Ayyubite (1171-1250) dynasty of Syria, and Kurdish chieftainships were established, not only to the east and west of the Kurdistan mountains, but as far as Khorasan upon one side and Egypt and Yemen on the other.

The Period of Mongols, Timur, Karakoyunlu and Akkoyunlu

The Mongols devastated the Kurdish areas in the 13th century. Hulagu's Army eliminated many Kurdish tribal chiefs. In 14th century, Timur conquered most of Kurdistan and devastated Kurdish tribes. In fifteenth century, Karakoyunlu rulers helped Kurdish chieftains to recover their lost influence. However, when the Akkoyunlu dynasty defeated the Karakoyunlu, Kurdish tribes were persecuted. The Akkoyunlu exterminated many notable ruling Kurdish families and appointed their own governors in their place.

Kurdish Principalities after the Mongol period

After the Mongol period, Kurds established several independent states or principalities such as Ardalan, Badinan, Baban, Soran, Hakkari and Badlis. A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the famous textbook of "Sharafnama" written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Biltisi in 1597. The most prominent among these was Ardalan which was established in early 14th century. The state of Ardalan controlled the territories of Zardiawa (Karadagh), Khanaqin, Kirkuk, Kifri, and Hawraman. The capital city of the state was first in Sharazour in Iraqi Kurdistan, but was moved to Sinne (in Iran) later on. The Ardalan Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah(1848-1896) ended their rule in 1867.

Safavid period

During the years 1506-1510, Yazidi Kurds revolted against Shah Ismail I. Their leader, Shir Sarim, was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of Shah Ismail lost their lives. The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with tor­ments worse than which there may not be".

Forced deportation of the Kurds

Removal of the population from along their borders with the Ottomans in Kurdistan and the Caucasus was of strategic importance to the Safavids. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, along with large groups of Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, and Turkmens, were forcibly removed from the border regions and resettled in the interior of Persia. As the borders moved progressively eastward, as the Ottomans pushed deeper into the Persian domains, entire Kurdish regions of Anatolia were at one point or another exposed to horrific acts of despoilation and deportation. These began under the reign of the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I (ruled 1524-1576). Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp began the systematic destruction of the old Kurdish cities and the countryside. When retreating before the Ottoman army, Tahmasp ordered the destruction of crops and settlements of all sizes, driving the inhabitants before him into Azerbaijan, from where they were later transferred permanently, nearly 1000 miles east, into Khurasan. Some Kurdish tribes were deported even farther east, into Gharjistan in the Hindu Kush mountains of present day Afghanistan, about 1500 miles away from their homes in western Kurdistan.

The magnitude of Safavid destruction can be glimpsed through the works of the Safavid court historians. One of these, Iskandar Bayg Munshi, describing just one episode, writes in the Alam-ara ye Abbasi that Shah Abbas I, in furthering the scorched earth policy of his predecessors, set upon the country north of the Araxes and west of Urmia, and between Kars and Lake Van, which he commanded to be laid waste and the population of the countryside and the entire towns rounded up and led out of harm's way. Resistance was met "with massacres and mutilation; all immovable propertyhouses, churches, mosques, crops ... were destroyed, and the whole horde of prisoners was hurried southeast before the Ottomans should counterattack". Many of these Kurds ended up in Khurasan, but many others were scattered into the Alburz mountains, central Persia, and even Balochistan. They became the nucleus of several modern Kurdish enclaves outside Kurdistan proper, in Iran and Turkmenistan. On one occasion Abbas I is said to have intended to transplant 40,000 Kurds to northern Khorasan but to have succeeded in deporting only 15,000 before his troops were defeated.

Following the Battle of Chalderan, Sultan Selim I (the Grim), deported several populous Kurdish tribes into central Anatolia, south of modern Ankara. In their place, he settled a few, more loyal, Turkmen tribes. While the deported Kurds became the nucleus of the modern central Anatolian Kurdish enclave, the Turkmen tribes in Kurdistan eventually assimilated.

Battle of Dimdim

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" (DimDim) in Beradost region around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. In 1609, the ruined structure was rebuilt by "Emîr Xan Lepzêrîn" (Golden Hand Khan), ruler of Beradost, who sought to maintain the independence of his expanding principality in the face of both Ottoman and Safavid penetration into the region. Rebuilding Dimdim was considered a move toward independence that could threaten Safavid power in the northwest. Many Kurds, including the rulers of Mukriyan (Mahabad), 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. All the defenders were massacred. Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan (reported by Eskandar Beg Turkoman, Safavid Historian in the Book Alam Aray-e Abbasi) and resettled the Turkish Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan. Although Persian historians (like Eskandar Beg ) depicted the first battle of Dimdim as a result of Kurdish mutiny or treason, in Kurdish oral traditions (Beytî dimdim), literary works (Dzhalilov, pp. 67-72), and histories, it was treated as a struggle of the Kurdish people against foreign domination. In fact, Beytî dimdim is considered a national epic second only to Mem û Zîn by Ehmedê Xanî (Ahmad Khani). The first literary account of this battle is written by Faqi Tayran.

Ottoman Period

When Sultan Selim I, after defeating Shah Ismail I in 1514, annexed Armenia and Kurdistan, he entrusted the organisation of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kurd of Bitlis. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerum and Erivan, which had lain waste since the passage of Timur, with Kurds from the Hakkari and Bohtan districts.

Rozhiki Revolt

In 1655, Abdal Khan the Kurdish Rozhiki ruler of Bidlis, formed a private army and fought a full scale war against the Ottoman troops. Evliya Çelebi noted the presence of many Yazidis in his army.. The main reason for this armed insurrection was the discord between Abdal Khan and Melek Ahmad Pasha the Ottoman governor of Van and Abdal Khan. The Ottoman troops marched onto Bidlis and committed atrocities against civilians as they passed through Rozhiki territory. Abdal Khan had built great stone redoubts around Bitlis, and also old city walls were defended by a large army of Kurdish infantry armed with muskets. Ottomans attacked the outer defensive perimeter and defeated Rozhiki soldiers, then they rushed to loot Bidlis and attacked the civilians. Once the Ottoman force established its camp in Bidlis, in an act of revenge, Abdal Khan made a failed attempt to assassinate Melek Ahmad Pasha. A unit of 20 Kurdish soldiers rode into the tent of Yusuf Kethuda, the second-in-command and fought a ferocious battle with his guards. After the fall of Bidlis, 1400 Kurds continued to resist from the city's old citadel. While most of these surrendered and were given amnesty, 300 of them were massacred by Melek Ahmad with 70 of them dismembered by sword and cut into pieces.

Modern history of the Kurds

Kurdistan

The system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29. But the Kurds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Turkey, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora.

After the war the Kurds tried to free themselves from Turkish control, and in 1834, after the Bedirkhan clan uprising, it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha, also a kurd The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kurd beys were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khan Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War the Turks strengthened their hold on the country.

Kurdistan as an administrative entity had a brief and shaky existence of 17 years between 13 December 1847 (following Bedirhan Bey's revolt) and 1864, under the initiative of Koca Mustafa Reşit Pasha during the Tanzimat period (1839-1876) of the Ottoman Empire. The capital of the province was, at first, Ahlat, and covered Diyarbekir, Muş, Van, Hakkari, Cizre, Botan and Mardin. In the following years, the capital was transferred several times, first from Ahlat to Van, then to Muş and finally to Diyarbakır. Its area was reduced in 1856 and the province of Kurdistan within the Ottoman Empire was abolished in 1864. Instead, the former provinces of Diyarbekir and Van have been re-constituted Around 1880, Shaikh Ubaidullah led a revolt aiming at bringing the areas between Lakes Van and Urmia under his own rule, however Ottoman and Qajar forces succeeded in defeating the revolt .

Bedr Khan of Botan

The modernizing and centralizing efforts of Sultan Mahmud II, antagonized Kurdish feudal chiefs. As a result two powerful Kurdish families rebelled against the Ottomans in 1830. Bedr Khan of Botan rose up in the west of Kurdistan, around Diyarbakır, and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz rebelled in the east and established his authority in Mosul and Erbil. At this time, Turkish troops were preoccupied with invading Egyptian troops in Syria and were unable to suppress the revolt. As a result, Bedr Khan extended his authority to Diyarbakır, Siverik (Siverek), Veransher (Viranşehir), Sairt (Siirt), Sulaimania and Sauj Bulaq (Mahabad). He established a Kurdish state in these regions until 1845. He struck his own coins, and his name was included in Friday sermons. In 1847, the Turkish forces turned their attention toward this area, and defeated Bedr Khan and exiled him to Crete. He was later allowed to return to Damascus, where he lived until his death in 1868.

How the turks defeated him: Bedr Khan become a king when his brother died. His brothers son got very upset over this and finally the turks tricked him in fighting his uncle. They told him that they would make him king if he killed Bedr Khan. So he brought many kurdish warriors with him and attacked his uncles forces.. Finally he won over him, but instead of becoming a king like the turks said, he got executed.

There are two famous kurdish songs about this battle, called "Ezdin Shêr" and "Ez Xelef im" (both can be found on http://www.kurdishmusic.eu/siwanperwerm.html)

After him, there were further revolts in 1850 and 1852.

Shaikh Ubaidullah's Revolt and Armenians

Kurdish costumes, 1873.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was followed by the attempt of Sheikh Obaidullah in 1880 - 1881 to found an independent Kurd principality under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia, collapsed after Obaidullah's raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kurds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877-1878 the mountaineers of both races had co-existed fairly well together.

In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kurds by raising a body of Kurdish irregular cavalry, which was well-armed and called Hamidieh soldiers after the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasun and other places, 1894 - 1896, in which the Kurds took an active part. Some of the separatist Kurds, aimed to establish a separate Kurdish state.

Kurds under the Young Turks Regime

Jakob Künzler, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks during World War I. He has given a detailed account of deportation of Kurds from Erzurum and Bitlis in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would take the Russian side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab and Marasch. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to the Konya region in central Anatolia. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.

After World War I

Some of the Kurdist groups sought self-determination and the championing in the Treaty of Sèvres of Kurdish autonomy in the aftermath of World War I, but the Turkish resurgence under Kemal Atatürk prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic of Ararat. Turkey suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937 - 1938, while Iran did the same in the 1920s. A short-lived Soviet-sponsored Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Iran did not long outlast World War II.

When Ba'athist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in Iraq, war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited territorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas including the oil-rich Kirkuk region.

In 1922, an investigation was initiated for Nihad Pasha, the commander of El-Cezire front, by Adliye Encümeni (Council of Justice) of Grand National Assembly of Turkey with allegations of fraud. During a confidential convention on the issue on 22nd July, a letter of introductions by the Cabinet of Ministers and signed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha was read. The text was referring to the region as "Kurdistan" three times and providing Nihad Pasha with full authorities to support the local Kurdish administrations (idare-i mahallîyeye dair teşkilâtlar) as per the principle of self-determination (Milletlerin kendi mukadderatlarını bizzat idare etme hakkı), in order to gradually establish a local government in the regions inhabited by Kurds (Kürtlerle meskûn menatık).

In 1931, Iraqi Kurdish statesman Mihemed Emîn Zekî, while serving as the Minister of Economy in the first Nuri as-Said government, drew the boundaries of Turkish Kurdistan as: "With mountains of Ararat and the Georgian border (including the region of Kars, where Kurds and Georgians live side by side) to the north, Iranian border to the east, Iraqi border to the south, and to the west, a line drawn from the west of Sivas to İskenderun. These boundaries are also in accord with those drawn by the Ottomans." In 1932, Garo Sassouni, formerly a prominent figure of Dashnak Armenia, defined the borders of "Kurdistan proper" (excluding whole territory of Wilsonian Armenia) as: "...with a line from the south of Erzincan to Kharput, incorporating Dersim, Çarsancak, and Malatya, including the mountains of Cebel-i Bereket and reaching the Syrian border", also adding, "these are the broadest boundaries of Kurdistan that can be claimed by Kurds."

During 1920s and 1930s, several large scale Kurdish revolts took place in this region. The most important ones were 1) Saikh Said Rebellion in 1925, 2) Ararat Revolt in 1930 and 3) Dersim Revolt in 1938 (see Kurds in Turkey). Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under martial law and a large number of the Kurds were displaced. Government also encouraged resettlement of Albanians from Kosovo and Assyrians in the region to change the population makeup. These events and measures led to a long-lasting mutual distrust between Ankara and the Kurds .

For more recent Kurdish history see Kurds, Iranian Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurds in Turkey and Kurds in Syria.

This article uses text from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

See also

• Corduene
• Shaddadid
• Marwanid
• Annazid
• Ayyubids
• Ardalan
• Republic of Ararat
• Republic of Mahabad
• Kingdom of Kurdistan
• Kurdistan
• Kurdish
• Kurds
• Iraqi Kurdistan
• Turkish Kurdistan
• Iranian Kurdistan
• Timeline of the Kurdish uprising

External links

• History of the Kurds, Encyclopaedia Kurdistanica
• Kurds and Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam
• Deportations & Forced Resettlements (of Kurds), Ecyclopaedia Kurdistanica
• The First Documented Resettlement of Kurds into Western and Southwestern Anatolia circa 181 BC, Mehrdad Izady.
• A Brief Survey of the History of the Kurds, by Kendal Nezan, President of the Kurdish Institute of Paris.
• Yezidism: historical roots, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, January 2005.
• The forced conversion of the Jewish community of Persia and the beginnings of the Kurds
• History of Judaism in Kurdistan
• Kurdish Institut Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
• Battle of DimDim in Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Deportations, part III. In the Islamic Period, Encyclopaedia Iranica.