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Kurdish Christians

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Kurdish Christians
کوردێن خرستیان, Kurdên Xirîstiyan
Regions with significant populations
Kurdistan and Kurdish diaspora
Religions
Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism[1]
Historically: Church of the East,[2] Syriac Orthodox Church[3]
Scriptures
Bible
Languages
Part of a series on
Kurdish history and Kurdish culture
People
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History

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Religion

Kurdish Christians[a] refers to Kurds who follow Christianity.[4][5][6] Some Kurds had historically followed Christianity and remained Christian when most Kurds were converted to Islam, however, the majority of modern Kurdish Christians are converts.[7] Historically, Kurdish converts to Christianity came from diverse backgrounds, including Ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Yazidism.

History

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In the 10th century AD, the Kurdish prince Ibn ad-Dahhak, who possessed the fortress of al-Jafary, converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity and in return the Byzantines gave him land and a fortress.[8] In 927 AD, he and his family were executed during a raid by Thamal al-Dulafi, the governor of Tarsus.[9]

In the late 11th and the early 12th century AD, Kurdish Christians made up a minority of the army of the fortress city of Shayzar, near Hama, Syria.[10]

The Zakarids–Mkhargrdzeli, an Armenian[11]–Georgian dynasty of Kurdish[12][13][14][15][16] origin, ruled parts of northern Armenia in the 13th century AD and tried to reinvigorate intellectual activities by founding new monasteries.[17]

Marco Polo, in his book, stated that a minority of the Kurds who inhabited the mountainous part of Mosul were Christians, while the rest were Muslims.[18]

Kurdish Christian converts usually were a part of the Church of the East.[19] In 1884, researchers of the Royal Geographical Society reported in Sivas about a local Kurdish tribe, likely of Armenian origin, which retained some Christian observances and sometimes identified as Christian.[20]

A significant part of Kurdish Christian converts were actually of Yazidi background. In the 17th century, Carmelite, Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries flocked to Yazidi regions, mainly in Sinjar and Syria.[21] Some Ottoman Yazidis converted to Christianity due to social issues regarding Yazidism. In the 19th century, both Protestant and Catholic missionaries developed an interest for Yazidis. In the Ottoman Empire, leaving Islam was a crime, however, since Yazidis were not Muslim, it was not a crime for them to convert nor was it a crime to convert them. Christian missionary activity flourished in Yazidi communities. In the 1880s, the Ottoman government began Islamic missionary for Yazidis, claiming that since Yazidi communities were open for Christian missionaries, they might as well be open for Islamic missionaries.[22] Christian missionaries later brought global attention on Yazidis, who were a fairly isolated community.[23] Yazidis who left Yazidism generally preferred Christianity over Islam.[24]

Contemporary Kurdish Christians

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Part of the English-language New Testament was first available in the Kurdish language in 1856.[25]

The Kurdzman Church of Christ (Kurdophone Church of Christ) was established in Hewlêr (Erbil) by the end of 2000, and has branches in the Silêmanî, Duhok governorates. This is the first evangelical Kurdish church in Iraq.[26] Its logo is formed of a yellow sun and a cross rising up behind a mountain range. According to one Kurdish convert, an estimated 500 Kurdish Muslim youths have converted to Christianity since 2006 throughout Kurdistan.[27] A Kurdish convert from the Iraqi military who claims to have transported weapons of mass destruction also stated that a wave of Kurds converting to Christianity was taking place in northern Iraq.[28]

There was a wave of Kurdish conversion to Christianity after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In the Post-Soviet states, most Kurdish converts to Christianity were from a Yazidi background.[29] In Armenia, around 3,600 Yazidis converted to Christianity by 2019.[30] Yazidi converts to Christianity were disowned and mistreated by the Yazidi community.[31] In 2023, an Evangelical missionary group sparked controversy after praying at a Yazidi temple for the destruction of Yazidism. After the Yazidi genocide, there was a wave of Yazidi conversion to Christianity, mostly through missionaries. Vian Dakhil urged the Kurdistan Region to ban Christian missionaries, although the KRG refused, and its "Office of Christian Affairs" claimed that the missionaries acted ethical. Christian missionaries saw the influx of Yazidi refugees to the Kurdistan Region as a "golden opportunity" for conversion, as the Yazidis were historically so isolated that even native Iraqi missionaries could not convert them. By late 2015, around 800 Yazidis converted to Christianity, and over 70% of Christian converts in refugee camps were Yazidi. Walid Shoebat criticized Vian Dakhil and her attempts to ban Christian proselytization, claiming that she preferred to "worship Lucifer instead of Jesus. Yazidis are known for their hatred to Christianity, especially missionaries."[32]

Madai Maamdi, a Georgian Yazidi convert to the Georgian Orthodox Church, was ordained a priest in February 2023 by the North American Diocese of the Georgian Orthodox Church, becoming the first ethnic Kurd to be ordained as an Orthodox Christian priest.[33]

Some Hidden Armenians who were Kurdified and Islamized had converted to Christianity in their attempts to return to their Armenian roots.[34] Many Kurdish Christians were not ethnic Kurds, but ethnic Armenians and Assyrians who lived in Kurdistan and spoke Kurdish and were considered Kurdish Christians.[35][36] In 2019, some 80-100 Kurds converted to Christianity in the city of Kobanî.[37][38][39] An Evangelical pastor from Aleppo claimed that Kurdish converts to Christianity were often disgruntled with Islam because of the Anti-Kurdish policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who promoted Islamism and Turkish nationalism, as well as the atrocities committed against Kurds in Syria by Turkish-backed Islamists during the Syrian civil war.[40]

See also

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Other Christian minorities

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Notes

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  1. ^ Kurmanji: کوردێن خرستیان, Kurdên Xirîstiyan; Sorani: کوردە مەسیحییەکان, Kurde Mesîḧîyekan

References

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  1. ^ Muhammad, Hoshavi. "Monk Madai. The Kurdish People and Christianity". OrthoChristian.Com.
  2. ^ Joseph, John (2000). The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists, & Colonial Powers, Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-11641-9, p. 61
  3. ^ Driver, G. R. (1922). "The Religion of the Kurds", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2. University of London. pp. 197–213.
  4. ^ Seker, Can (2006). "Zerdeştî û Ezdayetî".
  5. ^ Mîdî, Sozdar (2014). "Ta Kengê Bêdengî Li Ser Tewrên Tabûra Pêncan ya Islama Tundrew" (PDF). Pênûsa Nû. 28: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Çîroka 2 keçên Şingalê: Du ol di malekê de!". Rûdaw.net. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  7. ^ Kennedy, Hugh N. (2004). The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates : the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson-Longman. ISBN 0-582-40525-4. OCLC 55792252.
  8. ^ A. Vasilyev, Vizantija i araby. Vol. II. (Saint-Petersburg, 1902), p. 220.
  9. ^ Paul F. Robinson, Just War in Comparative Perspective, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 233pp., 2003, (see p.162)
  10. ^ David Nicolle, Christa Hook, Saracen Faris, 1050-1250 AD, 64 pp., Osprey Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-85532-453-9, see p.7, Table A.
  11. ^ Toumanoff, Cyril (1966). "Armenia and Georgia". The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire, part I chapter XIV. Cambridge. pp. 593—637: "Later, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Armenian house of the Zachariads (Mkhargrdzeli) ruled in northern Armenia at Ani, Lor'i, Kars, and Dvin under the Georgian aegis."
  12. ^ Lidov, Alexei (1991). The mural paintings of Akhtala. p. 14: "It is clear from the account of these Armenian historians that Ivane's great grandfather broke away from the Kurdish tribe of Babir" Nauka Publishers, Central Dept. of Oriental Literature, University of Michigan, ISBN 5-02-017569-2 ISBN 978-5-02-017569-3.
  13. ^ Minorsky, Vladimir (1953). Studies in Caucasian History. p. 102: "According to a tradition which has every reason to be true, their ancestors were Mesopotamian Kurds of the tribe (xel) Babirakan." CUP Archive. ISBN 0-521-05735-3, ISBN 978-0-521-05735-6.
  14. ^ Richard Barrie Dobson. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J, p. 107: "... under the Christianized Kurdish dynasty of Zak'arids they tried to re-establish nazarar system ..." Editions du Cerf, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-227-67931-8, ISBN 978-0-227-67931-9.
  15. ^ William Edward David Allen (1932). A History of the Georgian People: From the Beginning Down to the Russian Conquest in the Nineteenth Century. p. 104: "She retained and leant upon the numerous relatives of Sargis Mkhargrdzeli, an aznauri of Kurdish origin." Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-7100-6959-6, ISBN 978-0-7100-6959-7.
  16. ^ Vardan Arewelts'i's, Compilation of History: "In these time there lived the glorious princes Zak'are' and Iwane', sons of Sargis, son of Vahram, son of Zak'are', son of Sargis of Kurdish nationality (i K'urd azge')" p. 82
  17. ^ A. Vauchez, R. B. Dobson, M. Lapidge, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J, 1624 pp., Editions du Cerf, 2000, ISBN 0227679318, 9780227679319, see p.107
  18. ^ Polo, Marco (1920). "Chapter 5" . In Cordier, Henri (ed.). The Travels of Marco Polo . Translated by Yule, Henry – via Wikisource.
  19. ^ John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists, & Colonial Powers, Brill Academic Publishers, 292 pp., 2000, ISBN 90-04-11641-9, p.61
  20. ^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society And Monthly Record Of Geography, Volume 6, 1884, pp. 313, Stanford
  21. ^ Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, 2020, pp. 405-406
  22. ^ Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters, 2009, pp. 602
  23. ^ Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, 2020, pp. 401
  24. ^ Kurdish Times: Volumes 3-4, 1989, pp. 10, Cultural Survival, Inc. Indiana University.
  25. ^ Dehqan, Mustafa (2009). "A Kirmaşanî Translation of the Gospel of John" (PDF). Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. 61 (1–2): 207–211. doi:10.2143/JECS.61.1.2045832. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  26. ^ Revival Times Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ Sunni extremists (21 May 2007). "Threaten to kill Christian converts in north". IRIN.
  28. ^ Kurds in Northern Iraq Converting to Christianity: Iraqi General
  29. ^ "ABD'de bir ilk: Ortodoks kilisesine Kürt papaz". Gazete Duvar (in Turkish). 18 February 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  30. ^ "Population (urban, rural) by Ethnicity, Sex and Religious Belief" (PDF). Statistics of Armenia. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  31. ^ Aghayeva, Elene Shengelia, Rana (6 September 2018). "Georgia's Yazidis: Religion as Identity - Religious Beliefs". chai-khana.org. Retrieved 30 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ "Yazidis Say They Are Being Targeted for Christian Conversion". Voice of America. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  33. ^ "Hierodeacon Madai Becomes The First Ethnic Kurd Ordained Into The Orthodox Christian Priesthood". Greek City Times. 18 February 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  34. ^ The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, 2020, pp. 45-46, ISBN 9781912997510
  35. ^ Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket, 2018, pp. 206, ISBN 9783319930886
  36. ^ Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan, Martin van Bruinessen, pp. 8, 1991, ISBN 9781856490184
  37. ^ Christianity Grows in Syrian Town in Wake of IS
  38. ^ "Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State". Reuters. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  39. ^ "Kurds Embrace Christianity and Kobani Celebrates Inauguration of Church". The Syrian Observer. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  40. ^ The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, 2020, pp. 45-46, ISBN 9781912997510
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