Native name	سلسله قاجاریه ایران
Conventional long name	Qajar dynasty
Continent	moved from Category:Asia to the Middle East
Region	the Middle East
Country	Iran
Common name	Iran
Status	Empire
Year start	1794
Year end	1925
Event start	Qajar dynasty begins
Event end	Pahlavi dynasty begins
P1	Zand dynasty
Flag p1	Zand Dynasty flag.svg
S1	Pahlavi dynasty
Flag s1	State Flag of Iran (1925).svg
Image coat	Coat of arms of Iran, Qajar Dynasty (1907-1925).png
Image map caption	Map of Iran under the Qajar dynasty in the 19th century.
National anthem	Salâmati-ye Shâh(Well-being of the King)
Capital	Tehran
Common languages	Persian (principal court language , court literature, administrative, cultural, official) and Azerbaijani (language of daily life amongst royal family)
Government type	Monarchy
Title leader	Shah
Leader1	Mohammad Khan Qajar (first)
Year leader1	1794-1797
Leader2	Ahmad Shah Qajar (last)
Year leader2	1909-1925
Deputy1	Mirza Nasrullah Khan (first)
Deputy2	Reza Pahlavi (last)
Year deputy1	1906
Year deputy2	1923-1925
Title deputy	Prime Minister

The Qajar dynasty () ( - or دودمان قاجار, also anglicized as Ghajar or Kadjar) was an Iranian royal family of Turkmen origin who ruled Persia (Iran) from 1794 to 1925. The Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty, and re-asserted Persian sovereignty over parts of the Caucasus. In 1796 Mohammad Khan Qajar was formally crowned as shah.

Origins

The Qajar (or Ghajar) rulers were members of the Karagoz of the Qajars, originally themselves members of the Qaraqalpaqs of the larger Turkmen peoples. Qajars first settled during the Mongol period in the vicinity of Armenia and were among the seven Qizilbash tribes that supported the Safavids. The Safavids "left Arran (present-day Republic of Azerbaijan) to local Turkic speaking khans", and, "in 1554 Ganja was governed by Shahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, whose family came to govern Karabakh in southern Arran".

Qajars filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the 16-17th centuries for the Safavids. The Qajars were resettled by Shah Abbas I throughout Persia. The great number of them also settled in Astarabad (present-day Gorgan, Iran) near the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea, In 1779, after brutally murdering Lotf Ali Khan, of the Zand dynasty, ruler of southern Persia, Agha Mohammad Khan, the leader of the Qajar tribe, set out to reunify Iran. In his quest for power, he razed cities, massacred entire populations, and blinded some 20,000 men in the city of Kerman because the local populace had chosen to defend the city against his siege. By 1794, Agha Mohammad Khan had eliminated all his rivals, including Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty. He reestablished Persian control over the territories in the Caucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital at Tehran, a village near the ruins of the ancient city of Rayy. In 1796 he was formally crowned as shah. In 1797 Agha Mohammad was assassinated in Shusha, the capital of Karabakh khanate, and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath Ali Shah Qajar.

War with Russia

In 1803, under Fath Ali Shah, Qajars set out to fight against the Russian Empire, in what was known as Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813, due to concerns about the Russian expansion into Caucasus which was an Iranian domain, although some of the Khanates of the Caucasus were considered independent or semi-independent by the time of Russian expansion in 19th century, this period marked the first major economic and military encroachments on Iranian interests during the colonial era. Qajar army suffered a major military defeat in the war and under the terms of the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran recognized Russian annexation of Georgia and most of the Caucasus region. The second Russo-Persian War of the late 1820s ended even more disastrously for Qajar Iran with temporary occupation of Tabriz and the signing of Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the entire South Caucasus, the area north of the Aras River.

Fath Ali Shah's reign saw increased diplomatic contacts with the West and the beginning of intense European diplomatic rivalries over Iran. His grandson Mohammad Shah, under Russian influence, made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Herat, succeeded him in 1834. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his son Nasser-e-Din, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns.

Development and decline

s in the royal presence. The painting style is distinctly Qajar.]] During Nasser-e-Din Shah's reign, Western science, technology, and educational methods were introduced into Persia and the country's modernization was begun. Nasser ed-Din Shah tried to exploit the mutual distrust between Great Britain and Russia to preserve Persia's independence, but foreign interference and territorial encroachment increased under his rule. He contracted foreign loans to finance expensive trips to Europe. These trips were part of a strategy to put Persia on the map as an independent, ancient but civilized state . Although the trips in this field were rather successful, he was not able to prevent Britain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional Persian influence. In 1856, during the Anglo-Persian War, Britain prevented Persia from reasserting control over Herat. The city had been part of Persia in Safavid times, but Herat had been under non-Persian rule since the mid-18th century. Britain also extended its control to other areas of the Persian Gulf during the 19th century. Meanwhile, by 1881, Russia had completed its conquest of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, bringing Russia's frontier to Persia's northeastern borders and severing historic Persian ties to the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand. Several trade concessions by the Persian government put economic affairs largely under British control. By the late 19th century, many Persians believed that their rulers were beholden to foreign interests.

family in Qajar Iran]] Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, was the young prince Nasser-e-Din's advisor and constable. With the death of Mohammad Shah in 1848, Mirza Taqi was largely responsible for ensuring the crown prince's succession to the throne. When Nasser ed-Din succeeded to the throne, Amir Nezam was awarded the position of prime minister and the title of Amir Kabir, the Great Ruler.

At that time, Persia was nearly bankrupt. During the next two and a half years Amir Kabir initiated important reforms in virtually all sectors of society. Government expenditure was slashed, and a distinction was made between the private and public purses. The instruments of central administration were overhauled, and Amir Kabir assumed responsibility for all areas of the bureaucracy. Foreign interference in Persia's domestic affairs was curtailed, and foreign trade was encouraged. Public works such as the bazaar in Tehran were undertaken. Amir Kabir issued an edict banning ornate and excessively formal writing in government documents; the beginning of a modern Persian prose style dates from this time.

in Washington, D.C.]] One of the greatest achievements of Amir Kabir was the building of Dar ol Fonoon, the first modern university in Persia and the Middle East. Dar-ol-Fonoon was established for training a new cadre of administrators and acquainting them with Western techniques. Amir Kabir ordered the school to be built on the edge of the city so it could be expanded as needed. He hired French and Russian instructors as well as Persians to teach subjects as different as Language, Medicine, Law, Geography, History, Economics, and Engineering. Unfortunately, Amir Kabir did not live long enough to see his greatest monument completed, but it still stands in Tehran as a sign of a great man's ideas for the future of his country.

These reforms antagonized various notables who had been excluded from the government. They regarded the Amir Kabir as a social upstart and a threat to their interests, and they formed a coalition against him, in which the queen mother was active. She convinced the young shah that Amir Kabir wanted to usurp the throne. In October 1851 the shah dismissed him and exiled him to Kashan, where he was murdered on the shah's orders. Through his marriage to Ezzat od-Doleh, Amir Kabir had been the brother-in-law of the shah.

Constitutional Revolution

.]]

When Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani in 1896, the crown passed to his son Mozaffar-e-din. Mozaffar-e-din Shah was a moderate and kind, but also not a very effective ruler. Royal extravagance and the absence of incoming revenues exacerbated financial problems. The shah quickly spent two large loans from Russia, partly on trips to Europe. Public anger fed on the shah's propensity for granting concessions to Europeans in return for generous payments to him and his officials. People began to demand a curb on royal authority and the establishment of the rule of law as their concern over foreign, and especially Russian, influence grew.

The shah's failure to respond to protests by the religious establishment, the merchants, and other classes led the merchants and clerical leaders in January 1906 to take sanctuary from probable arrest in mosques in Tehran and outside the capital. When the shah reneged on a promise to permit the establishment of a "house of justice", or consultative assembly, 10,000 people, led by the merchants, took sanctuary in June in the compound of the British legation in Tehran. In August the shah, through the issue of a decree promised a constitution. In October an elected assembly convened and drew up a constitution that provided for strict limitations on royal power, an elected parliament, or Majles, with wide powers to represent the people, and a government with a cabinet subject to confirmation by the Majles. The shah signed the constitution on December 30, 1906, but refusing to forfeit all of his power to the Majles, attached a caveat that made his signature on all laws required for their enactment. He died five days later. The Supplementary Fundamental Laws approved in 1907 provided, within limits, for freedom of press, speech, and association, and for security of life and property. The hopes for constitutional rule were not realized, however.

Mozaffar-e-din Shah's son Mohammad Ali Shah (reigned 1907-09), who, through his mother, was also the grandson of Prime-Minister Amir Kabir (see before), with the aid of Russia, attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. After several disputes with the members of the Majlis, in June 1908 he used his Russian-officered Persian Cossacks Brigade to bomb the Majlis building, arrest many of the deputies, and close down the assembly. Resistance to the shah, however, coalesced in Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht, and elsewhere. In July 1909, constitutional forces marched from Rasht to Tehran lead by Mohammad Vali Khan Sepahsalar Khalatbari Tonekaboni, deposed the Shah, and re-established the constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia. Mohammad Ali Shah died in San Remo, Italy in April 1925 . As fate would have it, every future Shah of Iran would also die in exile.

On July 16, 1909, the Majles voted to place Mohammad Ali Shah's 11 year old son, Ahmad Shah on the throne. Although the constitutional forces had triumphed, they faced serious difficulties. The upheavals of the Constitutional Revolution and civil war had undermined stability and trade. In addition, the ex-shah, with Russian support, attempted to regain his throne, landing troops in July 1910. Most serious of all, the hope that the Constitutional Revolution would inaugurate a new era of independence from the great powers ended when, under the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to divide Persia into spheres of influence. The Russians were to enjoy exclusive right to pursue their interests in the northern sphere, the British in the south and east; both powers would be free to compete for economic and political advantage in a neutral sphere in the center. Matters came to a head when Morgan Shuster(also spelled Schuster), a United States administrator hired as treasurer general by the Persian government to reform its finances, sought to collect taxes from powerful officials who were Russian protégés and to send members of the treasury gendarmerie, a tax department police force, into the Russian zone. When in December 1911 the Majlis unanimously refused a Russian ultimatum demanding Shuster's dismissal, Russian troops, already in the country, moved to occupy the capital. To prevent this, on December 20 Bakhtiari chiefs and their troops surrounded the Majles building, forced acceptance of the Russian ultimatum, and shut down the assembly, once again suspending the constitution.

Fall of the dynasty

Soltan Ahmad Shah was born 21 January 1898 in Tabriz, and succeeded to the throne at age 11. However, the occupation of Persia during World War I by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops was a blow from which Ahmad Shah never effectively recovered.

In February 1921, Reza Khan, commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade, staged a coup d'état, becoming the effective ruler of Iran. In 1923, Ahmad Shah went into exile in Europe. Reza Khan induced the Majles to depose Ahmad Shah in October 1925, and to exclude the Qajar dynasty permanently. Reza Khan was subsequently proclaimed Shah as Reza Shah Pahlavi, reigning from 1925 to 1941,

Ahmad Shah died on 21 February 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Shahs of Persia, 1794-1925

Qajar Royal Family

The Qajar Imperial Family in exile is currently headed by the eldest descendant of Mohammad Ali Shah, Soltan Ali Mirza Qajar, while the Heir Presumptive to the Qajar throne is Mohammad Hassan Mirza II, the grandson of Mohammad Hassan Mirza, Soltan Ahmad Shah's brother and heir. Mohammad Hassan Mirza died in England in 1943, having proclaimed himself shah in exile in 1930 after the death of his brother in France.

Today, the descendants of the Qajars often identify themselves as such and hold reunions to stay socially acquainted through the Kadjar Family Association.

Qajar dynasty since 1925

; Heads of the Qajar Imperial Family The headship of the Imperial Family is inherited by the eldest male descendant of Mohammad Ali Shah.

Soltan Ahmad Shah Qajar (1925-1930)

Fereydoun Mirza (1930-1975)

Soltan Hamid Mirza (1975-1988)

Soltan Mahmoud Mirza (1988)

Soltan Ali Mirza Qajar (1988-present)

; Heirs Presumptive of the Qajar dynasty The Heir Presumptive is the Qajar heir to the Persian throne.

Soltan Ahmad Shah Qajar (1925-1930)

Mohammad Hassan Mirza (1930-1943)

Fereydoun Mirza (1943-1975)

Soltan Hamid Mirza (1975-1988)

Mohammad Hassan Mirza II (1988-present)

Notable members of Qajar family

; Politics

Prince Abbas Mirza, Fath Ali Shah's crown prince and military leader.

Prince Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan, Governor of Isfahan province, son of Nasser al-Din Shah.

Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, Persian prime minister, grandson of Abbas Mirza.

Mohammed Mosaddeq, Persian Prime Minister, great-grandson of Abbas Mirza.

Prince Firouz Mirza Nosrat-ed-Dowleh Farman Farmaian III, renowned politician and diplomat, great-grandson of Abbas Mirza.

Prince Soleyman Mirza Eskandari, founder of the Socialist Party of Persia and founding member of the Tudeh Party of Iran, great-grandson of Abbas Mirza.

Prince Iradj Eskandari,founding member, and secretary-general of the Tudeh Party of Iran, descendant of Abbas Mirza

Prince Mohammad Ali Mirza Eskandari, founding member of the Adamyat Society, great-grandson of Abbas Mirza.

; Business

Princess Fakhr ol dowleh, one of the most prominent daughters of Mozzafar al-Din Shah.

; Women rights

Princess Mohtaram Eskandari, first leader of feminist Nesvan e vatankhah association.

Princess Tadj es-Saltaneh, founding member of the Anjoman Horriyyat Nsevan daughter of Nasser al-Din Shah.

; Literature'''

Prince Iraj Mirza, Iranian poet, great grandson of Fath Ali Shah.

Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian novelist, great great-grandchild of Abbas Mirza.

Nader Naderpour, Iranian poet, descendant of Mohammad Ali Mirza Dolatshah.

; Music

Gholam-Hossein Banan, Iranian musician and singer, great grandchild of Mohammad Shah Qajar.

; Painting

Abbas Moayeri, Iranian painter great great-grandchild of Nasser al-Din Shah

; Popular culture

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian graphic novelist, great grandchild of Nasser al-Din Shah

Sarah Shahi, American actress and cheerleader; descendant of Fath Ali Shah

Shireen Fathi, Iranian-American actress; descendant of Iranian Qajar.

See also

Iran

History of Iran

List of kings of Persia

Mirza Kouchek Khan

Abdolhossein Teymourtash

Qajar art

List of Shi'a Muslims dynasties

References

External links

The Qajar (Kadjar) Pages

Qajars Dynasty Turkoman dynasty of the Shahs of Persia

Qajar Family Website

Royal Ark-Qajar Website by Christopher Buyers

Royal Ark-Qajar Website by Christopher Buyers

Some Photos of Qajar Family Members

A slide show of the Qajar Era, 1781-1925: YouTube

Mohammad-Reza Tahmasbpoor, History of Iranian Photography: Early Photography in Iran, Iranian Artists' site, Kargah

Category:States and territories established in 1794 Category: History of Iran Category:Qajar dynasty Category:1925 disestablishments Category:Muslim dynasties Category:Shi'a Muslim dynasties Category:Islamic history

Haji Hossein-Gholi khan Noori (Mo'tamed ol-Vezareh, later Sadr es-Saltaneh) (), also known as Haji Washington (), was an Iranian politician, cabinet minister, and diplomat.

Early life and education

Haji Hossain-Gholi Khan, Motamed ol Vezareh was the seventh (some say the fourth) son of the controversial Persian vizier/prime minister, Mirza Agha Khan Nouri. During his childhood, he lived with his father, who was in semi-exile by the order of Nasereddin Shah in Esfahan. He then entered the service of the Ministry of finance, and later the ministry of foreign affairs.

Political career

He served as the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs in Persia (Iran). After his return from the United States, he served as the minister of public works ("favaayed-e aamme").

Diplomatic career

Haji Hossain-Gholi Khan, Motamed ol Vezareh was the Persian Consul General to India. In 1885, when the Democratic Party took over the administration, Benjamin, the first US ambassador in Iran, resigned his post conforming with diplomatic practice. On November 20, 1885, President Cleveland appointed Fredrick H. Winston as Benjamin's successor. On August 3, 1886, Spencer Pratt was appointed as the third US Consul General in Tehran. At this time, Nasereddin Shah decided to open a permanent Iranian embassy in Washington. Haji Hossain-Gholi Khan, Motamed ol Vezareh was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Washington

He selected his staff of ten of the English-speaking members of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. It took him and his staff 2 months and a very difficult journey to arrive in Washington. Although his character seemed peculiar to the Americans, he had a friendly attitude and a sociable nature and he soon gained easy access to a number of circles. His reports were positive and illuminating. He managed to spark interest in Iran among American orientalogists.''.

Later years

He returned to live in Tehran after his mission to US. He had a modern house built for himself, and following the western tradition, had his new title (صدرالسّلطنه) engraved on a ceramic plate by the door. Iranians who were not used to nameplates made fun of him and considered him eccentric.

His daughter married Hossein Ghods-Nakhai, the Iranian minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to Washington in Pahlavi era.

See also

Hajji Washington (film), a film created that recounts the story of this same politician

Notes

References

"Iran in the last 3 Centuries" by Alireza Avsati. Published Tehran, 2003. Vol1 ISBN 964-93406-6-1 Vol2 ISBN 964-93406-5-3

Category:Government ministers of Iran Category:Iranian governors Category:Iranian Majlis Representatives Category:1892 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Ambassadors of Iran to Germany Category:Ambassadors of Iran to France Category:Ambassadors of Iran to Japan Category:Ambassadors of Iran to Afghanistan

{{Infobox Ethnic group |group = Kurds |image = |caption = 1st row: Saladin • Sherefxan Bidlisi • Ehmedê Xanî • Nezami Ganjavi 2nd row: Mustafa Barzani • Massoud Barzani • Jalal Talabani • Leyla Zana

3rd row: Ahmet Kaya • Şivan Perwer • Rahim Moeini Kermanshahi • Seyhmus Dagtekin

4th row: Feleknas Uca • Bahman Ghobadi • Azad Azadpour • Darin Zanyar

5th row: Abdullah Ocalan • Cegerxwin • Ahmet Turk • Jaladat Ali Badirkhan |pop = estimated 28 to 35 million |region1 = |region2 = |pop2 = 14-19.5 million (2010)17–25% |ref2 = |ref5 = |region8 = |pop8 = 150,000-180,000 |ref8 = |region11 = |pop11 = 40,000 |ref11 = |region16 = |region17 = |pop17 = 750,000 |ref17 = native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages.

The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in the Middle East, with significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States. The Kurds are an indigenous ethnic minority in countries where the Kurdistan region is located, although they have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991. An irredentist movement pushes for the creation of a Kurdish nation state.

Etymology

The ultimate etymology of the name is unclear. Reynolds believes that the term Kurd is most likely related to the ancient term Qardu. The common root of Kurd and Qardu is first mentioned in a Sumerian tablet from the third millennium B.C. as the "land of Kar-da." Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu corresponding to Ararat. According to Asatrian, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym is its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei)

Yet another suggestion proposes the name of the Carduchi mentioned by Xenophon as a group who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC. According to G. Asatrian, the word Kurd was first written in sources in the form of Kurt(kwrt-) in the Middle Persian treatise (Karnamak Ardashir Papakan and the Matadakan i Hazar Dastan), used to describe a social group or tribes that existed before the development of the modern ethnic nation. The term was adopted by Arabic writers of the early Islamic era and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranicized nomadic tribes and groups, without reference to any specific language By the 16th century, the term had become an ethnic designation in a more narrow sense. Sherefxan Bidlisi states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj, Lur, Kalhur and Guran, each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Of these, according to Ludwig Paul, only Kurmanji and possibly the Kalhuri correspond to Kurdish, while Luri and Gurani are linguistically distinct. Nonetheless, Ludwig writes that linguistics does not provide a definition for when a language becomes a dialect, and thus, non-linguistic factors contribute to the ethnic unity of some of the said groups, namely the Kurmanj, Kalhur, and Guran.

Language

The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) collectively refers to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language.

The Kurdish languages belong to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.

Most Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic, Turkish and Persian as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak 3 or more languages. Kurdish Jews and some Kurdish Christians (not be confused with ethnic Assyrians) usually speak Aramaic (for example: Lishana Deni) as their first language. Aramaic is a Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic rather than Kurdish.

The most commonly accepted classification of Kurdish dialects is that of the late Prof. D. N. Mackenzie. According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other Iranian languages.

The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as

The Kurmanji dialect group.

The Sorani dialect group.

and several sub-dialects:

Kermanshahi/Feyli

Laki language

Gorani language

Although specialized sources consider Zaza-Gorani to be separate languages which share a large number of words with Kurdish , the general term Kurd has, nevertheless, historically been used to designate also these groups.

Commenting on the differences between the "dialects" of Kurdish, Kreyenbroek clarifies that in some ways, Kurmanji and Sorani are as different from each other as English and German, giving the example that Kurmanji has grammatical gender and case-endings, but Sorani does not, and observing that referring to Sorani and Kurmanji as "dialects" of one language is supported only by "their common origin...and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds."

Population

The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at around 35 million, with another one or two million living in diaspora. Kurds are the fourth largest ethnicity in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians, and Turks.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Kurds comprise 20% of the population in Turkey, 15-20% in Iraq, perhaps 8% in Syria, 7% in Iran and 1.3% in Armenia. In all of these countries except Iran, Kurds form the second largest ethnic group. Roughly 55% of the world's Kurds live in Turkey, about 18% each in Iran and Iraq, and a bit over 5% in Syria.

McDowall has estimated that in 1991 the Kurds comprised 19% of the population in Turkey, 23% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 8% in Syria. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was in this estimate placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria.

History

in Rawanduz, 1905]]

Origins

During the ancient empires of the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids, the word "Kurd" was an umbrella term to refer to all the pastoral nomadic people of the Iranian origin (Such as Kurd, Lur and Balochi people). A special term which seems to refer to a specific people was the "Kermani" people which is surmised to have been a reference to today Kurmanji people. As D. N. MacKenzie states, the sorani dialect is probably the result of a recent (probably medieval) Kurmanji influence on a Gorani substratum and hence the Kurdish language must have developed in west Azerbaijan and greater Armenia rather than Media proper (which included the Zagros).

The Kurds as an ethnic group appear in the medieval period. The medieval group is of heterogenous origins, combining a number of earlier tribal or ethnic groups Semitic, Turkic and Armenian elements.

Historical tribal names that have been associated with the ethnogenesis of the Kurds include the Lullubi, Guti, Cyrtians, Carduchi and Mards as possible ancestors of the modern Kurdish groups. According to Minorsky there is an "ethno-geographical identification" of present day Kurds as descendent of ancient Medes, an idea based on his "historical, linguistic, and philological" arguments. Astarian is of the opinion that there is no special genetic affinity between Median and Kurdish, Dandamaev considers Carduchi (who were from the upper Tigris near the Assyrian and Median borders) less likely than Cyrtians as ancestors of modern Kurds. However according to McDowall, the term Cyrtii was first applied to Seleucid or Parthian mercenary slingers from Zagros, and it is not clear if it denoted a coherent linguistic or ethnic group. Gershevitch and Fisher consider the independent Kardouchoi or Carduchi as the ancestors of the Kurds, or at least the original nucleus of the Iranian-speaking people in what is now Kurdistan. The Ayyubids went on to rule the Diyarbakir plains, Syria and Egypt and Saladin led Muslims to recapture the city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin. The Ayyubids dynasty lasted until 1341 when the last Ayyubid sultanate fell to Mongolian invasions.

Ottoman period

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

The Ottoman centralist policies in the beginning of the 19th century aimed to remove power from the principalities and localities, which directly affected the Kurdish emirs. Bedirhan Bey was the last emir of the Cizre Bohtan Emirate after initiating an uprising in 1847 against the Ottomans to protect the current structures of the Kurdish principalities. Although his uprising is not classified as a nationalist one, his children played significant roles in the emergence and the development of Kurdish nationalism through the next century.

The first modern Kurdish nationalist movement emerged in 1880 with an uprising led by a Kurdish landowner and head of the powerful Shemdinan family, Sheik Ubeydullah, who demanded political autonomy or outright independence for Kurds and the recognition of a Kurdistan state without interference from Turkish or Persian authorities. The uprising against Qajar Persia and the Ottoman Empire was ultimately suppressed by the Ottomans and Ubeydullah, along with other notables, were exiled to Istanbul.

20th century

Kurdish nationalism emerged after World War I with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which had historically successfully integrated (but not assimilated) the Kurds, through use of forced repression of Kurdish movements to gain independence. Revolts did occur sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by Sheik Ubeydullah were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid responded by a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strong Ottoman power with prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears successful given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish Hamidiye regiments during World War I.

The Kurdish ethnonationalist movement that emerged following World War I and end of the Ottoman empire was largely reactionary to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily radical secularization which the strongly Muslim Kurds abhorred, centralization of authority which threatened the power of local chieftains and Kurdish autonomy, and rampant Turkish nationalism in the new Turkish Republic which obviously threatened to marginalize them.

Jakob Künzler, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks during World War I.

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

Some of the Kurdish groups sought self-determination and the championing in the Treaty of Sèvres of Kurdish autonomy in the aftermath of World War I, Kemal Atatürk prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic of Ararat. Turkey suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937–1938, while Iran did the same in the 1920s to Simko Shikak at Lake Urmia and Jaafar Sultan of Hewraman region who controlled the region between Marivan and north of Halabja. A short-lived Soviet-sponsored Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Iran did not long outlast World War II.

From 1922–1924 in Iraq a Kingdom of Kurdistan existed. When Ba'athist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in Iraq, war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited territorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas including the oil-rich Kirkuk region.

During 1920s and 1930s, several large scale Kurdish revolts took place in Kurdistan Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under martial law and a large number of the Kurds were displaced. Government also encouraged resettlement of Albanians from Kosovo and Assyrians in the region to change the population makeup. These events and measures led to a long-lasting mutual distrust between Ankara and the Kurds . During the relatively open government of the 1950s, Kurds gained political office and started working within the framework of the Turkish Republic to further their interests but this move towards integration was halted with the 1960 Turkish coup d'état.

Kurds led by Mustafa Barzani were engaged in heavy fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a peace plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years. However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, the Iraqi government began a new offensive against the Kurds. Moreover in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, particularly those around Kirkuk. Between 1975 and 1978, 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.

During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the regime implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a de facto civil war broke out. Iraq was widely condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures such as the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the wholesale destruction of thousands of villages and the deportation of thousands of Kurds to southern and central Iraq.

The genocidal campaign, conducted between 1986 and 1989 and culminating in 1988, carried out by the Iraqi government against the Kurdish population was called Anfal ("Spoils of War"). The Anfal campaign led to destruction of over two thousand villages and killing of 182,000 Kurdish civilians. The campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, firing squads, and chemical attacks, including the most infamous attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5000 civilians instantly.

, meeting with U.S. officials in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 26, 2006.]] After the collapse of the Kurdish uprising in March 1991, Iraqi troops recaptured most of the Kurdish areas and 1.5 million Kurds abandoned their homes and fled to the Turkish and Iranian borders. It is estimated that close to 20,000 Kurds succumbed to death due to exhaustion, lack of food, exposure to cold and disease. On 5 April 1991, UN Security Council passed resolution 688 which condemned the repression of Iraqi Kurdish civilians and demanded that Iraq end its repressive measures and allow immediate access to international humanitarian organizations. This was the first international document (since the League of Nations arbitration of Mosul in 1926) to mention Kurds by name. In mid-April, the Coalition established safe havens inside Iraqi borders and prohibited Iraqi planes from flying north of 36th parallel. In October 1991, Kurdish guerrillas captured Erbil and Sulaimaniyah after a series of clashes with Iraqi troops. In late October, Iraqi government retaliated by imposing a food and fuel embargo on the Kurds and stopping to pay civil servants in the Kurdish region. The embargo, however, backfired and Kurds held parliamentary elections in May 1992 and established Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The Kurdish population welcomed the American troops in 2003 by holding celebrations and dancing in the streets. The area controlled by peshmerga was expanded, and Kurds now have effective control in Kirkuk and parts of Mosul. The authority of the KRG and legality of its laws and regulations were recognized in the articles 113 and 137 of the new Iraqi Constitution ratified in 2005. By the beginning of 2006, the two Kurdish administrations of Erbil and Sulaimaniya were unified.

Turkey

.]] According to CIA Factbook, Kurds formed approximately 18% of the population in Turkey (approximately 14 million) in 2008. This estimate however does not include the Zaza people which are often considered to be Kurds. Kurdish sources however claim there are as many as 25 milion Kurds in Turkey. In 1980, Ethnologue estimated the number of Kurdish-speakers in Turkey at around five million, when the country's population stood at 44 million. Kurds form the largest minority group in Turkey, and they have posed the most serious and persistent challenge to the official image of a homogeneous society. During the 1930s and 1940s, the government had disguised the presence of the Kurds statistically by categorizing them as Mountain Turks. This classification was changed to the new euphemism of Eastern Turk in 1980.

Several large scale Kurdish revolts in 1925, 1930 and 1938 were suppressed by the Turkish government and more than one million Kurds were forcibly relocated between 1925 and 1938. The use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned and the Kurdish-inhabited areas remained under martial law until 1946. The Ararat revolt, which reached its apex in 1930, was only suppressed after a massive military campaign including destruction of many villages and their populations. In quelling the revolt, Turkey was assisted by the close cooperation of its neighboring states such as Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq. The revolt was organized by a Kurdish party called Khoybun which signed a treaty with the Dashnaksutyun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) in 1927.

The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is considered by the US, the EU, and NATO to be a terrorist organization. It is an ethnic secessionist organization using violence for the purpose of achieving its goal of creating an independent Kurdish state in parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran.

Between 1984 and 1999, the PKK and the Turkish military engaged in open war, and much of the countryside in the southeast was depopulated, as Kurdish civilians moved to local defensible centers such as Diyarbakır, Van, and Şırnak, as well as to the cities of western Turkey and even to western Europe. The causes of the depopulation included PKK atrocities against Kurdish clans they could not control, the poverty of the southeast, and the Turkish state's military operations. State actions also included forced inscription, forced evacuation, destruction of villages, severe harassment and extrajudicial executions.

Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish female MP from Diyarbakir, caused an uproar in Turkish Parliament after adding the following sentence in Kurdish to her parliamentary oath during the swearing-in ceremony in 1994:

In March 1994, the Turkish Parliament voted to lift the immunity of Zana and five other Kurdish DEP members: Hatip Dicle, Amet Turk, Sirri Sakik, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak. Zana, Dicle, Sadak and Dogan were sentenced to 15 years in jail by the Supreme Court in October 1995. Zana was awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights by the European Parliament in 1995. She was released in 2004 amid warnings from European institutions that the continued imprisonment of the four Kurdish MPs would affect Turkey's bid to join the EU. The 2009 local elections resulted in 5.7 % for Kurdish political party DTP.

Officially protected death squads are accused of disappearance of 3,200 Kurds and Assyrians in 1993 and 1994 in the so called mystery killings. Kurdish politicians, human-rights activists, journalists, teachers and other members of intelligentsia were among the victims. Virtually none of the perpetrators were investigated nor punished. Turkish government also encouraged an Islamic extremist group called Hezbollah to assassinate suspected PKK members and often ordinary Kurds. Azimet Köylüoğlu, the state minister of human rights, revealed the extent of security forces' excesses in autumn 1994: While acts of terrorism in other regions are done by the PKK; in Tunceli it is state terrorism. In Tunceli, it is the state that is evacuating and burning villages. In the southeast there are two million people left homeless.

Iran

, a major city in Iranian Kurdistan.]]

The Kurdish part of Iran has been a part of this country from historical times. The Kurds constitute today approximately 7% of Iran's overall population. The Persians, Kurds, and speakers of other Indo-European languages in Iran are descendants of the Aryan tribes that began migrating from Central Asia into what is now Iran in the 2nd millennium BCE. According to some sources, "some Kurds in Iran have resisted the Iranian government's efforts, both before and after the revolution of 1979, to assimilate them into the mainstream of national life and, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of Iraq and Turkey, has sought either regional autonomy or the outright establishment of an independent Kurdish state".

In the 17th century, a large number of Kurds were settled by Shah Abbas I to Khorasan in Eastern Iran and resettled in the cities of Northern Khorasan province (Quchan, Bojnurd, Shirvan, DareGaz, and Esfaraeen) to defend Iran's frontier against Uzbeks. Others migrated to Afghanistan where they took refuge. The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the Kurmanji Kurdish dialect. During the 19th and 20th centuries, successive Iranian governments crushed Kurdish revolts led by Kurdish notables such as Shaikh Ubaidullah (against Qajars in 1880) and Simko (against Pahlavis in the 1920s).

In January 1946, during the Soviet occupation of north-western Iran, the Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared independence in parts of Iranian Kurdistan. Nevertheless, the Soviet forces left Iran in May 1946, and the self-declared republic fell to the Iranian army after only a few months and the president of the republic Qazi Muhammad was hanged publicly in Mahabad. After the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became more autocratic and suppressed most opposition including Kurdish political groups seeking greater rights for Iranian Kurds. He also prohibited any teaching of the Kurdish language. In September 1979, Revolutionary Guards massacred 56 inhabitants of the village of Qalatan and all of the residents of the village of Qarna. These two Kurdish villages are located close to Naghadeh in West Azerbaijan Province. Kurdish opposition described this masscre as the Sabra and Shatila of Kurdistan. A picture of a firing squad of Revolutionary Guards executing Kurdish prisoners around Sanandaj gained international fame and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions, as a result around ten thousand Kurds were killed. Frequent unrest and the occasional military crackdown have occurred since the 1990s.

In Iran, Kurds express their cultural identity freely, but have no self-government or administration. As in all parts of Iran, membership of a non-governmental political party is punishable by imprisonment or even death. Kurdish human rights activists in Iran have been threatened by Iranian authorities. Following the killing of Kurdish opposition activist Shivan Qaderi and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in Mahabad on July 9, 2005, six weeks of riots and protests erupted in Kurdish towns and villages throughout eastern Kurdistan. Scores were killed and injured, and an untold number arrested without charge. The Iranian authorities have also shut down several major Kurdish newspapers and arrested editors and reporters. Among those was Roya Toloui, a Women's rights activist and head of the Rasan ("Rising") newspaper in Sanandaj, who was alleged to be tortured for two months for involvement in the organization of peaceful protests throughout Kurdistan province. According to an Iran analyst at International Crisis Group, "Kurds, who live in the some of the least developed parts of Iran, pose the most serious internal problem for Iran to resolve, and given what they see next door--the newfound confidence of Iraqi Kurds--there's concern Iranian Kurds will agitate for greater autonomy."

Syria

Kurds account for 9% of Syria's population, a total of around 1.6 million people. This makes them the largest ethnic minority in the country. They are mostly concentrated in the northeast and the north, but there are also significant Kurdish populations in Aleppo and Damascus. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. According to Amnesty International, Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish or otherwise.

Techniques used to suppress the ethnic identity of Kurds in Syria include various bans on the use of the Kurdish language, refusal to register children with Kurdish names, the replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in Arabic, the prohibition of businesses that do not have Arabic names, the prohibition of Kurdish private schools, and the prohibition of books and other materials written in Kurdish. Having been denied the right to Syrian nationality, around 300,000 Kurds have been deprived of any social rights, in violation of international law. As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria. In March 2011, in part to avoid further demonstrations and unrest from spreading across Syria, the Syrian government promised to tackle the issue and grant Syrian citizenship to approximately 300,000 Kurds who had been previously denied the right.

On March 12, 2004, beginning at a stadium in Qamishli (a largely Kurdish city in northeastern Syria), clashes between Kurds and Syrians broke out and continued over a number of days. At least thirty people were killed and more than 160 injured. The unrest spread to other Kurdish towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to Damascus and Aleppo.

Armenia

Between the 1930s and 1980s, Armenia was a part of the Soviet Union, within which Kurds, like other ethnic groups, had the status of a protected minority. Armenian Kurds were permitted their own state-sponsored newspaper, radio broadcasts and cultural events. During the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, many non-Yazidi Kurds were forced to leave their homes since both the Azeri and non-Yazidi Kurds were Muslim.

Azerbaijan

In 1920, two Kurdish-inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital Kalbajar) and eastern Zangazur (capital Lachin) were combined to form the Kurdistan Okrug (or "Red Kurdistan"). The period of existence of the Kurdish administrative unit was brief and did not last beyond 1929. Kurds subsequently faced many repressive measures, including deportations, imposed by the Soviet government. As a result of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported since 1988 by separatist Armenian forces.

Diaspora

, MEP from Germany.]] According to a report by the Council of Europe, approximately 1.3 million Kurds live in Western Europe. The earliest immigrants were Kurds from Turkey, who settled in Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Switzerland and France during the 1960s. Successive periods of political and social turmoil in the Middle East during 1980s and 1990s brought new waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, came to Europe. There have been tensions between Kurds and the established Muslim community in Dewsbury, which is home to very traditional mosques such as the Markazi.

There was substantial immigration of Kurds into North America, who are mainly political refugees and immigrants seeking economic opportunity. An estimated 100,000 Kurds are known to live in the United States, with 50,000 in Canada and less than 15,000 in Australia.

Religion

.]]

Islam

Today, the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, belonging to the Shafi school. Mystical practices and participation in Sufi orders are also widespread among Kurds. There is also a minority of Kurds who are Shia Muslims, primarily living in the Ilam and Kermanshah provinces of Iran, Central and south eastern Iraq (Fayli Kurds), and who are Alevi, who mostly live in Turkey.

Alevi

The Alevis (usually considered adharents of a branch of Shia Islam) are another religious minority among the Kurds. They are mainly living in Tunceli, Erzincan, eastern Sivas, northern and southern Malatya, eastern and northwestern Kahramanmaraş, northern Adana, western Kayseri, central and western Adıyaman, northeastern Gaziantep, northern Elazığ, southwestern Erzurum, northern Bingöl, northwestern Muş and various other areas in Anatolia. The American missionary Trowbridge, working at Aintab (present Gaziantep) reported that his Alevi acquaintances considered as their highest spiritual leaders an Ahl-i Haqq sayyid family in the Guran district.

Ahl-i Haqq (Yarsan)

Ahl-i Haqq's basic pillars are summarized this verse of Gurani:

"Yāri Chār Chivan Bāvari Vajā- Pāki o Rāsti o Nisti o Redā"

which translates roughly to:

The Yarsan should strive for these four qualities

purity, rectitude, self-effacement and self-abnegation.

Among its belief include the principle of successive lives of human souls where each soul is allotted a time of 50 thousand years to reach its perfection (the stage of Death within God). If that soul does not reach its perfection, then it is judged by its deed after its 50 thousand years. Another belief of the Yarsan is the and repeated manifestation of the light of the divine essence, the archangels and a class of saviours (Haftwan, Haft Sardar-i Din, Chehel Tan, Haftad o Do Pir..) in human form.

The founder of the religion, Sultan Sahak appeared among the Guran in mid or late 15th century, and is considered by them as the last great manifestation of the divine essence. Yarsan followers also recognize Ali as one of their divine incarnations, although he is surpassed in importance by Sultan Sahak. The Sultan Sahak is accompanied by seven companions who are the manifestation of the seven primordial archangels (haft tan or heptad).

Binyamin (the pir or spiritual master) is the manifestation of the light Gabriel, while Dawud (the Dalil or Guide) is the manifestation of Mikail or Raphael.

There are strong similarities between religious practices and myths of Ahl-i Haqq and Alevi. According to one Ahl-i Haqq legend, after Sultan Sahak had completed his teachings among the Guran, he reappeared in Anatolia in the form of Haji Bektash. Moreover, the Ahl-i Haqq consider the Bektashi and Alevi as kindred communities.

Judaism and Christianity

coin with a Star of David]] Christianity and Judaism both are still practised in very small numbers across Kurdistan. There are however some 200,000 Kurdish Jews, residing in Israel. The Jews of Kurdistan migrated to Palestine during the previous centuries but the overwhelming majority of the Kurdish Jews had fled to Israel together with Iraqi Jews in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah during 1950–1952.

For centuries, the Jews had lived as protected subjects of the tribal chieftains (aghas) and survived in the urban centers and villages in which they lived. According to the new book by Mordechai Zaken, the Kurdistani Jews had managed to survive by supporting their tribal chieftains and village aghas in times of need and through financial contributions, occasional gifts, variety of services as well as taxes and dues in the form of commissions of their commercial and agricultural transactions. In return, the tribal Kurdish aghas would protect their Jewish subjects and grant them patronage in the tribal arena. Indeed some wealthy Jewish merchants and community leaders had to deal at times with aghas who coveted their vineyards or other material goods and satisfy their needs and fulfill their desire. However, in his telling research, Zaken points out that there was a kind of tribal tradition, passed on from father to son, to keep and protect the Jewish subjects in the village (at times one or two Jewish families in one village) or the tribal arena.

Culture

Kurdish culture is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society, but primarily of three layers of indigenous (Hurrian), ancient Iranian, and Islamic roots. Kurdish culture is close to that of other Iranian peoples. Kurds, for instance, also celebrate Newroz (March 21) as New Year's Day. Kurdish films mainly evoke poverty and the lack of rights of Kurdish people in the region. Yılmaz Güney (Yol ) and Bahman Qubadi (A Time for Drunken Horses, Turtles Can Fly) are among the better-known Kurdish directors.

In contrast to many neighboring Muslim populations, Kurdish women are not secluded and do not wear the face veil. Kurdish men and women participate in mixed-gender dancing during feasts, weddings and other social celebrations. Major Soane, a British colonial officer during World War I, noted that this is unusual among Islamic people and pointed out that in this respect Kurdish culture is more akin to that of eastern Europe than to the Middle East.

Music

Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers: storytellers (çîrokbêj), minstrels (stranbêj), and bards (dengbêj). No specific music was associated with the Kurdish princely courts. Instead, music performed in night gatherings (şevbihêrk) is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawiks, heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love, one of the first Kurdish female singers to sing heyrans is Chopy Fatah, while Lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed during the autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (dîlok/narînk), erotic poetry, and work songs are also popular.

See also

Great Kurdistan

Turkish Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iranian Kurdistan

Syrian Kurdistan

Kurds in Lebanon

Kurds in Turkey

History of the Kurdish people

Kurdistan Okrug

List of Kurdish people

Kurdish organisations

Origins of the Kurds

Yazidis

Kurdish Jews

Kurdish Christians

List of Kurdish states and territories

Modern Kurdish governments

Kingdom of Kurdistan 1920

Republic of Ararat 1927–30

Republic of Mahabad 1946

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) (1991 to date)

Notes and references

Bibliography

Barth, F. 1953. Principles of Social Organization in Southern Kurdistan. Bulletin of the University Ethnographic Museum 7. Oslo.

Hansen, H.H. 1961. The Kurdish Woman's Life. Copenhagen. Ethnographic Museum Record 7:1–213.

Leach, E.R. 1938. Social and Economic Organization of the Rowanduz Kurds. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology 3:1–74.

Longrigg, S.H. 1953. Iraq, 1900–1950. London.

Masters, W.M. 1953. Rowanduz. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.

External links

Kurds and Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Kurds, Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Kurd, Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Kurds: People without a country, Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Kurdish Institute of Paris Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.

The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan

Istanbul Kurdish Institute

The Kurdish Center of International Pen

Kurdish Library, supported by the Swedish Government.

Yazidism: Historical Roots, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, January 2005.

Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurds

The Kurds in the Ottoman Hungary by Zurab Aloian

"The Other Iraq" Kurdish Information Website

; The Kurdish Issue in Turkey

A report on the Kurdish IDP's – 2005

A German newspaper's take on the Kurdish issue – 2005

The Guardian – What's in a name? Too much in Turkey – 2001

Category:Kurdish people Category:Muslim communities Category:Ethnic groups in the Arab League Category:Ethnic groups in Armenia Category:Ethnic groups in Iran Category:Ethnic groups in Iraq Category:Ethnic groups in Syria Category:Ethnic groups in Turkey Category:Fertile Crescent