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HISTORY


Archaeology of Kurdish Clan Names

  M R Izady A. Introduction and a survey of the relevant primary sources: Detailed study of clan names among the Kurds reveals an etymological affinity among a majority of them. The very same ethnonyms, or variations thereof, are also found in the names of many ruling dynasties, historical individuals, and toponyms dispersed over a large area of Western Asia, some dating back to remote antiquity. Equally important is the frequent incidence of these same names among neighboring ethnic groups and cultures that are not Kurdish. These archaic progenitic names I will refer to henceforth in this survey as protonyms,







From Ducats to Dollars

Idris Bitlisi had arrived to offer to deliver up Kurdistan to the Ottomans for a mere 25,000 gold ducats.







Sufi Mystic Orders

An overwhelming majority of Muslim and non-Muslim Kurds are followers of one of many mystic Sufi orders (or tariqa). The bonds of the Muslim Kurds, for example, to different Sufi orders have traditionally been stronger than to orthodox Muslim practices. Sufi rituals in Kurdistan, led by Sufi masters, or shaykhs, contain so many clearly non-Islamic rites and practices that an objective observer would not consider them Islamic in the orthodox sense. The Sufi shaykhs train deputies (khalifa), who represent and supervise the followers of various districts in the name of the shaykh, collecting allegiance, and dues, for the shaykh. Anyone may follow a shaykh, but to







Judaism

The history of Judaism in Kurdistan is ancient. The Talmud holds that Jewish deportees were settled in Kurdistan 2800 years ago by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser Ill (r. 858-824 BC). As indicated in the Talmud, the Jews eventually were given permission by the rabbinic authorities to convert local Kurds. They were exceptionally successful in their endeavor. 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







Islam

About three-fifths of the Kurds, nearly all of them Kurmânji speakers, are today at least nominally Sunni Muslims of the Shafi’ite rite. There are also followers of mainstream lmâmi (Twelver) Shi’ite Islam among the Kurds, particularly in and around the cities of Kirmânshâh, Kangawar, Hamadân, Qurva, and Bijâr in southern and eastern Kurdistan in Iran, and in much smaller numbers in and around Malâtya, Adiyâman, and Maras in far western Kurdistan in Turkey. There are a large number of Shi’ite Kurds in the Khurâsâni enclave as well, but they are not a majority there, as some sources have erroneously reported.







Yezidism

The followers of the Yezidi religion, who have variously referred to themselves also as the Yazidi, Yazdâni, Izadi, and Dasna’i, have often been pejoratively referred to by outsiders as “devil worshippers.” They constitute less than 5% of the Kurdish population. At present they live in fragmented pockets, primarily in northwest and northeast Syria, the Caucasus, southeast Turkey, in the Jabal Sanjâr highlands on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and regions north of the Iraqi city of Mosul. As a branch of the Cult of Angels, Yezidism places a special emphasis on the angels. The name Yezidi is derived from the Old and Middle Iranic







Alevism

A majority of the Dimila Kurds of Anatolia and some of their Kurmânji speaking neighbors are followers of another denomination of the Cult of Angels. These have been called collectively the Alawis (“the Followers of Ah”), the Alevis (“the People of Fire,” implying fire-worship or Zoroastrianism, from alev, “fire”), the Qizilbâsh (“the red heads,” from their red head gear, and the Nusayri (which can be interpreted as the “Nazarenes,” implying Christianity, or as the “followers of Nârsch,” the early medieval Kurdish revolutionary of the Khurrami movement who settled with his followers in Anatolia). See Medieval History). The Alevis believe in Ali as







Cult of Angels

Most non-Muslim Kurds follow one of several indigenous Kurdish faiths of great antiquity and originality, each of which is a variation on and permutation of an ancient religion that can loosely be labeled the “Cult of Angels,” Yazdâni in Kurdish. The actual name of the religion is all but lost to its modern followers, who retain only the names of its surviving denominations. The name Yazdânism or Cult of Angels is a variation of the Kurdish name of one of its isolated branches, Yezidism, which literally means “the Anglicans.” There are some indications that Yazdânism was in fact the name of the religion before its fragmentation.







Christianity

The early history of Christianity in Kurdistan closely parallels that of the rest of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. By the early 5th century the Kurdish royal house of Adiabene had converted from Judaism to Christianity. The extensive ecclesiastical archives kept at their capital of Arbela (modern Arbil), are valuable primary sources for the history of central Kurdistan, from the middle of the Parthian era (ca. 1st century AD). Kurdish Christians, like their Jewish predecessors, used Aramaic for their records and archives and as the ecclesiastical language. The persecution of the Christians in the Persian Sasanian Empire extended to Kurdistan as well.







Babaism

Bâbism was formed in Persia in 1844 by Mirzâ Ali Muhammad (1819-1850), the Bdb, or “the portal” (to the Deity). Bdb, or Bdbtl, standing for “avatar,” is of course the title by which the Cult of Angels refers to the major reincarnations of the Haq, or the Universal Spirit. A native of Shirâz in Persia, Bdb became a follower of Shaykh Ahmad Ahsâ’i, who had settled in Kirmân in southeast Persia from Ahsd. Ahsd (the medieval Lahsâ, the eastern coastal regions of modern Saudi Arabia) was a bastion of the socioreligious movement of Qarmatites, which was strongly influenced by the Cult of Angels, particularly the Mazdakite







An introduction

The infusion of an Indo-European (Iranic) language, culture, and genetic element into the Kurdish population over the two millennia preceding the Christian era also entailed the incorporation of Aryan religious practices and deities into indigenous Kurdish faith(s). Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Christianity successively made inroads into Kurdistan. The most holy of Zoroastrianism’s three grand fire temples, that of Âzargushasp, was built at the holy site of Ganzak (modern Takâb) in eastern Kurdistan in the northern environs of the Kurdish city of Bijâr. The irnposing ruins of the temple are still extant. Despite this, Zoroastrianism did not succeed in converting any







Layla Zana (1961 – )

Layla Zana (Kurdish: Leyla Zana) was born in 1961 in the small village of Bache in Northern Kurdistan (Eastern Turkey). She grew up in a region marked by a long history of conflict and oppression against the Kurdish people. Leyla’s life took a significant turn when she married Mehdi Zana, a Kurdish activist who later became the Mayor of Diyarbakir, a major city in Northern Kurdistan, in 1977. The political landscape drastically changed with the 1980 military coup in Turkey, which led to a renewed wave of oppression against the Kurds. Mehdi Zana was among the thousands of activists who







Political Figures

KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area. Layla Zana (1961 – ) Qazi Muhammad [1893-1947]







The Sphinx’s beard

Notes on Kurdish Political Naiveté By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady, 1995 The head of Egypt’s celebrated Sphinx is collapsing. To secure the head to the chest, the fallen beard must be restored. But the beard–a nondescript slab of rock shaped like a stick of butter–is not in Egypt. It is in the British Museum, spirited off by British colonial authorities who refuse to return it. And so the Sphinx’s head is now leaning precariously forward. The Egyptian government refuses to permit the fitting of a new beard. They believe that to alleviate the urgency of the collapsing head would be







THE KURDS: An ancient tragedy

The Economist THEIR history is full of tales of persecution, betrayal and desperate flight. But few Kurdish fables are as dramatic as the capture of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of Turkey’s Kurdish rebels. Mr Ocalan had been on the run ever since Turkish sabre-rattling forced him from his hideout in Syria last October. First he fled to Russia, then to Italy, where he was arrested. Two court cases and two quashed arrest warrants later, he set off for a new refuge, chased by the press and, it turns out, by the Turkish secret service. With Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and







An Independent Kurdistan?

Robert Olson, Professor of Middle East Politics, University of Kentucky Due to the strong resistance to the US occupation of Iraq and the internecine hostility that has resulted between Arabs and Kurds, reports in the public media have raised the possibility of the Kurds declaring an independent state. While the Kurds have made great strides in state formation developments since the US occupation of Iraq in March 2003, their achieving of independence remains problematic. It is important to recall that the Kurds of Iraq have had a great deal of autonomy since the Gulf War of 1991 when a “safe







Geopolitics

By Prof. M. R. Izady The geopolitics of Kurdistan has effectively precluded the formation of an independent Kurdish state in this century. Currently stretching over seven inter-national boundaries (and detached pockets in two more states), Kurdistan resembles an arching shield of highlands, which separated the Middle East from the advance defense lines of the Soviet Union in the Caucasus for 74 eventful years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, coupled with the receding power of Russia, an unclear future looms on the northern horizons of the Middle East, with Kurdistan continuing to serve as a buffer zone. The Kurds have







Part III, Articles 36-139







Part II, Articles 27-35







Preamble

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 THE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS AND TURKEY SIGNED AT SÈVRES AUGUST 10, 1920 THE CONVENTION RESPECTING THE REGIME OF THE STRAITS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS SIGNED AT SÈVRES THE BRITISH EMPIRE, FRANCE, ITALY AND JAPAN, These Powers being described in the present Treaty as the Principal Allied Powers; ARMENIA, BELGIUM, GREECE, THE HEDJAZ, POLAND, PORTUGAL, ROUMANIA, THE SERB-CROAT-SLOVENE STATE AND CZECHO-SLOVAKIA, These Powers constituting, with the Principal Powers mentioned above, the Allied Powers, of the one part; AND TURKEY, of the other part;   Whereas on the request of the Imperial







Part I, Articles 1-26

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 “PART I” THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS   ARTICLES 1 TO 26 AND ANNEX See Part I, Treaty of Versailles, Pages 10-23.







Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 (never adopted, superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne) The treaty of peace between the allied and associated powers and Turkey signed at Sèrvres August 10, 1920. Part I, Articles 1-26 Part II, Articles 27-35 Part III, Articles 36-139







Treaties

Treaties and historcial Treaties Treaty of Qasri Shirin, 17 May 1639 Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920







Provisional Constitution

A Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Kurdistan This provisional Constitution shall be presented to a public plebiscite within one year from the institution of the Federal Republic of Kurdistan. If ratified by a simple majority of the ballots cast, it shall attain permanency. In the occasion that this document shall not meet the approval of a majority of the electorate, a Constitutional Congress of ninety-nine popularly elected Constitutional Representatives shall form to compose another document that shall become the law of the land upon its ratification by two-thirds majority of the Constitutional Representatives. The Representatives to Constitutional Congress







Manifesto of the Kurdish People

Manifesto of the Kurdish People for the Creation of a Free, Independent and Unified Homeland 1996 Justice dictates that all nations are inherently equal and entitled to the same natural rights. That some nations are under the involuntary dominance of others presents an unnatural state and a source of imbalance in the lives of people and nations. Insomuch as voluntary unions are moral, legitimate and a source of prosperity and harmony, forced unions are immoral, illegitimate and harbingers of poverty and strife. Nations have the fundamental and natural right to determine the course of their own future. We, the Kurdish







Livestock

Included in agricultural production are animal products. The most important animals have been traditionally sheep and to a lesser extent goats. Goats are not a readily marketable commodity anymore, and they cater to special needs for their hair and wool, particularly the angora goat, the source of mohair. Their numbers, once in millions, are steadily dropping due to a shrinkage of the market and the extensive damage they cause to the pastures and wood lands. Sheep on the other hand are not only expanding in numbers, but they are also gaining in importance as an export commodity. The meat can







The Water

In an otherwise water-starved region, Kurdistan is blessed with abundant precipitation. The generous regime has made Kurdistan one of the few watersheds of the Middle East. Rivers like the Tigris, Euphrates, Khabur, Tharthar, Ceyhan, Araxes, Kura, Safidrud, Karkha, and their major tributaries spring from the mountains of Kurdistan. Those rivers that are entirely or nearly entirely in Kurdistan are usually of historical importance to the Kurds. Among these are the Murat (Arasân) and Buhtân rivers in northern and western Kurdistan (in Turkey); the Peshkhâbur, the Lesser and the Greater Zâb, and the Sirwân/Diyâla in central Kurdistan (in Iraq); and the







The Oil

Kurdistan has among the largest oil reserves in the Middle East and the world. With about 45 billion barrels, Kurdistan contains more and larger proven deposits than the entire United States, and ranks 6th in the world. These reserves are spread over a thin band on the margins between the high mountains and the foothills, from far southern Kurdistan to extreme western Kurdistan near the Mediterranean Sea (see Map 41 below). In the south, the fields of Nafti Shah-Naft Khana in far southern Kurdistan straddle the Iran-Iraq border. The Nafti Shah field (renamed Naft Shahr after the Iranian Revolution of







Industries

Marco Polo writes of the Kurds of the area between Mus, Mardin, and Mosul, and reports they produced cotton “in great abundance, of which they prepare the cloths called boccasini, and many other fabrics. The inhabitants are manufacturers and traders” (Travels, I.vi). The exportable manufactured goods of Kurdistan are limited to handicrafts, which can only serve as souvenirs and speciality items. There is no mass production of textiles for export anywhere in Kurdistan. In fact, textiles are net imports. This is despite the local wealth of natural wool and cotton. Very little traditional cloth weaving has remained in Kurdistan, despite







Agriculture

Kurdistan’s wealth of high-grade pasture lands has long made it suitable for a pastoralist economy, but it is equally suitable in many areas for intensive agriculture. Unlike the woodlands and the heavy damage they have sustained, the pasture lands have remained in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive source of animal feed (see Flora & Fauna). The rich pastures have always ensured that in all historical periods, regardless of how dominant the agricultural sector, there have been nomadic herdsmen exploiting this economic niche to its fullest. Although many pasture lands are suitable for agriculture, in many others,







The first documented resettlement of Kurds

The First Documented Resettlementof Kurds into Western and Southwestern Anatoliacirca 181 BC By: M. R. Izady, July 1998 During the Seleucid/Macedonian period that followed the conquest of the Persian Achaemenian Empire by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, at least one major episode of resettlement of Kurds into western and southwestern Anatolia can be historically evidenced. This is for the period circa 181 BC. A fairly long rock inscription at Telmessus (modern Fethiye) on the southwestern coast of Anatolia by the Pergamese king Eumenes II (r. 197-154 BC) provides a glimpse into the life and history of the resettled Kurds. The







The drowning of the Kurdish historical and artistic heritage

By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady The late Dr. Henny Harald Hansen (1900-93) will long be remembered for her many authored and co-authored works on Kurdish women. What is little known of her is that Dr. Hansen first introduction to Kurdistan at the ripe age of 57 was when as a member of a Danish team she visited the historic sites in Raniya plain and the middle Zab river valley east of Arbil which the Dokkan hydro-electric dam was soon to drown. In the ever-more thirsty Middle East, the rich water resources and effluent rivers of Kurdistan are treasures coveted by all.







The Sharafnama of Bitlisi: manuscript copies, translations and appendixes

by Anwar Soltani Presented to the International Conference on the Sharafnama in Berlin, 1-3 May, 1998 THE MANUSCRIPTS Soon after the completion of the Sharafnama in August 13, 1797, several copies were made by various scribes of kings and amirs, both in Iran and in the Ottoman Empire. The oldest copy known to us was made almost two years after the completion of the book (now held at St. Petersburg, Russia) and the latest made in the nineteenth century (BL. Ms. Add.22698, etc.). Through an extensive search, I traced 18 different manuscript copies of the Sharafnama in the libraries of







Sharafkhan Bidlisi

By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli Sharafkhan Bidlisi (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el Dín Bitlísí) was born to a ruling family from the tribe of Rozaki (Rozakí) in North Kurdistan in 1543. This background provided him with both opportunity to get excellent education in the sciences of his time, and also to become a political actor at a very early age and then become fully immersed in Kurdish dynastic politics in the context of wider imperialist rivalry and conflict between the Sunni Ottoman and Shiite Safavid empires. Eight years before his birth, the Ottomans had disposed his father from his dynastic rule. In







Kurdistan, Where Historical Credit is Due

By Mehrdad R. Izady, 1992 In correspondence with the prestigious British scientific journal, Nature (Vol.360,5, Nov. 1992, p.24), Rudolph Michel of the Museum of Applied Science, Center for Archaeology, Patrick McGovern of University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania and Vlrginia Badler, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto, provide archaeological and laboratory evidence regarding the world’s oldest existing trace of the production of barley beer. Their investigations took place at the archaeological site of Godin, six miles (10 kilometers) east of Kangawar in southern Kurdistan in Iran. It was at this same site where, a few years







Desperately Seeking Full-Time Kurdologists

By Prof. Mehrdad Izady A most important first step in launching the field of Kurdish studies is the creation of a cadre of area studies scholars and academics whose primary interests are Kurds. Thus far it has been the Turkologist, Arabist, Armeniologist or Iranist who touches the Kurds only insomuch as they impact on his or her primary focus. This is neither unusual nor wrong. One’s research interest must be just that: the focal point of one’s universe of research and academic concern, perhaps even of one’s personal affection. Why then is the field of Kurdology lacking such dedicated individuals,







Are Kurds Descended From the Medes?

Prof. M. R. Izady A few years ago, I was given a letter from an American, non-academic individual, asking “Are Kurds descended from the Medes?” I responded as best I could avoiding the myriad of details which might well have diminished rather than enhanced interest in the topic: “Yes, and no”. With the proliferation of printed matter on the Kurds since the Gulf War, this question-or presumption-increasingly arises in the media. It is also difficult to set aside the political overtones attached to this otherwise academic question. Kurds and the Westerners interested in Kurdish topics–scholars, politicians, reporters, and the general public–have







A history of Kurdish navigation

By Prof. M. R. Izady General history One of the least-known-and most fascinating-chapters in Kurdish history is the long-lasting participation and occasional dominance of the sea trade and colonization of coastal areas and many islands of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea basins by the Kurds. Being “inseparably” a mountain people, the last place one expects to find Kurds dominating would be the vast oceanic expanses of the south seas. But we only need to remember how the Arabs-the “navigators of sand deserts”-came subsequently to engage in well-documented sea faring exploits to wake up to the fact that people







History: Related articles

KURDISTANICA introduces related articles to History section at this page. You may apply for a scholarly membership to post your articles personally or email us with electronic version of your article to be posted at History section.







Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî By Prof M.R. Izady Although primarily a collection of dynastic histories, there is little doubt that the Sharafnâma is the single most important surviving text on Kurdish history and people. The work is that of Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el-Dín Bitlísí), who states he finished at least the first edition of the work on or shortly after 30 Dhu’l-hajja of the hegira year 1005 (4 August 1597).  Strong evidence suggests, as shall be seen below, that the author made further additions and alterations to the book as it was being copied for distribution in







Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag

Muhammed Amin Zaki Bey also known in Kurdish as  Dr. Mehmed Emín Zekí, محەممەد ئەمین زەکی بەگ (1880 Sulaimaniyah –1948 Sulaimaniyah) was a prominent Kurdish writer, historian, and politician, born in Sulaimaniyah to his father, Hagi Abdul Rahman. His educational journey began at the Sulaimaniya Military School and continued at the Baghdad Military High School. On February 10, 1902, he graduated as the 23rd of his class from the Ottoman Military Academy, joining the Ottoman Army as an Infantry Second Lieutenant. With distinction, he completed his studies at the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul on January 11, 1905, subsequently serving







Mehrdad M. R. Izady

Mehrdad lzady (Kurdish: Mihrdad Ízedí, مهرداد ئیزه‌دی) was born in 1963 to a Kurdish father and a Belgian mother. He spent much of his youth in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Korea as his diplomat parents moved from one assignment to another. He is one of the most prominent native Kurdish historians of our time. Izady finished his BA degree in History, Political Science and Geography at Kansas State University in 1976. His passion for history and geography allowed him to finish a masters degrees in Geography in 1978, Political Science and International Relations in 1979 at Syracuse University as well as Middle







Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (1937-2011)

Professor Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (Kurdish: Kemal Mezher Ehmed کەماڵ مەزهەر ئەحمەد) was an eminent Kurdish historian, born on the 14th of February 1937, in the village of Axjelar, located in Baban province in Kurdistan. His early life unfolded amidst the turbulent pages of Iraqi history, as General Abdul Karim Qassem ascended to power through a military coup. Kamal’s thirst for knowledge led him to complete his college education in Silémaní and pursue his undergraduate studies in history at the University of Baghdad in 1959. Driven by a deep passion for historical research, he embarked on postgraduate studies in the Soviet







Jalile Jalil

Prof Jalile Jalil







Plotting the Geographical Distribution of Kurds.

By Prof. M. R. Izady Like many other aspects of their national existence and identity, the extent of the areas in which Kurds constitute the majority is the subject of dispute. While neighboring ethnic groups, in particular those in a ruling position, have consistently underestimated the extent of areas with a Kurdish majority, the Kurds have often tended to exaggerate them. This problem has naturally affected the works of non-local scholars as well. Surprisingly, it is not difficult to plot the extent of Kurdish lands. There are plenty of old and new primary and reliable data available for such an







Land & Environment – Terrain

By Prof. M.R. Izady The most prominent geophysical feature of Kurdistan is clearly its mountainousness. Kurdistan at present is composed primarily of the area of the central and northern Zagros, the eastern two-thirds of the Taurus and Pontus, and the northern half of the Amanus mountains. The two large, detached Kurdish enclaves are in the Rivand heights of the eastern section of the Alburz mountains of northeastern Iran, in the province of Khurasân, and in the central Pontian mountains in central and north-central Anatolia, neighboring the Turkish capital of Ankara. In addition to these, there have been for centuries many







Land & Environment – Geology

By Prof. M.R. Izady Kurdistan is geologically quite active. The land straddles the subduction zone between the colliding Eurasian and African tectonic plates. Locally, the breakaway Arabian microplate is being subducted under the Iranian and Anatolian microplates at the rate of a few inches a year, and as a result the Zagros mountains and Kurdistan-the point of this collision-are being compressed and pushed upward several inches a year. This continental collision, which began about 15 million years ago, pushed up the area of Kurdistan from the bottom of the Tethys Sea, which covered Southwest Asia, and is still adding elevation







Internal Subdivisions

By Prof. M.R. Izady Kurdistan can be divided historically, and on a socio-economic, cultural, and political basis, into five major subdivisions: southern Kurdistan centered historically on the city of Kirmanshâh, central Kurdistan centered on Arbil, eastern Kurdistan centered on Mahabad, northern Kurdistan centered on Bâyazid, and western Kurdistan centered on Diyârbakir. The two large, detached Kurdish enclaves in Khurdsân and central Anatolia merit separate treatment. There exist “fossilized” records of two major historical subdivisions of Kurdistan, each following an epoch of ethnic homogenization. They have left their marks in the dialects spoken by the Kurds, their material culture, the elements







Boundaries & Political Geography

By Prof. M. Izady The vast Kurdish homeland consists of about 200,000 square miles of territory. Its area is roughly equal to that of France or of the states of California and New York combined. Kurdistan straddles the mountainous northern boundaries of the Middle East, separating the region from the former Soviet Union. It resembles an inverted letter V, with the joint pointing in the direction of the Caucasus and the arms toward the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the absence of an independent state, Kurdistan is defined as the areas in which Kurds constitute an ethnic majority







Kurdish dialectology

Dialectology is a sub-field of historical linguistics, the scientific study of linguistic dialect. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features. Dialectology treats such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor and synchronic variation. Dialectologists are ultimately concerned with grammatical features which correspond to regional areas. Thus they are usually dealing with populations living in their areas for generations without moving, but also with immigrant groups bringing their languages to new settlements. The Dialects of Kurdish Language This section is currently available in Kurdish and Persian only. Please view these section







The History of Kurdish Language

The unprejudiced academics that study Kurdish history are united in the view that the Kurds are an ancient race (1). The Kurds have lived for many thousands of year’s -even longer than written documentation can reflect-in a land that has been described as the ‘cradle of human civilisation’. We need only think of Jewish and Islamic mythology, which designates Mount Judi (Cudi) in Kurdistan as the resting place of Noah’s ark (2); we know from history that in the land of the Kurds and its surrounding territories numerous advanced civilisations existed, such as that of Mesopotamia, of the Hittites, the







Kurdish Language

Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdí, كوردی, Kurdî, Кöрди) language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish dialects are members of the northwestern subdivision of the Indo-Iranic language, Iranic branch of this largest family of language in the world. The Kurdish language is an independent language, having its own historical development, continuity, grammatical system and rich living vocabularies. The Kurdish language was derived from the ancient “Median” language or “Proto-Kurdish”. Ca. 30 million people in the high land of Middle East, Kurdistan, speak different dialect of Kurdish. Kurdish dialects divide into three primaries groups: 1) the Northern Kurdish dialects group also called Kurmanjí and Badínaní, 2) Central Kurdish dialects group also called Soraní







Language

Language, the principal means used by human beings to communicate with one another. Language is primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to other media, such as writing. If the spoken means of communication is unavailable, as may be the case among the deaf, visual means such as sign language can be used. A prominent characteristic of language is that the relation between a linguistic sign and its meaning is arbitrary: There is no reason other than convention among speakers of Kurdish that a “Seg” Dog should be called “seg”, and indeed other languages have different names (for example, Spanish







Popular Culture

Kurds are fortunate to have some of the most visible aspects of their popular culture authenticated to remote antiquity. Some sections of well-known pieces of ancient literature read like compendiums to a lost encyclopaedia of the Kurdish ethnic character and culture, as soon as one has identified the site of the events and the characters involved. The most interesting evidence of the unusual antiquity of the Kurdish popular culture is in fact the oldest. Digging for the paleolithic remains at the Shanidar Caves of central Kurdistan, the archaeologist R. Solecki complains throughout the first few chapters of his excavation report







The National Goat – KELL

Origin The goats were the first livestock animal to be domesticated. The pinpoint this landmark moment: 10,000 years ago in southern Kurdistan in Gaji Dara [Genjí Dara]. The wild rocky mountain goats from highlands in Zagros mountain chain in Kurdistan calls “KELL” in Kurdish. Truly wild goats are found in Zagros mountain chain in Kurdistan on Creta, other Greek islands, Iran, Turkmenia, Pakistan; in the Alps, Siberia, Sudan, Caucasus; the Pyrenees, the Himalayan, Central Asian, Russian and Tibetan mountain ranges, and prefer rocky, precipitous mountains and cliffs. Goats belong, scientifically, to the Bovidae family within the suborder of ruminants (chevrotain,







National Birds

Red-legged partridge with scientific name “Alectoris rufa” calls “Kew, kev, Kewk, keví, and kevkí” in Kurdish. Red-legged partridge is normally 33 centimetres in length, but does not mention either its breadth or weight. The bill, legs, and orbits are red; the irides hazel; chin and throat dull white, surrounded by a black line or streak, which passes from the brow and nostrils to the eyes, behind which it continues, falls down before the auriculars, and meets on the lower part of the neck: a white streak extends from the brow over the eyes towards the hinder part of the neck; the forehead







National Anthem

Sirúdí Níshtimaní Kurdistan, Ey reqíb Ey reqíb her, mawe qewmí Kurd ziman Nayshékiné daneyí topí zeman (2) Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Íme rolley, rengí súr ú shorrish ín Seyríke xiwénawíye rabirdúman Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Íme rolley, Mídya ú Key Xusrew ín Díniman, Ayíniman hem níshtiman Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Lawí Kurd hellistaye serpé wek dilér Ta be xiwén nexshí bika tají jhíyan Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Lawí Kurd her hazir ú







Cultural characters

Flag of Kurdistan National Anthem National Birds Kurdish Currency The National Goat – KELL







Writtings from prison

A new release by blue crane books Watertown, Massachusetts – Writings from Prison by Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament is a recent release by Blue Crane Books. Part of publisher’s Human Rights and Democracy Series, this book is a collection of Ms. Zana’s letters and articles written from Ankara prison since her arrest in 1994. An activist in the struggle for the recognition of Kurdish identity and an advocate of women’s emancipation and democratization of Turkey, Leyla Zana was elected to the Parliament in Turkey of post-military dictatorship in 1991. Tolerance was short lived







Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History

Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. by Susan Meiselas New York: Random House, 1997, pp 388 “. . . The world is a garden of culture where a thousand flowers grow. Throughout history all cultures have fed one another, been grafted onto one another, and in the process our world has been enriched. The disappearance of a culture is the loss of a colour, a different light, a different source. I am as much on the side of every flower in this thousand-flower garden as I am on the side of my own culture.” – Yasar Kemal These words were written by Turkish







Justice and the Kurds

By Christopher de Bellaigue, “New York Review of Books, June 24, 1999” Imagine that you head a foreign delegation on its way to Turkey to protest to the authorities on behalf of that country’s unhappy Kurds. If you are important enough, you might be met at the Ankara airport by Hikmet Cetin, the outgoing speaker of the Turkish parliament. But Mr. Cetin himself is a Kurd, with a good command of Kurmanji, the most widely spoken Kurdish dialect, and he will defend the regime’s policies toward the Kurds. You might have better luck with some of the members of Turkey’s







An Excerpt from Fateful Triangle

By Naom Chomski, ” Updated Edition, June 1999″ One of the best books for Naom Chomski being updated it includes issues related to the Kurds. For some time, I’ve been compelled to arrange speaking engagements long in advance. Sometimes a title is requested for a talk scheduled several years ahead. There is, I’ve found, one title that always works: “The current crisis in the Middle East.” One can’t predict exactly what the crisis will be far down the road, but that there will be one is a fairly safe prediction. That will continue to be the case as long as







Bibliographic review

KURDISTANICA publishes reviews of bibliographic records related to Kurdistan in any languages. We encourage our callers to submit their reviews. Submission information should include category, title, subtitle, author, publisher, number of illustrations, pages, prices, binding, ISBNs of formats, and pub dates. Please note that e-books may include the Copyright page, Contents, Preface, and first few pages; Cover art should be sent if available. Please be sure the publication date and subject categories are conspicuously noted. Use our contact page form to submit your book review to KURDISTANICA. You will be notified within two weeks of submitting the review as to







Bibliography

KURDISTANICA tend to use its global network to collect bibliographic records on Kurds and Kurdistan. Individual can submit records of their private bibliographic collections, records of their interest and topics which related to this section of KURDISTANICA. Your inputs can make the difference in enriching and promoting this collection. Please use our contact link to provide your submission or become a member of our community to add your collection personally.







Culture

Kurds are fortunate to have some of the most visible aspects of their popular culture authenticated to remote antiquity. Some sections of well-known pieces of ancient literature read like compendiums to a lost encyclopaedia of the Kurdish ethnic character and culture, as soon as one has identified the site of the events and the characters involved. The most interesting evidence of the unusual antiquity of the Kurdish popular culture is in fact the oldest. Digging for the paleolithic remains at the Shanidar Caves of central Kurdistan, the archaeologist R. Solecki complains throughout the first few chapters of his excavation report







Kurdistan’s Economy

Kurdistan’s wealth of high-grade pasture lands has long made it suitable for a pastoralist economy, but it is equally suitable in many areas for intensive agriculture. Unlike the woodlands and the heavy damage they have sustained, the pasture lands have remained in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive source of animal feed (see Flora & Fauna). The rich pastures have always ensured that in all historical periods, regardless of how dominant the agricultural sector, there have been nomadic herdsmen exploiting this economic niche to its fullest. Agriculture Industries Natural Resources







Legal documents

The Legal Documents section of KURDISTANICA provides agreement and Treaties which historically and politically have made an impact of the fate of the Kurdish nation.







Politic

Like other places in the world where many parties are struggling for the limited available support of their constituents, and carry ideologies and promote goals not too dissimilar from one another, inter-party feuding and rivalry have been a common feature of the history of the Kurdish political parties. What is different is that in Kurdistan these feuds on occasion become armed skirmishes between the parties’ guerrillas. These extreme instances, however, have been few and short-lasting.







Religion in Kurdistan

The infusion of an Indo-European (Iranic) language, culture, and genetic element into the Kurdish population over the two millennia preceding the Christian era also entailed the incorporation of Aryan religious practices and deities into indigenous Kurdish faith(s). Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Christianity successively made inroads into Kurdistan. The most holy of Zoroastrianism’s three grand fire temples, that of Âzargushasp, was built at the holy site of Ganzak (modern Takâb) in eastern Kurdistan in the northern environs of the Kurdish city of Bijâr. The irnposing ruins of the temple are still extant. Despite this, Zoroastrianism did not succeed in converting any







FAQ

FAQ Following are Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ] that might arise when you look at KURDISTANICA. For answers to other questions, please use our online contact form to send us your questions. You may become a registered member to comment on KURDISTANICA’s answers.







Geography

The vast Kurdish homeland consists of about 200,000 square miles of territory. Its area is roughly equal to that of France or of the states of California and New York combined. Kurdistan straddles the mountainous northern boundaries of the Middle East, separating the region from the former Soviet Union. It resembles an inverted letter V, with the joint pointing in the direction of the Caucasus and the arms toward the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the absence of an independent state, Kurdistan is defined as the areas in which Kurds constitute an ethnic majority today. Kurdish ethnic domains







Biographies

Selected biographies of Kurdish historical figures featured on KURDISTANICA history section. You can joing this project by writing a shortbiography of a Kurdish Histrocical figure which interest you. Biographies analyse and interpret the events in a person’s life. They try to find connections, explain the meaning of unexpected actions or mysteries, and make arguments about the significance of the person’s accomplishments or life activities. Biographies are usually about famous, or infamous people, but a biography of an ordinary person can tell us a lot about a particular time and place. Many biographies are written in chronological order. Some group time







The glazed bricks from Bukan: new insights into Mannaean art

Yousef Hassanzadeh; Antiquity Vol 80 No 307 March 2006 Mannaean studies as an independent field began with the discovery of Ziwiye in 1936 and the initiation of scientific excavations there (Boehmer 1964, 1988; Postgate 1989; Levine 1977). The archaeological site at Ziwiye was at first identified as Izbie, one of the important Mannaean provinces in the Iron Age of Iran. After this, great efforts were made to discover Izirtu, soon identified with Qaplanto near Ziwiye (Godard 1949, 1950: 7). But these identifications have since been discarded. In 1956, R. Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania began his extensive excavations on the







Historians & Kurdologists

KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area. Ismet Sheríf Vanlí Jalile Jalil Kamal Mazhar Ahmad Mehrdad M.R. Izady Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî







Modern History

1915 up to Present The idea of a nation-state in the modern sense and on the European model was more or less unknown in the Middle East until the late 19th century. This European political convention had caught on as much with Kurds as with any other nationality in the area at the time of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.   KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area.







Early Modern History

1497 – 1918 This period in the history of the Kurds is one of steady decline in every aspect of their national life, with the possible exception of literature.  An important proportion of the nation also found itself deported to far-away regions in the course of the 250 years from ca. 1500 to 1750. An energetic, industrious, and reasonably worldly Kurdish society at the beginning of the period had turned into one of the most backward and devastated societies in the Middle East by the end of the period.  There were two primary causes of this decline: 1) the division







Medieval History

600 AD – 1600 AD This vibrant period of Kurdish history is marked by the reemergence of Kurdish political power from the 7th to 9th century, after three centuries of decline under the centralized governments of the Sasanians of Persia and the Byzantine Empire. It culminated in three centuries, the 10th through the 12th, that can rightfully be called Islam’s Kurdish centuries. Through steady emigrations and military conquests, their political rule extended from central Asia to Libya and Yemen.   KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area.







Classical History

400 BC – 600 AD This period in Kurdish history marks the homogenization and consolidation of the modern Kurdish national identity. The ethnic designator Kurd is established finally, and applied to all segments of the nation. After over a millennium of Aryan nomadic settlements, and rejuvenated by the infusion of the Aryan ethnic element, independent and vital Kurdish kingdoms resurfaced after three centuries of eclipse under Achaemenian and Seleucid rule. This revival reached its apex in the 1st century BC, when Kurdish political hegemony stretched from Greece and Ukraine to the Straits of Hormuz. Toward the end of this period,







Ancient history

3000 BC- 400 BC This period marks the progressive technological and commercial overshadowing of Kurdistan by neighboring Mesopotamian cultures. It also heralds- a power struggle between the military forces of the mountains (Kurdistan) and the plains of the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia and Syria) for political and economic control of this most civilized and richest of the planet’s corners. Successive advances and retreats by both sides in the struggle for supremacy continue to this day. The ancient period also marks the coming of the Aryans and the beginning of the transformation of Kurdistan into an Indo-European-speaking society, which culminated in the







Prehistory

0,000 BC – 3000 BC This is by far the most noteworthy period in the history of Kurdistan. The technological advancements and discoveries made in the Kurdish highlands in the 7000 years preceding the rise of Mesopotamia (3000 BC) forever changed the course of human history, and altered the very face of the planet. Much that was achieved later by the civilization of lowland Mesopotamia starting 5000 years ago began 7000 years before that, in the bordering mountains and valleys of Kurdistan. The archaeological and zoological-botanical evidence of Kurdistan’s crucial importance to the development of civilization is bountiful and well







Origin of The Kurds

By Prof. Mehrdad A. Izady Being the native inhabitants of their land. there are no “beginnings” for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all those who ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as the Guti, Kurti. Mede, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, Adianbene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only an ancestor. Archaeological finds continue to document







History

Being the native inhabitants of their land, there are no “beginnings” for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all those who ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as the Guti, Kurti. Mede, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, Adianbene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only an ancestor. Archaeological finds continue to document some of mankind’s earliest







How the project of KURDISTANICA works?

The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan, KURDISTANICA is a digital information and database focusing on the Kurdish People. The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan Online “KURDISTANICA” is a virtual organization in the form of a Global Academic/Professional Open Network for the creation and development of a multilingual Kurdish encyclopaedia on the World Wide Web. KURDISTANICA is an independent, non-partisan, non-political, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge about and for the Kurds.







The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad

Title The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad Publication Type Journal Article Authors Roosevelt, Jr. Archie Title of Journal The Middle East Journal Issue 1 Issue July Volume 3 Year of Publication 1947 Publisher The Middle East Institute Keywords History, Modern History, Politic, Republic of Mahabad URL http://www.mideasti.org/middle-east-journal/article-index







In Guti we Trust

Prof. M. R. Izady Recently I came across a new, and otherwise excellent pictorial book on Kurdish costumes and fabrics. In such a book, nevertheless, the authors had somehow thought it appropriate to dedicate over a third of their accompanying text to Kurdish history. This was not an art history, which could have made its inclusion somewhat justifiable. It was instead a sad attempt at dynastic and political history of the Kurds with little if any resemblance to real history. In this caricature, mythological figures are treated as real persons, and Kurds treated as non-Kurds and vice versa. And the starting







Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari

The 1,100th Anniversary of a World-Class Kurdish Scholar By Prof. M. R. Izady The year 1996 marks the 1,100th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest Kurdish and Islamic minds of all times, Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari. Among The Founders of The Islamic Sciences as we know Them Today, He was born in Dinawar Circa AD 820 as Abu Hanifa Ahmad son of Dawud son of Wanand. He studied Astronomy, Mathematics And Mechanics in Isfahan, Persia and Philology and poetry in Kufa and Basra, Iraq. He died on July 24, 896 at Dinawar. At the time, cosmopolitan Dinawar served as







7,000 years older than Stonehenge

7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists Circles of elaborately carved stones from about 9,500BC predate even agriculture Nicholas Birch in Istanbul (The Guardian, Wednesday April 23, 2008) As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet. “This place is a supernova,” said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles







Treaty of Qasri Shirin, 17 May 1639

The Treaty of Zohab “17 May 1639” Text of the Letter by Envoys of Sultan Murat IV to the Envoys of Shah Safi I, containing the Ottoman Boundary Claims with Persia Reaffirmed, 4 September 1746, 28 July 1823, 31 May 1847 Translation is from the text composed for the Ottoman delegation [British and Foreign State Papers, 105: 763-66, 1847] Praise to God, the Holy, the Gracious, the bestower of Victory; Who has opened the door of peace and concord with the key of the words: “Verily I wish nothing so much as reconciliation,”… On the 14th day of Muharram, in







Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary

Title Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary Publication Type Book Year of Publication 1967 Authors Anter, Musa Publisher Yeni Matbaa City Istanbul Publication Language North Kurdish/Turkish Keywords Dictionary, Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary, Language, Linguistic, North Kurdish







How can I get involve with projects such as KAL and KURDISTANICA so that I might be able to contribute to this good cause?

One thing that Individuals/organisations can do to support projects like KAL and KURDISTANICA is to ask their friends, colleagues or fellow organizational members to get involve in turning hard copy material into electronic (scanning, typing etc.). If you are conversant in other relevant languages, you can help translate texts from English into Persian, Turkish, Arabic (and vice versa), as well as proof-reading English translations. These types of contribution make the information available to all others whose linguistic knowledge is limited. We scan and provide the hard copies of old sources or we direct you to the source to be borrowed







Khurasani Kurdish Exclave in the 19th Century

By Prof. M. R. Izady This detached exclave of Kurdish inhabited land is found on the modern northeastern borders of Iran with Turkmenistan in what has been historically known as northern sector of the province of Khurasan (the “land of rising sun”). Politically, at around 1835, the territory of northern Khurasan was fully inside Persia/Iran, although the writ of the government in Teheran was barely read in the area. The Kurdish and Turkmen nomadic tribes held undisputed sway over their territories, paying practically no homage to the Persian crown. The same was true of the old Kurdish principalities in the area,







The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925

By Robert Olson, University of Texas Press, Austin The Sheikh Said rebellion was the first large-scale nationalist rebellion by the Kurds. The role of the Azadi was fundamental in its unfolding. Kurdish intellectuals and military officers lay at the heart of the nationalist movement, in terms of organization and recruitment. The paramount influence of the more secular or non-cleric Kurdish nationalist organizations must be separated from the rebellion itself and its “sheikhly” leadership. The Sheikh Said rebellion was led largely by sheikhs, a deliberate determination by the leadership of Azadi from 1921 onward. These decisions were defined and given force







An Independent Kurdistan?

Robert Olson, Professor of Middle East Politics, University of Kentucky Due to the strong resistance to the US occupation of Iraq and the internecine hostility that has resulted between Arabs and Kurds, reports in the public media have raised the possibility of the Kurds declaring an independent state. While the Kurds have made great strides in state formation developments since the US occupation of Iraq in March 2003, their achieving of independence remains problematic. It is important to recall that the Kurds of Iraq have had a great deal of autonomy since the Gulf War of 1991 when a “safe







Exploring Kurdish Origins – Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady

By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady The question of Kurdish origins, i.e., who the Kurds are and where they come from, has for too long remained an enigma. Doubtless in a few words one can respond, for example, that Kurds are the end-product of numerous layers of cultural and genetic material superimposed over thousands of years of internal migrations, immigrations, cultural innovations and importations. But identifying the roots and the course of evolution of present Kurdish ethnic identity calls for a greater effort. It calls for the study of each of the many layers of these human movements and cultural influences, as







Problems In Kurdish Historiography

By Prof. Mehrdad Izady Compilation and organization of Kurdish history is a time consuming task. Happily, the cause is the sheer volume of available primary sources of information, and not the dearth. Located as they have been in the geographical heartland of the greater Middle East, and commanding vast natural and human resources, the ancestors of Kurds have been inevitably and amply recorded in man’s earliest experimentations with writing. After all, Kurds do share their past with all the other Middle Eastern peoples who constitute the oldest literate societies on this planet. Even if the Kurds had meticulously rejected the idea







Are Kurdology departments needed?

The state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) recent launch of a TV channel, TRT 6, has been followed by debates at the Higher Education Board (YÖK) and universities concerning whether universities should open Kurdish language and literature or Kurdology departments. These debates largely concentrate on whether opening such departments is legally feasible. Eventually, YÖK endorsed İstanbul University’s demand for opening a center for Kurdish studies. The debates also serve to highlight the bitter truth that even if we can open Kurdology departments, we do not have academics to employ in this field. As our country needs the opening of







Kurdistan Mission (I)

The first part of the documentary “Kurdistan Mission ” is now available on SCOLA television network on Internet. This documentary contains 12 episodes which covers the activities of the Lutheran Mission Orient Society in the city of Savoujbulax (Mahabad) and its environs. The documentary reveals many hidden aspects of the history of Mukriyan through personalities and thoughts of these missionaries, reasons to be in the area, witnessing the evens, and their services to health care, social and culture of the community.







Prehistory of Saladin

Vladimir Minorsky, Prehistory of Saladin Saladin’s Origins (A) The famous biographer Ibn Khallikân (A.D. 1211-82) made a special inquiry into the history of Saladin’s family1 and came to the following conclusion2: “Historians agree in stating that his father and family belonged to Duwîn, which is a small town situated at the farther extremity of Adharbayjan, in the direction of Arrân and the country of the Kurj (i.e. the Georgians). They were Kurds and belonged to the tribe of Rawâdiya (sic) which is a branch of the great tribe al-Hadâniya (read: *Hadhbâniya). I was informed by a legist (faqîh) who was a native of Duwîn and







Kurdistan Mission (II)

Kurdistan Mission (Part two) Is a documentary based on the availble issues of “Kurdistan Missionary” a publication of Inter-Synodical Ev.Lutheran Orient Mission Society;October 1910 to the end of 1928. This publication contains a treasure of hidden history of Mukri Kurdistan.In second part of these series Hassan Ghazi describes the views of Dr. Newton Write concerning the motive of Missionary work in Kurdistan It is now available at SCOLA.org After registration at http://www.scola.org click on: Videos on the street, language Kurdish, country Iran, Kurdistanmission02 Wist Production Camera and Editing: Goran Mamexelani Translated, narratated and produced by: Hassan Ghazi







Kurdistan Mission (III)

Part 3 of documentary series ” Kurdistan Mission” now could be downloaded or played on SCOLA’s homepage. The life and biography of L.O.FOSSUM http://www.scola.org/Scola/Default.aspx On the street videos Country: Iran Language: Kurdish KurdistanMission03 Vist production. Camera & Editing: Goran Mamexelani Transleted, narrated and produced by: Hassan Ghazi







Kurdistan Mission (IV)

Part five of documentary series ‘Kurdistan Mission’ videos now is available on Scola’s homepage. In this part the works of Dr. Emanuel Edman (originated from Sweden) and Miss Meta von der Schulenberg a teacher from Germany and their services to the people of Sablax and its environs are presented based on the LOMS newsletter Kurdistan Missionary. Instruction to view this documentary http://www.scola.org/scola/OnthestreetVideos.aspx On the street videos Country:Iran Language:Kurdish KurdistanMission05







Soviet Plans for Baba Gurgur

Henry D. Astarjian With Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, which marked the inception of the cold war, Soviet propaganda in the world and in the Middle East escalated; they offered Marxism-Leninism as a substitute to corrupt capitalism, a system that exploited the masses for the benefit of a few. They presented themselves as advocates of justice, determined to help the oppressed people bring about radical changes in their lives. This meant overthrowing their regimes, and ridding the region from the colonialist-imperialist domination. The fact that the Soviets had successfully defended Stalingrad and pushed the German forces all the way to Berlin







The Local Vandals Destroy Another Piece of Kurdish History

Tagheh Farhad or Rawansar tomb is a rock tomb near the small town of Ravansar (Kurdish: Rewanser) 57 km north-west of Kermanshah (Kurdish: Kirmansha) in May province in Kurdistan. It is known as Tagheh Farhad among local Kurdish inhabitants of Rawansar. They believe it was cut in the rock by Farhad, a legendary character who fell in love with Shirin, the wife of Khosrau II of Persia. The first archaeologist who visited the tomb was Massoud Golzari, an Iranian archaeologist who attributed it to Median period. It is revisited and examined by Calmeyer, German archaeologist and Iranologist (b. 5 September







Watery graves

Gaziantep, Turkey, The Economist, April 29th 2009 When Turkey’s Birecik dam begins filling up at the end of the month, thousands of archaeological treasures are likely to be lost. Does anyone care? A CORAL-PINK prawn, a frolicking dolphin. With each gentle prod of the pick, another brilliantly coloured sea creature springs from the earth to reveal an elaborate mosaic floor featuring Oceanus, a mythological god of the seas. The mosaic lies within the atrium of a lavish villa in Zeugma, a strategic port city of the classical period that was built on a terraced hillside overlooking the Euphrates river. With







Kurdistan Mission (VIII)

Kurdistan Mission, is a documentary series on the activities of the “Lutheran Orient Mission Society” in Sablax (Mahabad) and its environs in Iranian Kurdistan between 1911-1936. In this documentary the local history and events are described based on letters and reports of American missionaries published in their newsletters “ Kurdistan Missionary” and the “Lutheran Orient Mission”. In the part eight of “ Kurdistan Mission” the life and activities of Ms. Hannah Schonhood is presented. She first zent to Sablax ( Mahabad) in summer 1921. She organised a school for boys and girls, she run an orphanage and helped lepers who







PERSIAN CARAVAN SKETCHES

The Land of the Lion and the Sun as Seen on a Summer Caravan Trip By Harold F. Weston,  The National Geographic Magazine April 1921, pp417-468 Note that this copy of the article contains the sections on Kurds, pp417-425 only. PERSIANS say, with a great feeling of envy, that the man who has seen the most of the world is the greatest liar. So when I am asked to tell “all about Persia,” 1 generally ask if I should not include Russia, too, having been there just six hours. What counts most in enjoying, visualizing, or telling about the “romantic







Kurdistan: Toward a Cultural-Historical Definition

By Kamal Mirawdeli, The International Conference, The Kurds Political status and Human Rights, March 1993 Introduction: Kurdistan means the land of the Kurds. And both the land and the people, of course exist. Yet, as Paul Rich (1991:Vii) has written. In political terms: “Kurdistan does not exist, which is why it is so important. This anomalous structure has long been part of the Middle East conundrum”, the understanding of which entails understanding the politics of power and the relationship between power and knowledge. It is power which creates the conditions for the production of knowledge about peoples, and which ultimately defines







Anahita Temple avoids destruction

Mehr News Agency, Tehran, 01/30/2010 The construction project that caused damages to the Anahita Temple in Kangavar in Kermanshah Province was halted last week. The decision to halt the project was made following publication of a report on the mess at the Parthian era site by the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency. The concrete footings created for the construction project are seen near the ruins of columns of the Anahita Temple in an undated photo. The Kangavar Endowments and Charity Affairs Office (KECAO) began construction of concrete foundations to develop the shrine of Imamzadeh Ebrahim (AS) located on







Archaeological expedition team in Nakhjavan discovers Iran’s Median Dynastic architectural remains

LONDON, (CAIS) — The joint archaeological expedition team from United States and the Republic of Azerbaijan, in the autonomous republic of  Nakhjavan (nowadays Nakhchivan), has yielded to new findings date back to the first Iranian dynastic Empire, the Medes (728-550 BCE). The ceramic samples were also found during the archeological digs in the ancient settlement today known as Oglangala in the Sharur region of the Nakhjavan. ‘The digs held in Oglangala fortress city revealed the residuals of ancient buildings, including a large palace, date to the Median dynasty of Iran. Also the expedition team have discovered ancient graves, a number







Pilot excavation in Iraqi Kurdistan

The Netherlands organisation for Scientific Research NWO has granted a subsidy to prof. dr Wilfred H. van Soldt (Humanities, LIAS) and dr Diederik J.W. Meijer (Archaeology, Near East) to conduct a pilot excavation in Iraqi Kurdistan. During an archaeological surface survey in 2008 prof. dr Wilfred H. van Soldt and dr Diederik J.W. Meijer found a site which yielded a cuneiform inscription identifying it as the town of Idu, dated to the 12th century BC. The site is situated on the Little Zab, a tributary of the Tigris, close to the present Iraqi-Persian border. The excavations are planned for April-May, and will be conducted in







2,700-year-old royal loyalty oath discovered in Turkey

By Owen Jarus, 15 October 2010 Archaeologists excavating a 2,700 year old temple at the ancient city of Tayinat, in southeastern Turkey, have discovered evidence that its inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king. The city of Tayinat was built on the Amuq plain, on the Orontes River near the modern day Syrian border. The Assyrian Empire conquered it in 738 BC, with a governor being appointed to oversee it. The city’s temple is about 12 meters by six meters in size, and pre-dates the conquest. The excavations at







معرفی كتاب؛ گورستان آغاز نوسنگی در غار شانیدر

The Proto-Neolithic Cemetery in Shanidar Cave. By Ralph S. Solecki, Rose L. Solecki and Anagnostis P. Agelarakis, Texas A&M University anthropology series; no.7, 2004, xv+234pp. Figs., Illus., ISBN 1-58544-272-0 بیش از نیم قرن از شناسایی و آغاز كاوش غار شانیدر بوسیله رالف سولكی و همسرش رز می گذرد. این غار كه در شمال غربی زاگرس، در كردستان عراق واقع شده دارای بقایای باستان شناختی بسیار غنی از دوره پارینه سنگی میانی تا اواخر نوسنگی است. كشف مجموعه ای از اسكلت انسانهای نئاندرتال در لایه موستری غار نقطه عطفی در مطالعات پارینه سنگی زاگرس و خاورمیانه محسوب می شود. این كشف







Fieldwork and Fear in Iraqi Kurdistan

Diane E. King, 2009 Before the Iraqi Baath regime’s ouster in 2003, I intermittently lived and carried out research in the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq. I often commuted between the towns of Dohuk and Zakho by bus or a taxi shared with other passengers. Each time the bus or taxi passed the junction just north of Dohuk at which one of the roads led to the government-controlled city of Mosul, passengers typically tensed up. In the distance, but within view, lay the last Kurdish checkpoint. Beyond it was territory controlled by Saddam Hussein, who had declared himself the archenemy of both







Witness to Genocide

Forensic archaeologists uncover evidence of a secret massacre—and help convict Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity. In May 1988, a prison guard checked Taymour Abdullah Ahmad’s name off a list and directed him to a bus idling in the Popular Army camp in Topzawa, southwest of Kirkuk. The camp was one of Iraq’s grimmest prisons. During his month-long internment there, the 12-year-old Kurdish boy watched guards beating male prisoners senseless with lengths of coaxial cable. He had seen four children weaken and then die of starvation. He stood helplessly as a guard stripped his father to his undershorts and led







Kurdish Currency

The Kurdish national currency KURO inherited its name from a common combined word in Kurdish language. KURO is combined of Kur -which is the international code for Kurdish language, and the bibliographic classification and the letter O which is a common noun maker in Kurdish for example the word, dillo, hezo, wero, nazo, delalo and so on. The smallest unit of Kurdish currency calls WIRDE, which in fact driven from the Kurdish word “WIRDE = bits, small”. Each 100 WIRDE is equal to 1 KURO. The amount 124.36 is read as “Sed u bíst u cuwar KURO u sí u shesh Wirde”. »» Please







Assessment of the conservation of the Paikoli Monument

Paikoli Monument(1) was probably formed by a quadrilateral stone wall (average size: 40 x 60 x 40 cm) filled with a concrete mix of river stones and pebble; the binder of the concret e mix is probably calcium bi-hydrated sulphate (gypsum). Every block shows in the upper face two holes about 5 cm wide and about 3 cm deep, certainly used for the insertion of cramps to connect one block to the two adjacent. Very few traces of metal (iron) are visible on some blocks and probably the metal cramps, due to their oxidation, have detached parts of the stone







Urartian Red Burnished Pottery From Diyarbakir Museum

Urartian Kingdom has not only become known by its organized state structure, advanced architecture, irrigation system, superior quality metal workmanship but also has become known by its red burnished potteries, which imitate metallic pots. Potteries’ pastes, which were given shape at paddle wheels by expert potters, were prepared by using very well sieved clay and sometimes by using additive small piece of sand. Slip, which were usually red and tones of red, were applied before drying in the kiln. The other operation that was realized before the stage of drying in the kiln was burnishing. After a good quality drying,







The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli

The Sassanian Inscription of PaikuliThe Paikuli inscription is comprised of three parts: introduction, main part, and conclusion. The main part can be divided into three: 1. An account of the events taking place before Narseh and the Iranian dignitaries meet at Paikuli; 2. An account of the events leading to the surrender of Warahrān, King of Sakas, and the punishment of Wahnām; 3. The negotiations between Narseh and the dignitaries regarding the succession to the throne of Iran, leading to Narseh’s acceptance of the Kingship. Users of this text should always consult the synoptic texts in SIP 2 for the







The Tell Nader and Tell Baqrta Project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

In October 2010 the University of Athens obtained permission by the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG), the General Directorate of Antiquities of Kurdistan and the Directorate of Antiquities of Erbil to conduct excavations in two important archaeological sites: first in Tell Nader, which lies on the outskirts of the city of Erbil and then Tell Baqrta, approximately 28 km to the south of Erbil (Fig. 1). Tell Nader was discovered by Mr. Nader Babakr Muhammad, archaeologist of the General Directorate of Antiquities of Kurdistan and Tell Baqrta was brought to our attention







Evidence for the World’s earliest Beer and Wine making in Kurdistan

In a correspondence to the prestigious British scientific journal Nature (vol.360, 5 November, 1992, p. 24) Rudolph Michel of Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, and Patrick McGovern of University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Virginia Badler, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto, archaeological and laboratory evidence is provided to prove the oldest existing trace of production of barley beer in the world.Their evidence comes from the archaeological site of Godin, 6 miles (10 km) east of Kangawar, in southern Kurdistan, in Iran, where a few years earlier the evidence for world’s earliest







Ismet Sheríf Wanlí

Prof. Ismet Cherif Vanli (1924-2011), also known as Ismet Sheríf Wanlí in Kurdish (Kurdish: Ismet Sheríf Wanlí, عیسمەت شەریف وانلی), was an influential Kurdish scholar and advocate for the rights of the Kurdish people. Born on November 21, 1924, to Kurdish parents in Damascus’ Kurdish neighbourhood, Syria, Ismet came from a family with deep roots in the Kurdish heritage. His father, Muhammad Cherif Vanli, had migrated to Damascus from the Van district in northwestern Kurdistan before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Ismet’s mother, Xayriya Abdulla Alarrashi, hailed from Diyarbakir and later moved to Damascus with her family.







Qazi Muhammad [1900 – 1947]

Qazi Muhammad (Ghazi Muhammad, Qazí Mihemed, قاضی محمد، قازی محەممەد) a Kurdish political and spiritual figure, was born on May 1, 1900, in the city of Mehabad (also known as Sablax), situated in the Mukríyan region of Kurdistan. He held a prominent and revered position in Kurdish history. Coming from a privileged background, his father being Qazi Ali bin Qasim bin Mirza Ahmed and his mother belonging to the esteemed ‘Faidhullah Bagi’ clan in Mukriyan, Qazi Muhammad grew up surrounded by a rich Kurdish heritage. This upbringing instilled in him a deep sense of identity and a profound appreciation for







Yaresanism

The followers of Yârsânism, also known as the Yârisân, Aliullâhi, Ali-llâhi (i.e., “those who deify Ali”), Alihaq, Ahl-i Haqq (“the People of Truth”) or Ahl-i Haq (“the People of the Spirit” [Hâk or Haqj), Shaytânparass (devil-worshippers), Nusayri (“the Nazarenes,” i.e., Christians), etc-, are concentrated in southern Kurdistan in both Iran and Iraq. Their domain roughly coincides with that of the Gurâni (including the Laki) Kurdish dialect, with some major exceptions. The faith is loosely divided at present into two or three, very unequal sects. 1) The Ahl-i Haq have been increasingly identified with mainstream Shi’ite Islam, yet follow for their religious instruction







Flag of Kurdistan

The National Flag of Kurdistan INTRODUCTION: The aim of this document is to introduce in brief the history of the current National Flag of Kurdistan and to help those who use the Kurdish national flag to reproduce it correctly. The document contains the basic rules for the construction of the flag, as well as the standard colors to be used. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The National Flag was first introduced by the founders of “Society for the Uplift of Kurdistan” movement to represent the Kurds in their struggle for independence from the moribund Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently presented to the members






Sharaf Al Din Bitlisi

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî By Prof M.R. Izady Although primarily a collection of dynastic histories, there is little doubt that the Sharafnâma is the single most important surviving text on Kurdish history and people. The work is that of Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el-Dín Bitlísí), who states he finished at least the first edition of the work on or shortly after 30 Dhu’l-hajja of the hegira year 1005 (4 August 1597).  Strong evidence suggests, as shall be seen below, that the author made further additions and alterations to the book as it was being copied for distribution in


Muhammad Amin Zeki Bag

Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag

Muhammed Amin Zaki Bey also known in Kurdish as  Dr. Mehmed Emín Zekí, محەممەد ئەمین زەکی بەگ (1880 Sulaimaniyah –1948 Sulaimaniyah) was a prominent Kurdish writer, historian, and politician, born in Sulaimaniyah to his father, Hagi Abdul Rahman. His educational journey began at the Sulaimaniya Military School and continued at the Baghdad Military High School. On February 10, 1902, he graduated as the 23rd of his class from the Ottoman Military Academy, joining the Ottoman Army as an Infantry Second Lieutenant. With distinction, he completed his studies at the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul on January 11, 1905, subsequently serving


Prof. Dr. Mehrdad R. Izady

Mehrdad M. R. Izady

Mehrdad lzady (Kurdish: Mihrdad Ízedí, مهرداد ئیزه‌دی) was born in 1963 to a Kurdish father and a Belgian mother. He spent much of his youth in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Korea as his diplomat parents moved from one assignment to another. He is one of the most prominent native Kurdish historians of our time. Izady finished his BA degree in History, Political Science and Geography at Kansas State University in 1976. His passion for history and geography allowed him to finish a masters degrees in Geography in 1978, Political Science and International Relations in 1979 at Syracuse University as well as Middle


HISTORY


Archaeology of Kurdish Clan Names

  M R Izady A. Introduction and a survey of the relevant primary sources: Detailed study of clan names among the Kurds reveals an etymological affinity among a majority of them. The very same ethnonyms, or variations thereof, are also found in the names of many ruling dynasties, historical individuals, and toponyms dispersed over a large area of Western Asia, some dating back to remote antiquity. Equally important is the frequent incidence of these same names among neighboring ethnic groups and cultures that are not Kurdish. These archaic progenitic names I will refer to henceforth in this survey as protonyms,







From Ducats to Dollars

Idris Bitlisi had arrived to offer to deliver up Kurdistan to the Ottomans for a mere 25,000 gold ducats.







Sufi Mystic Orders

An overwhelming majority of Muslim and non-Muslim Kurds are followers of one of many mystic Sufi orders (or tariqa). The bonds of the Muslim Kurds, for example, to different Sufi orders have traditionally been stronger than to orthodox Muslim practices. Sufi rituals in Kurdistan, led by Sufi masters, or shaykhs, contain so many clearly non-Islamic rites and practices that an objective observer would not consider them Islamic in the orthodox sense. The Sufi shaykhs train deputies (khalifa), who represent and supervise the followers of various districts in the name of the shaykh, collecting allegiance, and dues, for the shaykh. Anyone may follow a shaykh, but to







Judaism

The history of Judaism in Kurdistan is ancient. The Talmud holds that Jewish deportees were settled in Kurdistan 2800 years ago by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser Ill (r. 858-824 BC). As indicated in the Talmud, the Jews eventually were given permission by the rabbinic authorities to convert local Kurds. They were exceptionally successful in their endeavor. 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







Islam

About three-fifths of the Kurds, nearly all of them Kurmânji speakers, are today at least nominally Sunni Muslims of the Shafi’ite rite. There are also followers of mainstream lmâmi (Twelver) Shi’ite Islam among the Kurds, particularly in and around the cities of Kirmânshâh, Kangawar, Hamadân, Qurva, and Bijâr in southern and eastern Kurdistan in Iran, and in much smaller numbers in and around Malâtya, Adiyâman, and Maras in far western Kurdistan in Turkey. There are a large number of Shi’ite Kurds in the Khurâsâni enclave as well, but they are not a majority there, as some sources have erroneously reported.







Yezidism

The followers of the Yezidi religion, who have variously referred to themselves also as the Yazidi, Yazdâni, Izadi, and Dasna’i, have often been pejoratively referred to by outsiders as “devil worshippers.” They constitute less than 5% of the Kurdish population. At present they live in fragmented pockets, primarily in northwest and northeast Syria, the Caucasus, southeast Turkey, in the Jabal Sanjâr highlands on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and regions north of the Iraqi city of Mosul. As a branch of the Cult of Angels, Yezidism places a special emphasis on the angels. The name Yezidi is derived from the Old and Middle Iranic







Alevism

A majority of the Dimila Kurds of Anatolia and some of their Kurmânji speaking neighbors are followers of another denomination of the Cult of Angels. These have been called collectively the Alawis (“the Followers of Ah”), the Alevis (“the People of Fire,” implying fire-worship or Zoroastrianism, from alev, “fire”), the Qizilbâsh (“the red heads,” from their red head gear, and the Nusayri (which can be interpreted as the “Nazarenes,” implying Christianity, or as the “followers of Nârsch,” the early medieval Kurdish revolutionary of the Khurrami movement who settled with his followers in Anatolia). See Medieval History). The Alevis believe in Ali as







Cult of Angels

Most non-Muslim Kurds follow one of several indigenous Kurdish faiths of great antiquity and originality, each of which is a variation on and permutation of an ancient religion that can loosely be labeled the “Cult of Angels,” Yazdâni in Kurdish. The actual name of the religion is all but lost to its modern followers, who retain only the names of its surviving denominations. The name Yazdânism or Cult of Angels is a variation of the Kurdish name of one of its isolated branches, Yezidism, which literally means “the Anglicans.” There are some indications that Yazdânism was in fact the name of the religion before its fragmentation.







Christianity

The early history of Christianity in Kurdistan closely parallels that of the rest of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. By the early 5th century the Kurdish royal house of Adiabene had converted from Judaism to Christianity. The extensive ecclesiastical archives kept at their capital of Arbela (modern Arbil), are valuable primary sources for the history of central Kurdistan, from the middle of the Parthian era (ca. 1st century AD). Kurdish Christians, like their Jewish predecessors, used Aramaic for their records and archives and as the ecclesiastical language. The persecution of the Christians in the Persian Sasanian Empire extended to Kurdistan as well.







Babaism

Bâbism was formed in Persia in 1844 by Mirzâ Ali Muhammad (1819-1850), the Bdb, or “the portal” (to the Deity). Bdb, or Bdbtl, standing for “avatar,” is of course the title by which the Cult of Angels refers to the major reincarnations of the Haq, or the Universal Spirit. A native of Shirâz in Persia, Bdb became a follower of Shaykh Ahmad Ahsâ’i, who had settled in Kirmân in southeast Persia from Ahsd. Ahsd (the medieval Lahsâ, the eastern coastal regions of modern Saudi Arabia) was a bastion of the socioreligious movement of Qarmatites, which was strongly influenced by the Cult of Angels, particularly the Mazdakite







An introduction

The infusion of an Indo-European (Iranic) language, culture, and genetic element into the Kurdish population over the two millennia preceding the Christian era also entailed the incorporation of Aryan religious practices and deities into indigenous Kurdish faith(s). Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Christianity successively made inroads into Kurdistan. The most holy of Zoroastrianism’s three grand fire temples, that of Âzargushasp, was built at the holy site of Ganzak (modern Takâb) in eastern Kurdistan in the northern environs of the Kurdish city of Bijâr. The irnposing ruins of the temple are still extant. Despite this, Zoroastrianism did not succeed in converting any







Layla Zana (1961 – )

Layla Zana (Kurdish: Leyla Zana) was born in 1961 in the small village of Bache in Northern Kurdistan (Eastern Turkey). She grew up in a region marked by a long history of conflict and oppression against the Kurdish people. Leyla’s life took a significant turn when she married Mehdi Zana, a Kurdish activist who later became the Mayor of Diyarbakir, a major city in Northern Kurdistan, in 1977. The political landscape drastically changed with the 1980 military coup in Turkey, which led to a renewed wave of oppression against the Kurds. Mehdi Zana was among the thousands of activists who







Political Figures

KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area. Layla Zana (1961 – ) Qazi Muhammad [1893-1947]







The Sphinx’s beard

Notes on Kurdish Political Naiveté By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady, 1995 The head of Egypt’s celebrated Sphinx is collapsing. To secure the head to the chest, the fallen beard must be restored. But the beard–a nondescript slab of rock shaped like a stick of butter–is not in Egypt. It is in the British Museum, spirited off by British colonial authorities who refuse to return it. And so the Sphinx’s head is now leaning precariously forward. The Egyptian government refuses to permit the fitting of a new beard. They believe that to alleviate the urgency of the collapsing head would be







THE KURDS: An ancient tragedy

The Economist THEIR history is full of tales of persecution, betrayal and desperate flight. But few Kurdish fables are as dramatic as the capture of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of Turkey’s Kurdish rebels. Mr Ocalan had been on the run ever since Turkish sabre-rattling forced him from his hideout in Syria last October. First he fled to Russia, then to Italy, where he was arrested. Two court cases and two quashed arrest warrants later, he set off for a new refuge, chased by the press and, it turns out, by the Turkish secret service. With Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and







An Independent Kurdistan?

Robert Olson, Professor of Middle East Politics, University of Kentucky Due to the strong resistance to the US occupation of Iraq and the internecine hostility that has resulted between Arabs and Kurds, reports in the public media have raised the possibility of the Kurds declaring an independent state. While the Kurds have made great strides in state formation developments since the US occupation of Iraq in March 2003, their achieving of independence remains problematic. It is important to recall that the Kurds of Iraq have had a great deal of autonomy since the Gulf War of 1991 when a “safe







Geopolitics

By Prof. M. R. Izady The geopolitics of Kurdistan has effectively precluded the formation of an independent Kurdish state in this century. Currently stretching over seven inter-national boundaries (and detached pockets in two more states), Kurdistan resembles an arching shield of highlands, which separated the Middle East from the advance defense lines of the Soviet Union in the Caucasus for 74 eventful years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, coupled with the receding power of Russia, an unclear future looms on the northern horizons of the Middle East, with Kurdistan continuing to serve as a buffer zone. The Kurds have







Part III, Articles 36-139







Part II, Articles 27-35







Preamble

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 THE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS AND TURKEY SIGNED AT SÈVRES AUGUST 10, 1920 THE CONVENTION RESPECTING THE REGIME OF THE STRAITS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS SIGNED AT SÈVRES THE BRITISH EMPIRE, FRANCE, ITALY AND JAPAN, These Powers being described in the present Treaty as the Principal Allied Powers; ARMENIA, BELGIUM, GREECE, THE HEDJAZ, POLAND, PORTUGAL, ROUMANIA, THE SERB-CROAT-SLOVENE STATE AND CZECHO-SLOVAKIA, These Powers constituting, with the Principal Powers mentioned above, the Allied Powers, of the one part; AND TURKEY, of the other part;   Whereas on the request of the Imperial







Part I, Articles 1-26

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 “PART I” THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS   ARTICLES 1 TO 26 AND ANNEX See Part I, Treaty of Versailles, Pages 10-23.







Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920

The Treaty of Sèvres, 1920 (never adopted, superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne) The treaty of peace between the allied and associated powers and Turkey signed at Sèrvres August 10, 1920. Part I, Articles 1-26 Part II, Articles 27-35 Part III, Articles 36-139







Treaties

Treaties and historcial Treaties Treaty of Qasri Shirin, 17 May 1639 Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920







Provisional Constitution

A Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Kurdistan This provisional Constitution shall be presented to a public plebiscite within one year from the institution of the Federal Republic of Kurdistan. If ratified by a simple majority of the ballots cast, it shall attain permanency. In the occasion that this document shall not meet the approval of a majority of the electorate, a Constitutional Congress of ninety-nine popularly elected Constitutional Representatives shall form to compose another document that shall become the law of the land upon its ratification by two-thirds majority of the Constitutional Representatives. The Representatives to Constitutional Congress







Manifesto of the Kurdish People

Manifesto of the Kurdish People for the Creation of a Free, Independent and Unified Homeland 1996 Justice dictates that all nations are inherently equal and entitled to the same natural rights. That some nations are under the involuntary dominance of others presents an unnatural state and a source of imbalance in the lives of people and nations. Insomuch as voluntary unions are moral, legitimate and a source of prosperity and harmony, forced unions are immoral, illegitimate and harbingers of poverty and strife. Nations have the fundamental and natural right to determine the course of their own future. We, the Kurdish







Livestock

Included in agricultural production are animal products. The most important animals have been traditionally sheep and to a lesser extent goats. Goats are not a readily marketable commodity anymore, and they cater to special needs for their hair and wool, particularly the angora goat, the source of mohair. Their numbers, once in millions, are steadily dropping due to a shrinkage of the market and the extensive damage they cause to the pastures and wood lands. Sheep on the other hand are not only expanding in numbers, but they are also gaining in importance as an export commodity. The meat can







The Water

In an otherwise water-starved region, Kurdistan is blessed with abundant precipitation. The generous regime has made Kurdistan one of the few watersheds of the Middle East. Rivers like the Tigris, Euphrates, Khabur, Tharthar, Ceyhan, Araxes, Kura, Safidrud, Karkha, and their major tributaries spring from the mountains of Kurdistan. Those rivers that are entirely or nearly entirely in Kurdistan are usually of historical importance to the Kurds. Among these are the Murat (Arasân) and Buhtân rivers in northern and western Kurdistan (in Turkey); the Peshkhâbur, the Lesser and the Greater Zâb, and the Sirwân/Diyâla in central Kurdistan (in Iraq); and the







The Oil

Kurdistan has among the largest oil reserves in the Middle East and the world. With about 45 billion barrels, Kurdistan contains more and larger proven deposits than the entire United States, and ranks 6th in the world. These reserves are spread over a thin band on the margins between the high mountains and the foothills, from far southern Kurdistan to extreme western Kurdistan near the Mediterranean Sea (see Map 41 below). In the south, the fields of Nafti Shah-Naft Khana in far southern Kurdistan straddle the Iran-Iraq border. The Nafti Shah field (renamed Naft Shahr after the Iranian Revolution of







Industries

Marco Polo writes of the Kurds of the area between Mus, Mardin, and Mosul, and reports they produced cotton “in great abundance, of which they prepare the cloths called boccasini, and many other fabrics. The inhabitants are manufacturers and traders” (Travels, I.vi). The exportable manufactured goods of Kurdistan are limited to handicrafts, which can only serve as souvenirs and speciality items. There is no mass production of textiles for export anywhere in Kurdistan. In fact, textiles are net imports. This is despite the local wealth of natural wool and cotton. Very little traditional cloth weaving has remained in Kurdistan, despite







Agriculture

Kurdistan’s wealth of high-grade pasture lands has long made it suitable for a pastoralist economy, but it is equally suitable in many areas for intensive agriculture. Unlike the woodlands and the heavy damage they have sustained, the pasture lands have remained in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive source of animal feed (see Flora & Fauna). The rich pastures have always ensured that in all historical periods, regardless of how dominant the agricultural sector, there have been nomadic herdsmen exploiting this economic niche to its fullest. Although many pasture lands are suitable for agriculture, in many others,







The first documented resettlement of Kurds

The First Documented Resettlementof Kurds into Western and Southwestern Anatoliacirca 181 BC By: M. R. Izady, July 1998 During the Seleucid/Macedonian period that followed the conquest of the Persian Achaemenian Empire by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, at least one major episode of resettlement of Kurds into western and southwestern Anatolia can be historically evidenced. This is for the period circa 181 BC. A fairly long rock inscription at Telmessus (modern Fethiye) on the southwestern coast of Anatolia by the Pergamese king Eumenes II (r. 197-154 BC) provides a glimpse into the life and history of the resettled Kurds. The







The drowning of the Kurdish historical and artistic heritage

By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady The late Dr. Henny Harald Hansen (1900-93) will long be remembered for her many authored and co-authored works on Kurdish women. What is little known of her is that Dr. Hansen first introduction to Kurdistan at the ripe age of 57 was when as a member of a Danish team she visited the historic sites in Raniya plain and the middle Zab river valley east of Arbil which the Dokkan hydro-electric dam was soon to drown. In the ever-more thirsty Middle East, the rich water resources and effluent rivers of Kurdistan are treasures coveted by all.







The Sharafnama of Bitlisi: manuscript copies, translations and appendixes

by Anwar Soltani Presented to the International Conference on the Sharafnama in Berlin, 1-3 May, 1998 THE MANUSCRIPTS Soon after the completion of the Sharafnama in August 13, 1797, several copies were made by various scribes of kings and amirs, both in Iran and in the Ottoman Empire. The oldest copy known to us was made almost two years after the completion of the book (now held at St. Petersburg, Russia) and the latest made in the nineteenth century (BL. Ms. Add.22698, etc.). Through an extensive search, I traced 18 different manuscript copies of the Sharafnama in the libraries of







Sharafkhan Bidlisi

By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli Sharafkhan Bidlisi (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el Dín Bitlísí) was born to a ruling family from the tribe of Rozaki (Rozakí) in North Kurdistan in 1543. This background provided him with both opportunity to get excellent education in the sciences of his time, and also to become a political actor at a very early age and then become fully immersed in Kurdish dynastic politics in the context of wider imperialist rivalry and conflict between the Sunni Ottoman and Shiite Safavid empires. Eight years before his birth, the Ottomans had disposed his father from his dynastic rule. In







Kurdistan, Where Historical Credit is Due

By Mehrdad R. Izady, 1992 In correspondence with the prestigious British scientific journal, Nature (Vol.360,5, Nov. 1992, p.24), Rudolph Michel of the Museum of Applied Science, Center for Archaeology, Patrick McGovern of University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania and Vlrginia Badler, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto, provide archaeological and laboratory evidence regarding the world’s oldest existing trace of the production of barley beer. Their investigations took place at the archaeological site of Godin, six miles (10 kilometers) east of Kangawar in southern Kurdistan in Iran. It was at this same site where, a few years







Desperately Seeking Full-Time Kurdologists

By Prof. Mehrdad Izady A most important first step in launching the field of Kurdish studies is the creation of a cadre of area studies scholars and academics whose primary interests are Kurds. Thus far it has been the Turkologist, Arabist, Armeniologist or Iranist who touches the Kurds only insomuch as they impact on his or her primary focus. This is neither unusual nor wrong. One’s research interest must be just that: the focal point of one’s universe of research and academic concern, perhaps even of one’s personal affection. Why then is the field of Kurdology lacking such dedicated individuals,







Are Kurds Descended From the Medes?

Prof. M. R. Izady A few years ago, I was given a letter from an American, non-academic individual, asking “Are Kurds descended from the Medes?” I responded as best I could avoiding the myriad of details which might well have diminished rather than enhanced interest in the topic: “Yes, and no”. With the proliferation of printed matter on the Kurds since the Gulf War, this question-or presumption-increasingly arises in the media. It is also difficult to set aside the political overtones attached to this otherwise academic question. Kurds and the Westerners interested in Kurdish topics–scholars, politicians, reporters, and the general public–have







A history of Kurdish navigation

By Prof. M. R. Izady General history One of the least-known-and most fascinating-chapters in Kurdish history is the long-lasting participation and occasional dominance of the sea trade and colonization of coastal areas and many islands of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea basins by the Kurds. Being “inseparably” a mountain people, the last place one expects to find Kurds dominating would be the vast oceanic expanses of the south seas. But we only need to remember how the Arabs-the “navigators of sand deserts”-came subsequently to engage in well-documented sea faring exploits to wake up to the fact that people







History: Related articles

KURDISTANICA introduces related articles to History section at this page. You may apply for a scholarly membership to post your articles personally or email us with electronic version of your article to be posted at History section.







Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî By Prof M.R. Izady Although primarily a collection of dynastic histories, there is little doubt that the Sharafnâma is the single most important surviving text on Kurdish history and people. The work is that of Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el-Dín Bitlísí), who states he finished at least the first edition of the work on or shortly after 30 Dhu’l-hajja of the hegira year 1005 (4 August 1597).  Strong evidence suggests, as shall be seen below, that the author made further additions and alterations to the book as it was being copied for distribution in







Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag

Muhammed Amin Zaki Bey also known in Kurdish as  Dr. Mehmed Emín Zekí, محەممەد ئەمین زەکی بەگ (1880 Sulaimaniyah –1948 Sulaimaniyah) was a prominent Kurdish writer, historian, and politician, born in Sulaimaniyah to his father, Hagi Abdul Rahman. His educational journey began at the Sulaimaniya Military School and continued at the Baghdad Military High School. On February 10, 1902, he graduated as the 23rd of his class from the Ottoman Military Academy, joining the Ottoman Army as an Infantry Second Lieutenant. With distinction, he completed his studies at the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul on January 11, 1905, subsequently serving







Mehrdad M. R. Izady

Mehrdad lzady (Kurdish: Mihrdad Ízedí, مهرداد ئیزه‌دی) was born in 1963 to a Kurdish father and a Belgian mother. He spent much of his youth in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Korea as his diplomat parents moved from one assignment to another. He is one of the most prominent native Kurdish historians of our time. Izady finished his BA degree in History, Political Science and Geography at Kansas State University in 1976. His passion for history and geography allowed him to finish a masters degrees in Geography in 1978, Political Science and International Relations in 1979 at Syracuse University as well as Middle







Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (1937-2011)

Professor Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (Kurdish: Kemal Mezher Ehmed کەماڵ مەزهەر ئەحمەد) was an eminent Kurdish historian, born on the 14th of February 1937, in the village of Axjelar, located in Baban province in Kurdistan. His early life unfolded amidst the turbulent pages of Iraqi history, as General Abdul Karim Qassem ascended to power through a military coup. Kamal’s thirst for knowledge led him to complete his college education in Silémaní and pursue his undergraduate studies in history at the University of Baghdad in 1959. Driven by a deep passion for historical research, he embarked on postgraduate studies in the Soviet







Jalile Jalil

Prof Jalile Jalil







Plotting the Geographical Distribution of Kurds.

By Prof. M. R. Izady Like many other aspects of their national existence and identity, the extent of the areas in which Kurds constitute the majority is the subject of dispute. While neighboring ethnic groups, in particular those in a ruling position, have consistently underestimated the extent of areas with a Kurdish majority, the Kurds have often tended to exaggerate them. This problem has naturally affected the works of non-local scholars as well. Surprisingly, it is not difficult to plot the extent of Kurdish lands. There are plenty of old and new primary and reliable data available for such an







Land & Environment – Terrain

By Prof. M.R. Izady The most prominent geophysical feature of Kurdistan is clearly its mountainousness. Kurdistan at present is composed primarily of the area of the central and northern Zagros, the eastern two-thirds of the Taurus and Pontus, and the northern half of the Amanus mountains. The two large, detached Kurdish enclaves are in the Rivand heights of the eastern section of the Alburz mountains of northeastern Iran, in the province of Khurasân, and in the central Pontian mountains in central and north-central Anatolia, neighboring the Turkish capital of Ankara. In addition to these, there have been for centuries many







Land & Environment – Geology

By Prof. M.R. Izady Kurdistan is geologically quite active. The land straddles the subduction zone between the colliding Eurasian and African tectonic plates. Locally, the breakaway Arabian microplate is being subducted under the Iranian and Anatolian microplates at the rate of a few inches a year, and as a result the Zagros mountains and Kurdistan-the point of this collision-are being compressed and pushed upward several inches a year. This continental collision, which began about 15 million years ago, pushed up the area of Kurdistan from the bottom of the Tethys Sea, which covered Southwest Asia, and is still adding elevation







Internal Subdivisions

By Prof. M.R. Izady Kurdistan can be divided historically, and on a socio-economic, cultural, and political basis, into five major subdivisions: southern Kurdistan centered historically on the city of Kirmanshâh, central Kurdistan centered on Arbil, eastern Kurdistan centered on Mahabad, northern Kurdistan centered on Bâyazid, and western Kurdistan centered on Diyârbakir. The two large, detached Kurdish enclaves in Khurdsân and central Anatolia merit separate treatment. There exist “fossilized” records of two major historical subdivisions of Kurdistan, each following an epoch of ethnic homogenization. They have left their marks in the dialects spoken by the Kurds, their material culture, the elements







Boundaries & Political Geography

By Prof. M. Izady The vast Kurdish homeland consists of about 200,000 square miles of territory. Its area is roughly equal to that of France or of the states of California and New York combined. Kurdistan straddles the mountainous northern boundaries of the Middle East, separating the region from the former Soviet Union. It resembles an inverted letter V, with the joint pointing in the direction of the Caucasus and the arms toward the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the absence of an independent state, Kurdistan is defined as the areas in which Kurds constitute an ethnic majority







Kurdish dialectology

Dialectology is a sub-field of historical linguistics, the scientific study of linguistic dialect. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features. Dialectology treats such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor and synchronic variation. Dialectologists are ultimately concerned with grammatical features which correspond to regional areas. Thus they are usually dealing with populations living in their areas for generations without moving, but also with immigrant groups bringing their languages to new settlements. The Dialects of Kurdish Language This section is currently available in Kurdish and Persian only. Please view these section







The History of Kurdish Language

The unprejudiced academics that study Kurdish history are united in the view that the Kurds are an ancient race (1). The Kurds have lived for many thousands of year’s -even longer than written documentation can reflect-in a land that has been described as the ‘cradle of human civilisation’. We need only think of Jewish and Islamic mythology, which designates Mount Judi (Cudi) in Kurdistan as the resting place of Noah’s ark (2); we know from history that in the land of the Kurds and its surrounding territories numerous advanced civilisations existed, such as that of Mesopotamia, of the Hittites, the







Kurdish Language

Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdí, كوردی, Kurdî, Кöрди) language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish dialects are members of the northwestern subdivision of the Indo-Iranic language, Iranic branch of this largest family of language in the world. The Kurdish language is an independent language, having its own historical development, continuity, grammatical system and rich living vocabularies. The Kurdish language was derived from the ancient “Median” language or “Proto-Kurdish”. Ca. 30 million people in the high land of Middle East, Kurdistan, speak different dialect of Kurdish. Kurdish dialects divide into three primaries groups: 1) the Northern Kurdish dialects group also called Kurmanjí and Badínaní, 2) Central Kurdish dialects group also called Soraní







Language

Language, the principal means used by human beings to communicate with one another. Language is primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to other media, such as writing. If the spoken means of communication is unavailable, as may be the case among the deaf, visual means such as sign language can be used. A prominent characteristic of language is that the relation between a linguistic sign and its meaning is arbitrary: There is no reason other than convention among speakers of Kurdish that a “Seg” Dog should be called “seg”, and indeed other languages have different names (for example, Spanish







Popular Culture

Kurds are fortunate to have some of the most visible aspects of their popular culture authenticated to remote antiquity. Some sections of well-known pieces of ancient literature read like compendiums to a lost encyclopaedia of the Kurdish ethnic character and culture, as soon as one has identified the site of the events and the characters involved. The most interesting evidence of the unusual antiquity of the Kurdish popular culture is in fact the oldest. Digging for the paleolithic remains at the Shanidar Caves of central Kurdistan, the archaeologist R. Solecki complains throughout the first few chapters of his excavation report







The National Goat – KELL

Origin The goats were the first livestock animal to be domesticated. The pinpoint this landmark moment: 10,000 years ago in southern Kurdistan in Gaji Dara [Genjí Dara]. The wild rocky mountain goats from highlands in Zagros mountain chain in Kurdistan calls “KELL” in Kurdish. Truly wild goats are found in Zagros mountain chain in Kurdistan on Creta, other Greek islands, Iran, Turkmenia, Pakistan; in the Alps, Siberia, Sudan, Caucasus; the Pyrenees, the Himalayan, Central Asian, Russian and Tibetan mountain ranges, and prefer rocky, precipitous mountains and cliffs. Goats belong, scientifically, to the Bovidae family within the suborder of ruminants (chevrotain,







National Birds

Red-legged partridge with scientific name “Alectoris rufa” calls “Kew, kev, Kewk, keví, and kevkí” in Kurdish. Red-legged partridge is normally 33 centimetres in length, but does not mention either its breadth or weight. The bill, legs, and orbits are red; the irides hazel; chin and throat dull white, surrounded by a black line or streak, which passes from the brow and nostrils to the eyes, behind which it continues, falls down before the auriculars, and meets on the lower part of the neck: a white streak extends from the brow over the eyes towards the hinder part of the neck; the forehead







National Anthem

Sirúdí Níshtimaní Kurdistan, Ey reqíb Ey reqíb her, mawe qewmí Kurd ziman Nayshékiné daneyí topí zeman (2) Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Íme rolley, rengí súr ú shorrish ín Seyríke xiwénawíye rabirdúman Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Íme rolley, Mídya ú Key Xusrew ín Díniman, Ayíniman hem níshtiman Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Lawí Kurd hellistaye serpé wek dilér Ta be xiwén nexshí bika tají jhíyan Kes nellé Kurd mirdúwe, Kurd zíndúwe Zíndúwe hích nanewí allakeman (2) Lawí Kurd her hazir ú







Cultural characters

Flag of Kurdistan National Anthem National Birds Kurdish Currency The National Goat – KELL







Writtings from prison

A new release by blue crane books Watertown, Massachusetts – Writings from Prison by Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament is a recent release by Blue Crane Books. Part of publisher’s Human Rights and Democracy Series, this book is a collection of Ms. Zana’s letters and articles written from Ankara prison since her arrest in 1994. An activist in the struggle for the recognition of Kurdish identity and an advocate of women’s emancipation and democratization of Turkey, Leyla Zana was elected to the Parliament in Turkey of post-military dictatorship in 1991. Tolerance was short lived







Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History

Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. by Susan Meiselas New York: Random House, 1997, pp 388 “. . . The world is a garden of culture where a thousand flowers grow. Throughout history all cultures have fed one another, been grafted onto one another, and in the process our world has been enriched. The disappearance of a culture is the loss of a colour, a different light, a different source. I am as much on the side of every flower in this thousand-flower garden as I am on the side of my own culture.” – Yasar Kemal These words were written by Turkish







Justice and the Kurds

By Christopher de Bellaigue, “New York Review of Books, June 24, 1999” Imagine that you head a foreign delegation on its way to Turkey to protest to the authorities on behalf of that country’s unhappy Kurds. If you are important enough, you might be met at the Ankara airport by Hikmet Cetin, the outgoing speaker of the Turkish parliament. But Mr. Cetin himself is a Kurd, with a good command of Kurmanji, the most widely spoken Kurdish dialect, and he will defend the regime’s policies toward the Kurds. You might have better luck with some of the members of Turkey’s







An Excerpt from Fateful Triangle

By Naom Chomski, ” Updated Edition, June 1999″ One of the best books for Naom Chomski being updated it includes issues related to the Kurds. For some time, I’ve been compelled to arrange speaking engagements long in advance. Sometimes a title is requested for a talk scheduled several years ahead. There is, I’ve found, one title that always works: “The current crisis in the Middle East.” One can’t predict exactly what the crisis will be far down the road, but that there will be one is a fairly safe prediction. That will continue to be the case as long as







Bibliographic review

KURDISTANICA publishes reviews of bibliographic records related to Kurdistan in any languages. We encourage our callers to submit their reviews. Submission information should include category, title, subtitle, author, publisher, number of illustrations, pages, prices, binding, ISBNs of formats, and pub dates. Please note that e-books may include the Copyright page, Contents, Preface, and first few pages; Cover art should be sent if available. Please be sure the publication date and subject categories are conspicuously noted. Use our contact page form to submit your book review to KURDISTANICA. You will be notified within two weeks of submitting the review as to







Bibliography

KURDISTANICA tend to use its global network to collect bibliographic records on Kurds and Kurdistan. Individual can submit records of their private bibliographic collections, records of their interest and topics which related to this section of KURDISTANICA. Your inputs can make the difference in enriching and promoting this collection. Please use our contact link to provide your submission or become a member of our community to add your collection personally.







Culture

Kurds are fortunate to have some of the most visible aspects of their popular culture authenticated to remote antiquity. Some sections of well-known pieces of ancient literature read like compendiums to a lost encyclopaedia of the Kurdish ethnic character and culture, as soon as one has identified the site of the events and the characters involved. The most interesting evidence of the unusual antiquity of the Kurdish popular culture is in fact the oldest. Digging for the paleolithic remains at the Shanidar Caves of central Kurdistan, the archaeologist R. Solecki complains throughout the first few chapters of his excavation report







Kurdistan’s Economy

Kurdistan’s wealth of high-grade pasture lands has long made it suitable for a pastoralist economy, but it is equally suitable in many areas for intensive agriculture. Unlike the woodlands and the heavy damage they have sustained, the pasture lands have remained in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive source of animal feed (see Flora & Fauna). The rich pastures have always ensured that in all historical periods, regardless of how dominant the agricultural sector, there have been nomadic herdsmen exploiting this economic niche to its fullest. Agriculture Industries Natural Resources







Legal documents

The Legal Documents section of KURDISTANICA provides agreement and Treaties which historically and politically have made an impact of the fate of the Kurdish nation.







Politic

Like other places in the world where many parties are struggling for the limited available support of their constituents, and carry ideologies and promote goals not too dissimilar from one another, inter-party feuding and rivalry have been a common feature of the history of the Kurdish political parties. What is different is that in Kurdistan these feuds on occasion become armed skirmishes between the parties’ guerrillas. These extreme instances, however, have been few and short-lasting.







Religion in Kurdistan

The infusion of an Indo-European (Iranic) language, culture, and genetic element into the Kurdish population over the two millennia preceding the Christian era also entailed the incorporation of Aryan religious practices and deities into indigenous Kurdish faith(s). Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Christianity successively made inroads into Kurdistan. The most holy of Zoroastrianism’s three grand fire temples, that of Âzargushasp, was built at the holy site of Ganzak (modern Takâb) in eastern Kurdistan in the northern environs of the Kurdish city of Bijâr. The irnposing ruins of the temple are still extant. Despite this, Zoroastrianism did not succeed in converting any







FAQ

FAQ Following are Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ] that might arise when you look at KURDISTANICA. For answers to other questions, please use our online contact form to send us your questions. You may become a registered member to comment on KURDISTANICA’s answers.







Geography

The vast Kurdish homeland consists of about 200,000 square miles of territory. Its area is roughly equal to that of France or of the states of California and New York combined. Kurdistan straddles the mountainous northern boundaries of the Middle East, separating the region from the former Soviet Union. It resembles an inverted letter V, with the joint pointing in the direction of the Caucasus and the arms toward the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the absence of an independent state, Kurdistan is defined as the areas in which Kurds constitute an ethnic majority today. Kurdish ethnic domains







Biographies

Selected biographies of Kurdish historical figures featured on KURDISTANICA history section. You can joing this project by writing a shortbiography of a Kurdish Histrocical figure which interest you. Biographies analyse and interpret the events in a person’s life. They try to find connections, explain the meaning of unexpected actions or mysteries, and make arguments about the significance of the person’s accomplishments or life activities. Biographies are usually about famous, or infamous people, but a biography of an ordinary person can tell us a lot about a particular time and place. Many biographies are written in chronological order. Some group time







The glazed bricks from Bukan: new insights into Mannaean art

Yousef Hassanzadeh; Antiquity Vol 80 No 307 March 2006 Mannaean studies as an independent field began with the discovery of Ziwiye in 1936 and the initiation of scientific excavations there (Boehmer 1964, 1988; Postgate 1989; Levine 1977). The archaeological site at Ziwiye was at first identified as Izbie, one of the important Mannaean provinces in the Iron Age of Iran. After this, great efforts were made to discover Izirtu, soon identified with Qaplanto near Ziwiye (Godard 1949, 1950: 7). But these identifications have since been discarded. In 1956, R. Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania began his extensive excavations on the







Historians & Kurdologists

KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area. Ismet Sheríf Vanlí Jalile Jalil Kamal Mazhar Ahmad Mehrdad M.R. Izady Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî







Modern History

1915 up to Present The idea of a nation-state in the modern sense and on the European model was more or less unknown in the Middle East until the late 19th century. This European political convention had caught on as much with Kurds as with any other nationality in the area at the time of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.   KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area.







Early Modern History

1497 – 1918 This period in the history of the Kurds is one of steady decline in every aspect of their national life, with the possible exception of literature.  An important proportion of the nation also found itself deported to far-away regions in the course of the 250 years from ca. 1500 to 1750. An energetic, industrious, and reasonably worldly Kurdish society at the beginning of the period had turned into one of the most backward and devastated societies in the Middle East by the end of the period.  There were two primary causes of this decline: 1) the division







Medieval History

600 AD – 1600 AD This vibrant period of Kurdish history is marked by the reemergence of Kurdish political power from the 7th to 9th century, after three centuries of decline under the centralized governments of the Sasanians of Persia and the Byzantine Empire. It culminated in three centuries, the 10th through the 12th, that can rightfully be called Islam’s Kurdish centuries. Through steady emigrations and military conquests, their political rule extended from central Asia to Libya and Yemen.   KURDISTANICA needs your scholarly expertise in this area. Please register with us and help collecting information in this subject area.







Classical History

400 BC – 600 AD This period in Kurdish history marks the homogenization and consolidation of the modern Kurdish national identity. The ethnic designator Kurd is established finally, and applied to all segments of the nation. After over a millennium of Aryan nomadic settlements, and rejuvenated by the infusion of the Aryan ethnic element, independent and vital Kurdish kingdoms resurfaced after three centuries of eclipse under Achaemenian and Seleucid rule. This revival reached its apex in the 1st century BC, when Kurdish political hegemony stretched from Greece and Ukraine to the Straits of Hormuz. Toward the end of this period,







Ancient history

3000 BC- 400 BC This period marks the progressive technological and commercial overshadowing of Kurdistan by neighboring Mesopotamian cultures. It also heralds- a power struggle between the military forces of the mountains (Kurdistan) and the plains of the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia and Syria) for political and economic control of this most civilized and richest of the planet’s corners. Successive advances and retreats by both sides in the struggle for supremacy continue to this day. The ancient period also marks the coming of the Aryans and the beginning of the transformation of Kurdistan into an Indo-European-speaking society, which culminated in the







Prehistory

0,000 BC – 3000 BC This is by far the most noteworthy period in the history of Kurdistan. The technological advancements and discoveries made in the Kurdish highlands in the 7000 years preceding the rise of Mesopotamia (3000 BC) forever changed the course of human history, and altered the very face of the planet. Much that was achieved later by the civilization of lowland Mesopotamia starting 5000 years ago began 7000 years before that, in the bordering mountains and valleys of Kurdistan. The archaeological and zoological-botanical evidence of Kurdistan’s crucial importance to the development of civilization is bountiful and well







Origin of The Kurds

By Prof. Mehrdad A. Izady Being the native inhabitants of their land. there are no “beginnings” for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all those who ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as the Guti, Kurti. Mede, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, Adianbene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only an ancestor. Archaeological finds continue to document







History

Being the native inhabitants of their land, there are no “beginnings” for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all those who ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as the Guti, Kurti. Mede, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, Adianbene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only an ancestor. Archaeological finds continue to document some of mankind’s earliest







How the project of KURDISTANICA works?

The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan, KURDISTANICA is a digital information and database focusing on the Kurdish People. The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan Online “KURDISTANICA” is a virtual organization in the form of a Global Academic/Professional Open Network for the creation and development of a multilingual Kurdish encyclopaedia on the World Wide Web. KURDISTANICA is an independent, non-partisan, non-political, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge about and for the Kurds.







The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad

Title The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad Publication Type Journal Article Authors Roosevelt, Jr. Archie Title of Journal The Middle East Journal Issue 1 Issue July Volume 3 Year of Publication 1947 Publisher The Middle East Institute Keywords History, Modern History, Politic, Republic of Mahabad URL http://www.mideasti.org/middle-east-journal/article-index







In Guti we Trust

Prof. M. R. Izady Recently I came across a new, and otherwise excellent pictorial book on Kurdish costumes and fabrics. In such a book, nevertheless, the authors had somehow thought it appropriate to dedicate over a third of their accompanying text to Kurdish history. This was not an art history, which could have made its inclusion somewhat justifiable. It was instead a sad attempt at dynastic and political history of the Kurds with little if any resemblance to real history. In this caricature, mythological figures are treated as real persons, and Kurds treated as non-Kurds and vice versa. And the starting







Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari

The 1,100th Anniversary of a World-Class Kurdish Scholar By Prof. M. R. Izady The year 1996 marks the 1,100th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest Kurdish and Islamic minds of all times, Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari. Among The Founders of The Islamic Sciences as we know Them Today, He was born in Dinawar Circa AD 820 as Abu Hanifa Ahmad son of Dawud son of Wanand. He studied Astronomy, Mathematics And Mechanics in Isfahan, Persia and Philology and poetry in Kufa and Basra, Iraq. He died on July 24, 896 at Dinawar. At the time, cosmopolitan Dinawar served as







7,000 years older than Stonehenge

7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists Circles of elaborately carved stones from about 9,500BC predate even agriculture Nicholas Birch in Istanbul (The Guardian, Wednesday April 23, 2008) As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet. “This place is a supernova,” said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles







Treaty of Qasri Shirin, 17 May 1639

The Treaty of Zohab “17 May 1639” Text of the Letter by Envoys of Sultan Murat IV to the Envoys of Shah Safi I, containing the Ottoman Boundary Claims with Persia Reaffirmed, 4 September 1746, 28 July 1823, 31 May 1847 Translation is from the text composed for the Ottoman delegation [British and Foreign State Papers, 105: 763-66, 1847] Praise to God, the Holy, the Gracious, the bestower of Victory; Who has opened the door of peace and concord with the key of the words: “Verily I wish nothing so much as reconciliation,”… On the 14th day of Muharram, in







Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary

Title Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary Publication Type Book Year of Publication 1967 Authors Anter, Musa Publisher Yeni Matbaa City Istanbul Publication Language North Kurdish/Turkish Keywords Dictionary, Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary, Language, Linguistic, North Kurdish







How can I get involve with projects such as KAL and KURDISTANICA so that I might be able to contribute to this good cause?

One thing that Individuals/organisations can do to support projects like KAL and KURDISTANICA is to ask their friends, colleagues or fellow organizational members to get involve in turning hard copy material into electronic (scanning, typing etc.). If you are conversant in other relevant languages, you can help translate texts from English into Persian, Turkish, Arabic (and vice versa), as well as proof-reading English translations. These types of contribution make the information available to all others whose linguistic knowledge is limited. We scan and provide the hard copies of old sources or we direct you to the source to be borrowed







Khurasani Kurdish Exclave in the 19th Century

By Prof. M. R. Izady This detached exclave of Kurdish inhabited land is found on the modern northeastern borders of Iran with Turkmenistan in what has been historically known as northern sector of the province of Khurasan (the “land of rising sun”). Politically, at around 1835, the territory of northern Khurasan was fully inside Persia/Iran, although the writ of the government in Teheran was barely read in the area. The Kurdish and Turkmen nomadic tribes held undisputed sway over their territories, paying practically no homage to the Persian crown. The same was true of the old Kurdish principalities in the area,







The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925

By Robert Olson, University of Texas Press, Austin The Sheikh Said rebellion was the first large-scale nationalist rebellion by the Kurds. The role of the Azadi was fundamental in its unfolding. Kurdish intellectuals and military officers lay at the heart of the nationalist movement, in terms of organization and recruitment. The paramount influence of the more secular or non-cleric Kurdish nationalist organizations must be separated from the rebellion itself and its “sheikhly” leadership. The Sheikh Said rebellion was led largely by sheikhs, a deliberate determination by the leadership of Azadi from 1921 onward. These decisions were defined and given force







An Independent Kurdistan?

Robert Olson, Professor of Middle East Politics, University of Kentucky Due to the strong resistance to the US occupation of Iraq and the internecine hostility that has resulted between Arabs and Kurds, reports in the public media have raised the possibility of the Kurds declaring an independent state. While the Kurds have made great strides in state formation developments since the US occupation of Iraq in March 2003, their achieving of independence remains problematic. It is important to recall that the Kurds of Iraq have had a great deal of autonomy since the Gulf War of 1991 when a “safe







Exploring Kurdish Origins – Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady

By Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady The question of Kurdish origins, i.e., who the Kurds are and where they come from, has for too long remained an enigma. Doubtless in a few words one can respond, for example, that Kurds are the end-product of numerous layers of cultural and genetic material superimposed over thousands of years of internal migrations, immigrations, cultural innovations and importations. But identifying the roots and the course of evolution of present Kurdish ethnic identity calls for a greater effort. It calls for the study of each of the many layers of these human movements and cultural influences, as







Problems In Kurdish Historiography

By Prof. Mehrdad Izady Compilation and organization of Kurdish history is a time consuming task. Happily, the cause is the sheer volume of available primary sources of information, and not the dearth. Located as they have been in the geographical heartland of the greater Middle East, and commanding vast natural and human resources, the ancestors of Kurds have been inevitably and amply recorded in man’s earliest experimentations with writing. After all, Kurds do share their past with all the other Middle Eastern peoples who constitute the oldest literate societies on this planet. Even if the Kurds had meticulously rejected the idea







Are Kurdology departments needed?

The state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) recent launch of a TV channel, TRT 6, has been followed by debates at the Higher Education Board (YÖK) and universities concerning whether universities should open Kurdish language and literature or Kurdology departments. These debates largely concentrate on whether opening such departments is legally feasible. Eventually, YÖK endorsed İstanbul University’s demand for opening a center for Kurdish studies. The debates also serve to highlight the bitter truth that even if we can open Kurdology departments, we do not have academics to employ in this field. As our country needs the opening of







Kurdistan Mission (I)

The first part of the documentary “Kurdistan Mission ” is now available on SCOLA television network on Internet. This documentary contains 12 episodes which covers the activities of the Lutheran Mission Orient Society in the city of Savoujbulax (Mahabad) and its environs. The documentary reveals many hidden aspects of the history of Mukriyan through personalities and thoughts of these missionaries, reasons to be in the area, witnessing the evens, and their services to health care, social and culture of the community.







Prehistory of Saladin

Vladimir Minorsky, Prehistory of Saladin Saladin’s Origins (A) The famous biographer Ibn Khallikân (A.D. 1211-82) made a special inquiry into the history of Saladin’s family1 and came to the following conclusion2: “Historians agree in stating that his father and family belonged to Duwîn, which is a small town situated at the farther extremity of Adharbayjan, in the direction of Arrân and the country of the Kurj (i.e. the Georgians). They were Kurds and belonged to the tribe of Rawâdiya (sic) which is a branch of the great tribe al-Hadâniya (read: *Hadhbâniya). I was informed by a legist (faqîh) who was a native of Duwîn and







Kurdistan Mission (II)

Kurdistan Mission (Part two) Is a documentary based on the availble issues of “Kurdistan Missionary” a publication of Inter-Synodical Ev.Lutheran Orient Mission Society;October 1910 to the end of 1928. This publication contains a treasure of hidden history of Mukri Kurdistan.In second part of these series Hassan Ghazi describes the views of Dr. Newton Write concerning the motive of Missionary work in Kurdistan It is now available at SCOLA.org After registration at http://www.scola.org click on: Videos on the street, language Kurdish, country Iran, Kurdistanmission02 Wist Production Camera and Editing: Goran Mamexelani Translated, narratated and produced by: Hassan Ghazi







Kurdistan Mission (III)

Part 3 of documentary series ” Kurdistan Mission” now could be downloaded or played on SCOLA’s homepage. The life and biography of L.O.FOSSUM http://www.scola.org/Scola/Default.aspx On the street videos Country: Iran Language: Kurdish KurdistanMission03 Vist production. Camera & Editing: Goran Mamexelani Transleted, narrated and produced by: Hassan Ghazi







Kurdistan Mission (IV)

Part five of documentary series ‘Kurdistan Mission’ videos now is available on Scola’s homepage. In this part the works of Dr. Emanuel Edman (originated from Sweden) and Miss Meta von der Schulenberg a teacher from Germany and their services to the people of Sablax and its environs are presented based on the LOMS newsletter Kurdistan Missionary. Instruction to view this documentary http://www.scola.org/scola/OnthestreetVideos.aspx On the street videos Country:Iran Language:Kurdish KurdistanMission05







Soviet Plans for Baba Gurgur

Henry D. Astarjian With Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, which marked the inception of the cold war, Soviet propaganda in the world and in the Middle East escalated; they offered Marxism-Leninism as a substitute to corrupt capitalism, a system that exploited the masses for the benefit of a few. They presented themselves as advocates of justice, determined to help the oppressed people bring about radical changes in their lives. This meant overthrowing their regimes, and ridding the region from the colonialist-imperialist domination. The fact that the Soviets had successfully defended Stalingrad and pushed the German forces all the way to Berlin







The Local Vandals Destroy Another Piece of Kurdish History

Tagheh Farhad or Rawansar tomb is a rock tomb near the small town of Ravansar (Kurdish: Rewanser) 57 km north-west of Kermanshah (Kurdish: Kirmansha) in May province in Kurdistan. It is known as Tagheh Farhad among local Kurdish inhabitants of Rawansar. They believe it was cut in the rock by Farhad, a legendary character who fell in love with Shirin, the wife of Khosrau II of Persia. The first archaeologist who visited the tomb was Massoud Golzari, an Iranian archaeologist who attributed it to Median period. It is revisited and examined by Calmeyer, German archaeologist and Iranologist (b. 5 September







Watery graves

Gaziantep, Turkey, The Economist, April 29th 2009 When Turkey’s Birecik dam begins filling up at the end of the month, thousands of archaeological treasures are likely to be lost. Does anyone care? A CORAL-PINK prawn, a frolicking dolphin. With each gentle prod of the pick, another brilliantly coloured sea creature springs from the earth to reveal an elaborate mosaic floor featuring Oceanus, a mythological god of the seas. The mosaic lies within the atrium of a lavish villa in Zeugma, a strategic port city of the classical period that was built on a terraced hillside overlooking the Euphrates river. With







Kurdistan Mission (VIII)

Kurdistan Mission, is a documentary series on the activities of the “Lutheran Orient Mission Society” in Sablax (Mahabad) and its environs in Iranian Kurdistan between 1911-1936. In this documentary the local history and events are described based on letters and reports of American missionaries published in their newsletters “ Kurdistan Missionary” and the “Lutheran Orient Mission”. In the part eight of “ Kurdistan Mission” the life and activities of Ms. Hannah Schonhood is presented. She first zent to Sablax ( Mahabad) in summer 1921. She organised a school for boys and girls, she run an orphanage and helped lepers who







PERSIAN CARAVAN SKETCHES

The Land of the Lion and the Sun as Seen on a Summer Caravan Trip By Harold F. Weston,  The National Geographic Magazine April 1921, pp417-468 Note that this copy of the article contains the sections on Kurds, pp417-425 only. PERSIANS say, with a great feeling of envy, that the man who has seen the most of the world is the greatest liar. So when I am asked to tell “all about Persia,” 1 generally ask if I should not include Russia, too, having been there just six hours. What counts most in enjoying, visualizing, or telling about the “romantic







Kurdistan: Toward a Cultural-Historical Definition

By Kamal Mirawdeli, The International Conference, The Kurds Political status and Human Rights, March 1993 Introduction: Kurdistan means the land of the Kurds. And both the land and the people, of course exist. Yet, as Paul Rich (1991:Vii) has written. In political terms: “Kurdistan does not exist, which is why it is so important. This anomalous structure has long been part of the Middle East conundrum”, the understanding of which entails understanding the politics of power and the relationship between power and knowledge. It is power which creates the conditions for the production of knowledge about peoples, and which ultimately defines







Anahita Temple avoids destruction

Mehr News Agency, Tehran, 01/30/2010 The construction project that caused damages to the Anahita Temple in Kangavar in Kermanshah Province was halted last week. The decision to halt the project was made following publication of a report on the mess at the Parthian era site by the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency. The concrete footings created for the construction project are seen near the ruins of columns of the Anahita Temple in an undated photo. The Kangavar Endowments and Charity Affairs Office (KECAO) began construction of concrete foundations to develop the shrine of Imamzadeh Ebrahim (AS) located on







Archaeological expedition team in Nakhjavan discovers Iran’s Median Dynastic architectural remains

LONDON, (CAIS) — The joint archaeological expedition team from United States and the Republic of Azerbaijan, in the autonomous republic of  Nakhjavan (nowadays Nakhchivan), has yielded to new findings date back to the first Iranian dynastic Empire, the Medes (728-550 BCE). The ceramic samples were also found during the archeological digs in the ancient settlement today known as Oglangala in the Sharur region of the Nakhjavan. ‘The digs held in Oglangala fortress city revealed the residuals of ancient buildings, including a large palace, date to the Median dynasty of Iran. Also the expedition team have discovered ancient graves, a number







Pilot excavation in Iraqi Kurdistan

The Netherlands organisation for Scientific Research NWO has granted a subsidy to prof. dr Wilfred H. van Soldt (Humanities, LIAS) and dr Diederik J.W. Meijer (Archaeology, Near East) to conduct a pilot excavation in Iraqi Kurdistan. During an archaeological surface survey in 2008 prof. dr Wilfred H. van Soldt and dr Diederik J.W. Meijer found a site which yielded a cuneiform inscription identifying it as the town of Idu, dated to the 12th century BC. The site is situated on the Little Zab, a tributary of the Tigris, close to the present Iraqi-Persian border. The excavations are planned for April-May, and will be conducted in







2,700-year-old royal loyalty oath discovered in Turkey

By Owen Jarus, 15 October 2010 Archaeologists excavating a 2,700 year old temple at the ancient city of Tayinat, in southeastern Turkey, have discovered evidence that its inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king. The city of Tayinat was built on the Amuq plain, on the Orontes River near the modern day Syrian border. The Assyrian Empire conquered it in 738 BC, with a governor being appointed to oversee it. The city’s temple is about 12 meters by six meters in size, and pre-dates the conquest. The excavations at







معرفی كتاب؛ گورستان آغاز نوسنگی در غار شانیدر

The Proto-Neolithic Cemetery in Shanidar Cave. By Ralph S. Solecki, Rose L. Solecki and Anagnostis P. Agelarakis, Texas A&M University anthropology series; no.7, 2004, xv+234pp. Figs., Illus., ISBN 1-58544-272-0 بیش از نیم قرن از شناسایی و آغاز كاوش غار شانیدر بوسیله رالف سولكی و همسرش رز می گذرد. این غار كه در شمال غربی زاگرس، در كردستان عراق واقع شده دارای بقایای باستان شناختی بسیار غنی از دوره پارینه سنگی میانی تا اواخر نوسنگی است. كشف مجموعه ای از اسكلت انسانهای نئاندرتال در لایه موستری غار نقطه عطفی در مطالعات پارینه سنگی زاگرس و خاورمیانه محسوب می شود. این كشف







Fieldwork and Fear in Iraqi Kurdistan

Diane E. King, 2009 Before the Iraqi Baath regime’s ouster in 2003, I intermittently lived and carried out research in the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq. I often commuted between the towns of Dohuk and Zakho by bus or a taxi shared with other passengers. Each time the bus or taxi passed the junction just north of Dohuk at which one of the roads led to the government-controlled city of Mosul, passengers typically tensed up. In the distance, but within view, lay the last Kurdish checkpoint. Beyond it was territory controlled by Saddam Hussein, who had declared himself the archenemy of both







Witness to Genocide

Forensic archaeologists uncover evidence of a secret massacre—and help convict Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity. In May 1988, a prison guard checked Taymour Abdullah Ahmad’s name off a list and directed him to a bus idling in the Popular Army camp in Topzawa, southwest of Kirkuk. The camp was one of Iraq’s grimmest prisons. During his month-long internment there, the 12-year-old Kurdish boy watched guards beating male prisoners senseless with lengths of coaxial cable. He had seen four children weaken and then die of starvation. He stood helplessly as a guard stripped his father to his undershorts and led







Kurdish Currency

The Kurdish national currency KURO inherited its name from a common combined word in Kurdish language. KURO is combined of Kur -which is the international code for Kurdish language, and the bibliographic classification and the letter O which is a common noun maker in Kurdish for example the word, dillo, hezo, wero, nazo, delalo and so on. The smallest unit of Kurdish currency calls WIRDE, which in fact driven from the Kurdish word “WIRDE = bits, small”. Each 100 WIRDE is equal to 1 KURO. The amount 124.36 is read as “Sed u bíst u cuwar KURO u sí u shesh Wirde”. »» Please







Assessment of the conservation of the Paikoli Monument

Paikoli Monument(1) was probably formed by a quadrilateral stone wall (average size: 40 x 60 x 40 cm) filled with a concrete mix of river stones and pebble; the binder of the concret e mix is probably calcium bi-hydrated sulphate (gypsum). Every block shows in the upper face two holes about 5 cm wide and about 3 cm deep, certainly used for the insertion of cramps to connect one block to the two adjacent. Very few traces of metal (iron) are visible on some blocks and probably the metal cramps, due to their oxidation, have detached parts of the stone







Urartian Red Burnished Pottery From Diyarbakir Museum

Urartian Kingdom has not only become known by its organized state structure, advanced architecture, irrigation system, superior quality metal workmanship but also has become known by its red burnished potteries, which imitate metallic pots. Potteries’ pastes, which were given shape at paddle wheels by expert potters, were prepared by using very well sieved clay and sometimes by using additive small piece of sand. Slip, which were usually red and tones of red, were applied before drying in the kiln. The other operation that was realized before the stage of drying in the kiln was burnishing. After a good quality drying,







The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli

The Sassanian Inscription of PaikuliThe Paikuli inscription is comprised of three parts: introduction, main part, and conclusion. The main part can be divided into three: 1. An account of the events taking place before Narseh and the Iranian dignitaries meet at Paikuli; 2. An account of the events leading to the surrender of Warahrān, King of Sakas, and the punishment of Wahnām; 3. The negotiations between Narseh and the dignitaries regarding the succession to the throne of Iran, leading to Narseh’s acceptance of the Kingship. Users of this text should always consult the synoptic texts in SIP 2 for the







The Tell Nader and Tell Baqrta Project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

In October 2010 the University of Athens obtained permission by the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG), the General Directorate of Antiquities of Kurdistan and the Directorate of Antiquities of Erbil to conduct excavations in two important archaeological sites: first in Tell Nader, which lies on the outskirts of the city of Erbil and then Tell Baqrta, approximately 28 km to the south of Erbil (Fig. 1). Tell Nader was discovered by Mr. Nader Babakr Muhammad, archaeologist of the General Directorate of Antiquities of Kurdistan and Tell Baqrta was brought to our attention







Evidence for the World’s earliest Beer and Wine making in Kurdistan

In a correspondence to the prestigious British scientific journal Nature (vol.360, 5 November, 1992, p. 24) Rudolph Michel of Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, and Patrick McGovern of University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Virginia Badler, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto, archaeological and laboratory evidence is provided to prove the oldest existing trace of production of barley beer in the world.Their evidence comes from the archaeological site of Godin, 6 miles (10 km) east of Kangawar, in southern Kurdistan, in Iran, where a few years earlier the evidence for world’s earliest







Ismet Sheríf Wanlí

Prof. Ismet Cherif Vanli (1924-2011), also known as Ismet Sheríf Wanlí in Kurdish (Kurdish: Ismet Sheríf Wanlí, عیسمەت شەریف وانلی), was an influential Kurdish scholar and advocate for the rights of the Kurdish people. Born on November 21, 1924, to Kurdish parents in Damascus’ Kurdish neighbourhood, Syria, Ismet came from a family with deep roots in the Kurdish heritage. His father, Muhammad Cherif Vanli, had migrated to Damascus from the Van district in northwestern Kurdistan before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Ismet’s mother, Xayriya Abdulla Alarrashi, hailed from Diyarbakir and later moved to Damascus with her family.







Qazi Muhammad [1900 – 1947]

Qazi Muhammad (Ghazi Muhammad, Qazí Mihemed, قاضی محمد، قازی محەممەد) a Kurdish political and spiritual figure, was born on May 1, 1900, in the city of Mehabad (also known as Sablax), situated in the Mukríyan region of Kurdistan. He held a prominent and revered position in Kurdish history. Coming from a privileged background, his father being Qazi Ali bin Qasim bin Mirza Ahmed and his mother belonging to the esteemed ‘Faidhullah Bagi’ clan in Mukriyan, Qazi Muhammad grew up surrounded by a rich Kurdish heritage. This upbringing instilled in him a deep sense of identity and a profound appreciation for







Yaresanism

The followers of Yârsânism, also known as the Yârisân, Aliullâhi, Ali-llâhi (i.e., “those who deify Ali”), Alihaq, Ahl-i Haqq (“the People of Truth”) or Ahl-i Haq (“the People of the Spirit” [Hâk or Haqj), Shaytânparass (devil-worshippers), Nusayri (“the Nazarenes,” i.e., Christians), etc-, are concentrated in southern Kurdistan in both Iran and Iraq. Their domain roughly coincides with that of the Gurâni (including the Laki) Kurdish dialect, with some major exceptions. The faith is loosely divided at present into two or three, very unequal sects. 1) The Ahl-i Haq have been increasingly identified with mainstream Shi’ite Islam, yet follow for their religious instruction







Flag of Kurdistan

The National Flag of Kurdistan INTRODUCTION: The aim of this document is to introduce in brief the history of the current National Flag of Kurdistan and to help those who use the Kurdish national flag to reproduce it correctly. The document contains the basic rules for the construction of the flag, as well as the standard colors to be used. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The National Flag was first introduced by the founders of “Society for the Uplift of Kurdistan” movement to represent the Kurds in their struggle for independence from the moribund Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently presented to the members






Sharaf Al Din Bitlisi

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî

Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî By Prof M.R. Izady Although primarily a collection of dynastic histories, there is little doubt that the Sharafnâma is the single most important surviving text on Kurdish history and people. The work is that of Prince Sharaf al-Dîn Bitlîsî (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el-Dín Bitlísí), who states he finished at least the first edition of the work on or shortly after 30 Dhu’l-hajja of the hegira year 1005 (4 August 1597).  Strong evidence suggests, as shall be seen below, that the author made further additions and alterations to the book as it was being copied for distribution in


Muhammad Amin Zeki Bag

Muhammad Amin Zaki Bag

Muhammed Amin Zaki Bey also known in Kurdish as  Dr. Mehmed Emín Zekí, محەممەد ئەمین زەکی بەگ (1880 Sulaimaniyah –1948 Sulaimaniyah) was a prominent Kurdish writer, historian, and politician, born in Sulaimaniyah to his father, Hagi Abdul Rahman. His educational journey began at the Sulaimaniya Military School and continued at the Baghdad Military High School. On February 10, 1902, he graduated as the 23rd of his class from the Ottoman Military Academy, joining the Ottoman Army as an Infantry Second Lieutenant. With distinction, he completed his studies at the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul on January 11, 1905, subsequently serving


Prof. Dr. Mehrdad R. Izady

Mehrdad M. R. Izady

Mehrdad lzady (Kurdish: Mihrdad Ízedí, مهرداد ئیزه‌دی) was born in 1963 to a Kurdish father and a Belgian mother. He spent much of his youth in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Korea as his diplomat parents moved from one assignment to another. He is one of the most prominent native Kurdish historians of our time. Izady finished his BA degree in History, Political Science and Geography at Kansas State University in 1976. His passion for history and geography allowed him to finish a masters degrees in Geography in 1978, Political Science and International Relations in 1979 at Syracuse University as well as Middle



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📚 Bibliography

Sharafkhan Bidlisi
Sharafkhan Bidlisi

He was a Kurdish Emir of Bitlis. He was also a historian, writer and poet.

Mehrdad R. Izady
Mehrdad R. Izady

Izady is a contemporary writer on ethnic and cultural topics, particularly the Greater Middle East and Kurds.

Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari
Abu Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari

Greatest Kurdish and Islamic minds of all times...

Qazi Muhammad

Qazi Muhammad was a political and religious leader who became the Head of the Republic of Kurdistan...

Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana

Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician who was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism...

Kamal Mazhar Ahmad
Kamal Mazhar Ahmad

Prof Kamal Mazhar Ahmad was born in Silémaní, Baban province 1938. He grew up in a ...


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