Shabaks
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Iraq | |
| Languages | |
| Shabaki, Kurdish, Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Shia Islam, Alevism, Ahl-e Haqq | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kurds, Zaza, Hawraman, Iranian peoples[citation needed] |
The Shabak people is a minority group of Kurdish[1] origin who live mainly in the villages of Ali Rash, Khazna, Yangidja and Tallara in Sinjar district in the province of Ninawa in northern Iraq. Many Bajalans are also found in Armenia. Their language, Shabaki, is a Northwestern Iranian language, belonging to Zaza-Gorani group, and similar to Kurdish with many borrowings from Turkish, Persian and Arabic.[2] They are scattered in 35 villages located in the east of Mosul. Their population was estimated at around 15,000 in the 1970s.[3]
A large part of the Shabaks follow an independent religion, related to but distinct from Islam. It contains elements of Islam, as well as Christianity and other religions. There is a close affinity between the Shabak and the Yazidis; for example, Shabaks perform pilgrimage to Yazidi shrines.[2] The Shabaks have a sacred book called the Buyruk written in Iraqi Turkmen colloquial. The Shabaks consist of three different ta'ifs or sects: the Bajalan, the Zengana, and the Shabak proper.[4] Shabaks do not intermarry with Kurds [5]
Name
The origin of the word shabak is not clear. One popular[who?] view maintains that shabak is an Arabic word meaning intertwine, reflecting their diverse society.
Arabization and Anfal Campaign
The geographical spread of Shabak people has been largely changed due to the massive deportations in the notorious Al-Anfal Campaign in 1988 and the refugee crisis in 1991. Many Shabaks along with Zengana and Hawrami people were relocated and deported to concentration camps (mujamma'at in Arabic) far away from their original homeland. Despite all these actions, Iraqi government efforts at forced assimilation and Arabization of Shabaks (and Zengana and Hawramis), only led to a strengthened sense of a common Kurdish identity among them. As one Shabak informant to a researcher put it:[6]
The government said we are Arabs, not Kurds; but if we are, why did they deport us from our homes?
Religious beliefs
The distinctive features of the Shabak culture is due to their special religious beliefs and practices. Shabaks combine elements of Sufism with their own interpretation of divine reality, which according to them, is more advanced than the literal interpretation of Qur'an known as Sharia. Shabak spiritual guides are known as pir, who are individuals well versed in the prayers and rituals of the sect. Pirs themselves are under the leadership of the Supreme Head or Baba. Pirs act as mediators between Divine power and ordinary Shabaks. Their beliefs form a syncretic system with such features as private and public confession and allowing consumption of alcoholic beverages. This last feature makes them distinct from the neighboring Muslim populations. The beliefs of the Yarsan closely resemble those of the Shabak people.[7].
Shabak Kurds after the 2003 war
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Kurdish millitias have opened KDP offices and raised the flag of Kurdistan in Shabak villages. It is alleged that Iraqi Kurdistan wants to annex Shabak villages and the eastern side of Mosul (Nineveh Plains) into its territory.[8] There have also been allegations of voter fraud and intimidation of Shabaks and other minority groups by Kurdish authorities in Ninawa Governorate. [9]
On August 15, 2005 in Bartella, two Assyrians were killed and four Shabaks were wounded by the Pêşmerge forces in a demonstration organized by the Democratic Shabak Coalition which wants separate representation for the Shabak community.[10]
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the Mosul area alone, 1,000 Shabaks have been killed[citation needed], many by way of beheading[citation needed], mostly by Sunni Arab militants[citation needed]. A further 4,000 Shabaks in Mosul have been driven from their homes. The number of Shabak deaths in Iraq is approaching genocide levels, as is the case for many of Iraq's minority groups (Turkmens, Yazidis, Palestinians, Assyrians, Armenians, many others), which have been caught between the political aspirations of Iraq's main three groups (Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds).
The Shabaks have representatives in the Bakhdida, Bartella, Basheqa, Tel Keppe and Nimrod municipalities of the Ninawa Governorate.
References
- ^ E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936 By Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, Vol. VI, 1987, p.238
- ^ a b Shabak, Encyclopaedia of The Orient.
- ^ A. Vinogradov, Ethnicity, Cultural Discontinuity and Power Brokers in Northern Iraq: The Case of the Shabak, American Ethnologist, pp.207-218, American Anthropological Association, 1974, p.208
- ^ This is according to one "informant" to a researcher (Michiel Leezenberg, a professor of philosophy at the University of Amsterdam), as reported at the following address: Leezenberg article
- ^ http://www.aina.org/guesteds/20050828120403.htm
- ^ Michiel Leezenberg, The Shabak and the Kakais: Dynamics of Ethnicity in Iraqi Kurdistan, Publications of Insititute for Logic, Language & Computation (ILLC), University of Amsterdam, July 1994, p.6
- ^ A. Vinogradov, Ethnicity, Cultural Discontinuity and Power Brokers in Northern Iraq: The Case of the Shabak, American Ethnologist, pp.207-218, American Anthropological Association, 1974, pp.214,215
- ^ "Kurds Block Assyrians, Shabaks From Police Force in North Iraq". Assyrian International News Agency. June 24, 2006.
- ^ "Skulduggery at the Iraqi polls? ( I am "shocked, shocked!")", 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban, November 4, 2005.
- ^ "Conflicts between Kurds and the Shabak", Dr. Hunain Al-Qaddo, August 26, 2005, Christians of Iraq.