History Of The Kurds

The history of the Kurds stretches from ancient times to the present day. The Kurds are an ethnolinguistic group inhabiting the mountainous areas of the northern Middle East ( Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges), a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan . This area covers northern Iraq , 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 the Kurdish Language .

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 . 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 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the spread of the Ubaidian culture, which was a foreign introduction from Mesopotamia. 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 Second and First was the time of the Kassite s, Mitanni , Mannai ( Mannaeans ), Urartu , and Mushku . All of these peoples shared a common identity and spoke one language or closely related languages/dialects.
These groups are thought to have been non-Indo-Europeans, apart from the original Mitanni leadership. Kurds consider themselves 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, (Gordyene), Adiabene , Zila and Khaldi signify not ''the'' ancestor of the Kurds but only one ancestor. {Link without Title} {Link without Title}

HURRIAN PERIOD

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The Hurrian period lasted from possibly as long ago as 6,300 years ago, until about 2,600 years ago. The Hurrian Language was similar 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 Guti s, Kurti, Khaldi , Mards, Mushku , Manna ( Mannaeans ), Hatti, Mittanni , Urartu , and the Kassites , to name just a few {Link without Title} .

INDO-EUROPEAN MIGRATION

; 7th century BC.]]
By about 4,000 years ago, the first vanguard of the Indo-European -speaking peoples were trickling into Kurdistan in limited numbers and settling there. These formed the aristocracy of the Mittani and Hittite kingdoms, while the common peoples there remained solidly Hurrian and Hattian , respectively. By about 3,000 years ago, the trickle had turned into a flood, and Hurrian Kurdistan was fast becoming Indo-European Kurdistan. Far from having been wiped out, the Hurrian legacy, despite its linguistic eclipse, remains the single most important element of the Kurdish culture until today. Medes , Scythian s and Sagarthians are just the better-known clans of the Indo-European-speaking Aryans who settled in Kurdistan. By about 2,600 years ago, the Medes had set up an empire that included all Kurdistan and vast territories far beyond.

At the dawn of history the mountains overhanging as to be placed in the early Cuneiform records on an equality with the other nations of western Asia, that is, with the Syria ns and Hittites , the Susians , Elamites , and Akkad ians of Babylonia ; and during the whole period of the Assyrian Empire they seem to have preserved a more-or-less independent political position.

After the fall of Nineveh the Gutii coalesced with the Mede s, and, in common with all the nations inhabiting the high plateaus of Asia Minor , Armenia and Persia , became gradually Aryan ised, owing to the immigration at this period of history of tribes in overwhelming numbers who, from whatever quarter they may have sprung, belonged certainly to the Aryan family.

ACHAEMENID, GREEK, PARTHIAN AND SASSANID RULE

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

In later times they passed successively under the sway of the Macedonia ns, the Parthia ns, and Sassanids . They were especially befriended, by the Arsacid monarchs, who were probably of a cognate race. The evidence for this comes from tradition as well as from the remains still existing in the country. Gotarzes indeed, whose name may perhaps be translated "chief of the Gutii", was traditionally believed to be the founder of the Guran s, the principal tribe of southern Kurdistan , and his name and titles are still preserved in a Greek inscription at Behistun near the Kurdish capital of Kermanshah .

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 sometimes 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 . Also see ''The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva, Cambridge University Press, 1976, ISBN 0521206677, p.50'' [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0521206677&id=Y_sAi7EkTLkC&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=%22Cardaces%22&sig=aGrG-Q_Vd62mNnJtKwuC26QNtiE .

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 King of the Kurds, ''Madig'' 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 {Link without Title} (Chapter 5).
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'' {Link without Title} , {Link without Title} , {Link without Title} .

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 {Link without Title} .

Some Middle Persian sources suggest Kurdish Deportation s, particularly in the later Sassanid era. In addition to the deportation of a number of the Barzani s to the province of Carmania (modern Kerman ), the Baluchis were forced en masse into the far-off volcanic wastes of Makran (now Baluchistan ) 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 {Link without Title} .

ADIABENE DYNASTY

The illustrious Kurdish royal house of Adiabene , with Arbil as its capital, was converted to Judaism in the course of the 1st century BC, along with, it appears, a large number of Kurdish citizens in the kingdom (see Irbil/Arbil in Encyclopaedia Judaica ). The name of the Kurdish King Monobazes, his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates (derived from yazata, "angel"), are preserved as the first proselytes of this royal house. In fact during the Roman conquest of Judea and Samaria (68-67), it was only Kurdish Adiabene that sent provisions and troops to the rescue of the besieged Galilee , an inexplicable act if Adiabene was not already Jewish. (see and[http://www.kurdistanica.com/english/religion/judaism/judaism.html )

KURDISH VASSALS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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The Zelan Kurdish clan of Commagene (Adyaman area), spread to establish in addition to the Zelanid dynasty of Commagene, the Zelanid kingdom of Cappadocia and the Zelanid empire of PontusQall 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 and was 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. {Link without Title}

KURDS UNDER ARAB RULE

The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine power by the Muslim caliphate, and its own subsequent weakening, permitted the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" to set up new, independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia , the Hasanwayhid s, Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros are some of the these Kurdish dynasties.
Under the Caliph s 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 , of which the 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 scientists, Al-Dinawari ( 828 - 889 ), from ''Dinawar'' near Kermanshah , lived in this period. He has written a book about the ancestry of the Kurds .

MEDIEVAL KURDISH STATES

In 837 , a Kurdish lord, of the name ''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 four big Kurdish principalities. In the North the Shaddadid ( 951 - 1174 ) (in parts of Armenia and Arran ), in the East the Hasanwayhid s ( 959 - 1015 ) and the Annazid ( 990 - 1117 ) (in Kermanshah , ''Dinawar'' and Khanaqin ) and in the West the Marwanid ( 990 - 1096 ) of Diyarbakir .
Remnants of the Shaddadid Kurds are found nowadays in the Kalbajar and Lachin regions of Azarbaijan , between Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia .
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 Ecbatane ( 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. {Link without Title}

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 ( {Link without Title} , p.55).

THE AYYUBID PERIOD

, 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.]]

See Also: 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 chieftainhips 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.

KURDISH PRINCIPALITIES AFTER THE MONGOL PERIOD

After the 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 .

OTTOMAN AND 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'' {Link without Title} .

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.

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 , 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 (r. 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 , 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 Baluchistan . 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. {Link without Title}

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 {Link without Title} .

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) located 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 .
(see {Link without Title} and
{Link without Title} ). Also see " O. Dzh. Dzhalilov, Kurdski geroicheski epos "Zlatoruki Khan" (The Kurdish heroic epic "Gold-hand Khan"), Moscow, 1967, pp. 5-26, 37-39, 206.

MODERN HISTORY OF THE KURDS

See Also: Modern history of the Kurds

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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 attempted 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. The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kurd Bey s 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. 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 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, like the separatist ultra-nationalist Armenians, aimed to establish a separate Kurdish state. However the majority of the population preferred to join the Turkish Independence War.

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 made coalition with the local majority groups and prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic Of Ararat . However it was not a real state and not supported by the masses. Turkey suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937 - 1938, some were supported by the UK; 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'ath ist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in Iraq , war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited teritorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas including the oil-rich Kirkuk region. However Kurds are not majority in Kirkuk. Kirkuk is historically a Turkomen city and about 30 percent of the city is Arab.

For more recent Kurdish history see Kurds , Iranian Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan

This article uses text from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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History Of The Kurds