Mezopotamya

Mesopotamia is the name of the historical region extending between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and it stands out in sources as one of the main geographical scenes of Kurdish history, extending from ancient times to the Ottoman period. The Roman geographer Plinius extended the boundaries of the concept of "Mesopotamia" to include the entire region between the Tigris and Euphrates (Volume 2, p. 61).

Ancient Sources

Latin and Greek sources belonging to the pre-Islamic period frequently mention this geography and shed light on the early period of Kurdish history. Titus Livius's work titled Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) contains important information regarding places such as the Persians and Persian geography, Armenia and Mesopotamia, and the local peoples of these geographies (Volume 1, p. 45). Plinius, on the other hand, is a valuable source for the historical geography of the region with the information he provides about place names, mountain ranges, and rivers extending from Armenia to Adiabene; he speaks of the tribes living between Adiabene and Armenia and the lands of the Medes located to the east and northeast of Adiabene (Volume 1, p. 47). Similarly, the Tigris basin and the events that took place in this geography are considered important for Kurdish history, especially in terms of the political position of regions like Corduene (Volume 1, p. 40).

Roman-Persian Struggle

Mesopotamia was also one of the central scenes of the long struggle between Rome and the Persians. According to Eutropius, Emperor Traianus, who conquered Armenia, brought many regions in Mesopotamia, along with Corduene, Mardia, and Media, under Roman domination in 114 (Volume 1, p. 50). The region changed hands from time to time: Sasanian ruler Shapur I recorded in the Ka'be-i Zerdüşt inscription that he conquered Mesopotamia and Syria as a result of the campaigns he waged against the Romans between 244-260 (Volume 1, p. 67).

Islamic Period

In the Islamic period, Mesopotamia also formed an important ground for Kurdish political existence. The Marwanids, who ruled in Northern Mesopotamia between 983-1085, were a dynasty shown by sources as belonging to the Çehârbuxtî branch of the Humeydî tribe of the Kurds, and who dominated a vast geography extending from Musul in the south to the border of Ahlat, to Selmas in the east, and to Diyarbekir in the west (Volume 1, p. 129).

Ottoman Period

Generally speaking, the Kurds, who have an ancient past, have lived alongside different religious and ethnic groups in the historical process in the geography called Mesopotamia, Bilad-ı Ekrad, Ard'ül-Ekrad, or Kurdistan (Volume 3, p. 54). The perception of the region during the Ottoman period is also reflected in the sources: in the geographical works of the period, the term El-Cezire (Mesopotamia) was used to encompass administrative units such as Diyarbekir, Halep, Musul, and Zor, and it was stated that the vast majority of the inhabitants of this region were Muslims, consisting of Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens (Volume 4, p. 166). The Zap river, one of the main waterways of the region, originated from the Hakkâri mountains and flowed into the Tigris in Mesopotamia (Volume 4, p. 146). This information from early sources is considered among the data that researchers wishing to write pre-Islamic Kurdish history should carefully evaluate (Volume 1, p. 22).