Kürdistan

Kürdistan is the name given to a large and largely mountainous geography where Kurds have historically lived densely, intersecting Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey today. From ancient times, with various appellations, and in the Islamic period, directly with the name "Kürdistan", it has been the subject of written sources in different languages and alphabets.

Main Written Sources

The main sources regarding Kurds and Kürdistan have been created in historically different geographies, states, alphabets, and languages; the compilation of these records with a critical approach is considered the first condition for presenting Kurdish history from a scientific perspective (Volume 1, p. 11). In this context, printed written sources providing information about Kurds and Kürdistan from the 6th century BCE to 1980 have been categorized in the form of empires, states, dynasties, beyliks, eras, periods, and languages, and presented chronologically to researchers (Volume 1, p. 12).

Ancient Period and Appellations

In sources, a continuity is often established between the present-day geography of Kürdistan and the ancient period of this geography; however, it is emphasized that this can lead to an anachronistic error (Volume 1, p. 17). Pre-Islamic Kurdish history is seen as one of the most open subjects to speculation: the extent to which similar and parallel appellations such as Med, Kardukhia, Corduene, Qardu (Beth Qardu), Korduk, Kordrik, and Korçeyk are related to Kurds is debatable, and succumbing to the allure of homophonous words for "Kürt" deepens the problem (Volume 1, p. 17). For this reason, it is stated that clear information is not available today regarding whether Kurds were the inhabitants of the same geography in ancient times, and when the geography of Kürdistan was dominated by Kurds (Volume 1, p. 19).

The ancient traces of the geography appear in various classical works. Greek mercenary soldiers who participated in the expedition of Young Kyros passed through the route that Ksenophon called "Kardukhia," extending from the south of the Botan River to the historical lands of Kürdistan (Volume 1, p. 26). In Armenian sources, Korçeyk is described as a slightly larger-scale geography extending north and east of the region referred to as Kardukhia and Corduene in classical sources; Korçeyk was a large area encompassing Korduk, which included T'man, and the upper, middle, and lower Kordrik regions, and many place names belonging to Korçeyk, Korduk, and Kordrik can be identified in these works (Volume 1, p. 80). This appellation is the Armenian version of Gordyene or Korduene found in Latin/Greek sources (Volume 1, p. 80). The History of Mar Qardagh, written in the seventh century, also provides important information regarding the cultural world of Iraq and Kürdistan, and the name "Kürt" is used directly twice in the text (Volume 1, p. 58).

Islamic Period and Geography

In the Islamic period, the term "Kürdistan" begins to appear directly in written sources. In the process following the death of the Prophet of Islam, during the era of Hz. Ömer, with the conquest of Iraq and Iran from the Sasanian Empire and the termination of the Sasanian State with the Battle of Nihavend in 642, Kurds encountered Muslim Arabs and became a nation that collectively accepted a Muslim identity by coming under Islamic rule (Volume 1, p. 87). During the Mamluk period, Safiyyuddin el-Bağdâdî explicitly spoke of Kürdistan, which means "Kurdish Land" in Persian; generally, this region has been defined to encompass today's Kirmanşah, Bahteran, Kürdîstan (Senendec) provinces in Iran, along with the western parts of Hemedan province and the southern part of West Azerbaijan province (Volume 2, p. 55). In some maps, the lands of the Kurds were shown as "Ardu'l-Ekrâd," and it was stated that these lands bordered Irakeyn, Horasan, Syria, and Egypt (Volume 2, p. 55).

In terms of geographical structure, mountains were considered the most striking landform of the Kurdish land and the main homeland of the Kurds; a region itself was named Cibal (Mountains), and el-Umerî described the Kurds as "Emirs of the Mountains" (Volume 2, p. 81). Mamluk era geography books discussed the nature of Kürdistan, its mountains, rivers, valleys, and plains, as well as the original homelands of the Kurds and the different regions where they dispersed and settled for various reasons, in terms of socio-economic organization and characteristic features (Volume 2, p. 81).

Ottoman Period

During the Ottoman period, Kürdistan prominently appears in administrative and military records. Kurdish beys were utilized in the protection of the Ottoman-Iranian border, and beys who showed effort in protecting the Iranian frontier were rewarded (Volume 3, p. 15). Kurdish beys had a special status, being called "yurtluk and ocaklık" beys: these units, granted to some umera during the conquest on a continuous basis through sancak and has in return for their service and obedience, also became the subject of the Ottoman tahrir system (Volume 3, p. 19). Competition and conflicts among Kurdish beys prevented the region from achieving tranquility for a long time, and this situation was also reflected in the works of Ahmedê Xanî, one of the important scholars and thinkers of the period (Volume 3, p. 18).